Indianapolis-based entrepreneur Katara McCarty wins pitch competition with mental health app focused on Black women

Katara McCarty won the $75,000 prize for first in the NBA Foundation’s 2024 All-Star Pitch Competition for Exhale, a company based around an app that provides mental health support focused on Black women.

McCarty, an alumna of Indiana University Kokomo, told reporters that during her upbringing as a foster kid she never would have believed she would be able to successfully launch her own business.

Onstage, the judges—comprised of Steve Simon, owner and alternate governor of the Pacers, four-time WNBA Olympian Tamika Catchings, musical artist Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and Jalen Rose, former NBA player and not-for-profit founder—were immediately impressed by McCarty’s energy.

Exhale, McCarty’s app, gives race-conscious meditation, breath work exercises and support for Black women. The idea came to her in 2020 when she began searching for mental health assistance of her own and found nothing like it on the market.

Her app, which costs $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year for individuals, has been mentioned in publications like Essence, Forbes, Refinery29 and Black Enterprise.

After her win, McCarty said the next step for Exhale will be creating partnerships with companies and organizations that have the same mission.

The competition gave out a total of $150,000 in cash prizes to three top startups. Jessica Bussert, the 58-year-old founder of Wave Theraputics, won a $50,000 prize for her AI-based cushion technology that aims to prevent bedsores, which in some cases can be life-threatening. Geng Weng, the Carmel-based CEO of not-for-profit engagement tool Civic Champs took third for a prize of $25,000.

The event was sponsored in part by the Be Nimble Foundation and Elevate Ventures. McCarty, the winner, credited Be Nimble with helping her form her company. She cited a Be Nimble-based pitch competition four years ago, at which her idea for Exhale came in fourth.

“We were just starting out then,” she said.

Weng said that Elevate Ventures, plus the entrepreneur community in Bloomington, where his company got its start—helped him grow it.

On Saturday, Weng got to stand on stage as 50 Cent told him “That’s a good idea,” in front of his two young sons.

A call for startups with diverse founders based in Indiana in November received more than 150 applications. A semi-final held at Gainbridge Fieldhouse last month produced the final seven contestants, who were given personalized coaching leading up to the final. That coaching involved work in public speaking and fine-tuning presentations from a five-minute pitch to a three-minute pitch, NBA Foundation Executive Director Greg Taylor said.

The other competitors were:

• Ethan Rodriguez, co-founder and CEO of KLOTOFY. KLOTOFY is a social-media like platform to purchase clothing where users can put in their specific sizes and measurements to view outfits on a body like their own.
• Klein Ileleji, West Lafayette-based co-founder and CEO of JUA Technologies Inc. Ileleji pitched a food dehydrating product intended to help prevent food waste, called “Dehytray.” It is currently being used by small growers in Kenya and other portions of sub-Saharan Africa, as well as portions of the U.S. like California and Virginia.
• Sharod Holmes of Gary, pitched a software that allows users to make a quick, attractive website platform from their phone, called Holm.
• Cornelius George, Indianapolis-based CEO of Chuqlab, pitched Crimeminer, an AI software that searches through police interviews to identify and condense important evidence to more quickly solve cases.