Women's Entrepreneurship Day Founder Spotlight: Luisa Castellanos
In honor of Women’s Entrepreneurship Day (November 19), Chicago:Blend is featuring two local tech founders who we met through GET Cities Chicago’s Seed Founder Cohort.
First up is Luisa Castellanos, the Co-Founder and COO of Science On Call, which provides 24/7 tech support for restaurants. With more than a decade of experience in marketing, retail, and customer experience, Luisa is a lifelong entrepreneur who started her first business at age 11. Her passion for creativity and hospitality helps bring brand-focused restaurants into the future with technology.
Q: What does your company do and what motivated you to launch it here in Chicago?
Science On Call is a subscription-based tech support platform for restaurants.
Chicago is home to so many incredible restaurateurs as well as a thriving food tech startup community. The three founders were also based here so it made perfect sense to us! It has always felt like home – we're Midwesterners through and through!
Q: What are some recent wins that you're really proud of?
We just closed on $2.7M in our most recent Seed round, which has allowed us to start building out a product and sales team. We also had an incredible in-person team gathering in Chicago enjoying the finest Chicago foods (lots of Italian beef and pizza), architecture tours, and visits to the Art Institute.
Q: What has the fundraising journey been like for you?
Long! We started in January 2023 and it took over 3 months for us to find a lead investor, then about another 3 months until we were able to execute our first close. Every single investor meeting, Andy Freivogel (co-founder) and I do together. It's important that a potential investor gets to know us as a founding team and how we work together. We had a lot of exciting conversations that, although it may not have ended in investment, ended up establishing new relationships.
Q: What advice would you give to other women who are thinking of launching their own companies?
There are a lot of future founders who may feel nervous about the hurdles and difficulties that may arise (and there will be!). Be yourself and be confident in that self and the idea you're passionate about. The right people will come to you. I have found it's extremely important to have a solid support network – whether that is a co-founder, mentor, investor, or even a fellow founder. It's okay to ask for help! In fact, it's important to be eager to learn.
What “ask" would you like to make to the Chicago:Blend community?
I'm a big believer in #givefirst (quoting Techstars!). The way we all grow together is by helping each other, whether it's making intros, providing recommendations, or – most importantly – writing checks! Events can be great for meeting those people, but we all need to do the work that follows.