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HEARD AROUND VIRGINIA November 2023
Richmond-based Absurd Snacks is now selling its products in 14 Whole Foods Market stores throughout Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, as well as via Amazon.com. Co-founders Grace Mittl and Eli Bank, who serve as CEO and chief operating officer respectively, began fostering a relationship with Whole Foods in 2021 while taking an entrepreneurial pilot course at the University […]
StartVirginia: October 2023 Heard Around Virginia
Aravenda, a Fairfax e-commerce software company targeting consignment shops and resellers, landed a spot in the latest women founders cohort of the Google for Startups Accelerator. Aravenda’s software helps consignment and resale shops track inventory and manage payouts to people who sell there. Customers can use the software to build websites and manage inventory across […]
StartVirginia: September 2023 Heard Around Virginia
McLean-based Affect Therapeutics, a substance addiction therapy startup, raised $16 million in a Series A funding round to expand its operations and further develop its mobile app. The company delivers therapy and treatments for specific substance use disorders through its app. The company plans to use much of the money it raised to expand into […]
VIPC leader to step down
Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. President and CEO Robert “Bob” Stolle will step down from his role in September after 13 years with the not-for-profit state corporation and its predecessor. Stolle became CEO of VIPC’s predecessor, the Center for Innovative Technology, in 2020. Before that, he was the economic development organization’s senior vice president for operations. [&[...]
Gathering power
While working on a cellular tower a few years back, Kyle Mullins got what he describes as the “call of a lifetime” — an invitation to work on the first two pilot wind turbines for Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. A Navy veteran who received a telecommunications technical certification from Texas A&M University, […]
Son’s cancer fight inspires startup
The sight of Neal Piper’s then-3-year-old son, Noah, stuck on the couch all day, tethered to an IV pole with a feeding tube after the boy’s cancer diagnosis in 2019 put his father on a new mission. Piper, who had 15 years of experience in commercializing health care products, including 10 years in sales, marketing […]
StartVirginia: August 2023 Heard Around Virginia
Two Virginia business owners were among 20 women entrepreneurs chosen in June out of 6,500 applicants to participate in a 10-week accelerator sponsored by Allergan Aesthetics, the maker of Botox. Monika Jefferson, CEO and founder of the Hampton Roads-based Association of Military Spouse Entrepreneurs, which provides networking and resources to military spouse business owners, and […]
Activation Capital plans $53M innovation center in Richmond
Activation Capital, a Richmond-based innovation incubator, will redevelop a 102,000-square-foot innovation center in the Bio+Tech Park in downtown Richmond, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer and Activation Capital announced Friday. The 34-acre park, at Eighth and E. Leigh streets, is a commercial life sciences hub adjacent to the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center and has more [&hel[...]
Startup competition expands to SWVA
Rural communities need extra love when it comes to additional business resources, says Kathy Deacon, vice president of business and resource development for the Vinton-based Advancement Foundation. The foundation has been running “The Gauntlet,” a business program and pitch competition, since 2015, expanding it into Southwest Virginia this year. Since the program is run online, […]
Pivot points
Talk to those on the front lines of startups — entrepreneurs, investors and those running incubators and accelerators — and one word comes up over and over: pivot. If an entrepreneur isn’t able or willing to be flexible, chances are poor their business will succeed. “Those unduly connected to what they started with must understand […]
Starting small
Randal Wimmer became a multi-millionaire based off a contract proposal he wrote at his kitchen table and at a Northern Virginia Starbucks. A Navy veteran, Wimmer started his own government contracting firm, McLean-based Analytic Strategies, in 2003. It took three-and-a-half years and a lucky business connection for the company to win its first subcontract — […]
The ol’ college try
Snacks and energy drinks are often the fuel for young entrepreneurs burning the midnight oil while perfecting their pitches and products. But for some University of Richmond students, snacks and energy drinks are their products. Grace Mittl, a 2022 UR graduate, is co-founder and CEO of Absurd Snacks, a food allergy-friendly trail mix devised during […]
