BOSTON—TiE Boston announced the winners of their highly-anticipated, annual TiE Boston Women’s Pitch Competition, which was held at PTC Headquarters in Boston’s Seaport. Leila Daneshmandi, Co-Founder and COO of Encapsulate won the first prize and will go on to represent TiE Boston at the TiE Women Global Pitch Competition in Singapore. The other winners of the event were Dr Ruchi Chauhan, Co-Founder and COO of NonExomics in second place; and Lori Sylvia, Founder and CEO of Rally Recruitment Marketing, took third place.
This year’s winner, Leila Daneshmandi, said “I am thrilled to have won the TiE Boston Women’s Pitch Competition. What an amazing and talented group of women founders, and what an incredible, kind, and welcoming community at TiE. I’m excited to become a TiE member and to join this platform. At Encapsulate, we develop automated tumor-on-a-chip systems that determine the most effective clinical treatment regimen for cancer patients on a personalized basis. I can’t wait to showcase Encapsulate at the TiE Women Global Summit in Singapore and connect with the entrepreneurship ecosystem at a global scale!”
In an exciting live event, the TiE Boston Women’s Pitch Competition gave the floor to six female founders/co-founders to pitch for a chance to compete for prizes worth $10,000 in winnings at the event, as well as the opportunity to compete in the TiE Women Global Pitch Competition in November 2023 for a chance to win a $50,000 equity-free cash prize and investments worth $1 million. For the winner, Leila Daneshmandi, TiE Boston’s competition will prove as just one stop in the road map to compete in the TiE Women Global Pitch Competition at TGS Singapore in November.
TiE Boston President, Yash Shah said, “I am so happy to see the progress we have made since the launch of the TIE Boston Women Program. Some incredible women founded companies have participated and the quality seems to be getting better as there is more awareness of this awesome program. I cannot think of a better platform than TiE for getting global visibility for an early stage company. Thank you to all the participants who pitched and congratulations to Encapsulate, the winner for TiE Boston and best wishes for the global competition in Singapore later this year.”
Each finalist took the floor to deliver a concise pitch, attempting to appeal to Judges Punita Kumar Sinha, Founding and Managing Partner of Pacific Paradigm Advisors; Navjot Singh, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Co.; Sumeit Aggarwal, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Finhive; and Anu Chitrapu, Senior VP and Technology Executive at Bank of America.
The contestants fielded tough questions to paint a full picture of their startups. From dollar opportunity to exit strategies, the eight participants were put in the hot seat for Q&A after each pitch to ensure the judges could make a calculated and informed decision in selecting the winner.
“Inspiring and invigorating pitches by the six finalists. Each one is brilliant and an inspiration to us all. Congratulations to the three winners. Look forward to each of the entrepreneurs achieve tremendous success,” said Sangeeta Moorjani, the 2023 Chair of the TiE Boston Women Pitch Competition.
A special thank-you was given to the TiE Boston Women’s Pitch Competition sponsors: The Subu Kota Foundation, and to PTC as the event’s program partner.
Shiva Kashalkar, Vice President at PTC said, “Our purpose at PTC isn’t just to imagine a better world, it’s to give our customers, partners and our employees the Power To Create it—together. It is our honor to work with TiE Boston for their Global Pitch Competition to help support the start-up ecosystem and women entrepreneurship.”
The following women founders competed in the TiE Boston Women Pitch Competition:
- Leila Daneshmandi, Co-Founder and COO of Encapsulate
- Dr Ruchi Chauhan, Co-Founder and COO of NonExomics Inc
- Lori Sylvia, Founder and CEO of Rally
- Joanne Mercaldi, Co-Founder of Bloom
- Nathalya Mamane, Founder and CTO of RT MicroDx
- Andrea Crewe, Founder and CEO of Vitaliti
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