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Caurie Putnam//November 13, 2025//
Local entrepreneurs gain inspiration, opportunities from Stella Foundation’s Women’s Venture Summit

Caurie Putnam//November 13, 2025//
Transformative, magical and expansive — all descriptors used by local entrepreneurs to describe their experience at the 2025 Women’s Venture Summit in San Diego, California, one of the nation’s leading events that connects women entrepreneurs and investors in the same space.
“It’s so important for women to have the right network of other women around them,” said Flossie Hall, CEO of the Stella Foundation, a San Diego-based nonprofit with chapters across the country that support women founders and funders by providing education, capital readiness programs, pitch opportunities, and a national network to facilitate funding.
Over the past 12 years, the Women’s Venture Summit has helped the Stella Foundation facilitate over $200 million in fundraising dollars for women-led companies.
A Brockport native, Hall helped establish an Upstate New York chapter of the Stella Foundation in June. The chapter helped fund over $30,000 in scholarships that allowed for 12 local women to attend the 2025 Women’s Venture Summit in September, as well as get paid for their talents and contributions to the event.
“These women are powerful examples of what happens when women are given access, capital, and a front row seat to advanced levels of business development: from ideation to exit,” Hall said. “They return home with contracts, collaborations, and funding opportunities that will change the trajectory of their businesses — and their communities here in Western NY.”
Marquita Rugless, founder and chief experience officer of Rochester-based R.O.C. Events LLC, an event planning and design firm, said the summit allowed her to branch out beyond the local scene and showcase her creativity on a whole new level.
“The summit has a reputation for being the place where big ideas take shape, connections spark, and dreams actually come alive,” Rugless said. “I felt every bit of that energy while I was there.”
She returned to Rochester with a brand-new business idea she’s excited to develop and share when the time is right, as well as renewed confidence to tell her story boldly and unapologetically.
“Being surrounded by powerhouse entrepreneurs and investors reminded me that representation matters and that our stories hold value,” Rugless said. “I left inspired, connected, and ready to show other women in my community that opportunities like this are not out of reach. It’s the beginning of what’s possible when you believe in your ideas and put yourself in the right rooms.”
The Women’s Venture Summit aligned perfectly with the current stage of growth of Smart Seawall Technologies, co-founded by Natalie Sinisgalli, alongside her husband, Pepsy M. Kettavong. Their company has developed and patented a seawall technology that redirects wave energy back toward the body of water, reducing erosion and protecting coastal properties.
“The timing was perfect as we prepare for our Series A fundraising round,” Sinisgalli said. “I wanted to connect directly with investors, especially women decision-makers, and immerse myself in the venture capital world, which is still relatively new to me.”
Sinisgalli, who is also the founder of Rochester-based branding agency Embolden Your Brand, said the connections she made in San Diego were more powerful than she could have imagined.
“I left with active investment conversations already underway with people who have the ability to fund our growth vision,” she said. “I also gained critical insight into the fundraising process and felt genuinely supported while pitching. I’m confident this event will directly contribute to closing our round and bringing millions of dollars of investment into Rochester.”
According to Lainey Schmidt, founder of the Fleurish Co., the Women’s Venture Summit created a unique space where exceptional women could learn from one another and work together on tangible business opportunities — not just theory.
Schmidt’s company, which is located on Russell Street in Rochester, is a custom scent studio that specializes in memorable scent branding and products made with clean ingredients.
“I came back to Rochester with new clients and answers to my questions on my business plan’s next steps,” said Schmidt, who says having the Stella Foundation as a resource feels like having your cake and eating it too. “It’s the answers to your questions, connections, your business needs, and it’s all free.”
Now in her third year attending the Women’s Venture Summit, Andrea Holland, CEO of Rochester-based Andrea Holland Coaching, remembers her first as like peeking behind a curtain no one had ever shown her before. Today, she helps lift that curtain for others.
“From my two years of attending, I’ve expanded my network of business allies and experts to a greater scale — not only geographically, but also in knowledge, accessibility, and visibility to what major players in my industry and beyond are doing,” she said. “This has positioned me for growth into markets I’ve always desired.”
Holland, who was a keynote speaker this year, says the summit has also helped her gain invaluable confidence and experience in launching her first-ever retail product — the Executive Deck, a multi-media coaching card set for professionals.
“There is something magical about what the Stella Foundation has created in both the Women’s Venture Summit and in the chapter model they have — especially here in Western NY,” Holland said. “Being a part of this network has paid off in so many ways: financially, emotionally, and more. We need more voices like this at home and across the map.”
This year was also personal brand builder Nina Piccini’s third time attending the Women’s Venture Summit. In the prior two years, she was hired to photograph the event, and this year she attended as a speaker, attendee, and exhibitor.
“The bigger business world view is the biggest impact from this conference,” said Piccini, who is the founder of Rochester and Beyond and the chapter leader of the Upstate NY Chapter of the Stella Foundation. “To be in a room with not only successful founders who are raising capital, but influential investors who just want more women to build wealth, leads to endless inspiration and opportunities.”
She has found that all of her experiences at the Women’s Venture Summits have helped open doors with founders and investors she would otherwise not have had an opportunity to meet, and that her involvement with the Stella Foundation in general has been life-changing.
“Not only has my involvement in Stella Foundation gained me nearly 20K in revenue since June alone, but attending the Women’s Venture Summit and being involved as the Upstate New York Chapter leader here locally has put me in front of so many women whom I wouldn’t have been able to meet otherwise,” Piccini said. “Women who are steps ahead of me and steps behind me, which is what we all need.”
Caurie Putnam is a Rochester-area freelance writer.
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