The Midwest region is brimming with incredibly talented business owners—consider the Endeavor Louisville network of entrepreneurs as exhibit A. As we outlined in part one of our Midwest female entrepreneurs series, the low costs, unbridled access to talent, and large markets have made the states of Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio unique entrepreneurship hubs in their own rights. This month, we’re spotlighting three more impactful female entrepreneurs from America’s heartland that have turned their personal passions, keen expertise, and life experiences into successful businesses. Below, read the unique entrepreneurship stories of Caitlin Coffman of MomentPath, Jennifer Williams of Cuddle Clones, and Maggie Golloway of Inscope Medical, and read part one next!
Caitlin Coffman of MomentPath
Sensing a need for innovation in the care industry, Indiana native Caitlin Coffman started MomentPath—a child and senior care software and app for parents, teachers, and directors. The easy-to-use system streamlines billing, scheduling, curriculum planning, reporting, and tracking process for preschool, child care, day care, senior living, and elderly care facilities.
But behind MomentPath’s functionality lies a more impassioned mission. “The loved ones of the people being cared for, they do not have a great window into what’s happening with that person,” Coffman told Inside Indiana Business of the inspiration behind MomentPath. “We as a society have decided that we’re going to outsource the care of some of the people that we love the most, and those sometimes tend to be some of our most vulnerable populations when you’re talking about our seniors and you’re talking about our children.”
Since its founding in 2015, MomentPath has secured $1 million in seed-stage funding from Indiana-based investors Mike Simmons, Scott McCorkle, Eric Tobias, and Michael Browning, in addition to $150,000 from venture capital firm Elevate Ventures.
Jennifer Williams of Cuddle Clones
For actuary-turned-entrepreneur Jennifer Williams, her simple love of animals powered her Louisville-based business venture, Cuddle Clones. The company creates adorable stuffed animal versions of family pets, plus other customized pet products like golf club headcovers, slippers, figurines, blankets, wallpaper, coffee mugs, and more.
Every Cuddle Clones purchase provides three meals and a toy to a shelter pet, and every month, the Cuddle Clones team donates to an animal-wellness organization, a pet shelter, and an individual pet in need. While Jennifer’s own uniquely-marked dog, Rufus, sparked the idea for Cuddle Clones in 2005, Williams didn’t start the company until 2011 when she met eventual co-founder and kindred spirit Adam Greene at the University of Louisville’s Entrepreneurship MBA program.
“I wanted to have a lasting and tangible memorial [of Rufus] to honor that relationship,” she explains on the Cuddle Clones website. “Adam and I did some market research and we were pleasantly surprised to find that there was a pretty large market for our products—students going off to college, military personnel leaving for deployment, seniors who have to move into an assisted living facility and can’t live with their pet. But honestly, the biggest segment of all was just the crazy pet lovers who thought our products were a super cute way to celebrate the love for their pet.”
Cuddle Clones has since been featured on BuzzFeed, CNN, Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, USA Today, The Today Show, The Huffington Post, MSNBC, and more.
Maggie Galloway of Inscope Medical
Maggie Golloway’s lightbulb moment came in the form of a failed emergency room intubation. While attending business school at the University of Louisville, Golloway’s classmate Dr. Mary Nan Mallory worked an emergency room shift and was unable to intubate a car accident victim due to a fluid-blocked airway.
Upon retelling the story, Mallory sparked Golloway’s interest and she, along with classmate Adam Casson, began developing the idea of a laryngoscope with integrated, controllable suction. With this idea alone, Golloway and Casson managed to raise over $100,000 in funding from startup competitions before they even launched. This single product would come to define their award-winning medical technology company, Inscope Medical Solutions, which was formally launched in 2014.
Golloway’s Inscope Medical has raised roughly $2.3 million in seed capital and $300,000 in non-dilutive funding. Their technology is revolutionizing endoscopy and has been featured in Business Wire, Bloomberg, and more.
If you’re a high-impact entrepreneur and want to learn more about the Endeavor network, reach out to us via our application page. We’d love to hear from you!
