DEI FIRESIDE CHAT

Limited attendance, please secure admission ticket to receive registration link.

• Who: Debbie and Markea Dickinson, Co-Founders of Thermaband
  
• What: Fireside Chat
  
• Where: Virtual (link will be emailed)
• When: Wednesday October 27th, from 6:00-7:00pm

We are proud to host Debbie and Markea Dickinson, Co-Founders of Thermaband

Debbie Dickinson – Co-founder/CEO:
Debbie is an experienced Harvard Law benefits attorney and Wharton Business School alum and lecturer, advocate and entrepreneur. As a perimenopausal woman battling hot flashes to no avail, she and her daughter co-founded Thermaband, a fem-tech company aiming to reframe midlife and empower women to control their thermal comfort naturally. She is passionate about women's health, wellness and rebranding menopause as a natural and empowering phase of life through her multigenerational sisterhood community. She's also a married mom of four incredibly compassionate and talented kids.

Markea Dickinson – Co/founder/COO:
Markea has operations expertise through working at Unilever in various end-to-end supply chain roles, including a Production Manager in a manufacturing facility for 2 years. She worked in consumer goods for 4.5 years prior to pursuing her MBA at Yale School of Management. After recognizing the vast amount of use cases in socializing Thermaband’s vision at inception with classmates (such as chemo-induced menopause for breast cancer patients), in addition to her personal struggle with anemia and cold sensitivity, she welcomed the opportunity to launch an equitable solution for women to navigate thermal discomfort.

What is Thermaband?
Thermaband's mission is to modernize menopause with science, sisterhood and technology. Founded by a black mother-daughter duo (Debbie and Markea Dickinson), after being frustrated by current cooling relief solutions for debilitating hot flashes and recognizing the impact on quality of life. The gaps in effective solutions to navigate menopause affects half the population for one-third of their lives (or longer for women of color!). The Zone device provides personal comfort on demand, with data-driven and science-backed insights empowering women to self-manage this season of life. Along with the device, the digital subscription model strengthens the network effect of our wholistic solution. The Zone App provides personalized insights about the user's unique thermal wellness journey, empowering them to improve their quality of life.

Expected Takeaways: 

• Debbie and Markea's successful journey in developing Thermaband.
• Convincing male investors of the necessity of a menopause solution  
• The duo's experience with startup culture
  
• Building and tapping into female empowerment networks
• Thermaband being selected for the Google for Startups program.
• Dealing with the press and generating positive buzz for Thermaband.

Thermaband in the news:

•  Florida Trend: Thermaband focuses on hot flash help.
  
• Cosmopolitan: Meet the Women of Color Who Are Changing Corporate Culture
  
• Entrepreneur: Entrepreneurs Share 4 Tips For Building Customer Loyalty.
  
• Nasdaq: Markea Dickinson: Your New Superpower is Creating Personal Temperature Zones
  
  

About Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Month
This month Startup Grind is celebrating DEI month, presented with SVB and supported by Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs. DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; 31 days to emphasize the importance of diversity across our global startup ecosystem, and what it means to all of us. We are so excited to take this time to recognize and amplify the voices of leaders in our globally diverse communities, providing a platform for those that may not have been heard previously.

In addition to this event, you can also view Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Month events taking place across our global startup community here or register for our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Summit here.