Communitech has announced the 25 women entrepreneurs that will be participating in the Communitech Fierce Founders Bootcamp this week.
The bootcamp invites women founders from early-stage companies to develop business skills, collaborate with mentors, network with like-minded women entrepreneurs, and learn to pitch. The bootcamp prepares founders for a Pitch Day, which, this year, is taking place on February 26. There the top eight participants will compete to win up to $100,000 for their companies.
Communitech said through the accelerated program, participants will attend workshops that address different aspects of running a startup, such as customer validation, human resources, leadership, funding, sales, and marketing. They will also receive coaching and feedback from experienced entrepreneurs before the final pitch competition.
Started in 2016, Fierce Founders is a Communitech program that aims to help female tech entrepreneurs accelerate their companies. The program is supported by FedDev and received a $264,000 investment in 2016 to scale the program.
In March 2019, Communitech awarded $100,000 to Alexandra McCalla, the co-founder and COO of AirMatrix, for winning last year’s Fierce Founders Bootcamp Pitch Competition. Other past winners of the competition have included the founders of Fable Tech Labs, Polygone Technologies, and IntelliMEDSolutions.
Participants in the 2020 Communitech Fierce Founders Bootcamp include:
- Aislinn Shoveller, Overture Doner (Kitchener, ON)
- Alisha McFetridge, RainStick Shower (Toronto, ON)
- Ashley Kielbratowski, Harbr (Halifax, NS)
- Atefeh Zarabadi, AIImSense Inc. (Waterloo, ON)
- Catherine Chan, FitIn (Toronto, ON)
- Christine Simone, Caribou (Toronto, ON)
- Danielle Rose, SquidBio, Kitchener, Ont.
- Eyra Abraham, Lisnen Inc. (Toronto, ON)
- Julie LeJeune, Wish & Give (Toronto, ON)
- Jun Yang, TRUSTiiN (Waterloo, ON)
- Kate Dickson, Primped (Toronto, ON)
- Katherine Bowen, Friends at our Table Inc. (Elmira, ON)
- Kathleen Chan, Benchwork (Toronto, ON)
- Kristy Ehman, Hyon Software Inc. (Regina, SK)
- Kushalmeet Pawar, Wellbow (Brampton, ON)
- Maame Poku, Emergency Response Africa (Kitchener, ON)
- Mary Beth Kyer, Sponsor Circle Inc. (Toronto, ON)
- Mila Banerjee, Personifi AI Inc. (Toronto, ON)
- Minh Pham, Vidal Home Care (Toronto, ON)
- Mishba Bholat, Füze Rentals (Toronto, ON)
- Olga Morawczynski, Bounc3 Ltd. (Newmarket, ON)
- Rosa Hoffmann, Medscures (Kitchener, ON)
- Rachel Bartholomew, Hylvy Health (Waterloo, ON)
- Shuhe Li, SaluTech (Toronto, ON)
- Tanya Gough, StoryBilder Ltd. (Toronto, ON)
Image source Unsplash. Photo by CoWomen.