Northwestern Gave These Students $45K To Solve A Painful Reality For Older Women

$45K IN FUNDRAISING FROM NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

While the team hasn’t yet sought dilutive investments or VC funding, they’ve been wowed by the generosity of Northwestern University. Through competitions like the Kellogg Venture Challenge, the Tulane Business Competition, and resources like the Social Impact Funding, they’ve raised nearly $45K for Springrose. Plus, this May, they’ll be competing in the VentureCat competition, which has a first place prize of $150K. 

VentureCat pits 25 teams from the entire university against each other. The school provides each team with a graphic design agency who works with them to ensure that their pitch is polished and professional. They also get a mentor who is either an alum, a VC, or an entrepreneur to them to practice (and perfect) their pitch.

Following graduation of the MMM program in 2022, Cuervo hopes to get Springrose to a sustainable place where it can fund itself. “Whether I can take a salary or not isn’t relevant. I will live with my mom at home in Miami if I have to.”

NORTHWESTERN’S RESOURCES 

Cuervo has used Northwestern’s resources to the fullest while building Springrose. She’s found a few particularly impactful, such as the Propel Program at The Garage, which is an incubator hub that provides opportunities for networking, mentorship, and immersive learning experiences. This program also promotes diversity and inclusion in entrepreneurship for full-time, female students. 

She’s also been connected to the 1871 incubator in downtown Chicago. This community supports early stage and growth stage companies. Run by Betsy Ziegler, the former CIO at Kellogg, this community is closely connected to Kellogg entrepreneurs. Through 1871, the Springrose team received help from lawyers when it came to trademarking and branding experts when it came to logo design. 

Cuervo is also part of the Kellogg Entrepreneurs Organization which is an application-only membership club. Plus, several classes have provided essential knowledge and skills to bring the business to fruition, including New Venture Development, New Venture Launch, Digital Marketing Implementation, Whole Brain Communication, and Management of Intellectual Property.

GOALS FOR THE FUTURE

The team is opening up Springrose pre sales late this summer and launching the collection this fall. While they’re beginning with bras, they hope to expand to other intimate pieces as well as loungewear. But they’re not only wanting to create products that solve a problem; they hope to create a community for women with different impairments to be able to connect, check in with each other, talk through things, and give each other tips. “A lot of the people we speak to are suffering alone. We want them to understand that they’re living through a common, shared experience.”

Beyond creating a community of women with impairments, Cuervo hopes to form a bigger community for women entrepreneurs. She says that last year, there was only one female entrepreneur in the MMM program, whereas this year there are four. “I would like to keep seeing that trend grow or at least be sustained so that those who are interested in exploring entrepreneurship have a place to meet others and talk about it,” she says.

“There’s definitely a movement not only at the university but across the country to encourage women to start their own businesses. That’s been really encouraging.”

DON’T MISS EMPOWERING AFRICAN WOMEN TO TAKE CONTROL OF THEIR HEALTH: A KELLOGG MBA’S MISSION and THIS MBA STUDENT-RUN FUND IS A TEMPLATE FOR IMPROVING VC DIVERSITY