---
title: 'Society Nine, PIE, Via Raiz, Spela Cosmetics address Portland City Council on behalf of women entrepreneurs and XXcelerate Fund'
date: '2018-03-23T12:54:44-07:00'
type: post
word_count: 206
char_count: 1324
tokens: 268
categories:
  - Oregon
  - Portland
  - Startups
  - Women
tags:
  - PIE
  - piepdx
  - 'society nine'
  - 'spela cosmetics'
  - 'via raiz'
  - 'xxcelerate fund'
---

# Society Nine, PIE, Via Raiz, Spela Cosmetics address Portland City Council on behalf of women entrepreneurs and XXcelerate Fund

One of the things I love about Portland is that it’s a large enough metropolitan area to be statistically relevant, but it’s not so big that you can’t move the needle. One such opportunity to effect change in our city focuses on providing better support for our women entrepreneurs. And one of the most promising efforts to address this opportunity is the [XXcelerate Fund](https://www.xxceleratefund.com/ "XXcelerate Fund"), which receives funding from the city through [Prosper Portland](https://prosperportland.us/ "Prosper Portland").

Hear from Lynn Le of [Society Nine](https://societynine.com/ "Society Nine"), Chevonne James of [PIE](http://www.piepdx.com/ "PIE"), Jennifer Bolanos of [Via Raiz](https://viaraiz.com/ "Via Raiz"), Renee Shade of XXcelerate Fund, and Maryam Behrouzi of [Spela Cosmetics](https://www.spelacosmetics.com/ "Spela Cosmetics") as they address the Portland City Council about the opportunity before us.



If you’d like to contribute in support of these efforts, [you can donate to XXcelerate Fund](https://www.xxceleratefund.com/donate/).

*\[Full disclosure: I am the cofounder and general manager of PIE. PIE also receives funding from Prosper Portland.\]*