Lips is honored to announce Dr. Silvia Armitano Mah as the lead investor for this Wefunder equity campaign!  

Often considered the leading voice for women entrepreneurs in Southern California, Dr. Silvia Mah, PhD, MBA, is the founding partner of Ad Astra Ventures, a venture firm that aims to “get to even” for high achieving women. Dr. Mah is also the founder of Stella Labs, an accelerator for women-owned businesses; founding member of Stella Angels, a female angel investment group; Investment Committee member of Next Wave Impact, a social impact venture fund; and an angel investor to over 30 startups who have diverse founders on the leadership team. 

Dr. Mah’s own success includes producing a globally-recognized podcast, She Invests!, highlighting the investment journeys of female angel investors and venture capitalists; serving for 2 years as the Student Programs Diversity Director at the Office of Innovation and Commercialization’s The Basement, a technology accelerator for undergraduate startups at UCSD; & Fund Manager for the San Diego Angel Conference, a new angel fund to activate regional capital from aspiring and existing angel investors. 

Dr. Mah brings her extensive expertise, network, and passion to Lips while also being a great motivator and source of positivity and joy. 

Here is what Dr. Mah had to say about her investment in Lips:

Annie Brown is one of the most tenacious, determined, technical, and forward-thinking founders I have been graced to advise and watch scale her exceptional startup, the Lips platform. The product-market fit has been tested & proven because this highly-vetted and mindfully-built technical platform is uniquely created, organically grown, & varified to be exactly what the intended, ideal target market needing. Annie is the perfect founder-market fit example, having (1) high awareness of the community she is empowering, (2) business acumen to build the right business model for optimal scale, (3) knows the exact growth marketing hacking strategies and technique to make the platform go viral, and (4) a high EQ surrounding investor relations as she consistently follows up, is coachable and seeks feedback. Finally, the momentum Lips has received post-launch from her community will allow for exponential growth in users, conversions, and long-term brand loyalty; which converts to growing revenue due to the economic empowerment opportunity of an untapped market. The strengths of the founder, Annie Brown, coupled with a Machine Learning & blockchain-enabled empowerment platform for womxn, LGBTQ+, & marginalized communities is a game-changer.

Lips and Dr. Mah have been working together for years to be an advocate for women entrepreneurs in San Diego, particularly those interested in AI/ML. We both served as mentors for a youth entrepreneurship program at UC San Diego, and then were able to connect further when I interviewed her for Forbes during the annual Women's Venture Summit. Still, even after knowing her for years, I am always learning from her and inspired by her kindness and motivation every time we speak.

Click here learn more about Dr. Mah's work and make sure you read her awesome statement on why she invested in Lips in the "What People Say" section of our Wefunder page ❤️

From left to right - Natilie Spira (Tempdrop), Silvia Mah, Jenna Ryan (Uquora), and Annie Brown (Lips), after a panel on Femtech at San Diego Startup Week.