The Agora Initiative DC

Congratulations to the finalists for our first-ever venture competition: After reviewing 70+ applications, our investor committee selected JoyLet, CyDeploy, Standd, and Enda to pitch live at our launch event on May 8. The winner will receive $10K -- and bragging rights :) We're beyond excited about the community we're bringing together, and grateful for the amazing investors and founder mentors that continue to support us: We already have 40+ investors and 35+ founders registered! (THANK YOU!!) For others who are interested in supporting our mission to elevate female founders in DC, you can register for our launch event: Link in comments! Half of all ticket sales and donations will go towards an audience-choice cash prize. But above all, you're supporting our work to advance female founders in the DMV, where last year 92% of venture capital went to all-male founding teams. (And there's also an application for a free ticket!!) Thank you to our investor committee for all of your work to select these awesome companies and for your generous support as we launch this new initiative! Jenny Abramson James Barlia Aaron Berkey Haley Bryant Jason Caplain Bill Collier Tahira Dosani Caroline Duffy Aurelia Flores Kristina F. Lisa Friedlander Sean Glass Amias Gerety Matt Gittleman Seda Atam Goff Brian Goldsmith Kate Goodall Alisha Griffey Daniel Hanks Phil Jung Lisa Marrone Anna Mason Emily McMahan Rashad Moore Rob Runett Braden Snyder Paige Soya Julia Taxin Meg Vorland Thanks also for the generosity of our awesome mentors: Serene Al-Momen, PhD Kevin Bennett Stephanie Cummings, MBA Dipanwita Das Tonio DeSorrento Cameron Hardesty Jocelyn King, SHRM-SCP Ajay Kori

Yesterday, we held our first Breakfast Club event, where our founders had the opportunity to connect with mentors and discuss key topics on their minds. A big thank you to everyone who participated! We're already excited for the next one. cc: Amelia DeSorrento Kelly O'Malley Angie Collier Ann Marie Guzzi Alicia Fuller Bill Collier Steve Ryan, CFA Tara Shankar Meg Vorland Haley Bryant Kaela Roeder Rob Runett Karen Gordon

Speaker applications at this year's DC Startup Week close in four days! Excited to see you all there :)

Springboard Enterprises' Dolphin Tanks spotlight women-led companies and provide them with the opportunity for connections, capital, and insight from an audience of investors, advisors and industry leaders. The next one is in DC, this Thursday June 20th from 5-8pm. Click the link to learn more and RSVP! https://lnkd.in/eJdStgk2

Thank you to GoSayHELLO App for creating this awesome video at this week's Agora launch event. For those who couldn't make it this time but want to make sure you're the first to know for the next one, sign up for our newsletter! Link in comments.

Congratulations to the winner of our $10,000 grant: Tina Williams-Koroma, Esq., CISSP, PMP & her company CyDeploy! And an additional congratulations to Alli Cavasino of JoyLet for winning our audience choice prize! We are so thankful to everyone who came out to support our launch, and more importantly, to witness the incredible pitches from our 4 finalists: CyDeploy, Standd, JoyLet, and Enda. We are beyond excited to watch each of you build incredible businesses. It was really special to see the room packed with founders, investors, and ecosystem supporters who all believe in our mission. Community is at the core of what we are building, and we feel lucky to say we've got a great one already. This event wouldn't have been possible without our wonderful sponsors. Thanks to Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP for hosting us in your beautiful space and helping us put together a great event, and Tarsus, Brown Advisory, Connor Group, GoSayHELLO App, PairPEO, DC Tech & Venture Coalition (DCTAV), ThinkNimble, Pratt Standard Cocktail Co., and UrbanStems for being sponsors. Stay tuned for more - we're just getting started with our mission to increase the amount of venture capital going to teams with at least one female founder (in DC, it's only 8% of total invested capital).

Not sure if you want to pursue venture capital? Then this is the event for you!!

"By the math, in 2023, more than 92% of venture capital into DC-area companies went to all-male founding teams." Ouch!! At Agora, we're committed to moving that needle. Big TY to Technical.ly for helping us spread the word on our $10K venture challenge! https://lnkd.in/ga2wB4as

Calling all DMV female founders! The Agora Initiative is launching today with our first venture competition: Pitch your business for a chance to win $10K in non-dilutive grant capital, as well as access to our great community of investors, experienced founders, and pro bono services. Can’t wait to learn more about your business. And a huge thank you so much to our founding partners Tarsus, Brown Advisory, and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP for making this all possible! https://lnkd.in/eSMhXVfv