Twenty-five women entrepreneurs entered the 2018 Communitech Fierce Founders bootcamp this week. The bootcamp helps early-stage founders develop their business models, collaborate with mentors, and learn to pitch. The two-part bootcamp hosts female prepares them for Pitch Day, Feb. 15, 2018, where they compete to win up to $100,000.
Two of the 25 – Natasha Dhayagude, co-founder and CEO of Chinova Bioworks (from Fredericton, New Brunswick) and Lisa Pfister, founder and CEO of Pfera (also from New Brunswick) – are clients of Emergence.
Lisa Pfister, Pfera
Lisa Pfister, a recent engineering graduate from New Brunswick has launched her startup, Pfera, with the goal to make equine reproduction management easier, cheaper and healthier for the horses. Lisa says she’s benefitted from the in-depth mentorship she has received from Emergence.
See also: Emergence client, Pfera Inc., wins the seventh annual BioInnovation Challenge
Natasha Dhayagude has a biochemistry degree from the University of New Brunswick (UNB), and learnt business skills at Planet Hatch in Fredericton. As CEO of Chinova she gets to mix both of her passions, science and business.
Read more about Chinova here! See also: Emergence client, Chinova Bioworks, selected for Terra: the San Francisco-based Food + Ag Accelerator and Emergence client profiled by University of Alberta
Natasha Dhayagude, Chinova Bioworks
“This is a strong group of women from all over North America running unique businesses, from a shared marketplace for parents, to an immigration assistant that incorporates artificial intelligence,” said Kelly McGregor, Fierce Founders program manager at Communitech. “We’re already impressed with them and can’t wait to see how they grow as business leaders and entrepreneurs.”
The Fierce Founders 2018 Cohort!
In 2017, Fierce Founders was won by another Emergence client, Fredericton, New Brunswick-based SomaDetect, which shared the $100,000 in prize money with Furnishr from New York.