Peggy Wallace, managing partner of Golden Seeds
November 21, 2018For nearly four decades, Inc. has been regarded as a world-leading business news source, particularly covering those responsible for building, growing and nurturing the most innovative small to midsize companies. Simply put, when it comes to professional recognition, there’s no “ink” like appearing in Inc.
That’s why Golden Seeds is pleased to congratulate three Golden Seeds company leaders for being named to Inc.’s “Female Founders 100.” This is a prestigious list of the top “100 Women Making Money, Creating Jobs and Changing the World.” It’s gratifying to have worked with such executives and see the visions they had for healthcare, technology and consumer markets become a reality.
Here’s some inspiring information about each.
Christina Lampe-Onnerud, Cadenza Innovation, appeared in Inc.’s Serial Entrepreneurs category, one that specifically focused on women who “are building their second (or third or fourth) company, and it likely won’t be their last.” Founded in 2012, Cadenza Innovation was her second startup in the lithium ion battery space. The first was Boston-Power, the only battery startup in the world to sell batteries to HP for use in its laptops.
For Cadenza Innovation, Lampe-Onnerud assembled a world-class team that built a pioneering battery pack architecture and global Tier 1 partner network. The company is backed by more than $10 million in Series A funding led by Golden Seeds, along with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and the states of New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
The company is now working with some of the biggest battery companies across the globe. Earlier this year it began a clean-energy project with New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, where they’ll be involved in demonstrating the impact of electricity leveling and peak shifting.
Surbhi Sarna, nVision, appeared in the Problem Solvers category. As Inc. explains: “Some entrepreneurs divine the future, while others recognize the massive opportunity to fix what’s right in front of them.” For Sarna, the quest to detect ovarian cancer started with a health scare she had as a teenager.
About 20,000 women get ovarian cancer annually, some 600,000 have their ovaries removed as a preventative measure because there hasn’t existed a good diagnostic tool. In 2012, Sarna created nVision, which developed a device that could travel up the fallopian tubes and extract ovary cell samples; the origin of most lethal types of the cancer. Four years later, it won FDA approval.
Sarna’s work earned nVision initial investments from angel groups and venture capital firms, including Golden Seeds, followed by larger round of funding in which we further participated. Recently, she sold the company for $275 million to Boston Scientific, knowing that an organization with more resources would help her team reach their ultimate goal of getting “this product to market as fast as possible.”
Fran Dunaway, TomboyX, is in the Movement Makers category and with good reason. It lauds strategically brilliant entrepreneurs who have gotten people to rally around a cause that is bigger than their brand — and that’s what TomboyX is all about.
In 2013, TomboyX was created to sell gender-neutral shoes, shirts, belts, hats and other attire. However, what interested women most from the outset were boxer briefs. After selling out of inventory in two weeks, Dunaway decided to focus entirely on underwear (though swimwear and loungewear would be added later). Throughout it all, diversity and inclusion has been its hallmark, punctuated by messaging such as “comfortable underwear made for unapologetic people of all sizes and genders.”
Congratulations to all these leaders. If you’re known by the company you keep, we’re proud to be known as a supporter of yours!
Learn about the work of Golden Seeds.