MARY-ELIZABETH HARMON
Founding Mother, Chard & Stripes
I hope you enjoyed the 4th of July yesterday.
I didn’t really.
The day started fine, but I got overly ambitious on top of being poorly slept. From excitement, but poorly slept nonetheless. Here’s why:
My site for Vertical Village Alliance got “discovered” last week by someone at Pioneer, an accelerator program “for founders on day 0.” The discoverer invited me to apply, which I did.
Doing the application flicked a switch in my brain and ideas have been flooding in since. And I found things that can super help me do my work. All that got me thinking instead of sleeping.
But back to Pioneer.
Anyone can sign up. All you need is an idea to enter their tournament and get feedback from other players. Projects that rise to the top get feedback from the Pioneer team and a network of advisors, with the potential of getting financial backing.
The benefit of getting a Pioneer invite is that my project got fast-tracked without me needing to compete. Sadly, my invitation won’t get you any perks but it will show Pioneer that I referred you.
It’s early days and I’ll let you know what happens, of course.
“See” ya.
![](https://www.chardandstripes.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Mary-Elizabeth-headshot.png)
Dr. Mary-Elizabeth Harmon is a scientist turned storyteller and Founding Mother of Chard & Stripes, a “school” of prosperity making and word-of-mouth marketing platform for kind people, products and businesses in food, fashion & more. Subscribe to her newsletter here.