NYWSE Incubator Friendraiser - July 7, 2009

Save the Date!

NYWSE Incubator Friendraiser @ Bowery Wine Company

featured speaker, silent auction, jazz trio, open bar

July 7, 2009

7-10 P.M.

The NYWSE Incubator Friendraiser marks the successful conclusion of the NYWSE Incubator program.  Join us in celebrating the first co-hort of NYWSE Incubator participants, including the selected social entrepreneurs, their apprentices, and their mentors.

Diana Ayton-Shenker, Founder & CEO of Fast Forward Fund (FFF), a youth-investing-in-youth social venture fund, will speak on the importance of investing in young social entrepreneurs--particularly women.  The NYWSE Incubator is an FFF Pipeline Partner. 

Six budding women social entrepreneurs were selected from a competitive pool of applicants to participate in the NYWSE Incubator.  The entrepreneurs were assigned a female mentor and a female apprentice.  The teams worked for six months to realize the entrepreneurs' social ventures with the support of workshops, resources, classes, coaching, and pitch opportunities.  How did they fare?  Come find out!

2009 NYWSE Incubator Selections

• Early Earners – Online education destination for youth and families promoting positive financial habits
• Girl Guides USA – Outdoor program that develops girls’ environmentalism, leadership and teamwork
• Illume – Online mentoring and career resource for young women from illiterate families in India
• Out Against Abuse – Online resource to stop domestic violence in the South Asian community
• Public Stuff – Software to connect government and citizens to improve services and community life
• Start Your Engine – Exercise, nutrition, stress and time management program for low-income women

If you would like to learn more about applying to the NYWSE Incubator, make sure to meet NYWSE Incubator Founder & Manager Allison Lynch at the Friendraiser.

Interested in volunteering?  Email Melissa Osborne at: melissa@ywse.org

Margaret Prusan Inspires the NYWSE Incubator Participants to go from "Eclipsed to Extraordinary"

Saturday June 6, 2009 Margaret Prusan of Ilumin led the NYWSE Incubator entrepreneurs workshop called “From Eclipsed to Extraordinary”. Illumin’s mission is to help extraordinary women entrepreneurs realize their potential. She says, “For me, the greatest joy of this business is seeing the ‘aha!” moment on the client’s face. The moment when all her talents and experiences are fully illuminated, and she truly gets just how amazing she already is!” Margaret’s pension for working with starting, growing or evolving women-owned businesses comes from her own soul searching to find a career that fit her interests and passions. Mrs. Prusan’s background is in business development and marketing communication. She has worked on many high profile projects, as well, like the Kerry-Edwards 2004 presidential campaign. She explained that it took a conversation with close friend to help reveal her own greatest strength: acting as other peoples’ north star to help them build businesses that reflect their real assets and interests. Realizing that she can help identify and define the purpose of other peoples’ businesses, Illumin was born.

NYWSE Incubator Social Entrepreneurs Master Image Management

The Stylist blogger Busting Diva says: “Style is absolutely essential in developing a personal brand. It often affects the rise or fall of a model, movie star, designer or performing artist.” Skillful image management of entrepreneurs is also a reality of the social media age. And social entrepreneurs are not immune.

On Saturday April 4, The New York Women Social Entrepreneurs (NYWSE) Incubator Program held its first photo-shoot at Baruch College, helping to give participants a competitive advantage when representing their brand and pitching to potential partners and funders. Seven women participated, including Keren Perry-Shamir, Ami Desai, Caitlin Dean, Morena Vattuone, Jacqueline Muna Musiitwa, and Lily Liu. Staff and models all had a blast but could not have done it without our friends Jacques Cornell and Steve Hart of Happening Photos and stylist Tijana Beca.  The results, below, speak for themselves.

Lily Liu of Public Stuff wins by learning to go with the flow

My blog post: The NYWSE Incubator Program has helped my venture take advantage of many unexpected opportunities

I am currently in the process of starting a company called PublicStuff, and we wouldn’t be making the kind of progress we are if it were not for our participation in the NWYSE Incubator Program. Our product is a website that aims to connect people with their local governments, so that everyone can participate in the development of their communities. The Incubator Program’s classes and learning tools have allowed me to learn and grow tremendously and has been alternatively a humbling and enlightening experience. Being part of a multi-generational team has created opportunities for genuine collaboration that have lead to professional development and learning. While not all the newly found opportunities were completely aligned with our working plan, sometimes the unexpected can be the most fulfilling and productive.

One of the most important lessons I've learned throughout this entrepreneurial experience is to be open to any opportunities that come my way. This may seem like an obvious piece of advice, but to truly embrace it, I believe, can be life-changing. I am by no means advocating for you to go out and say yes to every opportunity, but some of the most unlikely opportunities can lead to extremely rewarding and meaningful experiences.

Anastasia Holmes, founder of Start Your Engine NYC, discusses Learning Curves with the Incubator program

My Blog Post: What I have enjoyed learning most during the Incubator process, is everything

Learning Curves

Some days, when the work is piling up and the deadlines are approaching, I need to put the stress into perspective and remind myself why I’m starting a nonprofit and what I enjoy about it.

One reason I’m creating Start Your Engine, a health and fitness program for low-income women, is because I have the social entrepreneur’s drive to solve a social problem.  Another reason is because I like brainstorming and program development. Of course, part of any entrepreneur’s drive is also the dream to “work for myself.”

The most important reason I’m creating this program is to provide an environment where women can learn about healthy living rather than just going through the motions at a gym or picking a new diet. The things I learned on my journey achieving a healthy lifestyle I wanted to share—specifically with women who couldn’t afford trainers and coaches and counselors.

Zoe Timms, creator of the Women's Education Project, puts the Social in Social Entrepreneur

My blog post: How my approach to securing funding for my venture has evolved through the Incubator program

In 2002, I established Women's Education Project as a 501(C)(3) to help young women from poor families, succeed in college and begin careers. At garden parties with family and friends, I was able to fund the first center, "Sudar" in Madurai, South India. The dollar goes far in India so within the next few years, we were able to hire staff, rent a center (with computer lab, library, and garden), offer 25 scholarships annually and provide 60 students with academic support. In 2008, we started our second center, "Ushassu" in Hyderabad. Today, 100 students attend WEP centers in South India.

Ami Desai- Co-founder and CFO, Keren Perry-Shamir- Co-founder and CMO on how the Incubator program helped to transform their program, Early Earners

Our blog post: How the Incubator program is helping us transform our idea into a tangible and attainable enterprise.

Early Earners is an online financial education destination for families that combines education and action. We founded EE because most people do not learn about finance in school or at home. In fact, a recent study found that most parents felt better prepared to give their teens advice on sex than on investing. Managing money is a daily habit like brushing your teeth or eating well. The idea behind Early Earners is that it is a family focused program that teaches parents and kids how to execute a few simple financial principles. EE uses interactive tools, calculators, links to recommended financial products and fun games that bring to life concepts like saving a $1 a day. 

Sabrin Chowdhury, Founder of Out Against Abuse, discusses group dynamics and staying open to new ideas

My Blog Post: How I have grown into an effective manager while launching my venture in the NYWSE Incubator program.

I first started Out Against Abuse, an online “hotline” for domestic violence victims and educational resource center in the South Asian community (www.outagainstabuse.org), as a blog to start openly discussing this problem.  However, soon I started receiving emails and online comments from victims themselves who either asked for help or started sharing their stories. It was then that I realized there was an immense need for an online resource to allow victims to ask questions anonymously and access a wide array of resources.  I soon started forming a board of directors and looking for any resources that would make it easier to establish a strong and efficient nonprofit organization.  Before the Incubator Program, I had so many different tasks and goals, including fundraising goals, contacting different organizations to establish partnerships, brainstorming event ideas, etc…and would constantly feel overwhelmed. But it wasn’t until recently that I realized that this was probably because I hadn’t done a good job of outsourcing or even taking advantage of outside help. 

Anastasia Holmes, Founder of Start Your Engine NYC, discusses how she found her momentum

My Blog Post: The most unexpected benefit I have learned during the NYWSE Incubator program

I kicked around my idea to create a nonprofit health and fitness program for low-income women for a year before my acceptance to the New York Women Social Entrepreneurs Incubator Program. My goal for the program is to address obesity by emphasizing health lifestyle choices through education and practice in nutrition, fitness, life coaching, and mental health. When I sent in my application, I knew I needed structure to stay on task and a community to work within. But I actually didn’t know what to expect from the program, and so far, unexpected benefits are everywhere.

Caitlin Dean, founder of Girl Guides USA, sounds off on the NYWSE Incubator

The NWYSE Incubator program participants will be publishing to this blog in order to let the world in on their varied experiences through the program's duration. Some women will discuss how they overcame challenges, others may address their personal growth and how their ventures evolved.

Caitlin Dean, founder,  Girl Guides USA

My blog post: The two greatest lessons I have learned through the Incubator Program.

I’m starting Girl Guides USA, a non-profit outdoor teambuilding and leadership program for girls based on the Girl Guides program I was part of in Belgium for years when I was younger.  Girl Guides was one of the best experiences of my life, and I’m thrilled to be bringing it to girls here in the States.  But without a doubt the main challenge I’ve faced in launching the pilot program has been getting the word out and attracting the people I want to target (6th-10th grade girls).  Publicity would of course be easier if I had an unlimited budget, but still, I’ve been able to overcome the challenge (or, rather, I’m in the process of overcoming it) and I’ve learned a couple of lessons along the way…