According to Inc. Magazine, there are 114 percent more women entrepreneurs than there were 20 years ago. In the U.S., many women report they are trying to get a better work/life balance by starting their own company. Inc. also stated that many women-owned businesses have begun after their owners have suffered the effects of gender discrimination. Some of these female entrepreneurs have needed to develop their own companies due to un- or under-employment. The focus of this article is on those women who have created tech businesses that have become very successful.
Elsa Bernadotte and Karma
Bernadotte, according to Entrepreneur Magazine, has found a means to bring together people who prefer or have a need to buy discounted food with owners of grocery stores, restaurants, and cafes. The app, called Karma, has been hailed as a means of ending the massive waste of food. The Swedish-based company is listed on Wired UK’s top 100 startups and on Forbes’ list of 30 companies with founders under 30 years of age.
Katrina Lake and Stitch Fix
According to Inc. Magazine, Lake was able to secure $750,000 of venture capital funding and created a company in 2011 called Stitch Fix. Online customers receive a box of clothing that is curated by a designer to match their personal tastes. The clothing is shipped to their homes for them to try out. This saves customers wasted gas and the time of going to stores and malls. It also affords them the assistance of clothing and accessory professionals in choosing their wardrobe.
Chrissy Weems and Origami Owl
Chrissy Weems began her business for her daughter. The latter wanted her parents to buy her a new car for her 16th birthday. Instead, Weems advised her daughter she would have to earn the money for the car. The family created a business that not only personally enriching, but it enriches their customers and their independent designers. Weems, an art major in college, her daughter, and her independent consultants create customized keepsake jewelry for clients that are designed to tell a story about the client’s life and aspirations. The business has been an incredible success because the jewelry designing process is very warm, loving and cathartic for the customers.
The business would not have been able to grow beyond the family’s personal interactions with customers at home parties and mall kiosks but for Weems’ idea to bring on board independent designers that communicate with each other and the company through social media. This has allowed the company to move past the confines of their Arizona residence, nationally, and now internationally to Canada.
Stephanie Lampkin and Blendoor
According to Forbes Magazine, Lampkin’s vision is to have all hiring be as color-blind and diverse as possible. Toward that end, she created a recruiting app that purposely prevents the job recruiter from seeing the name or photograph of the candidate. The idea is to prevent those who hire employees from placing biases into the process of finding the best candidate for the job.
Reshma Saujani and Girls Who Code
Saujani began her non-profit, Girls Who Code in 2012. She provides programming courses in after-school programs and summer classes to end the gender gap in the world of programming. Over 90,000 secondary school girls have attended her classes.
Each and every one of these successful female entrepreneurs has used technology to create something entirely new for their customers and solved needs in the marketplace that other companies simply have not yet risen to meet, such as reducing the problems of hiring discrimination, food waste and a lack of females in programming. They also have the foresight to allow customers to have personally customized wardrobes and jewelry that make statements about who they are. Clearly, these female entrepreneurs listened to the needs in the marketplace and are rattling cages, as they rise to fill those previously unmet niches
