This post originally appeared on the Louisiana Technology Park blog.
Don’t Get Mad Get Paid’s tech-enabled platform, named Athena, was able to take home the prize at PitchBR on March 21.
Entrepreneurs and innovators gathered at Juban’s Restaurant to hear three startup companies give an 8-minute pitch about their product or service for a chance to win $1,000.
Each team received several perks from attending this event, including coaching from prominent business consultants. Teams also got live feedback from audience members and the judges, exposure and publicity for their product and business, and the opportunity to connect with groups such as professional service donors.
Athena impressed the three judges the most with its tech-enabled platform, which is changing the way moms, who are owed tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid child support, can collect their money.
Simone Spence, DGMGP’s CEO, was a child support collection specialist for more than 20 years. She teaches women how to seize real and personal assets from their exes. Athena locates parents who evade their child support orders, finds their employment and assets – both real and personal – and generates the necessary legal documents to seize the assets that have been found.
After the initial launch of its minimum viable Product (MVP), moms were thrilled about how quickly they were able to collect the money owed to them. Simone was amazed at the number of moms who wanted to get on board to use their product and said, “There are 800 moms still waiting to use Athena today.”
“If we continue to pretend that evading child support and alimony obligations is not harmful to women, then that pretense in itself is harmful to women. As long as we remain quiet on the issue, the silent violence will continue,” Simone says.