Neha, who founded Skeptics.ai, earned second place
Gayathri, founder of GeoProspex.ai, also took second place
An evening that celebrated bold thinking, entrepreneurial paths, and genuine founder narratives.
A strong pitch is about more than winning a competition. It delivers a clear, compelling account of the problem you tackle, why your approach matters, and why your team is best suited to bring it to life.”— Sharmilli Ghosh, Chair, TiE Women SeattleSEATTLE, WA, UNITED STATES, October 2, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — TiE Women is delighted to reveal the winners of its Open Mic Night, an event that offered women entrepreneurs a chance to move beyond standard pitches and speak openly about their journeys, obstacles, concepts, and dreams in a candid, unscripted setting. After an impressive lineup of founders took the stage, the panel of judges and the audience awarded first place to Rashmi Raghavendra, Co-founder and CEO of Dionysus Healthcare, while Neha, Founder of Skeptics.ai, and Gayathri, Founder of GeoProspex.ai, tied for second place. The event captured the essence of Open Mic Night: no slides, no stress, just an open microphone and real founder accounts.
1. First Place 🏆: Rashmi Raghavendra | Dionysus Healthcare – Rashmi Raghavendra is developing myLuma, a diagnostic tool that uses technology to forecast a woman’s likelihood of postpartum depression while she is still pregnant, aiming to enable earlier treatment and support.
As Co-founder and CEO of Dionysus Healthcare, Rashmi works at the crossroads of women’s health, mental health, AI/ML, epigenetics, and diagnostics, with a mission to shift maternal mental health care earlier by spotting risk before symptoms emerge. myLuma can detect risk before childbirth and alter outcomes for mothers and families.
Rashmi is currently looking for investor connections as Dionysus Healthcare pursues its initial $5 million seed funding round, along with ties to healthcare systems, OB/GYN clinics, and women’s health groups that are interested in earlier detection of postpartum depression risk.
2a. Second Place 🥈: Neha | Skeptics.ai – Neha, Founder of Skeptics.ai, is creating an AI-native managed services platform aimed at automating SEC and SOX compliance for public and pre-IPO companies.
A dual-certified CPA and CA with three decades of domain knowledge, Neha has developed and scaled internal audit functions in organizations ranging from fast-growing pre-IPO startups to Fortune 500 corporations. Skeptics.ai has launched its proof of concept, with two customers now testing the platform.
Her strategy blends deep compliance expertise with artificial intelligence to produce results, rather than adding another tool to an already crowded enterprise software environment.
Neha is seeking introductions to CFOs and Chief Audit Executives, as well as ties to investors who align with the company’s vision.
2b. Joint Second Place 🥈: Gayathri | GeoProspex.ai – Gayathri, Founder of GeoProspex.ai, is revolutionizing the real estate development workflow using an AI platform that compresses days of site-feasibility research into minutes.
Drawing on years of experience at Bing and Microsoft Search, Gayathri recognized an opportunity to deploy agentic AI on one of real estate development’s most disjointed and time-intensive processes. GeoProspex.ai is already producing revenue, with 13 paying clients, including two enterprise data-center land developers, and was built on input from over 140 customer conversations.
Gayathri is seeking introductions to land acquisition and development leaders at mid-to-large data-center developers, along with distribution and partnership avenues to grow the platform into multifamily development.
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Beyond a Pitch – What distinguished the evening was that founders were not asked to deliver yet another conventional investor presentation. Instead, Open Mic Night provided a setting where entrepreneurs could talk freely about what they are constructing, why it matters, what they have discovered, and where they require assistance.
The three winning founders represented quite different sectors: women’s health, AI-driven compliance, and real estate technology. Yet their stories shared a common entrepreneurial thread: recognizing difficult and often neglected problems, then building bold new solutions to address them.
TiE Women congratulates Rashmi Raghavendra on her first-place victory and Neha and Gayathri on their shared second-place finish! We also extend our appreciation to all the founders, judges, mentors, members, and community supporters who contributed their energy, expertise, and motivation to the evening.
One Mic. Real Stories. Real Impact – TiE Women stays dedicated to creating platforms where women entrepreneurs can embrace, engage, and empower, not just by highlighting what they are constructing, but by linking them with the people, resources, and relationships that can turn ambition into impact.
Sonia Wadhwa
TiE Seattle
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