In June, the Illumino team attended the Ascend2020 Idea Bounce Event. This event was hosted by the Skandalaris Center in the Cortex. This event was an opportunity for minority and female entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas and network. It was a fantastic event and it was great to hear so many great pitches and ideas for businesses that will benefit the St. Louis community. We are so grateful for the opportunity to attend events like these and we are looking forward to attending more in the future. 

At the start of May, the Illumino team gave a pitch as a part of the Hatchery Course taught at WashU's Olin Business School by Cliff Holekamp. This course encouraged the development of our idea and growth of our business. With the help of Professor Holekamp, Elise Miller Hoffman, and other classmates the Illumino team was able to develop a strong business plan and pitch deck. At this class competition our team was awarded 1st place. The Illumino team is incredibly grateful for this recognition and the support of our mentors. Congratulations to all teams, we were thoroughly impressed with the other ideas from all the teams. Here is a link by the Skandalaris Center with descriptions of the other teams: https://skandalaris.wustl.edu/2019/05/06/hatchery-class-final-presenations/

In April our CEO, Cassie Davis, was awarded Honors in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from the Skandalaris Center and WashU for her work with Illumino, Sling Health, and the Master's of Engineering in Biomedical Innovaiton program. Here is a link from the Skandalaris Center about the award: https://skandalaris.wustl.edu/2019/04/19/2018-2019-honors-in-innovation-and-entrepreneurship-recipients/.

On April 19th, Illumino's CEO attended the HER Reunion hosted by the Skandalaris Center. With two female co-founders Illumino is very involved in the female entrepreneurial community. We thoroughly enjoy learning from other strong leaders in the community and learning how to make a difference for the next generation. It was also a great opportunity to reconnect with other entrepreneurs in the area to see other startups progress and success. Here is a link to a recap by WashU's Skandalaris Center for Entreprenuership and Innovation about the event: https://skandalaris.wustl.edu/2019/04/19/simon-initiative-her-reunion-recap/.   

On April 11th, our CEO, Cassie Davis, attended an Idea Bounce Event hosted by WashU's Skandalaris Center for Entreprenuership and Innovation. Our team is grateful for the opportunity to share our idea and company with the entrepreneurial community. Here is a link with more details about the event and a mention about Illumino: https://skandalaris.wustl.edu/2019/04/11/ideabounce-brings-st-louis-entrepreneurs-together/. 

Over this weekend, the Illumino team presented a poster at the National Sling Health Demo Day Event hosted in St. Louis. It was a fantastic event and is was so exciting to see all the amazing projects all the Sling Health teams have been working on over the course of this year, both in the St. Louis chapter and the other chapters across the country. We are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to present our poster and to have been a part of this program. Thank you to the Sling Health Mentors, advisors, and the Sling Health exec board for all your help over the course of the year. 

This past week was incredibly exciting for the Illumino team! We had the opportunity to pitch our product and present a poster of our product at Venture Cafe here in St. Louis. Venture Cafe is a weekly networking event that brings together members of the St. Louis startup ecosystem. We are so grateful for this opportunity and look forward to attending more Venture Cafe events in the future. 

The Illumino team is excited to announce that we earned 2nd place and $5000 at the Skandalaris Venture Competition. This event was hosted by WashU's Skandalaris Center. Our team was evaluated based on submitting an executive summary and a pitch by our company's CEO, Cassandra Davis to a group of local St. Louis Businessmen and women. Our team is incredibly honored to have won this award and can't wait to use the $5000 to further our venture! Thank you to the judges and the support of the Skandalaris Center! 

Our team is excited to share that our CEO, Cassie Davis, presented our company and product at SLU's Pitch and Catch Competition this weekend. She earned first place and $5000 for our team! This is our first competition win, with hopes of more to come. This prize money is really going to help our team get one step closer to our beta prototype. Thank you to those of you who were able to attend to support our team on our journey. We are also incredibly grateful for all the judges encouragement and event organizers for hosting a great event.