New Grads, New Funds, and New Roles: Summer Startup Season Is Here
Touchland acquired up to $880 million, UM female student founder's win $100k, Incora Health set to launch the first clinically-backed smart earrings
This is WWV Labs’ weekly newsletter: Her Hustle, a place to learn all about the new and the next in female entrepreneurship, and we’re here to help you dive into it. We highlight all the fierce women who are building startups—from those launching from dorm rooms and balancing classes to recent grads and experienced professionals turning their bold visions into reality.
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Good morning, hustlers — and happy Sunday! For those of you in NYC, I hope you had a powerful Tech Week filled with meaningful connections and are now resting and recharging. I had a blast attending several health-focused and women-led events — check out some highlights here, along with key takeaways from the week.
After a packed few weeks, I’m also excited to share that I’ve officially graduated from Harvard and will be working on WWV Labs full-time this summer! While I’m stepping down as Co-President of Harvard Undergraduate Women in Entrepreneurship, if you're a Harvard student interested in joining the board, you can apply here.
This summer, I’m continuing to pursue my 2025 goals of content, community, and collaboration — which means I’m also reviving my TikTok! If you’re into short-form video content, follow along here.
I’m also actively building out the WWV Labs community — if you're interested in helping our team grow, shoot me an email. And in the spirit of content: DM or email me with any ideas or topics you’d love to see covered. I want to keep adding value to this incredible community!
Barbara Pantuso and Lisa Reid, Founders of Nimble Works, successfully exited their innovative healthcare storytelling agency through an acquisition by Supreme Group, backed by Trinity Hunt Partners, marking Supreme’s eighth and boldest acquisition yet.
Touchland, founded by Andrea Lisbona, was acquired by Church & Dwight Co., Inc. for up to $880 million, marking one of the largest personal care deals ever, after transforming hand sanitizer into a premium skincare essential.
Jean Marie Duvall and BingMei Hao, Co-Founders of ReproNovo, raised $65M in Series A funding led by Jeito Capital to advance innovative oral therapies tackling male and female infertility and reshape the global fertility market.
Maithra Raghu, Founder and CEO of Samaya AI, raised $43.5M in funding led by New Enterprise Associates to scale her expert AI platform transforming financial research and analysis across the financial services industry.
Sofia Ponce, Rachael Robbio, Raghad Al-Kandari, & Cheyenne Clelland Co-Founders of VasoPass, won $100K in funding from the University of Miami Student Startup Accelerator to develop a discreet wearable cooling device that relieves menopausal hot flashes through real-time thermal regulation.
Joni Klippert, Co-Founder and CEO of StackHawk, raised $12M in funding from Sapphire and Costanoa Ventures to scale her API security platform built for AI-driven development in data-sensitive industries like healthcare and fintech.
Lucy Liu, Co-Founder and President of Airwallex, raised $300M in Series F funding from Square Peg, DST Global, and Lone Pine Capital to expand her global payments and financial platform, now valued at $6.2B.
Ellen Rudolph, Founder and CEO of WellTheory, raised $5M in funding from Samsung Next, Opal Ventures, and Accel to expand her AI-powered virtual care platform for autoimmune patients, focused on personalized nutrition and lifestyle support.
Nour Al Hassan, Founder of Tarjama, raised $15M in Series A funding led by Global Ventures to scale her AI-powered Arabic language technology platform tailored for enterprise and government applications across Arabic-speaking markets.
Elissa Cimino, Co-Founder of SimuStride, won $100K in funding from the University of Miami Student Startup Accelerator to advance her augmented reality system that helps amputees regain motor skills and combat phantom limb pain before receiving a prosthetic.
Jessica Lin, Co-Founder of Work-Bench, raised a $160M fund to back seed-stage enterprise startups solving complex problems.
Emilė Radytė, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Samphire Neuroscience, raised $5M in seed funding from Inventure, Fortify Ventures, and others to expand her neurotechnology platform Nettle™, the first at-home, brain-based treatment for PMS and menstrual pain.
Sarah Antonevich, Co-Founder of PUREEF, won $100K in funding from the University of Miami Student Startup Accelerator to develop a biodegradable ocean-safe bandage that protects wounds while preventing plastic pollution.
June 10 | 🔐 Sui Presents Women in Web3 (Atlanta)
June 11 | 👩💻 Launch by Lunch: LIVE Vibe Coding with Women Who Venture (Virtual)
June 11 | 🍽️ LA Female Founders Lunch (LA)
Hosting an event for women in entrepreneurship?
Share the details with WWV Labs Her Hustle’s community by filling out this form!
Incora Health, co-founded by Lindsey Calcutt, PhD, and Theresa Gevaert, is set to launch the first clinically-backed smart earrings for fertility tracking—bringing science, style, and female-led innovation to the $50B+ femtech market.
Immigrant women in the U.S. generated $280B in 2017—more than the GDP of Greece—yet remain overlooked by brands, platforms, and policy; Keta Bagashvili is building to change that.
Caroline Dell just took Goodword out of stealth and straight into the spotlight—launching her AI-powered networking platform with 500+ on the waitlist.
Harvard student and 1M+ content creator Elise Pham signed up for a half-marathon 30 minutes before start time—and still placed 1st in her age group and Top 3 overall, proving mindset can be your greatest growth engine.
Laura Modi’s Bobbie just landed a front-page New York Times Business feature—cementing its role as the only mom-founded formula company rewriting $2B+ infant nutrition norms in a heavily regulated, male-dominated industry.
a16z’s Justine Moore says consumer AI is entering its breakout moment—with models mature, users ready to pay, and product velocity now the key to building billion-dollar moats.
Aneira Health, co-founded by geneticist Dr. Cecilia Lindgren, just launched in the UK to tackle the £11B women’s health gap with AI-powered, precision diagnostics—starting with endometriosis, which still takes 10 years to diagnose.
💁♀️ Are you a female student or recent graduate who wants to work at a startup? Apply to WWV Labs Fellowship Program to find ad hoc projects, term-time internships, summer internships, or full-time employment opportunities at startups!
Join our community of 850+ fellows from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Columbia, UPenn, UC Berkeley, and other top universities today!
👩💻 Adrianna Lakatos is backing students and recent grads building in AI, hardware, robotics, and AR/VR with $100K–$250K checks through Off Season, a 6-week summer founder program at Founders, Inc.—apps close June 12.
👠 Masari Tech just launched a fashion tech incubator running June–August with 130 builder spots, $250 for the top project at demo day, and resources to help participants break into fashion x tech—no CS degree required.
💰 KnotAPI is hiring for a variety of roles from Intern to Senior / Staff Software Engineer to Head of Engineering. In 2021, Knot was founded by two brothers and Thiel Fellows - Rory and Kieran O’Reilly - and today powers connected online payment experiences for hundreds of thousands of consumers. Companies like American Express, Current, BILT, Step, and more choose to embed Knot’s SDK in their apps to power best-in-class experiences for their customers. Knot is proudly backed by a select group of investors, including Nava Ventures, 8VC, American Express, Plaid, and co-founders & CEOs of prominent companies like Twitter, Warby Parker, Allbirds, Casper, Intercom, Deel, Italic, DraftKings, and many more.
See roles here: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/knot
👩💻 Anna Monaco is the Founder and CEO of Paradigm. Paradigm is building an AI-integrated workspace, starting with the first generally intelligent spreadsheet. We recently raised a $[to be announced]M seed round from tier 1 investors and are growing fast.
👩💻 Pear VC is hiring a Summer 2025 Software Engineering Intern to build real products and get insider exposure to VC—ideal for rising sophomores or juniors ready to start in 2 weeks. Apply here.
🚀 Erika Mahterian, Forbes 30 Under 30 and Co-Founder of Leland, is hiring an intern to join her top-tier team on growth and marketing projects—college students, this is your shot to break into startup ops.
🧩 Regina Lin, Co-Founder and CEO of ThirdLayer (YC W25), is hiring top-tier product and UX talent to build Dex—an AI copilot already saving users 8+ hours a day with thousands on the waitlist.
👩💻 a16z Partner Jordan Mazer just dropped a game-changing hack to access thousands of hidden job listings across top startup hiring boards—giving job seekers a clear edge in a crowded market.
👩💻 Hummingbird Ventures is hiring for a global, high-impact role focused on spotting and connecting future founders before the world knows their names—think talent scout meets super-connector, no VC title required.
📊 Accountalent, the leading tax and accounting firms for over 5,000 startups, has offered to file 2024 taxes for any undergraduate female-founded and managed startup corporation totally free of charge. This includes filing the Federal and State corporate tax returns, DE Franchise tax return, Form 1099s, consulting on tax matters, etc. It also includes preparing 2024 financial statements.
Joe Faris, CPA, founder of Accountalent has conducted Office Hours for many years at Harvard, MIT and UChicago and has worked with hundreds of female founders, including many foreign founders. Feel free to email him or make an appointment on his online calendar to redeem this perk or if you have any tax questions:
Joe Faris, CPA, jfaris@accountalent.com, Online Calendar: https://calendly.com/joefaris
🤝 Want to turn cold LinkedIn connections into real convos? Gia Shin shares 5 tactical tips from a 1:1 with LinkedIn power user Morgan Young—your message is your differentiator, and thoughtful outreach wins.
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📈 Partner with WWV Labs if you are a startup interested in hiring top female talent.
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I hope you enjoyed this newsletter, Hustlers!
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Love,
Daniela
Thanks for sharing the job opportunities!