Angels Be Swooping: Investors Award Underwear Entrepreneur
Investors at the 2025 Alaska Angel Conference pose with company founders, including top prize winer (sic) Virginia Lynn Peterson holding the $100,000 check.
Photo Credit: Brian Holst | Juneau Economic Development Council
More than two months of investor and entrepreneur education culminated with the final pitch event of the 2025 Alaska Angel Conference. At a gathering December 11 in The Nave, the founder and owner of apparel brand SWOOP was presented with the $100,000 top prize.
Invest in the Best
The Alaska Angel Conference is meant to connect local companies with capital while also developing the ecosystem of angel investors. Through a twelve-week process, the conference pairs experienced investors with novices by identifying, filtering, and selecting companies with potential. New investors learn how to manage their investment, while the conference nurtures companies and mentors the founders.
The founder of SWOOP, Virginia Lynn Peterson, created a lifestyle clothing brand characterized by functional forms with playful fabrics. “SWOOP started as a solution to a very real problem I experienced as a nurse,” she explains. The problem: undergarments that couldn’t hold up to a twelve hour shift. The brand, sold in local shops and through online orders, includes underwear, bras, fleece coveralls, and a hooded tunic with flashy panels on the side of the torso. The designs are manufactured in China to achieve a lower price point.
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SWOOP went through the course, starting September 30, with other entrepreneurs. The contenders at the final pitch event included Erik Williams, developer of the beadedcloud environmental monitoring software (designed in conjunction with remote sensors built by Anchorage-based beadedstream); Aktta Patel, an instructional designer in Anchorage developing the Adivo task-matching platform; and AirVitalize, a company founded by Serena Allen that’s testing a particulate pollution scrubber in Fairbanks.
High-tech innovations took a backseat to the up-and-coming clothing maker, in the final judging.
“Winning the Alaska Angel Conference is both humbling and affirming,” says Peterson. “This investment reinforces that there’s demand for thoughtfully designed, functional apparel built by and for people who live full, active lives. It gives us the ability to scale with intention while staying true to our Alaska roots.”
Under the slogan “Always Be Swooping,” the brand’s designs begin with the premise that comfort in clothing translates to outward expression in work and life.
The conference also awarded an audience choice prize to beadedcloud. Williams walks away with marketing services volunteered by Jennifer Christensen of SparkStory Marketing, who also volunteered to build a new website for the Angel Conference itself and helped with promotion.
The Alaska Angel Conference was organized in cooperation with the Juneau Economic Development Council, the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development, Representative Ky Holland, and local angel investors.
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