Shayba Muhammad of Mahnal Jewelry recently won the Elevator Pitch Competition at the Be Seen Brunch Celebrating Women Entrepreneurs of Color, presented by DK Solutions, the Hispanic Chamber, the BALSA Foundation and Brazen St. Louis, with support from JP Morgan Chase Foundation.
She won a $2,500 cash prize (funded by the Clark Fox Family Foundation), two memberships in the new CIC co-working space for six months, one year of membership to the Hispanic Chamber, a coaching session with “goal achievement expert” Kim Burke, and one year of membership to Brazen St. Louis, which empowers women entrepreneurs.
The elevator pitch competition with five entrepreneurs was reviewed by a panel of judges from the St. Louis investment community: Brian Kinman of St. Louis Arch Angels, Cheryl Watkins-Moore of BioSTL, Brian Matthews of Cultivation Capital, Travis Sheridan of Venture Café and Dr. Mary Jo Gorman of TripleCare. Ronke Faleti of Korédé was runner-up. Other pitch finalists included Rachel Simon-Lee of Heartwork Videos, Brittany Hill of Back Trap Yoga and Felice McClendon of SoundScrip.
According to Brazen St. Louis, between 2007 and 2016 the number of women-owned firms increased by 45 percent – a rate 5 times the national average – and 78 percent of these net new women-owned firms are owned by women of color. However, fewer than 15 percent of all ventures receiving equity capital in 2014 had women on their executive teams, and only 2.7 percent of those companies had a woman CEO. Women of color received only 0.2 percent of all venture capital funding over the last five years.
To learn more about the event sponsors, visit www.BrazenSTL.com, http://dksolutionsfirm.weebly.com/ , https://www.hccstl.com/ and http://www.balsafoundation.org/.
