Yes, it is true - the little birdies that could, can, & will have now donated $18,000 to Gulf Restoration Network & International Bird Rescue - THANK YOU BirdProject Supporters for all that you do! We are ever so grateful, it's so exciting to see all of the places that the Birds fly. Also massive, gigantic thank you's to the amazing Emily Manger Davis of Sweet Olive Soap works & Brooke Cassady, incredible artist and ceramic birdie maker, it's such a pleasure to work with two such wonderful women to bring you the BirdSoaps.
2013 brings exciting things for Matter, we are excited to launch 5 new products this year as well another larger project in the works... more on these soon.. we are also seeking impact investment to bring this larger project to life with our recent status of Benefit Corporation. The best thing is to me that as Matter grows, the amount of our donations and new partners grow concurrently & that truly makes me happy to begin working each day. I look forward to sharing more as these things progress : )
In other news in NOLA, Propeller has just opened it's new incubator space! More here in the Times-Picayune (Matter was also interviewed, with big praise and admiration for Propeller). Also, it's almost Mardi Gras time! As a small thanks for that & your amazing support, a few of our items are at 50% off in the Matter Shop - please check them out here & I hope that your new year is starting off splendidly! More soon & xo!
I am excited to have been selected to present at the Pipeline Pitch Summit in San Francisco! Matter is one of ten selected companies [from fifty applicants] to present to 10 women investors at Golden Gate University.
Dec. 7, each entrepreneur had time for a 5 minute pitch presentation with 15 minutes of follow up Q & A. This was my first pitch and am honored for this to have been the first! More on Pipeline here.
All ten of the selected businesses were required to be at least 50% women owned and the female founder had to present. The group of entrepreneurs was both diverse and impressive, I'm honored to have been selected.
A huge thank you to two of my board members that helped me fulfill the requirements for business analysis in the quick turnaround time - Gerard Cox & Jon Atkinson, a special thank you! It was great to get a leg up on this, it accelerated our timeline to complete and we are closer to ready for more pitches in the future.
While in SF, I stopped into Rare Device to check on the Birdies. Funnily, while I popped in a woman was buying a BirdSoap at the register when I went up to inquire about a product in the shop. I introduced myself in surprise & she was quite delighted, she took my picture with her bird : )
I had some extra time on Saturday so was really glad to finally make it to the California Academy of Arts & Sciences, this is a shot of the Living Roof, which I adore. It is planted with all native Californian plants, I overheard one of the guides mentioning to a tourgroup. LOVE it.
It was also a pleasure to visit with my dear friends Anne & Lauren, we all worked together at Kohler back in the day. They were so kind to lend me this awesome steed to bike around local stylee. I really appreciated the bike lanes that are ubiquitous & so well planned in SF, NOLA is getting there but has a ways to go.
ps - one of my fave pics from the trip, 'A Bobcat from Wisconsin' - taken at Buena Vista park
