The Pipeline Fund Fellowship (PFF) seeks to train women philanthropists to become angel investors in women-led for-profit social ventures. PFF’s goal is to diversify the investor pool and connect women social entrepreneurs with women investors. The six-month program focuses on education, training and practice. Goodwin Procter had the pleasure of hosting the first-ever PFF Conference in early April. Over 75 attendees from the entrepreneur and investor community spent the day learning about the ins and outs of angel investing with panel presentations from experts in the field.
The program culminated with a Pitch Summit at the Eileen Fisher headquarters where the 2011 Pipeline fellows listened to pitches from 10 companies vying for a $50,000 investment which the fellows will award. I attended the Pitch Summit and had a chance to share with the fellows and entrepreneurs a list of top 10 “lessons learned” from working with various start-ups and entrepreneurs. I also got to sit in on the pitches which included presentations from really promising companies including 6dot, DiaperBuds, Gifts That Give, Just Shea, Nomi Network, Pengo, PhilanTech, PROUDgirls, Skwikee and the LuminAID Lab. Each company presented a compelling business model with a social venture aspect. It will be interesting to see which company the fellows select and then to track the company’s progress. Even more interesting though will be to follow the fellows after the program ends as they enter the investor pool as a prospective angel investor.
Read more about the companies that pitched on Triple Pundit and more about the Pipeline Fund and its fellows:
This post was authored by Nithya Das.