In fall 2018, the Dingman Center met part-time MBA student Myisha Gatson, MBA ’20, who applied to Pitch Dingman Competition for her company, Pearl Long Term Care Solutions, LLC, a double-sided marketplace for long term care solutions to help people find safe and affordable care for their loved ones. Myisha pitched in the Semifinals, and though she did not move on to the Finals that year, she remained engaged with the Center. In the summer of 2019, she took on an intern through our Kathryn Stewart Fellowship Program, which provides a $5,000 stipend for students working at early-stage startups that may not otherwise have the resources to pay for an intern. Since her pitch at the fall 2018 Semifinals, she has continued to work on her business full-time, and has met many additional milestones:
- She pivoted from a model providing long term care to a bidding platform and marketplace for customers to shop, understand and compare long term care plans. Her new model streamlines searching and booking care facilities, and creates a centralized platform for paperwork.
- She recently began a fellowship with the NAACP.
- After obtaining some initial seed funding from angel investors, she has brought on a new team and is in the process of building a prototype of her website
- She is in the process of applying for 2 SBIR grants: NIH and NSF (Covid), as well as multiple PPE local grants.
For her continued efforts, the Dingman Center has decided to award her with $1,000 in funding from our E-Fund to finish the fully functioning prototype of her new website. After her website is fully launched, Myisha looks forward to bringing in her first partners and connecting clients to care. We look forward to staying with Myisha on her journey as a founder.