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The latest Founders & Funders event sponsored by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority brought together New Jersey startup founders with angels and investors in 10-minute sessions. Founders knew investors and in many cases promised good advice and sometimes a follow-up meeting.
NJTechWeekly.com has been following these founder and funder events since its inception, and we believe this event is one of the best ways for founders to make more connections for fundraising. In Part 2 of the series, we feature interviews with three female tech founders.
Lauralyn Mears is a highly visible New Jersey startup founder who has written and advocated for women and other members of the New Jersey startup ecosystem. Her startup is STEERus, based in Vale River.
We asked Mears to give her a lift pitch and here’s what she had to say: “STEERus is all about communication. Because people have difficulty communicating with each other, we help companies and individuals improve their communication skills for greater success. We have communication challenges between generations; We have cultural communication challenges. The more we work with overseas talent and the more we work remotely, the less communication we have and the less effective we communicate. So, we’ve created a combination of self-help academy – we call it ‘Success Academy’ – where people of all tastes can find personal and professional growth. We’ve created an assessment that tells you what you need, what skills you need to improve. And then, we’ve got a technology platform where we can deliver a personalized learning playlist based on our dynamically updated content.
Mears had some feedback to offer NJEDA about the event. She identifies two gaps in investor and investment availability: “First, pre-seed, pre-revenue funding opportunities are few and far between, and these investors are harder and harder to find. Even angels are becoming like venture capitalists. You want to see the monthly income. So that early seed investor is becoming like a dinosaur species – you can’t find them anymore, they’re gone. And then, the second thing is that New Jersey has a really vibrant tech ecosystem and investor ecosystem, but mostly in fintech, medtech, and a lot of deep technology. There’s very little room in the (human resources) technology space,” Steers said.
She said that the investors she met were very kind and understood the problem. Other funders who sometimes write checks for early seed startups recommend her contacts.
Mears would like to see NJEDA offer no-strings-attached grants to founders in the $5,000 or $10,000 range, which can move the needle on their startups.
“This will be very useful,” she said.
In addition, she believes that the founders and funders event should be expanded everywhere: “It’s great to be included.” I am very happy that I am. But, if you don’t have anyone here investing in HR tech, or edtech, I’m not immediately relevant, right? And I don’t want to waste the investors’ time.
According to Kirtika Parmeswarn, Vital Start Health, based in Philadelphia and Princeton, has developed the first maternal mental health platform using virtual reality and artificial intelligence to provide affordable personalized and clinical monitoring across the maternal spectrum, from pre-pregnancy care. Experience in a high-risk pregnancy and neonatal intensive care unit and the postpartum period. Parmeswarn co-founded the company with John Chuo, a neonatal quality officer at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a professor of clinical pediatrics at the School of Medicine of Pennsylvania.
We asked her the height of the elevator and she gave it: “We’ve all heard of the four vital signs: heart rate, respiratory rate, body temperature, and body pressure. Today, I present the fifth, vital sign for safety, with the Vital Start digital signature. Our initial focus is on maternal mental health, an area close to my heart. I personally went through postpartum depression and came face to face with disparities in the health care system. I am a Wharton alumnus with deep knowledge in technology and business. And I’m excited to tackle this issue creatively. We are pursuing an $18 billion opportunity.
We asked why the startup was incorporating VR into its solution.
“The American Psychological Association recommends VR for mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder,” she said. “There’s a lot of evidence for the effectiveness of VR, and that comes from the visual, immersive nature of VR. So that’s helping a patient relive that experience. And so, with an expert, he can give them the valuable insight they need.
When we asked Parmeswar about her meetings, she met four investors. One of them she already knew and was happy to fill in the progress of the company.
“Most wanted to talk more, so I was able to get contact information,” she said.
The company was too early for some investors, but said it would connect with other investors who are interested in early-stage startups in this area.
“Then I got some feedback on my ‘one-page’, which I could probably incorporate into our marketing strategy, a profit and loss statement and more. So that was a good lesson. I used it more as a flyer with an overview of the company.
Announcing the launch, Kathleen Colatella said Parsippany-based LINEA System is a “clinical science technology company focused on accelerating clinical trials.”
“We do this through our software, AcceleTrial,” she says. “We have hundreds of thousands of clinical investigators on our site. They’re doctors who support clinical trials. And through our platform, we’ve been able to reduce the start-up costs of clinical trials by 50%.”
“Why is this important? Because the clinical trial process is challenging, it’s messy, and it takes a lot of hard work to get a trial completed.[The platform]makes sense for pharma people or stakeholders because there’s a lot of cost and time involved when trials are delayed. When clinical trials are delayed , the pharmacy not only has to conduct the trial, but also increases the cost to consumers for new drugs coming to the market. Therefore, if we can influence and reduce the trial time of the products coming to the market, it will be beneficial for all of us.
She explains how it works: “If you’re a pharmaceutical company and you’re going to start a trial on Alzheimer’s, and you say, ‘I need to get 15 neurologists with expertise, clinical experience, and patients.’ We support our testing, instantly accessing our database and providing you with access to all previously screened neurologists, clinical experience and patients you require.
When asked about her meetings, Colatella said she met with five investors and that her company was too early to invest. But that was okay because she wasn’t ready for investments yet. She used the meetings to learn where each investor was moving in the market and how much traction they needed to see before writing a check. Some investors want to know more about the company, to follow it for future investment.
“I think it’s important for them to get to know who we are and what kind of place we play and see what a successful engagement looks like,” she said. We are learning how investors invest and how many checks they write. We learned about all that while talking to different investors,” he said.
So far, Colatella is pushing her company.
A conversation starter
Access STEERus at: steerus.io or email hello@steerus.io.
Contact Vital Start Health at: vitalstarthealth.com or email contact@vitalstarthealth.com.
Access the LINEA System at: lineasystem.com or 973-917-4343.
Technology partners
ROI-NJ has teamed up with Esther Sarden, creator of njtechweekly.com, to provide insight into the world of technology.
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