Female Founder Fridays

Patricia Buendia, Founder and CEO of Lifetime Omics, Inc., a company in the life science field, joins us to speak about personalized health and the learnings from COVID. By way of background, Patricia speaks three languages and currently is located in Miami. She earned her Ph.D. from Florida International University in Bioinformatics and before that earner her Masters in Computer Science in Munich. During her time as a Ph.D. student, she was a research assistant, focusing on a project that studied HIV. Upon graduating in 2006, she became a visiting professor at the University of Miami. She then worked for 8 years at a Bioinformatic company and then started her own firm last year. Here, she expresses her unique view on the future of health, as well as taking us through the work she is doing both pre-COVID and in the current times. Patricia also shares great advice on being a “rookie” founder and what has helped her the most.

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Brenda Lorenzo and Jesslyn Wade are the co-Founders of Soul Fetch, an online clothing boutique that is designed to make women feel beautiful, authentic, and empowered. They are Miami-based, with shipping around the country and internationally. Since launching 7 months ago the brand has already exceeded its annual sales goals, built a tight-knit sisterhood of female fans, and most importantly worked with six different charities to donate a portion of their profits, exemplifying the true meaning of "brands that do better.” These women are part of the movement of re-imagining fashion to be inclusive plus they are all about giving back! Join us three for a wonderful conversation about their journey as entrepreneurs while having full-time jobs!

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Kristen Corpion, Esq., is the founder and CEO of CORPLaw, a legal firm that specializes in providing concierge legal services to growing and mature businesses, including technology companies and startups. In this episode, we discuss how she found her way out of being an unhappy lawyer to starting her own law practice and becoming a happy lawyer, where she was able to rediscover her passion for the Law and merged it for her love of helping entrepreneurs. This young lawyer is re-educating people on what it means to have a business relationship with a lawyer and all the good that can come of it, while volunteering for local associations, and teaching courses at Florida International University. This conversation provides wonderful insight into the law profession and how business and law interact to form powerful partnerships that work to make an entrepreneur’s dreams become realities.

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Jocelyn Cortez-Young, the Founder and Managing Partner at Minerva Capital Group. This investment fund is female-led, diverse, and international. They are dedicated to investing in scalable companies with a social impact and financial return. Their focus is on venture and growth companies, especially in the education, health, services, and technology sectors. We discuss her journey through the world of derivatives trading and LatAm markets, to finding her own path in impact investing for driving returns through being strategically aligned in your vision and purpose. She has managed the fund for over 11 years and is here to share some wisdom from the way she structures her thinking, to how she puts concepts into perspective in order to build opinions and to take action. Tune in to hear this exceptional leader and to gain some inspiration, especially if you are into investing!

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Valery Sarue, the Founder and Interior Designer at Maison Valerie, which is an interior design studio based in Miami, FL, that specializes in online and virtual design. Parting from her roots in both design and business, and through helping out a friend in need, Valerie found a business model that suited her. She first worked for a company of a similar virtual style, and after a few years, she launched her own studio! She has completed over 130 projects so far and this is just the beginning. Tune in to hear how this founder is re-introducing interior design to the average person, at an accessible cost, and with eco-friendly, pet-friendly, or kid-friendly options for furniture shopping! Visit her page for a consultation and see how you can turn your WFH space into a paradise that truly feels welcoming to you!

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Krystal Zheng, the CEO and Founder of ARVISL Future, a company that provides a tool called SAVR, which is a subscription-based mobile augmented reality activation platform, which lets brands and anyone create their own Pokemon GO engagement while enabling deeper and smarter consumer knowledge analysis. She is redefining the digitalization of brick-and-mortar businesses and adding the gamification of experiences in local communities. Having started her project out through two accelerator programs, StartUP FIU and the WIN Lab in Miami, she then went on to build a VR experience with some very real traction, helping small businesses at first and now transitioning to redesign smart cities through her platform. Krystal is fearless in her pursuits of creativity and problem-solving and shares invaluable advice in this episode.

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Tanya Van Court, Founder and CEO of GoalSetter. GoalSetter is a goal-based savings, gifting and financial literacy platform made just for kids and families. Tanya founded GoalSetter in 2016 because, she felt like her life’s purpose was to do something that empowered kids across this country from every socioeconomic background to understand wealth, to grow wealth, and to build wealth for the next generation. With a founder at the intersection of education, entertainment, and family, GoalSetter took off immediately, filling a gap in the market for more meaningful gift-giving and financial empowerment. Tap in to hear Tanya’s full story of being a founder in this powerful conversation that is so relevant to these times of injustice that we are witnessing through social movements and more.

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Stephanie Hon, the CEO and Founder of Cadence. Cadence is a DTC brand that produces specially designed capsules that make it easy to bring everything with you -- starting with your wellness and personal care routine when you’re on the go. She is a young and first-time founder who has created a unique, beautiful, and convenient product that solves a very real issue for so many of us who are always on the go and need to carry essentials, ranging from lotion to shampoo to medication to vitamins wherever we go. These magnetic, hexagonal, leak-proof, customizable capsules are the tool we all need to transition to in order to make our lives simpler while tacking the issue of single-use plastics in the cosmetic industry and beyond. Steph shares how she was able to find an engineer although she attended a Liberal Arts school, how she got around to raising investment from some Angel Investors who were entrepreneurs themselves, and much more in this conversation.

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Patricia Bonilla, the Founder and President of the Lunacon Construction Group. Lunacon is a minority woman-owned general contractor based out of Miami. The company was founded in 2007 and has expanded its reach nationwide and to Puerto Rico. They focus on federal contracting but also have experience in commercial construction. Her clients include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Air Force, NASA, and U.S. Department of Agriculture. In this conversation, she shares her journey as she started her company while having young children at home and wanting to maintain a high standard of life as an immigrant from DR. She goes over her personal development and highlights how important it is to continue to evolve your vision while also paving a way for more women and more diversity in the construction industry. Tap into minute 11 for the back-to-back advice!

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Leticia Ramos-Pollock, the Co-Founder of Panther Coffee. This legendary specialty coffee shop is central to the Miami Wynwood scene and a masterpiece in social entrepreneurship and community living. Leticia shares her stories as a young founder, her thoughts on being a mom and a professional, her future hopes to contribute more to moms who want to work, and more!

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Renée Douthat, the CEO & Founder of Hatch Compliance. A specialist in the behavioral health industry. Following her experiences at other companies, she ventured on her own to start Hatch, which is a cloud-based solution designed to simplify compliance and streamline operations for Behavioral Healthcare Facilities by providing a multitude of tools and forms integrated on one same platform. She shares her successes and failures with us and gives some powerful life advice in this very honest and down-to-earth interview! 

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Adi Soozin, Founder & Fast-Growth Executive at MD9 shares her insights on this episode. She is a growth hacker and the master behind the success of many early-stage companies. Adi joins us to discuss her journey from being brought up in an entrepreneurial household, to finding her calling and making that her career. She also shares general advice and given that she reads a book per week, we sure are writing down her recommendations! Check out her website for guides on marketing, branding, SEO, and more.

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Adriana Machado, Founder of Briyah Institute, which focuses on the impact economy, and former President and CEO of GE Brazil, joins us for this episode. She highlights thought leaders around the green economy, the importance of digital literacy, of adopting a systemic approach to problem-solving, collaborating, and embracing an entrepreneurial mindset! We discuss the power of networks, and how everyone can and should be a leader! Tune in to minute 16:30 for her thread of advice!

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Chelsie Cooper, CEO & Founder of Approvely, a payment system business focused on providing safe payment solutions to eliminate fraud and chargebacks for their clients who range from brick-and-mortar stores to e-commence, joins us to talk through her journey in the payments business. Great advice on having initiative, learning what is necessary through a hands-on approach, having a collaborative mindset. She walks us through the importance of having a team, of accepting when things go right, and of knowing what your needle moving goals are for daily focus!

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