Over 50 veterans, active military personnel and their spouses came from all over the country to Chapel Hill in July for Patriot Boot Camp, a startup weekend unlike any other. The weekend consisted of various speakers, panels, workshops, intensive mentoring sessions and culminated in a final pitch event on Sunday morning.

But while the attendees came from all over, the winner of the final pitch competition hails from the town just outside Raleigh known as Clayton. She’s CJ Scarlet, a Marine veteran and inventor of Tiger Eye Security Sensor (TESS), a voice-activated wearable device designed to protect people from becoming victims of assaults. (ExitEvent profiled her in March.)

A Local Patriot Boot Camp Win

While TESS seems like a cool gadget, it is so much more than that for Scarlet. As a rape survivor, she has dedicated her professional career to advocating for assault and domestic violence victims. She’s worked with non-profits, run a child advocacy center, and served as director of victims issues for the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office. She also holds a master’s degree in human violence.

“It took me about 10 years—I grappled with the trauma and then I took my power back and became an advocate for others who had been victimized,” she says. 

Now Scarlett is ready to use her skills as an entrepreneur to prevent people from becoming victims altogether. TESS is just one of many products that she intends to release under her 10 for Humanity brand. All have a mission to reduce occurrences of rape, domestic violence and bullying by 10% over the next 10 years. 

There’s much more to the story. Read the complete text at Exit Event: