We are mompreneurs, small business owners, and avid supporters of businesses in the Green Mountain State.

Mieko Ozeki is the owner of Radiance Studios, a content strategy and event production company, and organizer of Vermont Womenpreneurs. Bethany Andrews-Nichols owns Beenanza Design Co., a graphic design company specializing in block printing and pattern design. In 2017, we had a kismet encounter at a coffee meetup for women professionals network. Mieko organized meetups for womenpreneurs in 2018 cause she wanted to create a safe, anti-networking network space for solopreneurs and small businesses. Soon after, Bethany came up with the idea for a “science fair like” event for women business owners to showcase their businesses and our logo. June 2018 we launched our first sold out Showcase at Study Hall, a coworking space in Burlington, with 20 womenpreneurs sharing their business stories - the beginnings, challenges, and successes.

We had 4 showcases after this launch and several meetup events, growing our community of women owned businesses in Vermont, until the pandemic shut down our in-person events in 2020. Restarting our in-person meetups in 2021, we’ve been easing back into creating the community spaces for womenpreneurs across the state are seeking to connect with one another. In November 2021, we hosted our first multi-day virtual Summit and rejoiced in June 2022 to host an in-person Summit with over 230 attendees in Burlington.

The Vermont Womenpreneurs Summit is our biggest convening of women identifying and led businesses and organizations. We aspire to bring this stage across the state to continue the engagement and the thriving possibilities for womenpreneurs in Vermont.