Organization:Pipeline Fellowship
Contents
Overview
The Pipeline Fund Fellowship (PFF) or Pipeline Fellowship is an angel investing bootcamp for women philanthropists with a goal of increasing diversity in the U.S. angel investing community and creating capital for women social entrepreneurs. The program includes three components: education, mentoring, and practice. The Pipeline Fellowship aims to diversify the investor pool and connect women social entrepreneurs with investors who understand them.
Purpose
In 2012, only 22% of U.S. angel investors were women and only 5% were minorities, according to the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire.
The Pipeline Fellowship, an angel investing bootcamp for women, works to increase diversity in the U.S. angel investing community and creates capital for women social entrepreneurs.
Since launching its first angel investing bootcamp in April 2011, the Pipeline Fellowship has trained over seventy women, who have committed more than US$350k in investment, and has expanded from New York City to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C..
The Pipeline Fellowship Team
NATALIA OBERTI NOGUERA
FOUNDER & CEO (current)
Dubbed “The Coach” by Marie Claire, Natalia (aka Ms. Oberti Noguera) is Founder and CEO of Pipeline Fellowship, an angel investing bootcamp for women that’s changing the face of angel investing and creating capital for women social entrepreneurs. Natalia holds a BA in Comparative Literature & Economics from Yale. She has been featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, Mashable, Reuters Money, TechCrunch, The New York Times, and Fast Company’s Co.Exist Change Generation series. Natalia was named to the Forbes list “Top 20 Women for Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter,” as well as Latina.com’s “25 Latinas Who Shine in Tech.” Women’s eNews recognized her as one of 21 Leaders for the 21st Century for 2012 and Business Insider included her on its 2013 list “The 30 Most Important Women in Tech under 30.” You can find Natalia on Twitter (@nakisnakis).
JULIA SMITH (current)
SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER
Julia Smith has been collaborating with Pipeline Fellowship Founder & CEO Natalia Oberti Noguera since 2010, when they teamed up to produce a well-received NYC-based TEDxWomen event that live-streamed the inaugural TEDWomen Conference and created a platform for nine diverse innovators to share their stories. In addition to her work with the Pipeline Fellowship, Julia serves as the Community Development Manager for NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network, after having launched her Chicago-based consulting practice. Previously, Julia worked at Idealist.org as a Communications Manager and co-founded 826DC, an education nonprofit. You can find her on Twitter (@juliacsmith).
Lauren Abele (past)
FOUNDING COO
As Founding COO, Lauren was part of the initial launch of the Pipeline Fellowship and assisted in building the program’s foundation since its first angel investing bootcamp in April 2011. During her tenure, the Pipeline Fellowship trained over seventy women—who committed more than US$350K in investment—and expanded to multiple cities across the United States. Lauren helped establish the Pipeline Fellowship as a leader in training women to become angel investors, as well as creating capital for women-led for-profit social ventures. Prior to the Pipeline Fellowship, she worked in the nonprofit and public sectors in economic development, environmental issues, and women’s empowerment. Lauren received her BA from Washington University in St. Louis and her MPA from Indiana University’s School for Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA). She is also a proud School for International Training (SIT) alumna. You can catch up with Lauren on Twitter (@laurenabele) and at about.me/laurenabele.
Investments
Pipeline Fellows are looking to invest in women entrepreneurs building tomorrow’s The Body Shop, Honest Tea, method, Seventh Generation, Warby Parker, and Zipcar.
Some of the women-led for-profit social ventures that secured funding from Pipeline Fellows after presenting at a Pipeline Fellowship Pitch Summit include:
CISSÉ
Cissé (pronounced “see-say”) is about creating connections through discovery. Because when we connected award winning recipes and socially responsible business values, we discovered that Cissé can do two great things—satisfy your senses and your sensibility. We invite you to discover the delicious organic, Fair Trade cocoa powder we hand selected in the Dominican Republic. We encourage you to connect with the cocoa farmers by scanning the QR Code on the back of our packages to write them a message. With Cissé, you’ll discover that pastry-chef-quality treats aren’t so hard to make. And don’t forget—connect with your family and friends to share your yummy, homemade goodies!
DAYONE RESPONSE
DayOne Response, Inc. developed and supplies the DayOne Waterbag™ addressing the vital need for clean water in disaster relief. The DayOne Waterbag™ is a patented water treatment device, which is specially designed to expand the usefulness and safety of the P&G Purifier of Water sachets. The DayOne Waterbag™’s unique features provide all essential functions of clean water provision in a personal backpack that is effective, easy-to-use, and compact to ship. Through this revolutionary technology, DayOne Response is saving lives in disaster areas worldwide.
GREEN LIFE GUIDES
The Green Life Guides connects eco-conscious consumers with the information and products they need to live a greener life through a series of life-stage and event-based websites. The company’s first site, Green Bride Guide is the preeminent green wedding resource. In May, 2013, the company launched Green Mom Guide to connect parents with the resources they need to keep their kids happy and safe.
HAPPILY EVER BORROWED
Happily Ever BorroWED is the premiere online wedding shop that rents designer bridal accessories worldwide at a fraction of the retail price. Partnering with designers such as Enchanted Atelier & Justine M. Couture, they have curated a special collection of veils, tiaras, headpieces and jewelry. Aimed at reducing waste in the wedding industry, as well as breaking down financial barriers, Happily Ever BorroWED works with brides across the United States and beyond.
PHILANTECH
PhilanTech creates and provides technology to help social sector organizations do what they do … even better. Through innovative online products and services, PhilanTech helps organizations maximize social impact while minimizing environmental impact. The PhilanTrack® online grants management system helps funders and grant recipients streamline the grants administration process to focus more resources on program and service delivery. PhilanTech is proud to be a Founding B Corporation. B Corporations are setting the standard for social and environmental responsibility.
REPURPOSE
Repurpose makes products from plants, not petroleum. Repurpose is focused on developing, sourcing, marketing, and selling innovative high-quality plant-based compostable products in the consumer retail (B2C) market, which currently includes cups and utensils and will expand to trash bags, sandwich bags, and more. Welcome to a cleaner world.
SWEETRIOT
At sweetriot, we’re building a sweet movement to fix the world! We know you are looking for life’s best healthy delicious, on-the-go treats and snacks. You deserve a daily guiltless pleasure and that’s what we have created for you. sweetriot uses only all natural, healthy ingredients, and puts original artwork by emerging artists on every package. When you purchase from sweetriot, you’re supporting a women-owned company that is working to change the world! A riot never happens alone. Join us!
VOZ
VOZ, meaning voice, is the first fair trade fashion brand to unite international designers with weavers to co-design elegant, ethnic garments. We empower indigenous women and their art forms. In February 2013, we debuted at Elle’s New York Fashion Week event where we were the only ethical or ecological brand in their milieu. After providing design innovation training programs, our products stem from the artisans’ ideas, for which we award royalties, a system that we are scaling globally.
Distinct Differences From Other Offerings
The prize is for a product that has already been invented by a student or group of students rahter than for a proposed idea. Patents for studnt inventions are preferred, though not required for application submission.
The National Collegiate Student Prize Competition has two prompts each year. These prompts rotate and consist of two of the following categories for invention submissions:
- "Cure it!" -- reimagine healthcare
- "Eat it!" -- reimagine food and agriculture
- "Drive it!" -- reimagine transportation
- "Use it!" -- reimagine devices and tools
- "Wear it!" -- reimagine consumer products
- "Network it!" -- reimagine how products and services are delivered through web-based networks
MIT is an internationally renowned institution, therefore the supportive network that students, groups and their inventions can gain access to through affiliation with this competition is certainly a unique opportunity for enhanced exposure to science and business networks and communities.
Impact Achieved for Students and Campus
Students or teams of students receive a cash prize of $10,000 or $15,000 for undergraduate and graduate students, respectively. Award winners also receive national recognition, exposure to science, business and other valuable communities to aid in the implementation of their inventions as well as a trip to MIT for the EurekaFest held annually in June.
The prize is not only a tool for recognition, but also to financially enable students to bring their established inventions to market and to encourage the continual work toward experimentation and innovative thinking and action.
For the 2013 competition, view this promotional poster.
Partner campuses involved with the Student Prize Competition include:
- Cal Tech (previous participant)
- University of Illinois - Urbana
- Rensselaer
Steps Required to Bring Competition to Your Campus
Press Release: The prize is now open to all undergraduate and graduate students at U.S. Universities! http://web.mit.edu/invent/n-pressreleases/n-press-13CSP.html
Groups a undergraduate students as well as individual graduate students from your campus are encouraged to apply by this year's deadline, December 31, 2013.
Student Prize Website: http://web.mit.edu/invent/a-student.html
https://lemelsonmit.slideroom.com/#/Login
Contact Information
Joshua Schuler and Kerri Mills
The Lemelson-MIT Program
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
School of Engineering
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Building 10-110
Cambridge, MA 02139
Phone: (617) 253 - 3352
Lemelson_Awards@mit.edu
