9 women-owned businesses picked as finalists in competition

by Marjorie Censer

Reusable lunch bags, healthy muffins and video marketing solutions are going to head-to-head to win $10,000 in a business plan competition for Washington area female-owned companies.

Rockville Economic Development Inc. is hosting its seventh annual StartRight Women's Business Plan Competition, in which 53 submitted entries were originally in contention for top honors. To be eligible, companies must be at least 50 percent women-owned and in operation for no more than two years.

REDI has named nine semifinalists from around the region. Among those selected is Carol Espy-Wilson of OmniSpeech in College Park. Wilson's company offers a speech extraction technology that reduces background noise on cellphones.

Christina Mendoza Bourelly and Kirsten Quigley of Potomac, two of the founders of 3greenmoms, have also been chosen for their "lunchskins" reusable fabric food baggies.

Other semifinalists include Gina M. Mathew of Couture Rani in Lutherville, Md., an online retailer of made-to-order Indian bridal and formal wear, and Nediana Pavlova of Global Music Academy, a music school in Burke.

Contest semifinalists Sylvie Kwedi and Cherise Scott of Montgomery Village's CLEAR Inc. provide help to international health initiatives and research agencies to build up their programs, while Beth Novick and Laura Levengard run Gold Star Bakers in Silver Spring, which specializes in healthy muffins.

Also selected were Barbara Haupt and Elissa Leif, who offer Web video marketing solutions at Silver Spring's MiniMatters, and Richelle Burnett, who run Madison Assessment in Washington, which offers computer-based assessment tests licensed from James Madison University. Heather R. Huhman, who owns Come Recommended in Derwood, an online recruiting solutions firm, is also a semifinalist in the competition.

The program is intended to encourage entrepreneurship among women, who often don't grow their businesses as quickly or as large as men, said Lynne Benzion, associate director of REDI.

"This is not a competition about what you do," she said of the diverse group of semifinalist companies. "This is a competition about how well you plan for it."

The winner -- who will receive $10,000 -- is set to be announced July 21. Second place is worth $5,000, and the third-place prize is $2,500.