Hera Hub DC, a female-focused coworking space in Friendship Heights, today announced a Call for Applications for their 2nd annual pitch contest. A public event, Hera Fast Pitch DC will take place on June 13, 2019 from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. at Hera Hub DC, located at 5028 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, #100, Washington, DC 20016. “We are delighted to announce that the NEXT program – powered by Shulman Rogers – is joining us as a Grand Prize Sponsor this year,” says Julia Westfall, Hera Hub DC CEO. “We appreciate their commitment to supporting female founders and the startup community through this sponsorship and their NEXT program.” “NEXT and Shulman Rogers are honored to be part of the Hera Hub family and sponsor the Fast Pitch event. Julia and the Hera Hub team do an amazing job supporting female entrepreneurs and we believe together we can provide these impressive women founders with the legal and business support they need to take their companies to the NEXT level,” says Lisa Friedlander, NEXT/Shulman Rogers. Arion Long, Founder of Femly, was the winner of the inaugural Hera Fast Pitch DC event last year. She went on to also win the competition at the Hera Venture Summit in San Diego in September of 2018. About her experience, Arion says, “The Hera Fast Pitch was amazing and easily one of my favorite pitch competitions. Not only was networking amazing, I had the pleasure of pitching alongside so many amazing companies! The funding and resources that we won helped us take our business to the next level and helped us start a campaign that helped 1,000 women!” Startups that are 51-percent women-owned and located in the DC Metro area are invited to apply online between Monday, April 8 at 9:00 am and Friday, May 17, 2019 at 11:59 pm for a chance to pitch their business idea. All applications will be reviewed by an independent panel, which will select 8 growth stage and 4 early stage companies to participate. To apply, click here. The Hera Fast Pitch DC winner will take home more than $10,000 in cash and in-kind services, plus be nominated for the opportunity to pitch in front of additional investors at Hera Venture Summit, a global entrepreneurship summit taking place in San Diego this September. “We are looking for founders that have creative and innovative businesses in any for-profit sector. We want to give them more financial runway to continue to move forward,” says Julia Westfall, CEO at Hera Hub DC. “We had such a successful event last year that we couldn’t wait to repeat it this year! Not only did Arion, our DC winner, take home the prize in San Diego, but another company found an investor at our event.” Photo credit: Tamzin B. Smith Portrait Photography
