eosera Foundation
Eosera- Elyse Stoltz Dickerson talks with event emcee Kellie Rasberry co-host of the KHKS 106-1 Ki
Pitch competition master of ceremonies Kellie Rasberry, left, and Elyse Stoltz Dickerson.
Three female entrepreneurs — Annika Lundstrom of ReMinded, Cherie Turner of Mommy Scrubs, and Joanna Shu of Cartwheel — have been named finalists in the 2025 eosera® Foundation Pitch Competition for female founders, a funding opportunity designed to support women-led startups.
“Less than two percent of venture capital funding makes it into the pockets of female founders,” said Elyse Stoltz Dickerson, CEO of eosera. “The pitch competition exists to give women an opportunity for funding that might change the path of their venture, just like it did for me.”
More than 260 applicants entered this year’s competition. To qualify, companies must be majority female-owned, in operation for less than three years, and able to demonstrate a strong business pitch.
“It is such an honor and affirmation that my purpose-driven work with Mommy Scrubs is being seen,” Turner said. “It validates not just my product, but my mission to empower breastfeeding moms in scrubs to balance work and motherhood with confidence.”
Finalists will each have up to eight minutes to present their pitch to a panel of judges representing various industries.
“Every pitch reinforces why we do this,” said Lundstrom. “Being selected is another opportunity to show others, especially young women scientists, that you don’t need permission to start.”
Competitors will vie for cash prizes of $30,000, $5,500, and $2,500, with an additional $2,500 People’s Choice Award determined by audience vote. The live event, expected to draw more than 200 guests, begins with a 5 p.m. happy hour before the 7 p.m. competition. Those interested in attending can grab a free event ticket online and get a chance to take home a gift basket valued at $2,500.
Before Dickerson and business partner Joe Griffin got eosera’s Earwax MD off the ground and onto retail shelves, they had spent months in a laboratory on the campus of the UNT Health Science Center, where they had leased space. During that time they had worked repeatedly with all kinds of wax and had finally found one formula they had developed that worked consistently on the various kinds of earwax.
Having collected “robust test tube data,” it was time to run a human clinical trial, but the principals of this self-funded project winced just a little when they were told the price tag of this part of research and development: $50,000.
Dickerson saw an advertisement for a pitch competition in Dallas, hosted by the Dallas Entrepreneur Center and Comerica Bank.
The top prize: $50,000.
She nailed the pitch.
"Elyse and eosera® represent the kind of company we aspire to be and our vision of the future," Shu said. "Winning would be both inspiration and affirmation that we're on the right path."