Getting to know the finalists in the Alabama Launchpad Social Impact Competition: Monthly and Smart Solutions

On Dec 8, the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama and the Alabama Power Foundation will host the finale for the latest Alabama Launchpad competition for startup companies. This round of the Launchpad is focused on companies intent on making a positive impact in the community. Ten finalists are competing for a combined $75,000 in funding.

In this article, the last in the five-part series, we highlight Alabama-based finalists Monthly and Smart Solutions.

Monthly

It’s an issue some women struggle with every month: dealing with the high costs of their monthly cycle.

For Aiko Pickering, the issue resonated with her personally, and then evolved into a mission-driven business: providing an affordable, sustainable, women’s period product.

Pickering learned that period poverty and period equity are real problems in the South. From that knowledge, and her concern for women, she decided to create a “period project,” that morphed into Monthly.

“It’s a culmination of a lot of things,” said Pickering, 28, who graduated from Spring Hill College in Mobile in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and English and a minor in gender studies.

“I always had an interest in equity. It was four years ago where I was introduced to that idea of ​​what period poverty is and period equity, and really latching onto those ideas, I decided to start a charity project,” Pickering said.

“But, if you know about nonprofits, it’s sometimes hard to maintain donations to keep things like that running,” she added. When funding for the nonprofit lagged, Pickering wondered how to create something that would fill a need in the market while also giving back.