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Georgia Grace Edwards & Bianca Gonzalez, Founders, SheFly

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Georgia Grace Edwards & Bianca Gonzalez, Founders, SheFly

Posted inArticles

WHO? Georgia Grace Edwards & Bianca Gonzalez

ROLE:  Georgia Grace and Bianca are co-founders of SheFly. GG is the CEO and Bianca is the COO. They met at Middlebury College. Though they each have business endeavors in the past, SheFly is now both of their main occupations. “We both started full time at the beginning of the summer” says GG. “At first I was the only one working on it because I was in MIDD entrepreneurs with Sam & Dave, but then Bianca spearheaded us through spring while I was still a full-time student… our workload and responsibilities are shared and we tend to balance eachother out”

BIGGEST WIN IN THE PAST YEAR:  

Bianca – “For me our biggest accomplishment was transitioning from one zipper design to a discrete double zipper technology. Discrete is essential for what we’re doing.”

GG – “For me it was Road Pitch. The women in the room always know exactly what the importance and need for our product is, and the men are typically less sure. Road Pitch was completely into it and was the first pitch we’ve made where a panel of nearly all men supported us… it was exciting and validating that even people who don’t need to use our product can see its importance”

HOW?  

Bianca –  “We have a whole laundry list of advisors and mentors… many of whom we met through MIDD Entrepreneurs. We are so grateful for continued support from them and from people who actually want to use the product.”

GG – “I was pretty well integrated in the Innovation Hub at Middlebury, but MIDD Entrepreneurs expanded my horizons. We have a lot of female mentors including Gwen Pokolo, Director of Center for Women & Enterprise out of BTV.

SheFly: An apparel company that designs functional outdoor garments, primarily to help women relieve themselves with privacy and comfort. The idea spawned from Georgia Grace’s summer job working on an Alaskan glacier. GG was forced to trek across crevasses until she could find privacy, completely remove 3-4 layers in sub-zero temperatures, do her thing, put it all back on, and hike back. Her male colleagues did not have the same struggle… all because of the design of their pants!

CAN SHEFLY SEE THE FUTURE?

Bianca – “In the short-term, we look forward to launching a kickstarter campaign and getting all of our friends, and their friends, and then THEIR friends to support and buy a pair of SheFly’s… and from there hopefully we can scale and develop several lines of clothing”

GG – “Longer-term, we plan on developing a consistent manufacturing process, and from there we explore the idea of potentially licensing our product out! The very next step for us is incorporating, patenting, and trademarking the SheFly name and technology.

WHAT WERE YOU FOR HALLOWEEN?

GG – “Last year I was the wage gap, and another year I was a news flash…. I had campus newspapers taped to my skin and wore a trench coat out that night”

Bianca – “I was a tree! I put a bunch of leaves and taped outdoor stuff to me”

FUN:

GG – “I like to bike and hike and do anything outside. I was a narrative journalism fellow at MIDD and I like writing a lot too. And traveling.”

Bianca – “I trailrun. I like to climb and drive places. I’m picking up guitar!”
SheFly seeks to bridge the gap between female empowerment and outdoor recreation. Say hello to Georgia Grace and Bianca!

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