SAN FRANCISCO (June 30, 2022)—Eighteen participants from the GetSetUp Startup Accelerator, which focused on entrepreneurs age 55 and over, pitched their business ideas after 12 weeks of dedicated business development classes in the hopes of winning up to $10,000 in funding to help their business grow. The pitches took place during Demo Days, June 14-16. Business ideas ranged from arts and crafts to services for senior wellness.Five senior entrepreneurs who are driven, curious, and have a vision of what they want to do with their businesses were selected to receive $2,500 in funding to help support their businesses.
Bharathi Kumar (Bangalore, Karnataka) is the owner of Bharathi's Jhatpat Foods which creates ready-to-cook premixes. She will use funds to grow her market and hire employees to expand from 500 customers to 3,000+ and offer 10 products.
Neeta Goyal (Mumbai, Maharashtra), a porcelain painting artist, will use the funds to participate in art fairs, rent gallery spaces and increase her art class sizes.
Linda Sivilich (Philadelphia area, Pennsylvania), owner of Classes Offered in Aston teaches sewing classes in her home. She’ll use the funding to upgrade her phone to help her market her business through paid advertising to increase her student enrollment.
Twyla Teitzel (Sacramento area, California), the owner of Plant Based Twy, is a whole food plant-based diet influencer. She’ll use the funding to update her website and start a podcast to help her increase her followers and garnish more sponsors.
Leslie Lamb (Albuquerque, New Mexico), the owner of Grace Place Creative, is a graphic designer. She will use the funding to upgrade her computer so she can lead her first small business cohort through a six-week-long intensive course on how to develop their brand and marketing material.
The program helped a number of entrepreneurs get the support they needed to help grow their businesses.
“GetSetUp has been totally life-changing and absolutely life-saving. I have learned so much like Mailchimp, Canvas, Google Slides and more,” said Teitzel. “These were all things that might as well have been a foreign language to me. Plus getting together with other people in the accelerator has been amazing as the group, Guide Kevin,and GetSetUp has been huge support. Just the idea of GetSetUp and the accelerator is debunking ageism and that’s my favorite part!”
GetSetUp was created to empower older adults, many of whom are looking for economic opportunities for income, a sense of purpose or an opportunity to highlight their professional talents. GetSetUp offers older adults opportunities to reskill or upskill on a variety of job skills and build their own businesses through classes and programs like this accelerator program.
Visit getsetup.io for more information.
