Prosper Womens’ Startup Accelerator Inaugural Class

Prosper Capital is announcing the first class of winners of its Prosper Startup Accelerator program. Prosper Startup Accelerator is one of the first accelerators in the country designed exclusively to help women raise the money needed to help their startups succeed. More than 220 women applied to be awarded a $50,000 capital investment. “We want to give women tools that will help them be more effective in the day-to-day world of entrepreneurship and venture capital,” said Dr. Mary Jo Gorman, Prosper Capital Managing Partner. “We also want to create a mechanism for more women to invest in the early stage entrepreneurship ecosystem.”  The first class of the program will receive $50,000 in capital plus hands-on training, mentoring, and curriculum designed specifically to help women become more successful in building their businesses and raising follow-on capital. The inaugural class includes:   KiteReaders KiteReaders designs, develops and distributes e-books and apps for children ages 3 to 8. Wondermento Wondermento is building a new way to track your dog’s activity and to know what they are up to at all times digitally and through their hardware design. Bookalokal Bookalokal is a marketplace for food entrepreneurs to list their services available for sale (out of their home) and to connect with customers looking for a unique dining experience. HealthyMe HealthyMe platform design has five key elements to address the non- compliance issue and patients’ lack of resources to effectively manage their disease on a daily basis, the key problems of patients who have chronic disease. Champio On Champio, employees compete to share valuable brand moments and information. The marketer can then pick the best suggestions and post the unique, relevant and timely content directly onto the brand’s social media channels.  Smart Monitor SmartMonitor created SmartWatch®, an intelligent wristwatch that continuously monitors movement, developed for people prone to epilepsy and seizure disorders.   These women will receive mentorship from first-class business executives, including the Prosper Capital team:

Dr. Mary Jo Gorman

Prosper Capital Managing Partner, Founder and CEO of Advanced ICU Care

Maxine Clark

Prosper Capital Managing Partner, Founder and former Chief Executive Bear, Build-A-Bear Workshop

Carol Matthews

Prosper Capital Managing Partner, Founder of CDM Fantasy Sports and Owner of River City Internet Group, VP of Operations at LockerDome

Hal Gentry

Prosper Capital Managing Partner, Founder of Gentry Systems and GridLogix and Director at SixThirty and Capital Innovators

Peter Finley

Former CFO at Observable Networks and Pulse Therapeutics, Co-founder, Thompson Street Capital Partners

Jennifer Ehlen

Prosper Capital Managing Partner, Founder of Prosper Women Entrepreneurs, Vice President at Thompson Street Capital Partners

Kasey Joyce Grelle

Prosper Capital Venture Partner, Principal at Cultivation Capital Awardees also receive services from accounting to legal to public relations, and have a direct pipeline to follow-on funding, as well as opportunities to pitch to business leaders and potential clients, and face time with some of the most active venture capitalists and angel investors in the Midwest.   The inaugural class will run from January 20^th to April 15^th and will be housed in the T-REx startup co-working space in downtown St. Louis.