Featured Ventures

Ocoa, formerly DN Organics, is a clean and affordable hair care brand, whose mission is to empower women to take control of their health by using a more natural alternative for all their hair care needs. They encourage women to spend less time perfecting their hair and more time enjoying life fearlessly natural.

Founded by sisters, Cory Dahlia Varona-Corniel and Nicol Varona Cancelmo, both Penn State Berks alumni, the hair care startup started shipping their first two products in the first quarter of 2021 and have grown in leaps and bounds since then, introducing two new products with a total rebranding, including bilingual packaging, in spring 2023. Learn more: https://ocoabeauty.com/ 

SYZY is a mature startup that researches, develops, tests, manufactures, and distributes sustainable, on-the-go essentials. They are designing the tooling for a new product to add to their already successful, incredibly strong, paper straw line. Their dye-free, biodegradable paper straw is not only great for the environment, but a superior upgrade to the current paper straws on the market in terms of both aesthetic and function. Their ultralight, silk-touch reusable tote bag easily compacts to micro-size fitting in pocket, purse, or on keychain.

Learn more at:  https://syzyuniverse.com

World Brand™ was founded in 2018 by Shanna Henry and Petros Pappalas, both Reading, Pennsylvania natives. Bearing witness to the devastation and impact that plastic pollution is wreaking on the planet, they conceived the idea to create a dye-free, biodegradable paper straw that was not only great for the environment, but a superior upgrade to the current paper straws on the market in terms of both aesthetic and function. Being raised in Reading, PA, Henry and Pappalas share a sense of pride in the history of their hometown and are inspired and devoted in helping to restore Reading’s longstanding foundation of manufacturing.