Global Change, Local Impacts | COVID Stories
Lily Cabrera
wellmarkt
Lily Cabrera was working full-time at UT Austin in 2019 when she had the spark for a new company that could impact health equity in the workplace. This company, now called wellmarkt, would offer employees inclusive resources for all aspects of their mental, physical, financial, and emotional health. Armed with the vision, Cabrera engaged with Capital Factory and was quickly connected to Divinc. Says Cabrera, “From the very outset, meeting with Preston before submitting an application, getting to do the elevator pitch for the business and actually having Preston go to a white board and help establish our go-to-market...even before getting accepted into the cohort, he was willing to share and to work with me.”
Cabrera joined Cohort 6, which was the first 100% virtual program. Despite being virtual, Cabrera felt that the warmth of the community and rigor of the programming was exceptional. She said, “It’s a place where you can feel included, a place where you can feel as an underrepresented founder, as a woman, as a founder of color, that you belong, that there are no stupid questions. You can let down your guard and really receive constructive criticism and feedback in a way that builds you up and builds your business up.”
Since completing the program, Cabrera has stayed involved with Divinc through alumni programming. She said, “The quality and interaction of the alumni community...continuing to provide opportunities to be involved, to have access to capital, to mentors, to programming, to customer introductions is really incredible...and important so that you’re not just fizzling out after completing an accelerator.”
Cabrera has also begun piloting her product with Divinc and has been inspired by Divinc’s shared passion for supporting the total wellness of its community. Through the pilot, Cabrera is offering Divinc’s founders access to group and individual coaching as well as yoga classes, meditation seminars, and burnout prevention workshops led by licensed counselors. The coaches come from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, which research demonstrates is essential in creating successful coaching outcomes. wellmarkt is working with other accelerators as well and hoping to address the burnout that many startup founders experience, particularly underrepresented founders. Says Cabrera, “The focus on whole founder wellness that Divinc takes is something that will ensure that founders like us don’t burn out. That’s something that is near and dear to wellmarkt’s mission as a company and it’s something that’s a really strong part of who and what Divinc is.”
Cris Rodgers
Euphoria.LGBT
Cris Rodgers started off 2020 in a great position: after winning MassChallenge Texas in 2019 (with the support of Divinc), she had begun investing the $100k prize money into her Big and Tall Mens retail company (Mens Gold Boxx). She had manufacturers, marketing, and legal in place to launch in March 2020 when suddenly the whole world shut down. All of her manufacturers pivoted to making masks and retailers all over the world had to quickly pivot. Rodgers wanted to do something to help those struggling around her and immediately took action: she worked with a local woman-owned manufacturer to produce masks and started developing a web accessibility company when she realized people with visual impairments would be struggling in a virtual world. Says Rodgers, “Divinc made all of the relevant intros I needed to within 6 months take a company from an idea to the finals in Techstars in Seattle.”
Partly due to the connections Rodgers built through Divinc, in early 2021 she was approached by an early-stage startup called Euphoria.LGBT that offers a suite of mobile technologies geared towards transgender people. Their products provide information and resources that guide transgender people through whatever process of gender transition they desire. According to a study conducted by the Trevor Project in 2020, 52% of transgender and nonbinary people considered suicide while 21% attempted it. By simplifying the transition process and offering comprehensive support, Euphoria.LGBT aims to help normalize the transgender experience and empower the transgender community. As COO, Rodgers has big plans to grow the company and continues to lean on Divinc for advice, connections, and resources along the way.
Says Rodgers,“I have done a lot of accelerators. I love to learn. What has been different about Divinc specifically is that the program is small enough and they took enough time and care to spend time on your individual problems. They’re not saying - here are the tools, figure out how to use them in your ecosystem, which is pretty much what every other accelerator is doing. They’re saying - here are the tools...how does this directly apply to you. There’s no place for you to hide or avoid the things that you’re afraid of or not good at. You simply have to engage - but they’ll support you in doing that. Other accelerators are not willing to be emotionally vulnerable with you. They’re not willing to sit in the mud with you to figure out how to get it all off.”