Fortune profiles some up and coming Female entrepreneurs. Here are some examples from the article. It is wonderful to see these smart, ambitious Women taking on the challenge of starting their own businesses.
-EJ
Tavi Gevinson
Rookie Magazine
Age: 15
Tavi Gevinson is a darling among fashion designers, critics, and long-time readers of her blog, Style Rookie. Gevinson maintains her blog, but now has launched an online publication, Rookie magazine. Gevinson is modest about the venture, but don’t be fooled: After announcing her plans to launch the online mag through her blog, she received 2,900 email submissions to join her writing team within 10 days.
With Rookie, Gevinson says she wants to offer no-nonsense, “honest” content about fashion, feminism, and life issues for girls -- much like Jane Pratt’s Sassy provided a breath of fresh air for feministas in the 1980s and early `90s. Though Pratt is one of Gevinson’s advisors, the young editor chose not to work with Say Media, which publishes Pratt, so she could maintain control of her effort.
The 15 year-old Gevinson is certainly connected; recent Rookie posts include a dramatic first kiss tale by Bridesmaids director Paul Feig, an interview with actress Aubrey Plaza of Parks & Recreation, and guest contributions from Joss Whedon, Zooey Deschanel, Dan Savage, and Jack Black.
What’s next? Gevinson has her sights on showcasing the site’s writing, photography, and illustrations in a semi-annual print issue. Just the same, she is reluctant to call her work at Rookie a job. “It doesn’t feel like a business right now,” she says. Although the site earns revenue from ad sales, neither Gevinson nor her editorial director plan to draw a salary this year. “I get a lot of creative satisfaction out of doing it.”
Jessica Mah
inDinero
Age: 21
InDinero offers small businesses a way to track their finances by inputting their accounts with the attention of a financial advisor, but “completely free of accounting jargon,” as its website promises. This emphasis on providing a service for small businesses without accounting training is at the core of inDinero, says co-founder Jessica Mah.
Mah launched inDinero out of her dorm room at U.C. Berkeley with classmate Andy Su in July 2010, before moving into a house and using its living room as its office (inDinero has its own offices now, but Mah says the two co-founders remain roomies). That September, the company raised $1 million from investors such as YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim and Y Combinator, the famous seed venture fund for tech start-ups.
Today, the company has six employees and over 20,000 businesses using its servers, with over 2.5 million transactions carried out. The company only just began charging for its services: $19.95, $29.95, or $49.95 per month, depending on a company’s amount of transactions. Mah says inDinero plans to “step on the gas pedal” in the next few months, increasing its public profile through social media, search engine marketing, and in-product word-of-mouth (incentivized referrals by customers). Mah estimates that with expanded marketing, inDinero can quickly grow five-fold.
Juliette Brindak
Age: 22
The “Miss O” character has come a long way since a 10-year-old Juliette Brindak first sketched her: Brindak’s book series, Miss O and Friends, has sold several hundred thousand copies, and her website, MissOandFriends.com, boasts a quarter of a million members. Given her site’s success, Brindak says she may be appearing on the small screen soon; she’s in talks to participate in a health and wellness show that targets young girls.
MissOandFriends.com offers an insulated, supportive space for female tweens. Brindak hopes to provide an open atmosphere that boosts its users self-esteem. Ad sales cover the site’s expenses, including the salaries of two full-time employees. The popularity of MissOandFriends has sparked the interest of several potential buyers, and Brindak is not opposed to the idea of an acquisition, with the hopes of bolstering the MissOandFriends brand internationally. Brindak says such a sale could happen as early as 2012.
Krystal Harrell
Create Exposure
Age: 23
Krystal Harrell got her start as an entrepreneur at age 13. Her mother loaned her $20 to start Lucky You Design, which took off when Harrell expanded the clothing company from pajamas to customized apparel and accessories -- she was all of 16 at the time. She sold Lucky You in 2009, and used that funding to start her current venture, Create Exposure, in 2010.
Create Exposure provides marketing research, PR, and design services catered to appeal to young consumers. In Harrell’s hometown of Charlotte, N.C., the company has worked with clients such as SKYY Vodka and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation. Looking ahead, Create Exposure’s team of two in-house staffers and six long-time freelancers is developing online social tools for the Democratic National Convention, which will be held in Charlotte next year.
Harrell is one to keep an eye on not only for her marketing firm, but also because of her interest in camel milk. Working with a female business partner in Karachi, Pakistan, Harrell has developed partnerships with farmers and manufacturers in North Carolina and plans to hit the ground running with her own U.S. camel milk brand when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the product, which Harrell bets will happen in early 2012.
Harrell hopes that her example will show other young women that they can succeed in launching their own businesses. “It’s not rocket science,” Harrell says. “It’s just having tenacity and drive.”
Jessica Scorpio
Getaround
Age: 24
Jessica Scorpio came up with the idea for her car-sharing startup while she was toiling as the youngest (and thus last to start driving) member of the first graduating class at Singularity University, an elite Silicon Valley tech grad school that accepted 40 out of 1,200 applicants that year. She worked with eight classmates on the idea for Getaround there in response to Google’s Larry Page’s challenge for students to come up with an idea that could affect 1 billion people within ten years. Shortly after, Scorpio launched Getaround full time with co-founders Sam Zaid, 32, and Elliot Kroo, 21.
What makes Getaround impressive? The company allows drivers in San Diego and San Francisco to share their cars in an arrangement that Scorpio describes as Airbnb without the security and safety concerns. Unlike ZipCar, which provides a similar service, Getaround users can make money by sharing their cars (some have made up to $10,000.).
Scorpio and her team have impressed former TechCrunch boss Michael Arrington; his CrunchFund was among the investors that contributed a total of $3.4 million in seed funding announced last month.
To make way for expansion, Getaround has pushed for the passage of laws to okay its car-sharing practices under states’ insurance. But Scorpio doesn’t see legislative headaches slowing the company down; she plans for Getaround to go international, and scoffs at naysayers. “Don’t listen to anyone that tells you that you shouldn’t start something.”
Misa Chien
Misa Chien (left) and Jennifer Green
Nom Nom Truck
Age: 25
Nom Nom Truck serves up Banh Mi and other Vietnamese-inspired dishes to customers in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 2009, Misa Chien started the company with 26-year-old Jennifer Green. Now, the company has grown without outside funding -- a team of 15 operates two trucks in Los Angeles, and seven employees run the truck in San Francisco. And Chien has no issue telling her truckers what to do: Early on, she drove Nom Nom’s first truck for three months and got into a routine of checking the propane, jumpstarting the vehicle, and eating Banh Mi every day.
“In a male dominated industry, you can still excel if you work really hard and follow your dreams,” Chien says, admitting it wasn’t always easy. As one of the final two teams on the Food Network series, The Great Food Truck Race, last year, Chien can take a deep breath. Chien is focused on growth, hinting that Nom Nom “will be taking mobility to the next level, in other ways of mobility besides just the truck.”












