Female entrepreneurs were given the opportunity to pitch their business ideas and compete for $100,000 and a chance to represent Dallas on an international level.

TiE Dallas hosted the 2020 Pitch Competition for TiE Women on Sept. 9 via Zoom. The competition was open to female entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses in the early or late stages of their startup.

The winner of the pitch competition will get to represent Dallas on the global stage at the TiE Women Global Pitch finals set to be hosted in Dubai later this year. Winners of the TiE Women Global Pitch will receive prizes valued at more than $100,000 and other recognition opportunities. Runner ups will get the opportunity for free mentorship with the TiE Accelerator Programs.

TiE Dallas President Ram Viswanathan (himself a serial entrepreneur, investor, and CEO of Nathan Research Inc.) says the organization is delighted to “bring this program to the DFW community, and thereby showcase and promote our women entrepreneurs.”

TiE Women’s vision is to embrace, engage, and empower female entrepreneurs across the globe, no matter the size of the business, origin, standing, or background. TiE Women provides easy-to-adapt programming for the 61 chapters of TiE Global worldwide.

Here are this year’s Pitch Competition for TiE Women winner and runners up:

Winner: Tina Mani of YFret Inc.

Mani is the CEO and co-founder of YFret, a company whose mission is to “simplify customer engagement by offering relevant and natural experiences” according to its website. YFret provides personalized voice assistants via Google or Amazon Alexa that can be integrated into websites and mobile apps.

First Runner Up: Sandhya Padala of Rex Academy

Padala is the founder and CEO of Rex Academy, a computer science program for grades K through 12. Through the program, children can learn about coding, AI, web design, and more via online instruction, one-on-one lessons, and after-school programming and camps.

Second Runners Up:

Arohi Jain of BreezeBubble Inc.

Jain is the founder of BreezeBubble, a smart mask company that features micro-cooling technology in its mask products so that people can breathe easily while staying comfortable and highly protected. The company was originally created to help people living in polluted air environments live normal lives while wearing masks. 

Sangeetha Duraisamy of Cubby

Duraisamy is the co-founder of Cubby, which allows people to “go un-bagged” when traveling by providing on-demand luggage storage in eight cities across the U.S.  

Get involved

“TiE Dallas is proud to play a key role in the emergence, maturation, and growth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Metroplex,” Viswanathan says. “We identify, nurture, fund, and mentor entrepreneurs through our various programs—TiE Ventures, The Young Entrepreneurs (TYE), TiE State of the Industry, and TiE Women and other regular events such as TiE Tuesdays.”

More information on how you can get engaged with the organization which is part of TiE Global, can be obtained at TiE Dallas.

Quincy Preston contributed to this report. The story was updated on Sept. 15, 2020 at 3:15 p.m. with additional information about the TiE organization.

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