Rockville Economic Development Inc. awarded four women entrepreneurs from Maryland recognition and cash as part of its annual StartRight! competition Friday. Any woman-owned company was eligible to enter, provided it has operated in Maryland, Virginia or D.C. for two years or less.

Kris Appel won first place and $10,000 for Baltimore-based Newergen Inc., which will market its first product, an arm-training device for paralyzed stroke victims, Appel said.

“I’m getting to the point now where I’m ready to become an operational company,” Appel said.

She will hire an engineering firm that over the next six months will redesign the prototype for manufacturing.

This story continues below
Advertisement

Tia Gao and Cassedy Newgen won second place and $5,000 for their Rockville-based Aid Networks LLC, which sells wireless monitoring systems for hospitals to track patients. The pair met as students at Johns Hopkins University, they incorporated a month ago, and next will take their products to medical conferences to market it, Gao said.

Cheryl Staab won third place and $2,500 for DogCentric Inc., a dog-walking business serving Northwest D.C. and Montgomery County. Staab started the business about two years ago after unsuccessfully trying to find an attentive dog walker for her beagle, Morgan. Her company now hires 12 regular walkers who visit a combined 50 homes daily.

Staab said the contest helped her because it forced her and her co-workers to sit down and write a business plan for DogCentric.

“That to me is the prize,” Staab said. “We just smile, look at our plan, and feel positive about our growth and our future.”

melissa.frederick@dcexaminer.com