5 women-led innovative businesses whose founders would most likely inspire you

Forget shattering glass ceilings—if you ask me, you should be smashing brick walls with a sledgehammer instead. That’s how powerful female entrepreneurs are.

It's been over 40 years since the law was passed ensuring equal pay for equal work. It's no secret that women encounter numerous barriers to professional success and high-earning potential in STEM fields. A woman's wage is significantly less than a man's wage, even when performing work of equivalent effort and importance.

In a time in which gender equality is still a hot topic and equal representation at top-level management positions has still not been achieved, it is important to highlight women who have been able to achieve this status. The current economic situation makes it hard for women to start their own business, because of the lack of funding, opportunities, support and role models. However, as we can see below, there are some women who were/are brave enough to go against the tide and start their own company and become successful entrepreneurs.

Here we will present you 5 women entrepreneurs’ stories telling how they started their own innovative business, demonstrating us that women make everything possible.

MING ZHAO

Founder & CEO of PROVEN Skincare

"As a person who had been told she had “difficult” skin, I was constantly searching for better skincare. But finding the right products was time-consuming, frustrating, and expensive. And worst of all, nothing worked consistently. Was I the only one? Did it have to be so difficult?

Then I met my co-founder, Dr. Amy Yuan. We were both tired of guesswork, false promises, and exotic-sounding ingredients that didn’t deliver real results. There had to be a better way.

Using Amy’s scientific expertise, we created a holistic approach to skincare that's completely backed by data. This shared passion became the world’s largest skincare database: The Skin Genome ProjectTM. And it lets us tailor-make every PROVEN formula just for you."

Find more on: https://www.provenskincare.com/why-proven/

Sarah, Kendra & Zoe

Founders of Maker wine

"We started Maker to offer premium wine sans the snobbery. To highlight interesting varietals crafted by award-winning small producers. To tell the story of the producer that hand crafted your wine. And to package up “wine for one” in earth-conscious cans. Because we believe high-end wine isn’t just for the wealthy, distribution shouldn’t just be for the big guys, and great stories—like great wines—are meant to be shared.

Alcohol laws dating back to prohibition make it difficult for small wineries to get their wines to people like you — we’re here to change that. Now you can enjoy award-winning wine from small producers — shipped directly to you in svelte, sexy, single-serving cans."

Read more about each’s personal story and find out more about their journey on: https://www.makerwine.com/blog/the-making-of-maker-canned-wine-company/

KJ Miller and Amanda E. Johnson

Founders of Mented Cosmetics

"One night over a glass of pinot, we sat down and asked ourselves why it was so hard to find the perfect nude lipstick. That conversation sparked an idea, and that idea became the brand we are building today. We created Mented Cosmetics because we believe every woman should be able to find herself in the world of beauty, no matter her skin tone. We know you'll love being put first - because when it comes to beauty, no one deserves to be an afterthought.

From our original nude lipsticks to eyeshadow palettes to blushes, each of our makeup products is perfectly pigMented to match your skin tones. We want all women, from light to tan to dark skin tones, to feel like they have makeup that actually works for their complexions, so we've created the shades to help accomplish that. Start with our shade finder to find your perfect match and then begin building your collection today! We guarantee you'll find your new go-to or a fun addition to your makeup routine. All lipsticks are vegan, paraben-free, non-toxic and cruelty free."

Find more about Mented Cosmetics on: https://www.mentedcosmetics.com/pages/ourstory

Hasna Kourda

Founder & CEO at Save Your Wardrobe

"I am an Economics and Corporate Strategy graduate from Dauphine Paris with a high level of interest in the luxury fashion industry. I've co-founded Save your wardrobe, a Fashion Tech start up that uses Artificial Intelligence to digitise wardrobe and streamline sustainable living. We curate in the mobile app an Ecosystem of services, Repairs, Second Hand Market, Rental... as a way to extend and up-cycle the life of garnements."

Up to 85% of discarded clothing is eventually landfilled or incinerated, not to mention the waste created during manufacturing and the water needed to make a regular T-shirt. This is a big problem that the fashion industry hasn't solved yet. Another problem is that much of the waste from the fashion industry ends up in post-colonized developing countries, especially Africa. That’s what inspired Tunisia-born Hasna Kourda, now founder and CEO, to launch Save Your Wardrobe in 2017 in London.

Save Your Wardrobe is a unique mobile application that brings, for the first time, a complete view of someone’s wardrobe. It helps people save time and money, but also to realise that they have hidden gems in their wardrobe. This unlocks more sustainable consumption behaviours through hyper-personalised recommendations and easy to request services.

Find more about her business on: https://www.saveyourwardrobe.com/our-story/

Leanne Beesley

Founder of Coworker

"Coworker is the equivalent to Airbnb - but for coworking spaces. Leanne Beesley, experienced the problem of finding a coworking place while she was working remotely as a freelancer and living in Asia. . In 2015, Coworker was founded in order to help accelerate the adoption of coworking, by enabling the discovery of coworking spaces around the world.

We believe when people access inspiring and collaborative workspaces, good things happen. We envision a future where on-demand access to flexible workspace enables 1 billion people to participate in coworking annually. We believe this event will drive innovation and society forward, faster. Every day we work towards developing our technology and network to support this bright future that we will all share.”

Find more about Coworker here: https://www.coworker.com/about-us