Celebrating Women Entrepreneurs Across The Globe

The mission and goal is to help people who have the same problem as me. I struggled with skin for so long. Now that I’ve figured out what works I decided to share with people and there’s quite good reviews. It brings joy to my heart to see my products work for people because I know how it feels to have skin problems.

I wanted to do things that others considered difficult, and to take advantage of opportunities that others passed up as difficult. In companies I’ve worked for, I always quickly reached a glass ceiling and I knew that my curiosity and my inner geek would always be in search of nurturing me with more knowledge and experience. When you focus first on the purpose and then on monetizing it, the equation changes. When a problem represents a challenge and your actions reflect a solution, resilience increases. When each step leaves a green mark on the world and a smile on people, the perspective is different.

I was a professional dancer for 10 great years and that’s what I always wanted to pursue. Dance is not just an art for me - it’s my passion. While taking care of the website and marketing requirements for my dance company, I got this job opportunity at Hogarth (a WPP company) as a Software Engineer which I never wanted to take. However, I never said no to any opportunity, and like many others, my family wanted me to have a stable career. So I attended the interview, got selected, and that’s where my journey in this industry began. Leaving dance was a very big deal for me so I made a promise to myself that I would do the job for 6 months and if it did not feel fine to me, I would return to dance; and if I chose this [industry], then I was not going to do a 9-5 the whole of my life. I would learn and then start my own agency. Well, interestingly enough, after 6 months I was in love with this!

When I was a kid when my mother would relax my hair; I would cry from the relaxer burning my scalp and she would say “pretty hurts my child” and continue. I got used to healing the scalp burns after every relaxer treatment. Four years ago, I decided to cut my relaxed hair to grow my afro and that’s when I realized that I did not know anything about my natural hair - from products to use to maintaining it. I then started my natural hair journey through trial and error and lot of research. I got good feedback about my hair, people started asking what I did and what products I used. Initially, I only wanted an organic skincare manufacturing business but after my natural hair journey, I decided to start with haircare.

During lockdown, a ton of my friends would reach out to ask for baking recipes, wanting to get more familiar in the kitchen but they didn't know where to start. From there, I wondered how many people may like to have all the ingredients for a recipe pre-measured for them, ready to bake. Then I started at-home testing, using my friends as a focus group, trying different packaging, and finally, in March 2021, Crumb & Co. was born.

After working for 10 good years in the corporate world, I felt something was missing in my life. I could not find a purpose in life which makes a real change in the lives of people. When I was visiting my native area during one of the festivals, I visited this weaver’s belt near my home - that is when I decided to work for the handloom weavers, to spread and create awareness, to build a sustainable model, and to uplift them.

My search for where I belonged drove me to dig deeper, and my love and passion for seeing people win and thrive was my inspiration. For me, there’s nothing greater than seeing someone happy and at peace in a space where they feel like they belong, where they feel at home. My soul statement is to make a difference in at least one life everyday.

We started Triciclo as a social media agency - that was the real goal, but fortunately, we pivoted right on time when we saw that the social media market was completely saturated and yet saw a huge opportunity in the e-commerce field. Mexico was lightyears away from the US e-commerce scene at the time. I feel like I started at 25 because I had nothing to lose at the time, and that is when I met my business partners (which made sense).

When I started off, I had no investors and no funding. So I decided to start the company on a low budget. Whatever I had earned through freelancing, that acted like funding for my startup. Post registrations and procedural work, marketing was a problem as I had to pay various platforms to advertise my business. Hence, I learnt how to market my own company through social media and decided to cut down as many expenses as I can. That helped me to survive in the initial days. I didn’t opt for having a company website since I was working on major cost-cutting. But luckily mouth publicity and self-marketing helped me to get through corporates and get clients.

It was a dream at first: to raise awareness about sex education for children and parents. After numerous attempts of failing to hold down a job and create a difference in children’s education, I still can’t believe it! It was not a perfect launch. Instead, it was a rocky road. But despite everything, we managed to sell 2701pcs children’s books specializing in sex education on our first and second launch.

My chess life inspired me. Through 22 beautiful years and my childhood in chess, I've learned a lot about this specific wonderful world, but I also saw what lacks. As chess gave me everything, I decided to give my best to empower chess by transferring the traditional into the digital world so these beautiful people can connect worldwide. The 21st century is the best timing to start a tech company, also the well-known TY show - Queens Gambit - seemed like a momentum to start.

I wanted to start Lulibo Market almost 5 years ago. I had this idea to start a platform where I would share my transition from buying from big businesses to almost exclusively supporting small, local, black-owned brands. My goal was to amplify the work of black creatives, innovators, and entrepreneurs and to inspire more people to do the same. I then realized that so many people were going through this collective consciousness with regards to more purpose-driven consumerism. However, even though finding sustainable, ethical and eco-conscious brands was becoming easier, it was still difficult to find BIPOC-owned brands. So I moved from wanting to show people how I journeyed into shopping black to wanting more people to do the same. And with any movement, it is always easier to get people to join in if you make it as easy as possible. There came Lulibo Market, a one-stop-shop where you could find anything from dishwashing liquid to earrings to candles to skincare all BIPOC-owned.

Growing up from being a child actress, I thought acting would be my mainstream career but eventually, I stepped into dancing as a choreographer, after which I started my catering company. These were my passions and my skills but I could not visualize them being my career or I being able to make it big there. Hence, after I decided to try to make a saree on my parents’ anniversary; and getting confidence in the process - and also seeing my love for fashion, I decided to pursue it as my career. Today, when I am mentoring at Fashion colleges, the students make me realize that it was the right decision, and I can inspire more and more enthusiasts.

I created Aneta because I, and every working parent I knew, was desperate for a solution to help make sure that kids were having a safe and productive time on the internet without us having to be omnipresent. During the COVID quarantines, what before was a nuisance became a huge source of stress and had an impact on my income, as I was forced to take three months off my client service work.

As a young adult, I took a keen interest in reviewing different educational policies and observed a drift in their objectives, which made me feel uncomfortable. An insight into the nitty-gritty of the Indian education system inspired me to establish a platform, which provides an effective educational experience, fulfilling all the needs and interests of a child. Thus, Eduvest Connect was conceptualized.

After losing my mother, I wanted to do or start something that’ would keep her memory alive, and to thank her for being the mother she was to me; hence, I started the skin care brand named after her. Also, as a self taught makeup artist, and someone who was bullied during my teen years because of a birthmark I have on my face, I wanted to help my makeup clients who also experience skin issues which they want to hide with makeup. I want to help other women get their confidence back, by helping them take care of their skin.

I come from a family of bankers. Somehow a 9-to-5 job never excited me as a kid. After completing my design degree, I had decided to gather five years of work experience and then start my own company. After five years of working in India, I moved to the USA. Then it was important to gather work experience in a foreign land again to understand the work culture & the cultural nuances which could influence my work as a designer. During the pandemic, I lost my job. That's when I decided to pursue my long-awaited dream of running my own design studio. In a way, the pandemic pushed me to pursue my long-cherished dream and turned into a blessing in disguise.

The Kithul industry has been left to go astray for centuries, leaving it with many challenges (primarily, supply chain disconnect and refined sugar addition). Knowing this, I saw it as a space where there was a chance to do something truly innovative, impactful and meaningful – re-envisioning possibilities not just for the product but for the globally unique farming community that has preserved it.

My inspiration came from Dr. Esther Mahlangu when she painted that BMW, and the particular thing that pushed me to start was unemployment, and to combine the two, I figured, since we are no longer sitting around a fire for the elders to pass on the richness of our culture, why not do it in a modern, fashionable way?

I started HopeQure with the vision of overcoming the global stigma associated with seeking mental health treatment. I believe that the ongoing research on the "Application of Technology in Mental Health Counselling" at HopeQure will act as a catalyst to facilitate ground-breaking changes in the field of diagnostics, patient care, and assessments, which will lead to higher standards and result-oriented mental health counselling.

It all started with a phone call from Frédéric Monette, Vice-President of Operations at Courchesne Larose, a century old, family-run fruit and vegetable distributor in Eastern Canada. In 2016, Monette called us and said that they were throwing away 16 tons of fruits and vegetables every single day, 365 days a year. I was working as a Sustainability Specialist in the food industry and David was working full time in the two other businesses that he also cofounded; a raw vegan fast food chain and a kombucha company. When we heard about that food waste issue, we quickly left everything from our respective projects in order to start LOOP Mission.

The idea for the company came after working as a radio presenter for a few years. I kept getting requests for internship and mentorship from young people who would like a career in the broadcast industry. I also noted that there were very limited opportunities for training broadcasters outside of the conventional universities, so I thought; 'why not create an opportunity for these young people to learn and also get the internship opportunities they need'?

In 2015, I had the great opportunity to go to Dubai where I began my journey in the fashion industry. Although it was very insightful, I was quickly made aware of the detrimental impacts the [fashion] industry has on the environment and the people behind our clothes. That's when I began researching alternatives and learning about sustainability in the industry - and eventually applied these learnings to launch NAFSI.

L’Artchi, as its name explains, is a combination of architecture and art. It is a brand that specializes in architectural design but also designs its own interior decoration along with paintings and artisanal deco (like pottery for example). The idea is to bring more art to architecture and more architecture to art. L’Artchi is here to offer a complete architectural experience starting from an empty field to a beautiful project, delivered with its handmade interior details.

I started working when I was 20 years old as a practice graphic designer, then I got hired, but I felt like my creativity was always limited. I wanted to be able to see my projects completed, so I started to make vinyl for cups, coffee mugs, shirts, and different media at home. I had such demand that in six months, I decided to open a store. I had so many customers and appointments that I wasn’t able to have a job and have my shop at the same time so I decided to quit. It was really hard but definitely the best decision.

The most resistance I faced was from my own workshop workers who would randomly nudge my father [and say] "Get her married. Why do you bring her here?" Distant family members would come to my mother and tell her how humiliating it is that she's making her daughter a mere carpenter. Men in our society look down on a woman who works outside of home, especially like in my field where I have to visit homes, communicate with labourers, masons, and store keepers etc. But when you prove people wrong by actually accomplishing your goal then they look at you differently. When projects started coming and getting completed, people started getting close to me, respecting me far more than they used to when I started my work.

When I first joined the corporate world in 2015, transitioning from being a practicing attorney in a law firm, I needed guidance when faced with challenges, opportunities, or situations I had never met before in my life. My mission was to be that person for those who came after me... In Botswana, unemployment is a major challenge, however, when young people are employed, a number of issues are raised about their behaviour, work ethic, and their expectations. I wanted to reignite the passion for corporate work, to encourage successful young professionals to speak up about their journeys and challenges.

I laid the foundations of this business in July 2019. While I was brainstorming about business ideas with my family, my mother explained how my grandmother got herself and her siblings educated by doing handicrafts at home and earned a living for the house in this way. When I heard this, I thought that thousands of housewives needed additional income, their hand-made skills and they could support the family economy. Assuming that a virtual market that can realize this can reach handicraft workers in every corner of our country, I bought my domain address that night and laid the foundations of my work that I love very much.

I have always planned events for my friends and family - surprising people is one of my favorite things. After I graduated, I also worked for a year at an oil company. During that period, my friends told me to start my event planning company but I wasn’t confident about it at first. It was a hobby and I didn’t think I could make it a way of living. To my greatest surprise, I started getting booked by people I didn’t even know and that’s how we’ve been growing day-by-day.

I have been making stuff for myself from my childhood. My passion for design was driven my my creative ability but was largely influenced by lack of access. The "good things" and the "beautiful things" were out of my reach financially so I found a way to create my own replicas and its a craft I carried through to my adulthood and birthed this business.