The University of Windsor EPICentre is pleased to announce the arrival of the first EPIC VentureWomen cohort. We’re excited to welcome Ground Culture, an edible landscaping and gardening education business that aims to empower people with the skills and resources to grow their own food. Beaux, a smartphone app where beauty and barbershop clients can easily find, book and pay for local artists in one unified eco-system. Vectorgaze, a company that uses innovative real-time rendering to provide animations and motion graphics with live and immediate feedback; and Xpress Career LMS, a one-stop career development hub providing personalized coaching with defined learning paths, mentorship and performance management tools for any job seekers. These four startups have been founded or co-founded by female entrepreneurs. This initiative has been made possible through collaboration with the WindsorEssex Economic Development Corporation and funding by FedDev Ontario.
This 6-week accelerator program teaches entrepreneurship and startup principles and has been designed to identify and break down systemic barriers for females in technology and entrepreneurship, all the while guiding and educating males on becoming better allies.
Valued at over $2000, the program includes a series of workshops with distinguished guest speakers, one-on-one mentoring, and a collaborative, hands-on approach to business model validation. In addition to the programming, each team will have access to customer discovery and prototype development grants up to $2,500. The cohort will present their progress on the Final Pitch Day scheduled on March 30th where the top team will have the opportunity to win a $3,000 cash prize.
EPICentre cannot wait to hit the ground running with our inaugural cohort. With workshops hosted by industry professionals, highly knowledgeable mentors and a team motivated to helping our start-ups reach their highest potential, the EPIC VentureWomen program looks forward to encouraging more women entrepreneurs to launch their companies in technology in our community.
