Wells-Lewis captures first-place in MBA Session #5 Fast-Pitch Competition

The night before the Mavs Business Assist Session No. 5 Fast-Pitch Competition Tuesday, Kristen Wells-Lewis barely got any sleep. The excitement of the competition kept her tossing and turning throughout the night.

With that as a backdrop, Wells-Lewis couldn’t wait for the competition to start.

“Actually, I got off a plane (Tuesday) at 4 o’clock (p.m.),” Wells-Lewis said. “I went to Washington, DC, for a legislative conference. I left DC at 1 p.m. and I landed here in Dallas, and I came straight here.”

And a few hours after arriving at the Red Bird Dallas Entrepreneur Center in South Oak Cliff, Wells-Lewis discovered she won the Mavs Business Assist Fast-Pitch Competition $15,000 first-place prize. That honor allows her to move on to the Final Pitch Competition in August.

Also advancing to the Final Pitch Competition will be Tiffani Dickerson, who won the $10,000 second-place prize. Chelita McDuffie collected the third-place check of $5,000.

Wells-Lewis is the founder of Black To The Lab, adding that she is “delirious, but I’m excited” about taking home the top prize.

“Black To The Lab is a stem educational learning tool designed to expose youth and young girls to have an impact on the cosmetic chemistry industry,” Wells-Lewis said. “Black To The Lab aims to increase the representation of black and brown girls in the stem field, and we often ask ourselves how did we get to this point.

“When we see the amount of women that matriculate through college education from a Bachelor’s degree all the way to a Doctor’s degree, we continue to see a decrease in those numbers, specifically for minority women. Our goal is to continue to alleviate that issue by introducing programming that is culturally relevant and available both in the classroom and at home through our cosmetic chemistry activity kit. We offer our cosmetic chemistry activity kit that allows young girls to formulate some of their favorite beauty products like lip gloss, body scrub, lotion and more.”

The prize money Wells-Lewis won, she said, will go a long way toward helping her take her business to the next level.

“It feels amazing to be able to utilize all of the resources from the (MBA) program and actually pull it together and pull out the win,” Wells-Lewis said. “We’re also excited just to have the access to the capital now so that we can continue to grow our business.

“We have some exciting opportunities coming, and now we have the funding to be able to fund those opportunities and expand in our business offering as well, so it’s exciting times for Black To The Lab and we’re excited to continue to have Black To The Lab In the community.”

As far as the second-place winner goes, Dickerson, a registered nurse and an international board certified lactation consultant, is the owner of The Breast Choice Lactation.

“I’ve been a nurse for 15 years, but nothing could prepare me for motherhood when I had my daughter six years ago,” Dickerson said. “We were struggling with breastfeeding. It was so hard.

“But thankfully I had so much to report from not only the hospital, but the community lactation consultant as well, that I decided to pivot and launch by own business in 2022. We had a mission to increase the breastfeeding rate in the community that we serve. We know that breastfeeding doesn’t just help the baby, it also helps the mom.”

Dickerson is overjoyed that, thanks to the MBA program, she now has some additional funds to expand her business.

“I’m extremely excited about finishing second,” Dickerson said. “More importantly, I’m excited about what I’m going to be able to do for the community. This money is going to go towards the wellness center, so I’m excited to be a winner.

“When we came here, my energy wasn’t what it was today, but I went home and I just reminded myself about who I am and how my personality will really show in the vision of my business and it will speak volumes. So, I just remembered who I am. It didn’t matter what my presentation looked like. I remembered what my business is and what I stand for, and I was hoping that would resonate today.”

McDuffie, meanwhile, was excited about introducing the pros of her business – That’s Sew Creative – with hopes that it too would resonate with the judges.

“I won third place, so I’m super appreciative of that for sure,” McDuffie said. “I was super nervous (delivering the presentation), but super excited. All the emotions in one.

“I’m glad I was able to make it through and be able to show my business.”

McDuffie also said she was unable to sleep the night before the Fast-Pitch Competition. And although she didn’t advance to the Final Pitch Competition, she is very thankful for the opportunity the MBA presented her with.

“I’ll take the money and invest it back into my business and hope to be able to grow it,” she said. “I’ll put the money towards marketing and optimizing my website.

“And I plan on re-applying again and hopefully I can get back in so that I can make it to the second pitch competition.”

Mavs forward Markieff Morris was on hand for Tuesday’s event so he could give the eight entrepreneurs – who were all women – some sage advice on how to enhance their business.

“Just search for the great people that’s really putting their all into it, because it’s different when everybody cares the same amount,” Morris said. “You can have people that just put money into it or people who are just not good people in business. And I think that’s the most important thing is working with great people.

“When you have money you can kind of be involved in a lot of different things, but it’s about the people you’re working with, building a great relationship and trust. Obviously, trust is everything, and just having faith. You want to see hard-working people like myself — like I do with basketball – you want to see hard-working people that really care about making your business boom.”

Morris can relate to the entrepreneurs because he has a restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles called The Social. Morris believes the Dallas Mavericks’ involvement in the community and in an initiative like this Fast-Pitch Competition makes a huge difference.

“It makes a whole lot of difference,” Morris said. “When they asked me about just coming to say something to the entrepreneurs, I was really excited just to see other business owners and other people that start from the bottom just doing something this big. It just shows that the Mavs are involved in the community a whole lot.

“To be able to fund some of these organizations, you never know what it can do for people. Everybody has a dream, and that’s basically what the Mavs are doing is making somebody’s dream come true.”

X: @DwainPrice