Are you frustrated with traditional pathways to capitalize your startup?

Our guest, Aja Atwood, is an entrepreneur, team-leader, and cannabis advocate with over 15 years of experience in the engineering industry.

She is a mechanical engineer by education and graduated cum laude from Northeastern University. She cut her teeth professionally as an engineering consultant and specialist, working in natural catastrophe risk engineering, and by 2011 started her first entrepreneurial business.

Through these experiences, Aja honed her technical skills, fostered the engineering talent of her team, and learned valuable lessons along the way.

Aja is currently the co-founder of Trella Technologies, which provides technical, innovative solutions to make indoor and urban farming a sustainable, long-lasting industry.

Her business ethos is rooted in the belief that success comes from creating innovative technologies that can be shared with communities that need them the most.

I’m so excited to introduce you this extraordinary female founder! Here are my 3 takeaways from our conversation:

1.    Straddling a side-hustle and full time job is hard to juggle and you’ll know it’s time to go full time with your startup when both are suffering.

2.    Launching a new innovative device: you need to build in the education component to your marketing – it takes time to get folks willing to try something new.

3.    As a woman of color founder, Aja quickly realized her odds of raising traditional capital were less than 1%, so she turned to Regulation Crowdfunding to capitalize her business. Side benefit: it forced the team to get really good at marketing!

To learn more about Aja's regulation crowdfunding campaign: https://www.startengine.com/trella

Visit Trella Technologies here: https://trella.io/

Please follow Aja on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajaatwood/

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Listeners - thank you so much for tuning in - I am genuinely grateful for your time and presence. Stay strong, stay focused – and please remember – you’ve got this – Cheers!

Ande ♥