The clock is ticking on voting for the winning Delaware entry in the Global Startup Battle.
Kiersten Jones Schwendeman, an office manager from Hockessin, DE, led a team of six designers and developers to statewide victory at the Global Startup Battle in Wilmington last month.
In the latest competition, Schwendeman beat out 26 business pitches with her idea regarding how to improve resources for people struggling with eating disorders.
Schwendeman’s team created a business plan, a website, a survey, and a presentation out of an idea in just 54 hours. She was also a finalist in a pitch competition from the Great Dames community.
Their goal was to use technology to educate the public about the issue and connect those suffering with already existing resources until they have enough funding to create the first eating disorder treatment center in Delaware, and then eventually spread a community-oriented, intensive outpatient focused, treatment model to other under-served communities across the country.
Schwendeman’s team included Pauline Rubin, a graphic designer for First Ascent Design, John Himics, a web developer (who also works for DuPont), Matt Chen and Davis Pfund, two University of Delaware Horn Program students, and Tristan Campos , a design student from DCAD,.
After winning the competition, they were given just 48 hours to compose a video for the national competition which shrunk to just 24 hours because of previous commitments. In just one day, they created, filmed and edited a video which can be viewed on their website:www.astercenter.co/vote.
They need help from the community in order to win the national competition as popular vote largely determines the winner.
They have until 11:59 pm on December 3rd to obtain as many votes as possible, and if they win, they have the opportunity to receive over $250,000 in SEED funding to work on this community-focused, public health initiative.
Those interested in supporting this team, can visit their website www.astercenter.co/vote and click each of the three tabs: Champions Track, Women’s Track, and Kind Track. Follow the prompt for logging in with Facebook or creating an account and make sure to select the thumbs up underneath the video for each link. Make sure you see the prompt “Thank you for your vote” to ensure your vote was properly counted. Tap the website’s resources tab (www.astercenter.co) and complete the survey so the team knows what resources are needed most imminently.
