Winston-Salem, NC – Kadie Veille, Phyllis Westerlund, and Kevin Haskins of Winston-Salem were awarded a total of $20,000 in seed stage grants on October 16th at the Center for Creative Economy’s tenth annual Velocity Demo Day held at Winston Starts, 500 W. 5th St. 

Kadie Veille, Founder of Boop Pillow, was awarded the CCE 2025 Velocity Award of $10,000. The Boop Pillow is a soft, supportive pillow designed to relieve discomfort for women who are side sleepers. Veille’s work supports women’s wellness and reimagines what comfort can feel like through effective innovation.

In collaboration with CCE, the Wells Fargo Foundation continues the Emerging Entrepreneur Award, which this year was given as two $5,000 grants. 

Phyllis Westerlund, Founder of The Curvy Fox Boutique, received one of the $5,000 grants. Her boutique offers stylish, confidence-boosting plus-size fashion that celebrates how women wear their size. Her mission is to uplift women through fashion that truly fits, giving customers a space where they feel welcome and valued.

Kevin Haskins, Founder of Bubo IQ, received the second of the $5,000 grants from the Wells Fargo Foundation. BuboIQ is a cloud-based help desk platform built to simplify technical support for small businesses and growing startups. Kevin designed the system to replace bulky enterprise tools with a clean, intuitive interface that makes ticketing and communication faster, clearer, and far less overwhelming.

Three new awards were made this year from Winston Starts. President Stan Parker extended three invitations into the Winston Starts program. Awards were made to Kadie Veille (Boop Pillow), Kevin Haskins (Bubo IQ), and Stanley Kamithi (Tangaza.io), offering each entrepreneur access to the Explore Program, which offers additional mentorship, resources, and a supportive environment to accelerate their growth. These awards underscore the strength of the cohort and the vibrant local startup ecosystem.

The awards ceremony followed a day of pitches by creative entrepreneurs to a panel of judges, which included business mentors, investors, and community leaders. Each cohort member hosted a demo table to showcase their product or service. Kadie Veille of Boop Pillow also received the People’s Choice Award, voted on by attendees of the Demo Day event. This event celebrated an eight-member Velocity cohort and is the culmination of the 10-week Velocity accelerator. During Velocity, each entrepreneur receives training with a customized curriculum led by skilled facilitators and an expert team of mentors from various business disciplines. 

Since its inception in 2016, the CCE’s creative accelerator has launched 151 companies, with 79% still in business. Collectively, these companies have generated over $30 million in revenue and $44 million in investments.