Janalyn Peppel does not have a background in the STEM arenas. However, through an innovative program called eWiTS, she and a group of talented women have combined science with entrepreneurial drive to produce a winning product.
As president of Powder Coating of Gainesville, a business her own parents started as a hobby in 1998, Peppel knows a thing or two about pursuing passion and managing a business. eWiTS strives to build confidence in women of all backgrounds. After attending an informational meeting, Peppel simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity, so she decided to bring her talents to the table along with six other women.
THE TEAM
“I don’t think I could have deliberately chosen a better team to work with,” she said.
Peppel’s team was randomly selected based on available skills and individual interests. The program pooled the talents of Monica Cabrera, Kruti Carsane, Helena Cowley, Leanne Dumeny and Jennifer Thiaville — and Peppel — along with the mentoring prowess of Jana Jones. The combination, it seems, was a sensation.
“It was energizing,” Peppel said. “We worked through obstacles, made tough decisions, explored areas that were unfamiliar and, ultimately, learned that as a team we could figure out whatever we needed to keep moving forward.”
Peppel credited the team’s success to its strong cohesiveness. In her eyes, this wasn’t anyone’s singular win — it was a true team effort.
“The combination of unique skills melted perfectly together to create a successful team,” she said. “Not only were we well matched for this business, we also formed strong friendships within our group.”
THE PRODUCT
The project Peppel and her team worked on was no small feat.
Peppel described the product as a portable, on-demand chlorine dioxide dispenser, or the ClO2Go dispenser.
Peppel explained, “Chlorine dioxide is an extremely effective disinfecting solution. It is typically not used often because of its short shelf life. However, patented technology from the University of Florida enables our ClO2Go dispenser to produce chlorine dioxide on-demand, eliminating the shelf life limitation.”
The technology is low cost, all purpose, easy to apply and environmentally friendly, while effective against bacteria, viruses, molds, fungi and spores that could contribute to infections acquired while patients are in the hospital. Peppel said these infections affect about 2 million Americans and account for about $45 billion in health care costs each year.
“Over 100,000 people die each year from hospital-acquired infections,” she said. “In simple terms, people are admitted to hospitals to become healthy, and there is a strong chance they may become ill while being treated.”
The team has already won the eWiTS competition for having the best sales pitch using this product. Due to interest expressed by UF’s Shands Hospital and continued interest within the group, Peppel said this technology could be taken even further.
Shands expressed desire for a prototype that would be tested at Shands’ facilities.
THE SUCCESS
The eWiTS program itself and those involved have accomplished exactly what the founders set out to do when it was first piloted in the fall of 2012.
Jane Muir, the director of the Florida Innovation Hub at UF, was on the original team that developed eWiTS and has seen about 100 women come through the program. She described it as a “simulation” in which women would be provided short-term entrepreneurial training and learn how to start a company.
When the Florida Innovation Hub had its grand opening in 2012, Muir said she had a realization while participating in an entrepreneurial roundtable with the assistant secretary of commerce from Washington, D.C., and CEOs.
“As they were all talking,” she said. “I looked around the room and realized that I was the only one who would look good in a skirt.”
No other women were present in the room.
“I kind of made a pact with myself then and there that we needed to do something to change that.”
So far, she said, the response has been amazing.
“As little girls, we’re taught differently,” Muir said. “We’re taught: don’t speak until you’re spoken to. Don’t be risk-takers. You have to be perfect. You have to get all A’s. You’re not supposed to make mistakes. Well, entrepreneurs are just the opposite.”
Through eWiTS, Muir has seen women gain the confidence and overall mindset to step beyond these barriers.
“Throughout the program, they encouraged us to stretch our limits,” Peppel said. “Just the exposure to new ideas has given me the confidence to take on new challenges.”
“Janalyn deserves a lot of credit,” Muir said. “Her enthusiasm exudes her every cell, and I think that that certainly kept her team motivated as well.”
Helena Cowley, who currently works as a project manager of a biotechnology startup called Captozyme, applied to the eWiTS competition and was matched with Peppel and the rest of their team.
Cowley said it was an amazing experience, though she found herself doing quite a bit of work. Small things, she said, like knowing where to search for the information they needed, presented a challenge because of the tight time constraints on the projects — teams had 10 weeks to get everything they needed together to present. The challenge, though, was worth the effort in the end.
“That’s part of the whole experience,” she said, “because they keep talking about how this is empowering women, and that’s really how you get empowered. You get exposed to a challenge, you pursue it, you deliver on it and you achieve something. That’s how you are empowered.”
Cowley feels the program has changed her overall outlook.
“It ignited something within me that’s easy to lose,” she said. “When you get into the daily activities of your job, it’s easy to lose that feeling of anything being possible.”
Since participating, she said, she has “woken up again.”
Muir said women have described the process as life changing, even allowing them to carry themselves with certainty and pursue ideas they may have once thought out of their reach.
Cowley said she highly recommended the program to all kinds of women. Having the right attitude, however, is incredibly important in her eyes.
“The regular education system is very much a passive type of educating,” she said. “Everything is just being handed to them (students) in terms of the information. And in this program, you have to go out and basically figure it out for yourself.”
Because there is so much information available today — online or through the many other materials at hand — Cowley said success is just a matter of going out and finding what’s out there.
“If you just find that right attitude,” she said, “you can do anything.”