Meet the Queens of Cohort 2
The Get Sh!t Done Accelerator is focused on helping our female founders build repeatable, sustainable, and scaleable traction so they have the power to choose how they grow. As our founder detailed in Why We've Failed Female Entrepreneurs & What We Can Do About, you can help her get there. Follow her, check out her company, spread the word, reach out to her, purchase her products, utilize her service, make an intro if you love what she's doing.
This is why we've included not only her picture but links that will allow you to learn more. Reach out to her and ask how you can help. The only way we can improve the entrepreneurial ecosystem is if we do it together.
Geetha Ramaswamy is Co-Founder & CTO of Menerva Software, a platform helping businesses solve their key business problems using data. by TRANSFORMING their existing workflows into scalable/actionable applications. The engine behind the applications continually learn from their historical data sources using deterministic and AI techniques, to improve productivity, decrease revenue leaks and operational inefficiencies
Julie Schechter is a graduate of Harvard Law School and former corporate attorney. In 2014, she left law to launch her first start-up: fitBallet, a fitness company based on her previous life as a ballet dancer. fitBallet ran for 3 successful years in the hyper-competitive NYC fitness market, employing an innovative pop-up model. Julie launched Small Packages in December of 2018 as a solo founder. In its first year in business, the company has sold over 1,000 boxes, worked with Glamour Magazine, and received a Visionary Women Grant from Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran and iFundWomen.
Michele Heyward is the founder of PositiveHire, a premiere recruiting platform for women of color professionals that helps companies recruit and retain experienced Latina, African-American and indigenous women STEM professionals into management positions. Their software assists these women in finding the best fit employer for them to advance their careers. This in turn helps employers retain diverse STEM talent longer. PositiveHire, is engineered to bridge the gap between management roles and underrepresented women in STEM. Michele’s vision is to not only help women of color in STEM find inclusive workplaces, but to prepare enterprises to receive them, and help those enterprises recruit them. This approach makes PositiveHire, the. She holds a B.S. degree in civil engineering and M.S. degree in industrial management, both from Clemson University.
Shainoor Khoja is the founder and CEO of Thrive-Community.com a platform making intergenerational interaction and support easier while impacting a better quality of life, a stronger economy and lower social and healthcare costs. She was the Gulf representative for The Global Partnership for Education. She was responsible for raising $100M USD for the partnership from the UAE Government and for bringing them into the partnership as the first Arab country member. Shainoor also advises a multifamily office, Foundation Holding’s that invests in value healthcare and education as their Chief Impact Officer. In addition, Shainoor was the Managing Director Roshan Community at Afghanistan’s #1 mobile operator where she raised over $180M for the company as well as establishing Roshan’s award-winning CSR program. As a champion for social impact, Shainoor was awarded the 2016 Lewis Institute Community Changemaker Award from Babson College.
Kathleen Brown is the Founder & CEO of buddhi [🗣bud-dee]: to be awake; to understand; to know - a social-powered wellness registry curated for every adult impacted by a cancer diagnosis. With 15 years of success as a corporate sales and development leader for Disney, Comcast and St. Jude. For nearly 25 years she has navigated the often tumultuous and isolating road as a cancer survivor without a get-well guidebook. Prior to founding buddhi, Kathleen raised millions of dollars for cancer research and treatment while serving as a patient advocate and taking part in studies to improve care for others.
Monica Williams is the Founder of RedDrop, a scalable consumer products company that addresses feminine hygiene and health needs across the full spectrum. For 13 years Monica has worked as an international supply-chain management, distribution and fulfillment expert. Now running her third business. Monica is a graduate of Meharry Medical College (M.D.) and Howard University.
Liz Gibbs is the Founder & CEO of SPACE, a social enterprise on the mission to build commUnity around the things that connect us as humans. Liz started SPACE from Jackson Hole, WY, her home for the last 12 years, in response to the neo-nazi rally in Charlottesville, VA, where she completed her undergraduate studies at UVA. Liz’s first deep realization of the shared humanity that unites us all despite color, ethnicity, religion, etc. was on her first stay in Tanzania in 2008, where her work was focused on home-based HIV/AIDS care and her free time was spent singing, dancing, laughing and sharing long meals. As a reminder of the hope and hardship that we all experience in our unique ways, SPACE sells handmade, recycled paper bead bracelets made by refugee women artisans and caretakers of vulnerable children in Kampala, Uganda. Profits are then re-invested into programs that highlight our universal languages of song, dance, food, art and sports.
Lauren Garvey is the founder of The TackHack, which is a managed marketplace that is Nordstrom Rack meets The RealReal for the equestrian community (which, fun fact, is as large as the US golf industry). She graduated from Barnard College in 2008 and went on to pursue a JD at DePaul College of Law. After passing the Illinois and New York bar exams, she practiced law as a litigator for three years before going back to get her MBA from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business (GO BLUE!).
Elissa Weinzimmer is the founder of Voice Body Connection. After suddenly losing her own voice at age 21, Elissa stopped performing and began studying the mechanics of voice. Over time she developed a unique, concrete approach to coaching that empowers performers, leaders, and speakers to optimize their voices and share them more authentically. Elissa leads highly successful online courses on vocal health and confidence, with students enrolling from all over the world. Her clients include Broadway stars, television personalities, politicians, and CEOs. She has led workshops for Equinox, Microsoft, eBay, Instacart, the Skirball Cultural Center, the Columbia School of Public Health, and The Voice Foundation. Elissa holds an MFA in Theatre Voice Pedagogy from the University of Alberta and a BA from the University of Southern California. She is certified in Fitzmaurice Voicework®, Elissa was the recipient of the Clyde Vinson Award for Excellence from the Voice and Speech Trainers Association.
Megan Wessels is the Founder & CEO of Powerful Partners, a community helping female entrepreneurs scale their businesses by creating a strong foundation of 6 to 8, like-minded entrepreneurs who become her business family. The Forum is a 12-month membership program that provides in-person, group consulting for 6 to 8 female entrepreneurs who want to scale their business. Megan was President of the Chicago Chapter for the National Association of Professional Women where she grew membership from 250 to over 1400. Using Megan's connections the Chapter raised over $18,000 for local charities, earning her the National Charity Award in 2013. She spent 11 years in plastic manufacturing sales as the top performer and left in 2015 to launch Powerful Partners, Inc.
Katie Apicella is the Founder of NineNine Bespoke, a lifestyle management company. Born and raised in Manhattan, Katie studied film in LA and received her BA in Social Sciences with a concentration in Media Studies from NYU. Katie’s background in entertainment and luxury hospitality on both coasts is elemental to her expertise. With her keen sense for emerging trends and her passion for cultivating exclusive relationships on both the client and business side, Katie is a tastemaker recognized for curating a vast yet relevant rolodex in the hospitality and luxury lifestyle vertical.