NORTHAMPTON — When Ahriana Edwards was still a student at Fayetteville State University, a historically Black university in Fayetteville, North Carolina, she had an idea for a business selling dress shoes for women with a larger shoe size, inspired by her own struggles in finding the perfect business outfit.

“It definitely started a lot out of my frustration of finding fashionable and professional shoes,” said Edwards, who after graduating formed her company, known as Vaila (short for “available”) and recently signed an agreement with Macy’s for distribution. “I found that showing up as your best self, at least in business, was really, really important for me. That led to our mission of putting that representation in stores for people to have those available options.”

But before she got her business running, Edwards needed to find investors and funding to support its foundation, something that can be particularly difficult for female entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs of color. After looking for various pitch competitions that focused on those demographics, she eventually stumbled upon the Draper Competition at Smith College.

Founded 10 years ago by Silicon Valley billionaire Tim Draper (whose wife, Melissa Parker Draper, as well as his mother and sister, are Smith alumnae), Smith College’s Draper Competition brings female student entrepreneurs across the country to Northampton to compete for up to $25,000 in prize money and get the opportunity to pitch their product to investors, giving them the potential connections needed to get their big idea off the ground. The event was held this year on April 14 at the campus’ Indoor Track and Tennis Facility. 

“We’re talking super-early stage vendors,” said René Heavlow, the interim director of the Conway Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center at Smith, which organizes the event. “A lot of them are at the idea or pre-launch phase. Some of them are at the point where they have been generating some revenue and getting traction.”

Female entrepreneurs have historically lagged behind their male counterparts in getting the same amount of investor funding, a disparity exacerbated by the pandemic. According to Heavlow, the amount of capital that women startup founders received has actually decreased over the past few years.

“It was already low, and the gap has gotten even further during the pandemic,” she said. “But we didn’t go away during the pandemic, and we didn’t decrease our prize money.”

The event brings students from across the country, but also local students, such as Glory Divine Yougang Tahon, a Smith freshman originally from Cameroon, who partook in the competition this year with her business Glorious Farms, an agricultural venture in her home country.

“It’s an opportunity to have an investment in something that you’re passionate about,” she said of the competition. “The fact that the venture is to help people facing hunger in Cameroon and the fact there is a value part of the venture drives me more.”

Edwards participated in the competition in 2021, when it was held remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, receiving $5,000 in funding. She attended this year’s competition in person, amongst a group of other former participants who have gone on to create successful businesses and provide coaching to this year’s participants.

“It’s a hard world,” she said. “I think that for this generation, we are looking for affinity and [companies] definitely have to do a great job at making that environment.”

This year’s grand prize went to Chante’ Knox and Dia Davis, two students at Georgia State University, and their company DelivHer, which makes an absorbent menstrual cup. Follow-up winners included AER Cosmetics, a sustainable makeup company founded by students from Drexel University, and FullFlock, a company founded by students from the University of Pennsylvania creating a new type of chickenfeed to prevent avian flu outbreaks.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.

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