They’re young. They’re women. And they’re definitely role models in the world of entrepreneurship and innovation.
Maybe you haven’t heard about these ladies (hey, they’re just starting out), but it’s unquestionably worth keeping an eye on what they’re up to.
The following list (in alphabetical order) isn’t exhaustive, of course. There are countless other women who have made their name pursuing their ambition and adding value to other peoples’ lives.
Rhonesha Byng, founder and CEO of Her Agenda
Rhonesha Byng is a journalist and entrepreneur who founded Her Agenda, a digital media platform dedicated to professional empowerment of millennial women. The website features tons of articles, events, job opportunities, career profiles… Simply, information and inspiration galore.
Need to pluck up the courage to launch your start-up idea or move to the next level of your career? Then go ahead and check out her website.
Teresa Cauvel and Sona Shah, founders of Neopenda
“Nearly three million babies die in their first month of life every year, and 98 per cent of these deaths occur in the developing world.”
This is the problem that young entrepreneurs and Columbia University grads Cauvel and Shah decided to tackle.
Founded in 2015, their global health tech start-up, Neopenda, makes wearables that monitor four new-born vitals: heart rate, respiration, blood oxygen saturation and temperature. The company itself has no more than three employees (excluding the advisory board), with Shah being the CEO and Cauvel the CTO.
Hopefully they’ll manage to save millions of new-borns this way!
Nicole Moskowitz and Jessica Traver, founders of IntuiTap Medical
A Columbia University grad Nicole Moskowitz and a Purdue University grad Jessica Traver joined their forces and founded IntuiTap Medical, a start-up developing a handheld, easy-to-use device designed to eliminate the guesswork, frustration and pain from spinal punctures (e.g. epidurals and spinal blocks for pain relief during vaginal births).
The ladies also split their roles – Moskowitz is the CTO and Traver the CEO of the company.
Emily Motayed, co-founder of Havenly
Emily Motayed co-founded Havenly with her older sister (CEO of the company) and their mission is to offer affordable interior design services for people with a modest budget.
The origins of this idea trace back to the time when Motayed found herself in a similar situation – wanting to create a beautiful home but lacking finances to realise it. At Havenly, for a flat fee of $185, a client is matched with a freelance interior designer, who assists them virtually with decorating their dwelling.
Whitney Wolfe, founder and CEO of Bumble
When you start a start-up, it’s important that your idea can fulfil a certain human need, like the need for social pollination, for example. That’s how Bumble, a dating app that only allows women to make the first move, came to life.
By the way Wolfe co-founded the dating app Tinder in 2012 within the IAC start-up incubator, but left in 2014 due to sexual harassment issues (there was a legal case going on), which somehow might have inspired her to create the feminist Bumble.
Alice Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Verge Genomics
A Princeton University grad Alice Zhang co-founded Verge Genomics, a biotech start-up that fuses the latest in computer science with new technologies for decoding the human genetic code.
What does that actually mean? The creators’ explanation on the company’s website reads as follows:
“Many drug discoveries fail because researchers target only one gene at a time. Using the same breakthroughs that power Google’s search engines, we’ve discovered a way to map out the hundreds of genes that cause a disease, and then find drugs that target all the genes at once.”
Lu Zhang, co-founder of NewGen Capital
Lu Zhang, a Chinese transplant to the United States of America, has always had an enterprising spirit.
A materials science and engineering grad from Stanford University decided to sell her medical device start-up for diagnoses of Type II diabetes (built as part of on-campus entrepreneurship class) for more than $10 million at age 23 and subsequently opened her own venture capital firm, NewGen Capital, which has made 38 investments so far. How cool is that?
NewGen Capital prefers to invest in globally disruptive, transformative technologies and business models.
About the author
Katarina Matiasovska writes for Inspiring Interns, which specialises in sourcing candidates for internships and graduate jobs, including digital jobs.
