Pretty Brainy
Pretty Brainy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2008 in Loveland, Colorado that delivers STEAM education programs — including workshops, a climate-action innovation marathon, and a mobile app — to middle and high school girls in Northern Colorado, funded through donations and grants.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2008
- HeadquartersLoveland, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingServices
What Pretty Brainy does
Pretty Brainy is a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organization founded in 2008 and headquartered in Loveland, Colorado, with an additional office in Fort Collins. Its mission is to deliver student-centered STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) learning to middle and high school girls, addressing gender-equity gaps in STEM by combining technical skill-building with confidence-building and exposure to female mentors. The organization runs a portfolio of programs: MISSion Innovation, a 24-hour all-woman innovation marathon for climate-action solutions (anchored by a real client relationship with the City of Fort Collins); Textiles + TechStyles, a workshop curriculum built around Arduino coding and eTextiles/LED circuit construction; Pretty Brilliant, an engineering design service-learning program prototyping for Habitat for Humanity; the Leadership Team for girls ages 13-19; STEM of Fashion Design; and Essentials Self-Defense, delivered in partnership with Model Mugging. The MISSion Innovation mobile app, built on Firebase, extends the climate-action programming into a self-serve digital channel for Northern Colorado citizens.
The underlying technology stack is modest and pedagogical rather than proprietary-AI: Arduino for embedded electronics, Firebase for the citizen-facing app, and design-thinking methodology as the curricular backbone. The organization does not sell a product; rather, programs are delivered free to participants and the cost base (86 cents of every contributed dollar funds programming) is supported by individual donations, corporate giving (OtterBox, Infleqtion, PrimaProductions, Richardson Communications, Environmental Lights), and foundation grants from OtterCares Foundation (the anchor funder of Textiles + TechStyles), Deaver Phoenix Foundation, HP Foundation, and Oracle NetSuite Social Impact. Distribution is regional and partnership-driven: programs run inside Poudre School District, Colorado State University, and venues like Becks' Martial Arts and The Neighbor in Fort Collins, with online giving routed through Community First Foundation's ColoradoGives.org. The go-to-market is community-led and event-driven, supplemented by content marketing (website, blog, monthly eNews, Instagram), earned media (NBC 9News Colorado's Best), and conference presence (ISTE 2016, TEDx).
Customer segments span the primary beneficiary (girls ages 11-19 in Northern Colorado seeking STEAM confidence and skills), parents and families seeking scholarships and resources, and teachers and school leaders seeking hands-on, gender-inclusive STEM supplements. The board, leadership, and academic advisors include the founder/President Heidi A. Olinger, a CSU Associate Professor of Science Education, CSM Design@Mines faculty, and a multi-member Board Emeritus, giving the small staff (1-10 employees) deep academic and community ties in Northern Colorado.
Pretty Brainy firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Pretty Brainy
- Legal name
- Pretty Brainy, Inc.
- Website
- https://prettybrainy.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2008
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Pretty Brainy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2008 in Loveland, Colorado that delivers STEAM education programs — including workshops, a climate-action innovation marathon, and a mobile app — to middle and high school girls in Northern Colorado, funded through donations and grants.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Pretty Brainy industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Youth STEAM Education (Nonprofit)
- NAICS
- All Other Schools and Instruction (61169), Computer Training (61142)
- SIC
- Services-Educational Services (8200)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Robotics, Engineering & Makers Camps (EDAMALAE)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Coding, Game Design & Computer Science Camps (EDAMALAD), Arts & Design Camps (Visual Arts, Crafts, Design Thinking) (EDAMALAH), STEM & Science Camps (Biology, Chemistry, Space, Lab Science) (EDAMALAC)
Keywords
Where Pretty Brainy is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Loveland
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices3 records
Markets served
Pretty Brainy business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others
Revenue model
- Donations and Charitable Contributions: Individual donations, corporate donations, and holiday charitable giving partnerships (e.g., PrimaProductions donating 10% of holiday sales)
- Foundation and Corporate Grants: Funding from foundations like OtterCares Foundation, Deaver Phoenix Foundation, HP Foundation, Oracle NetSuite Social Impact, and Richardson Communications
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | Annual | Donation-based model |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels8 records
Pretty Brainy product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Pretty Brainy delivers hands-on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) learning programs for middle and high school girls in Northern Colorado, including 24-hour innovation marathons (MISSion Innovation), Arduino-based eTextiles workshops (Textiles + TechStyles), engineering design service-learning projects (Pretty Brilliant), a teen Leadership Team, and self-defense training. Programs are delivered free to participants through schools, universities, and community events, with a companion mobile app that supports climate-action behavior tracking.
Product overview
Pretty Brainy is a nonprofit educational organization offering a portfolio of STEAM learning programs for girls. Its core offerings include the MISSion Innovation all-woman innovation marathon and mobile app for climate action, the Textiles + TechStyles workshop teaching Arduino coding and eTextiles, and the Pretty Brilliant engineering design service-learning program. Additional offerings include the Leadership Team for teen girls, the STEM of Fashion Design interdisciplinary workshop, and self-defense training. The organization connects participants with female mentors from universities and companies to provide real-world STEM experience through project-based learning focused on community impact.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- MISSion Innovation An all-woman 24-hour innovation marathon where girls collaborate to develop technology solutions for climate-action challenges posed by real-world clients such as the City of Fort Collins, targeting middle and high school girls.
- MISSion Innovation: The App
- Textiles + TechStyles A hands-on workshop where girls learn design thinking, coding in the Arduino programming environment, and how to create eTextiles (circuits embedded in fabric) to prototype health and wellness solutions.
- Pretty Brilliant
- Leadership Team
- Pretty Brainy Essentials: Self-Defense Training A self-defense training course in partnership with Model Mugging designed to prepare teen girls and women for STEM careers by fostering personal safety skills.
- STEM of Fashion Design
- Mentorship Program
Quantifiable outcome
- 95% of girls gained confidence in their ability to do science and math
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Pretty Brainy
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Pretty Brainy technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature3 records
Pretty Brainy partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
14 partnerships are on record, tiered key, core and minor.
- Model MuggingkeyCollaboration to deliver Essentials Self-Defense training course for teen girls and women of Northern Colorado
- OtterBoxcoreCorporate mentors from OtterBox supported teen entrepreneurs in Pretty Brainy workshops, helping girls prototype health and wellness solutions
- Colorado State UniversitycoreMISSion Innovation held at CSU facilities. Engineering majors from CSU mentor Pretty Brainy girls. Professors participate as judges and speakers.
- Becks' Martial ArtsminorHost venue for self-defense training courses, providing safe and comfortable setting for girls and women to learn
- WiSciminorWomen in Science at Colorado State University - partner for events including Trivia Night and program promotion
- KUNCminorPublic radio station helping expand Pretty Brainy's reach outside existing networks through marketing support
- City of Fort CollinscoreMISSion Innovation addresses climate action challenges articulated by the city. Girls develop solutions to help the city advance its climate action plan and meet 2050 carbon neutrality goal.
- Northern Colorado Bioscience ClusterminorSponsored the 2016 Pretty Brainy Shark Tank event at the Innosphere Colorado startup incubator
- InnosphereminorColorado incubator for startups that hosted Pretty Brainy Shark Tank pitch competition
- Community First FoundationminorColoradoGives.org program operator providing online donation platform for Pretty Brainy
- League of Women Voters, Larimer CountyminorCommunity partner collaborating on women's history and STEM education events
- The NeighborminorFort Collins venue hosting Not-So-Trivial Trivia Night events celebrating Women's History Month
- Environmental LightsminorSan Diego-based engineering company providing telementoring to Pretty Brainy workshop participants
- Poudre School DistrictcorePartner school district for STEM events including STEM-Finity reaching 200+ sixth-grade girls annually
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Pretty Brainy competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Black Girls CODE: National nonprofit providing technology education to girls of color through workshops, hackathons, and after-school programs. Closely comparable mission (STEAM empowerment for underrepresented girls) and similar workshop/hackathon delivery model, but at a far larger geographic and donor scale.
- Code.org: Major nonprofit expanding access to computer science in schools with free K-12 curricula and the Hour of Code campaign. Broad incumbent in the same computer-science education space that Pretty Brainy's Arduino/coding curriculum competes for teacher mindshare with.
- Girls Who Code: Largest US nonprofit closing the gender gap in tech; runs clubs, summer immersion programs, and college-loops targeting the same middle/high-school girl demographic as Pretty Brainy. Operates at national scale with a vastly larger staff and corporate sponsor base, but in the same STEAM-for-girls mission category.
Emerging players
- iD Tech: For-profit STEM camp and program operator offering coding, game design, and engineering summer camps for kids and teens. Overlaps with Pretty Brainy's Textiles+TechStyles and STEM-of-Fashion workshops on format (hands-on STEAM enrichment) but as a fee-based, national incumbent rather than nonprofit.
Others
- National Girls Collaborative Project: National network connecting organizations that encourage girls to pursue STEM careers, with programs serving K-12 girls. Comparable population and mission; serves as a potential channel/distribution partner for Pretty Brainy's Northern Colorado programs.
- EngineerGirl: National Academy of Engineering program encouraging girls to pursue engineering through online resources, contests, and profiles of women engineers. Adjacent/awareness-driven rather than direct workshop competitor, but operates in the same girls-in-engineering ecosystem Pretty Brainy targets.
Direct peers
- TechGirlz: Nonprofit whose mission is to inspire middle-school girls to explore technology through free workshops, hackathons, and summer camps. Direct overlap with Pretty Brainy's middle-school girl target segment and workshop delivery model, though TechGirlz is technology-focused rather than full STEAM.
- Girlstart: Nonprofit dedicated to empowering girls in STEM through hands-on, inquiry-based STEM programming including after-school clubs, summer camps, and family STEM events. Direct competitor in the girls-in-STEM enrichment space with comparable scale (community-based, regional reach, donor-funded).
- Science Club for Girls: Nonprofit providing free STEM club experiences, mentoring, and role models for girls from under-resourced communities. Comparable mission, comparable delivery (clubs, mentoring, free programming), and comparable reliance on community and corporate partnerships.
Peers
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Pretty Brainy social profiles
Digital presencePretty Brainy financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Pretty Brainy leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles11 records
Pretty Brainy funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Pretty Brainy M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Pretty Brainy
What does Pretty Brainy do?
Pretty Brainy delivers hands-on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) learning programs for middle and high school girls in Northern Colorado, including 24-hour innovation marathons (MISSion Innovation), Arduino-based eTextiles workshops (Textiles + TechStyles), engineering design service-learning projects (Pretty Brilliant), a teen Leadership Team, and self-defense training. Programs are delivered free to participants through schools, universities, and community events, with a companion mobile app that supports climate-action behavior tracking.
Is Pretty Brainy a public or private company?
Pretty Brainy is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Pretty Brainy founded?
Pretty Brainy was founded in 2008. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Pretty Brainy based?
Pretty Brainy is headquartered in Loveland, United States, in the North America region.
How does Pretty Brainy make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Donations and Charitable Contributions are the primary driver. The others are foundation and Corporate Grants.
Who are Pretty Brainy's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Black Girls CODE, Code.org and Girls Who Code. iD Tech is listed as an emerging player. Others are National Girls Collaborative Project and EngineerGirl. Direct peers are TechGirlz, Girlstart and Science Club for Girls. STEM for Girls (Aspen Digital Tech Camp participants and similar programs) is listed as a peer.
Does Pretty Brainy have an API?
No public API is recorded for Pretty Brainy.
What industry is Pretty Brainy in?
Pretty Brainy's product category is Youth STEAM Education (Nonprofit). Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDAMALAE, Robotics, Engineering & Makers Camps, with a secondary code of EDAMALAD, Coding, Game Design & Computer Science Camps. Its NAICS code is 61169 and its SIC code is 8200.