Raising the Bar for Women in Business: Endeavor Miami’s Initiative Equips Women Founders with a Foundation for Scale.
Miami, FL, June 20, 2023 – Endeavor Miami is thrilled to announce the launch of its latest cohort of EndeavorLAB, created to support underrepresented founders in building a solid foundation for scale. The newest cohort will focus on Miami-based, women-led businesses and is powered by Venture Miami (City of Miami). Endeavor Miami is part of a global organization that supports high-impact entrepreneurs in over 40 countries. Leveraging Endeavor’s two-decade-long expertise in scaleups, the EndeavorLAB cohort for Women Founders provides local entrepreneurs with top-tier tools and services to scale faster.
“The EndeavorLAB cohort for Women Founders transcends the framework of a mere initiative; it embodies a powerful pledge to catalyze the growth and influence of female entrepreneurs within Florida. We’re mobilizing our vast resources and networks, becoming the wind beneath the wings of these trailblazers, amplifying their potential to scale upwards,” asserts Claudia Duran, Managing Director of Endeavor Miami. “These exceptional women are the vanguard of innovation in our local economy, rewriting the narrative and challenging norms. Endeavor takes immense pride in fostering their journey towards remarkable milestones, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them as they transform vision into reality.”
The latest EndeavorLAB cohort for Women Founders aims to foster economic transformation at a local level and will bring together eleven companies in an intimate, high-quality community of founders undergoing the same business challenges. In order to be selected, companies had to have found product market fit and be generating at most $500K in annual revenues, be based in Miami, and led by women who embodied Endeavor’s values of coachability, transparency, and paying it forward.
Ximena Paul, Co-Founder & CEO of Nala, an EndeavorLAB alum, testifies to its effectiveness, “EndeavorLAB helped me focus my attention on key issues and set a business goal to bring to the cohort. My main learnings were aligned with what I was looking for, how to tell my story and how to adjust the pitch to who I have in front of me! I loved the length; it had a great rhythm and is super doable while you’re also leading a company.”
The eleven businesses selected represent a wide range of industries, with the most represented sectors being Proptech and Consumer Tech, with three businesses representing each sector. This should come as no surprise, as in recent years, the real estate and property technology industries have boomed in Miami, with more and more companies in this industry either starting here or moving their headquarters to South Florida. Other industries represented are Femtech (two companies), Healthtech (one company), Fintech (one company), and HR Tech (one company). These companies represent growing sectors of the economy, and they are poised to disrupt these sectors, projecting to generate just over $3M in revenue by the end of the year and employ over 60 people.
These startups are led by women who are not born or raised in Miami, but who have made Miami their home and their place of business. Five of these women are solo founders, and six have a co-founder, and interestingly, two of the companies are led by founders who have mentored Endeavor companies around the world in the past.
Finally, even though it is no secret that the trend is against women-led startups, with the tired statistic that women raised less than 2% of total VC money in 2021 being one of the most well-known (reported by Bloomberg), these women are defying this trend. All but one of these companies have raised some form of external capital, and over half have raised Venture Capital. These eleven companies have raised almost $12M in funding since their inception.
“Supporting Women Founders is essential for driving innovation and economic growth. We partnered with Endeavor because of their proven track record in empowering entrepreneurs and their commitment to fostering an inclusive startup ecosystem. At Venture Miami, our goal is to ensure that entrepreneurs have the necessary resources and guidance to thrive in their journey of building successful businesses. Together, with Endeavor Miami, we are shaping a brighter future for women entrepreneurs, driving economic growth, and fostering a thriving startup ecosystem in South Florida,” shared Kelly Montoya, Head of Partnerships at Venture Miami (City of Miami).
Here is the full list of participants of the EndeavorLAB cohort for Women Founders:
Ciya uses voice search, photo search, and a TikTok like feed to provide homebuyers with personalized results to enable them to find their dream homes with ease and confidence. Entrepreneurs: Alexis Leonard, Co-Founder & CEO, and Sixtus Kuudaar, Co-Founder & CTO.
EasyChamp simplifies the organizational aspects of sports and e-sports competitions and championships. This innovative platform allows users to easily organize their tournaments and matches, making it the perfect solution for sports enthusiasts, e-sports players, and event organizers alike. Entrepreneurs: Elena Abyzova, Co-Founder, and Anton Abyzov, Co-Founder & CEO.
Feminade is pioneering hormone health for women through diagnostic testing, Telehealth, and AI. Entrepreneur: Roya Pakzad, Founder & CEO.
Fivvy can transform a bank into a more profitable, customer-loved data driven company in just three months. Entrepreneurs: Hanoi Morillo, Co-Founder & CEO, and Lucas Werthein, Co-Founder.
Hirize is an AI-driven API platform revolutionizing the talent acquisition process through Deep Learning based resume parsing and matching APIs. Committed to unlocking the full potential of candidate databases, it empowers businesses globally to streamline their recruitment efforts and make data-driven hiring decisions. Entrepreneurs: Esra Kaygin, Founder & CEO, and Eren Yasarkurt, Co-Founder & CTO.
MAVI OnMyWay Commerce is bringing easy retail ordering and pickup to the dashboard of cars with industry leading automakers and retailers. Entrepreneurs: Cynthia Hollen, CEO, and Vamsi Putrevu, CTO.
Musicasa is a peer-to-peer experiences platform transforming how people gather by leveraging the power of music, first-party, data, and AI to drive connection and belonging. Musicasa matches homes with artists and musicians to create intimate, curated, and private home concert experiences. Think of it as TinyDesk concerts meet Airbnb hosting. Entrepreneur: Beatriz Ayala, Founder and CEO.
Mind+ is a telehealth solution dedicated to providing emotional and behavioral health support to high-risk pregnant women, particularly those from Black and brown communities. Entrepreneur: Adriana Soto Ospina, CEO.
Monadd is a software company that empowers people to take charge of their home bills and subscriptions. Entrepreneur: Jessica Mendoza, Founder & CEO.
MyCabinet is a patented virtual medicine cabinet that serves as a family health hub. It’s the one place where users store ALL their medications, OTC and supplements and where its one click to refill and purchase. It’s also where the user can see all drug interactions and manage not only their cabinet but other family members’ cabinets, making caregiving easier and more efficient even for working members who care for others near or far. Entrepreneur: Delia Passi, Founder & CEO.
TENNTS is a web3-enabled, AI-based property management platform that creates a digital twin token of properties, manages service transactions, and connects with the best brands, solutions, and services. This allows stakeholders to own their data, save time and money, and it empowers local businesses to grow. Entrepreneurs: Yari Carrizo, Co-Founder & COO, and Daniel Detoni, Co-Founder & CEO.
For more information about EndeavorLAB, please visit the website or contact Becky Serson at [email protected].
About Endeavor Miami:
Endeavor’s Miami affiliate was established in 2013, with the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as the first U.S. affiliate of the global Endeavor organization. Endeavor Miami is a non-profit organization that selects, mentors and supports high-impact entrepreneurs in Florida. In 2022, Miami’s Endeavor Entrepreneurs generated over $800M in revenues and employed over 5,000 individuals. With the addition of its newest companies, the affiliate currently supports 25 companies and 41 entrepreneurs, such as Momentus Surgical, NovoPayment, and Tissini. Learn more about Endeavor Miami at endeavormiami.org
