TiE Boston held a pitch competition for women entrepreneurs on Sept 15. Seven semi-finalists competed. The winner of the pitch competition was Kudos (CEO Amrita Saigal) who gets to pitch at the TiE Women Global Pitch Competition at GITEX Technology Week in Dubai. 

Under the leadership of President Anu Chitrapu, TiE-Boston has been putting a lot of emphasis on supporting women entrepreneurs. “I hope the number of  women entrepreneurs grows to a point where we refer to them just as entrepreneurs like we do for doctors as the number of women doctors is quite large” said Chitrapu. She emphasized the role women play at TiE Boston. “Women play a pivotal role in the TiE Boston ecosystem. They comprise 50% of our Board and represent every aspect of the entrepreneurial ecosystem including entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, executives and service providers” said Chitrapu. 

Desh Deshpande delivered the keynote at the event. “Women bring their own unique perspective and thus create new opportunities and ideas to the work of entrepreneurship” said Desh. He provided great advice for the entrepreneurs. “Entrepreneurship now has become a career. If even your this company does not succeed in today’s world you can quickly move on to your next venture. You would have learned so much that would help you both in work and life” . 

The seven  companies competing were : Kudos (Amrita Saigal, Founder & CEO), Moxie Apparel Inc (Alicia Tulsee, Founder & CEO ), Folia Materials (Theresa Dankowich, Co-Founder & CTO), Unruly Studios (Bryanne Leeming, Founder & CEO), Modi Toys (Avani Sarkar, Co-Founder & CCT), Advanced Silicon Group (Marcie Black, Co-Founder & CEO) and Project Prana (Dr. Shriya Srinivasan, Founder). 

Kudos won the $5K first prize. Kudos will present at the TiE Women Global Pitch Competition in Dubai. Moxie Apparel won the $3K second prize and Unruly Studios won the $1K third prize. Project Prana won a special recognition in the social enterprise category. 

Subu Kota, Satish Jha, Anil Shah and Gita Iyer sponsored the prizes. 

“The win was a real surprise. This was a very competitive event. Every presented was exceptional. I am honored to be part of this very special group,” said Amrita Saigal.