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Top Women Entrepreneurs

These self-made women have risen to the top of a variety of industries

Pete Rathburn is a copy editor and fact-checker with expertise in economics and personal finance and over twenty years of experience in the classroom.

Women have been paving the path for entrepreneurs in every industry for many decades. From Estée Lauder, who launched her cosmetics company in the 1940s, to Ruth Fertel, who aspired to have the best steak restaurant when she opened Ruth’s Chris Steak House in 1965, women entrepreneurs have been able to withstand economic and business pressures to be the best.

Today, the list of women entrepreneurs spans many industries. Below is a list of 10 of the most successful women entrepreneurs who have made a significant mark in different industries in recent decades. This list is in no particular order and by no means exhaustive, but it strives to recognize women who have built a world-renowned brand through their own hard work and strong drive.

Key Takeaways

• Most entrepreneurs and executives still tend to be men, but more and more women are becoming business leaders and innovators.
• While there are a handful of woman founders from the past, such as Estée Lauder, the last few decades have marked a great upsurge in self-made women in business.
• Women entrepreneurs are historically most known for running fashion houses or cosmetic companies, but more recently, many have made their mark in other industries, such as real estate and biopharma.

Zhang Xin is co-founder of SOHO China, a real estate development firm in China that went public in 2007. Known as “the woman who built Beijing,” she was a factory worker before graduating from Cambridge University with a master’s degree in economic development. Zhang worked for Goldman Sachs before launching her company; she has since amassed a $1.1 billion fortune.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the founder of Biocon, a global biopharmaceutical company. She began Biocon out of a rented shed and grew it into India’s largest listed biopharma firm in terms of revenue. Biocon went public in 2004 and became the second Indian company to reach $1 billion on its first trading day. Mazumdar-Shaw has a net worth of $2.6 billion, as of February 2024.  

Janice Bryant Howroyd

Janice Bryant Howroyd is the founder and CEO of ActOne Group, the first Black female-led company to bring in more than $1 billion in annual revenue. ActOne is a Los Angeles-based employment agency and consultancy with more than 17,000 clients in 33 countries. Like many of her counterparts on this list, Howroyd started from very humble beginnings, launching her company with just $1,500 in 1978. She is included in Forbes ’ America’s Richest Self-Made Women for 2023.

Oprah Winfrey

Media mogul Oprah Winfrey has built a large media empire throughout her career. Winfrey, a TV personality turned entrepreneur, co-founded Oxygen Media in 2000. She continued hosting her talk show until 2011, subsequently creating OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, which she leads as CEO. In 2015, Winfrey bought an equity stake in Weight Watchers International and was a spokeswoman for the popular subscription weight loss program; she stepped down from the board of Weight Watchers in February 2024. Winfrey has a net worth of $2.8 billion as of February 2024, according to Forbes .

Beyoncé Knowles

The singer-songwriter, who began her career in the mid-1990s as a member of Destiny’s Child, has since become a top-selling solo artist. Beyoncé signed a $50 million endorsement deal with PepsiCo in 2012. In 2010, she founded Parkwood Entertainment, a management, production, entertainment company and record label. In 2019, she landed a three-project contract with Netflix worth $60 million. Her net worth as of February 2024 is $800 million, according to Forbes .

Arianna Huffington

Arianna Huffington launched the news website The Huffington Post in 2005. She sold it to AOL in 2011 but continued to guide it and grow the Huffington brand overseas. In that same year, Time Magazine included her in its list of the world’s 100 most influential people. In 2016, she stepped down from The Huffington Post to launch health and wellness startup Thrive Global, which she leads as CEO. Huffington has also authored 15 books.

In the U.S., businesses owned by women are growing at more than double the rate of all other firms; women-owned businesses contribute nearly $3 trillion to the economy and are directly responsible for 23 million jobs, according to the World Bank.

Founder of her namesake company, Tory Burch launched the U.S.-based clothing and fashion line in 2004. She was included in Forbes ’ 50 Over 50 (Lifestyle) in 2022 and America's Self-Made Women list in 2023. Burch is also a philanthropist who launched the Tory Burch Foundation to support women entrepreneurs.

Sara Blakely

The inventor of Spanx undergarments for women and men, Blakely started with only $5,000 of her own money, an idea, and pure drive. Today, the brand is sold in more than 50 countries. Like Tory Burch, Blakely also has a foundation to help women worldwide. To support women entrepreneurs during the 2020 economic crisis, she teamed up with GlobalGiving to launch the Red Backpack Fund, which awarded more than a thousand $5,000 awards to women business owners .

Katie Rodan and Kathy Fields

The co-founders of skincare and multilevel marketing company Rodan + Fields felt so strongly about eradicating acne for all ages that they joined together to develop their flagship product, Proactiv, in 1995. The makers have since taken the dermatologic knowledge that helped them conquer the acne market to the anti-aging skincare market. Kathy Fields has a net worth of $460 million and Katie Rodan has a net worth of $410 million; each woman is included in Forbes ’ 2022 America’s Richest Self-Made Women list.

Just 36 years old, Rihanna is the youngest woman on this list. The superstar singer has made most of her $1.4 billion fortune from Fenty Beauty, a cosmetics line she co-owns with luxury goods group LVMH. She also co-owns Savage X Fenty, a lingerie line, with investors. Her foundation, the Clara Lionel Foundation, raised $47 million for climate, racial justice, COVID-related relief, and other causes in 2020. Rihanna headlined the Super Bowl LVII halftime show in 2023, revealing that she was pregnant with her second child. She was included in Forbes ’ 2023 Power Women and America’s Richest Self-Made Women lists.

Women entrepreneurs have shaped many industries. Zhang Xin is known as "the woman who built Beijing" thanks to her work in real estate as co-founder of SOHO China. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw founded Biocon, the largest listed biopharmaceutical company in India based on revenues. Janice Bryant Howroyd co-founded ActOne Group, a workforce management firm with over 17,000 clients in 33 countries; ActOne was the first Black-owned company to achieve $1 billion in annual revenues. Ariana Huffington, The Huffington Post founder, sold the publication to AOL for $315 million in 2011. Rihanna, singer and business owner, runs Fenty Beauty, a billion-dollar company.

With a net worth of $2.8 billion, Oprah Winfrey is one of the most famous woman entrepreneurs in media and entertainment. Winfrey runs the multinational cable network OWN and co-founded Oxygen Media. Ariana Huffington, Rihanna, and Beyoncé are among the top entrepreneurs in media and entertainment.

Behind the scene of many well-known companies and brands are women founders and entrepreneurs. 23andMe, a DNA testing company, was co-founded by Anne Wojcicki in 2006. Robotics firm Automation Anywhere was co-founded by Neeti Mehta in San Jose, California. Computer security company CloudFlare was co-founded by Michelle Zatlyn in 2009, while Payal Kadakia co-founded subscription marketplace ClassPass in 2013.

Historically, women entrepreneurs are best known for running fashion houses or cosmetic companies, but, in recent decades, more women entrepreneurs have risen to prominence in a wide range of industries.

Ruth’s Chris Steak House. “ The Story Behind Our Legendary Steak House .”

Estée Lauder Companies. “ Key Moments .”

SOHO China. " SOHO China Limited ."

SOHO China. " Team ."

Forbes. “ Zhang Xin .”

Biocon. “ Our Legacy .”

Forbes. “ Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw .”

ActOne Group. " We've Been Busy...Find Out What We've Been Up To! "

ActOne Group. " About Us ."

Forbes. " America's Richest Self-Made Women ."

Forbes. “ Janice Bryant Howroyd & Family .”

The New York Times. " Oprah to Leave WeightWatchers Board ."

Forbes. “ Oprah Winfrey .”

Variety. “ Beyonce’s Netflix Deal Worth a Whopping $60 Million (EXCLUSIVE) .”

Forbes. “ Beyoncé Knowles .”

The Huffington Post. “ AOL Agrees to Acquire The Huffington Post .”

Forbes. “ Arianna Huffington .”

The World Bank. " Female Entrepreneurship Resource Point - Introduction and Module 1: Why Gender Matters ."

Forbes. “ Tory Burch .”

Tory Burch Foundation. “ About .”

Forbes. “ How Sara Blakely of Spanx Turned $5,000 Into $1 Billion .”

Spanx. " About Us ."

Spanx by Sara Blakely Foundation. “ Our Journey .”

GlobalGiving. “ The Red Backpack Fund .”

Rodan + Fields. " Meet Our Founders ."

Forbes. “ Katie Rodan .”

Forbes. “ Kathy Fields .”

Clara Lionel Foundation. " 2020 Annual Report ."

Forbes. “ Rihanna .”

The Huffington Post. " AOL Agree to Acquire The Huffington Post ."

Forbes. " Fenty's Fortune: Rihanna Is Officially a Billionaire ."

Forbes. " Anne Wojcicki ."

Automation Anywhere. " Neeti Mehta Shukla ."

Vogue India. " How ClassPass founder Payal Kadakia created a billion dollar company ."

Cloudflare. " Our Story ."

• Legendary Women Investors 1 of 19
• Top Women CEOs 2 of 19
• Top Women Entrepreneurs 3 of 19
• 10 Women-Owned Companies You Should Know 4 of 19
• Women-Owned Banks in the US 5 of 19
• Famous Women Financial Advisors 6 of 19
• Timeline of First-Time Achievements for American Women 7 of 19
• Who Is Kamala Harris? 8 of 19
• Who Is Janet Yellen? 9 of 19
• Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman on the Future of Stock Exchanges 10 of 19
• Who Was Hetty Green? 11 of 19
• Who Is Alice Jarcho? 12 of 19
• Who Is Christine Lagarde, and What Is Her Role at the European Central Bank? 13 of 19
• Elinor Ostrom: Early Life, Accomplishments, Theory 14 of 19
• Gina Raimondo: Early Life, Education, and Accomplishments 15 of 19
• Cecilia Rouse: Early Life and Education, Career, Published Works 16 of 19
• Who Was Muriel Siebert? 17 of 19
• Katherine Tai: Early Life and Education, Career, FAQs 18 of 19
• Who Was Maggie Lena Walker? 19 of 19

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Meet the Female Founders Who Are Making a Huge Impact in 2020 From our Oct/Nov issue, these powerful women are changing the game.

By Entrepreneur Staff • Oct 6, 2020

This story appears in the October 2020 issue of Entrepreneur . Subscribe »

As part of our second annual 100 Powerful Women list — led by our cover star, actress and entrepreneur Taraji P. Henson — the following female leaders from 47 brands and businesses are finding success by innovating across industries, fighting for change, and staying one step ahead of the competition.

Check out more stories from our October/November issue's list of 100 Powerful Women .

Eliza Blank

Founder and CEO of The Sill

Eliza Blank runs a thriving brand that sells plants, and she'd just hired a head of retail when COVID-19 struck…when all her stores temporarily closed. It was terrifying at first; even though her e-commerce sales were spiking (thanks to locked-in consumers' new interest in plants), she was losing money across her five shuttered locations. Still, along with her new head of retail, she spotted an opportunity. "We had solicited feedback from our retail team in the beginning of January, and a lot of them didn't feel like they had enough time to train before being put in front of the customer, and they didn't have clarity around career trajectory and growth paths," Blank says. "So we used those 12 weeks when we were shut down to go back to the drawing board and redo things like training and process and education." That was time well spent. The Sill began by selling and delivering plants across Manhattan and Brooklyn in 2012, and has since raised $15 million and expanded its e-commerce operations nationally…but it was still adjusting to life as a physical retailer as well. Now, as her stores have reopened, Blank feels more confident. "Yes, we lost revenue, and yes, we lost some team members," she says. "But now we're bringing them back to a stronger system."

Flori Marquez

Cofounder and SVP of operations of BlockFi

Flori Marquez knows firsthand how economic crises expose financial vulnerabilities: Much of her extended family lives in Argentina, where hyperinflation has led to distrust of traditional banks. That motivated Marquez to cofound BlockFi, a wealth management firm that caters to crypto investors and has raised nearly $160 million. "How can I give my cousins the ability to have savings and earn interest on it, which is a right that we have as Americans but that a lot of other people don't?" she says. And as economic uncertainty looms, "people are thinking about how to put their assets to work more diligently." It's something BlockFi capitalized on early in the pandemic, working to attract new customers who might not have previously considered investing in digital assets. "It paid off tenfold," Marquez says. "We've seen exponential growth."

Iman Abuzeid

Cofounder and CEO of Incredible Health

Iman Abuzeid couldn't have seen COVID-19 coming, but she had noticed an inefficiency in the staffing of nurses. Trained as a doctor with an MBA from Wharton, she launched Incredible Health in 2017 to make hiring nurses three to four times faster — just 15 days on average. The platform vets nurses, hospitals pay for subscriptions, and algorithms find the best matches for each job. Incredible Health constantly checks for bias — an issue that has touched Abuzeid, who is Sudanese and grew up in Saudi Arabia, and was once mistaken for a Postmates courier when she arrived to pitch at a venture firm. Despite that, she has raised $17 million and built her staff of 30 to be inclusive, "not just because it's the right thing to do," she says, but because diversity drives innovation: "It's helpful to have multiple perspectives in the room."

Mandy Price and Star Carter

Cofounders of Kanarys

Looking back on their years spent practicing corporate law, certain moments inform Mandy Price (left) and Star Carter's work today. For Price, it was being referred to as the firm's "diverse partner" in a client meeting; for Carter, it was being told she'd have to wait an extra year to make partner because she took two maternity leaves. "I was essentially penalized for using the benefits my firm offered," she says. So in 2018, the duo founded Kanarys, a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) platform notable for its method of data-driven analysis: Currently it's tracking about 800 companies on a wide range of DEI metrics — from which ones recruit at historically Black colleges to which cover gender-transition insurance — and pairing these findings with anonymous employee reviews. "Because diversity and inclusion can be an emotionally charged topic, it made a lot of sense to use technology, data, and analytics in the center of those discussions," Carter says. In 2019, the Dallas-based company raised $1.6 million and has since been accepted to Google's accelerator for Black founders. "It's easy to discount one voice," Price says. "But when you add up all the Stars and the Mandys, you see a trend. People are starting to say, "Hey, if we can't retain women and people of color, there's something within our organization that needs to change.' "

Related: The Most Valuable Lesson Learned in Business, According to 8 Female Founders

Cassie Nielsen

Cofounder and executive director of Women on Boards Project , Talent partner of VMG Partners

Calls for diverse company boards have reached a fever pitch — which is why Cassie Nielsen, a private equity executive, and other female leaders in PE and consumer products announced the Women on Boards Project earlier this year. The nonprofit's goal is to work with consumer companies to place women on their boards. "Women drive 70 to 80 percent of household purchasing decisions," Nielsen says. "Case studies show that when women aren't in the room, products aren't being thoughtfully created for the consumer who buys them." In February, WOB announced the first 20 companies it's working with, including Simple Mills, Urban Remedy, and Ancient Harvest. "They recognize that women and ethnically diverse leaders can make such an important impact."

Jennifer Campbell

Cofounder of Tagomi

As the stock market has been rocked by 2020, record numbers of people are looking at alternative assets. "There's been so much money printing recently," says Jennifer Campbell, cofounder of crypto trading firm Tagomi, which launched in 2018. "We've certainly had clients who are interested in the gold thesis; there's a limited supply of gold, so they feel that may be a good bet to hedge against. But a similar thesis has been applied to Bitcoin, and we've seen more sophisticated folks—hedge fund managers, high-net-worth people—become curious about digital assets." That's the audience Tagomi's model is designed for: people and institutions that make large-volume trades, up to $2 million. But Tagomi's customers aren't the only ones eager to bet on the company. In May, Coinbase announced it will acquire Tagomi in a deal estimated to be between $75 and $100 million.

Ashley Merrill

Founder and CEO of Lunya , Chairperson of Outdoor Voices

Ashley Merrill considers herself one of the lucky ones. Her luxury sleepwear brand, Lunya, will count 2020 as a successful year. "I can't take credit for it," she says. "We just happen to be selling the right item for this time. Our goal for the year was to be profitable, and we're gonna hit it." But Merrill is being humble; she can take credit for building a profitable e-commerce and retail business since Lunya launched in 2014. That's partly why she signed on for an even greater challenge this year, when she became chairperson of beloved-but-struggling athleisure brand Outdoor Voices. In February, the brand's founder and CEO, Ty Haney, stepped down following reports of crumbling financials. Merrill, a fan of the brand's and Haney's, reached out. "It was a company that burned through an enormous amount of capital, but it's still an incredible brand and a mission that people very much believe in," she says. As chairperson, Merrill is searching for a strong CEO and advising on its new path toward slower, sustainable growth. (Haney will serve on the board.) "We doom founders because there's this pressure to be everything," Merrill says. "Ty is a visionary. Maybe she needed more strong operational support. Businesses need different people at different stages. Even for me, I don't ever want to run a big company. That's not my bag. But that doesn't make me a failure — it makes me someone who knows where I'm strong."

Founder of Cannaclub

When Maha Haq's mother caught her smoking marijuana as a teenager, it changed her life forever. "My mom is a clinical researcher, an academic, so she told me I had to present a defense of why I was smoking," Haq says. As she researched her report, she found her passion. "I think my mom saw a spark of a devotion to science in me." Haq has since completed her undergrad studies at UCLA and is currently working toward her master's in pharmaceutical sciences with a concentration on medical cannabis sciences at the University of Maryland. She is also leading Cannaclub, a student group she started at UCLA that now has chapters across 11 campuses nationwide. The organization is focused on education, advocacy, and opportunity. "My goal is to nurture the next gen of leaders in the space," she says. She is now in the process of creating a governing body for all Cannaclub chapters that will help campuses communicate and share resources. "We can create change and mold this into a better industry."

Related: The 35 Most Influential Women In Cannabis

CEO of Match Group

How do people date in a socially distanced world? In March, when Shar Dubey took over as CEO of Match Group — which owns Tinder, Match, and Plenty of Fish — her first job was figuring that out. Fast. "We very quickly added video features, including one-to-one chat and livestream, across the portfolio," says Dubey, who has spent more than a decade in the dating business. "Even under extraordinary times, humans will seek meaningful connections." Over the past few months, she's watched users navigate the pandemic in different ways. On Tinder, young women in particular connected with international users to find support and information during quarantine. On Match, members are turning to a coaching hotline for tips on socially distanced dating. "We're taking the best of each product and sharing learnings to create the best user experience for all," says Dubey.

CEO of General Assembly

Lisa Lewin's relationship with education company General Assembly goes back years. "When I launched my own tech company, I had to build everything myself," she says. "I needed to refine my skills in development and design, and I took a GA course to do just that." Fast-forward to August and Lewin stepped in as CEO of the company, following a career centered on the education space. And she's got her work cut out for her. "We are seeing trends that were already under way get accelerated and pulled forward," she says of remote work and learning. "Right now, the challenge is ensuring that students feel supported online. Particularly for people trying to get up a rung on the economic ladder, and for those who recently lost employment or work in industries that have completely collapsed, our core mission — ­to help people find meaningful work — is more important than ever."

Geeta Vemuri

Founder and managing partner of Agent Capital

Times of crisis have a way of separating things you thought were important from those that truly are. Geeta Vemuri, managing partner and founder of Agent Capital, a healthcare VC firm focused on therapeutics and treatments, says that before the pandemic, "we felt compelled to fly to meet with companies and management teams. But now, video technology effectively puts us in the same room with these people." Whether connecting face-to-face or webcam-to-webcam, Vemuri looks first for passion in an entrepreneur. She's invested in more than 25 companies in four areas — oncology, immunology, neurology, and rare diseases — but when asked to name her most meaningful investment, she demurs. "It's like they're your children. Some find maturity at a later stage; others move quickly." Her goal, she says, is to support founders who "are interested in science and trying to actually make our lives better."

Allison Robinson

Founder and CEO of The Mom Project

Research shows that 43 percent of top-rated female talent leaves the workforce within 12 months of having a baby. "It feels very all-or-nothing, like you have to go all-in at work or be a stay-at-home mom," says Allison Robinson, who, in 2016, founded The Mom Project, a marketplace that connects female workers with flexible opportunities. She's raised $36 million and grown a network of 300,000 professionals and 2,000 companies, from small businesses to Apple and Nike. "We started out focusing on hiring, but now we're creating exhaustive programmatic initiatives to bring women back to work after a leave," she says. Aside from COVID-19 forcing the acceptance of remote work, Robinson is also seeing an embrace of alternative schedules, like a four-day workweek. "Companies are trying to keep agile," she says. "That's a win for moms."

Related: Get to Know the Female Entrepreneurs Who Are Reshaping the Business World

Padma Lakshmi

Creator and host of Taste the Nation

Episode after episode, Top Chef fans wait to hear "Please pack your knives and go" — Padma Lakshmi's signature sucker punch as host of the Bravo hit for 16 seasons. But it's Taste the Nation — the new show she created this year for Hulu — that has given viewers an even truer look at the power of Padma. Lakshmi, herself an immigrant from India at the age of 2, conceived of the series back in 2016 as she watched in horror as families were forced to separate at the U.S. and Mexico border. Taste the Nation would be a way to wrap thorny politics in mouthwatering dishes, with Lakshmi visiting, cooking, and talking history with people in various cultural pockets. In some ways, it's a triple whammy of her success as a celebrity food expert, an entrepreneur (she founded a home decor line and a jewelry brand), and an advocate. "I think this country is great because of all those different faces," she says. "Not in spite of them." Was it an easy sell? "Oh, yeah. People said yes left and right," she says. Pause. "No, they did not! I'm joking! I think a lot of it was like, "Well, are we going to spend millions of dollars making a show with a Brown female host at the center of it?' " But after endless noes, Hulu said yes. In June, Taste the Nation premiered to critical acclaim and was renewed for a second season. "I've been able to carve out a niche where my view of the world has a very specific voice," she says. "And that's the advice I would give to young entrepreneurs. Whether it's a product, a service, or commentary, you need to form a point of view that illuminates something in a way that others don't. And you need to live a little, get knocked around a bit, to really home in on what your voice is. Every one of us has a spark inside, and it's up to us to evolve that spark into something constructive that we can then contribute to our culture."

Sarah Paiji Yoo

Cofounder and CEO of Blueland

Addicted is the word Sarah Paiji Yoo uses to describe her love of creating something from nothing. She cofounded shopping app Snapette in 2010 and sold it to PriceGrabber, then helped birth brands like M. Gemi and Rockets of Awesome before having a baby in 2017. "I was trying to take a break," she says. "Then I had the idea." Imagine a nontoxic tablet that's like Alka-Seltzer meets Lysol. Plop it into a reusable container filled with water and voilà: eco-friendly household cleaning products. The concept — refill is the new recycle — seemed obvious, but it would challenge Paiji Yoo's creative yen. "We spoke with over 50 potential manufacturers, even candy manufacturers!" she says. But no one knew how to make such a tablet. So Paiji Yoo and her cofounder, John Mascari, did their own R&D, pinging 100 chemists on LinkedIn before launching Blueland with a suite of cleaners and hand soap in 2019. As for getting customers to make the switch? That's where they got a break: In March, when the cleaning aisles in grocery stores went empty, Blueland saw a 300 percent surge in demand, and now it's doing several million dollars in revenue a month. But it's just the beginning of "figuring out how to do the right thing by the environment," says Paiji Yoo. "The answers are always so complicated!"

Pierre Davis and Autumn Randolph

Designers of No Sesso

"When I went to retail stores, I didn't see garments I related to," says Pierre Davis (left). Which is why, in 2015, she launched No Sesso — "no sex" in Italian — with Arin Hayes, creating genderless, art-driven clothing. In 2019, Davis became the first openly transgender designer to show at New York Fashion Week, and that visibility led to new opportunities, including an upcoming partnership with Levi's. Now, as the pandemic brings unprecedented change to the industry, No Sesso welcomes the shift: The extra time and space, says codesigner Autumn Randolph, has let them refocus and "create with grace" — something that's been healing as they move through the social upheaval caused by the murder of George Floyd. "A lot of the work we do is a peaceful protest," Davis says. "Even in this dark world, we can bring in light."

Amy Shecter

CEO of Ever/Body

What do Foot Locker, Liz Claiborne, Cole Haan, Tory Burch, and CorePower Yoga have in common? Amy Shecter. Some people are good at launching; Shecter is great at building. Having served in the C-suite at all those brands, in 2016, she became CEO of Glamsquad — then a beauty service startup with pros who met clients at their homes or offices for makeup and nail appointments. Shecter saw an opportunity to add a new chapter to the brand's story with a Glamsquad product line, using the service calls as an R&D lab. Then she grew the customer base by creating GSQ by Glamsquad, a Gen Z brand, with CVS; she also launched a partnership with QVC. Recently, she took an advisory role at Glamsquad, after helping it double in size, to spread her magic as CEO of the aesthetics startup Ever/Body. "I hope to propel both brands as leaders in the beauty space."

Related: The State of Entrepreneurship for Women Business Owners

Cashmere Nicole

Founder and CEO of Beauty Bakerie

If anyone can overcome a challenge, it's Cashmere Nicole. A single mom at 16, she worked her way through school, got her nursing license, and at 27, bought a domain name for Beauty Bakerie, a vegan-friendly cosmetics brand she'd spent years thinking up. Then she was rocked by a breast cancer diagnosis — but pushed forward with the business, struggling for years until a last-ditch attempt at influencer marketing gave her a big win in 2015. Sales started doubling week over week; she raised $10 million, and her products are now sold in nearly 1,000 Ulta stores. This year, Nicole disclosed that her executive team is 75 percent Black, hoping to push others to hire more Black talent. "Look on Instagram, ask your Black employees if they have family members, try people out with a temporary role," she says. "Roll up your sleeves, do the hard work."

Nicole Shanahan

Founding donor and primary instigator of Center for Female Reproductive Longevity and Equality

In 2018, when intellectual property lawyer Nicole Shanahan was 29, doctors gave her bad news: She had a low number of active egg cells, and it was unlikely she could get pregnant. As she tried to understand why, she discovered a gaping hole of knowledge; scientists have no idea why women's reproductive abilities decline in their 30s. So with her husband, Google cofounder Sergey Brin, she committed $6 million to creating the Center for Female Reproductive Longevity and Equality, the first research institute to focus solely on reproductive longevity. Last year, she committed an additional $7.4 million, and in August, 22 researchers were selected to receive the first grants. "The social outcomes are so vast," Shanahan says of how women's lives would change if fertility could be extended. It would be, she says, like they'd been given "a superpower."

Sima Sistani

Cofounder and CEO of Houseparty

Houseparty launched in 2016 as a playful social networking app that enables group video chats. In 2020, it became a lifeline. "Families were able to give iPads to their loved ones in the hospital, and it was easier for them to always stay connected," says Sima Sistani, cofounder and CEO. Over a 30-day period, as nationwide lockdowns set in, Houseparty saw 50 million new sign-ups. As its user base expanded, so did team responsibilities, and Sistani worked to adjust expectations and create additional flexibility for employees­ — something she had to do for herself as well, as she and her husband started home­schooling their 7-year-old. "You feel like a failure as a CEO and a mom, but I had to remind myself that my best was good enough. I had to apply the same thinking professionally and not set unrealistic goals right now."

Kathrin Hamm

Founder and CEO of Bearaby

When Kathrin Hamm started Bearaby, she set up unique office hours: One group starts early, one starts later, and everyone overlaps from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. It made sense for a company that sells weighted blankets for improved sleep, something Hamm had discovered while traveling as an economist at the World Bank. The problem was, she couldn't find one that wasn't hot. So she wiped out her retirement funds, raised $250,000 on Kickstarter, and launched in 2018 with inventory for three months. The breathable blankets sold out in two days — but that's nothing compared with 2020. In the wake of the pandemic, a waitlist of 44,000 developed, and Bearaby rushed to onboard a second manufacturer. Revenues for 2020 are approaching $21 million. Busy as Hamm and her team are, she says, they know what schedule she's on: "I will disappear around 4:00 p.m. and take a nap."

Related: 7 Women Investors Reveal What's Different When a Woman Evaluates Your Pitch

Julia Cheek

Founder and CEO of Everlywell

In 2015, Julia Cheek launched Everlywell to disrupt the "not particularly sexy" industry of lab testing. "Many people assume lab testing is free," she says. "But then you get a bill, and you have no idea what you're even paying for." She knew that the system — dominated by two major labs, Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp — was broken, and she started partnering with independent labs around the country to provide access to a menu of at-home hormone, vitamin, and STI tests at transparent prices. In March, as the COVID-19 pandemic descended, she realized that these labs were being vastly underutilized and gave away $1 million in grants to incentivize them to set up for COVID-19 testing. Soon after, Everlywell's Austin-based team began working with the FDA to get a home COVID-19 test authorized. "We ran studies on transport, temperature, and stability of the test samples," Cheek says. "We needed a lot of data to show that this was both safe and accurate for consumers." On May 16, the FDA issued a first-of-its-kind authorization to Everlywell, allowing the company to work with a number of authorized labs to process its kit. "I knew we were doing the right thing, but I was committing the entire company toward a goal with no guarantee," Cheek says. "This shows you're never too small to make an impact, even when the problem seems insurmountable."

Angelica Ross

Founder and CEO of TransTech Social Enterprises

Angelica Ross knows how to make the most of a platform. The founder and CEO of TransTech Social Enterprises, an incubator for LGBTQ talent with a focus on the transgender community, was also a series regular last year on American Horror Story: 1984 and Pose. In the latter, her character, Candy Ferocity — a Black trans woman — was murdered, a painful and all too familiar storyline within the community. For Ross, as a trans woman herself, her acting and her work at TransTech go hand in hand. "It's improving awareness of the violence that happens against trans women of color," she says. "And through TransTech, I can shift focus to how trans people are living and thriving — not just surviving." This fall, a free, all-digital TransTech Summit will share talks, workshops, and job opportunities with 5,000 attendees worldwide.

Melonee Wise

CEO of Fetch Robotics

It's hard to imagine a company better matched to the moment than one that produces autonomous mobile robots capable of performing deep cleaning in airports and carrying out tasks that minimize contact between workers in warehouses and factories. But Fetch Robotics wasn't born out of the pandemic — ­­it formed in 2014 and, to ensure that buyers' return on investment happened quickly, utilized the cloud for remote deployment. "Now that you can't go on-site to various locations, the ability to deploy robots via Skype or some other videoconferencing technology has proved to be invaluable," says CEO Melonee Wise. Fetch's capabilities to aid humans by performing "dangerous and dirty work," she says, led to its recent adoption for service at Albuquerque's airport. "It was easy for us to support the need for that," she says. "Our robots are a platform, and third parties can put their own accessories on top of them."

Gloria Lau and Mary Jacobson

Founder and CEO, and chief medical officer of Alpha Medical

It was a rash that got Gloria Lau (left) thinking. The Silicon Valley engineer had spent hours at doctors' visits only to find out that she just needed a topical steroid. That's it, she thought. I have to be able to do this better. In 2019, she launched women's telehealth company Alpha Medical with ob-gyn Mary Jacobson as chief medical officer. For an annual fee of $99, the platform provides members with virtual access to doctors and prescriptions for skin conditions, reproductive health, and urgent care; in February, they introduced mental health care — perfect timing as women would soon begin to struggle en masse from anxiety and depression. "Since COVID-19, we have more than doubled our volume month over month," says Lau, who has raised $10 million and plans to expand into pediatrics.

Related: 3 Questions To Ask If You Want Female Entrepreneurs to Accelerate

Khalida Brohi

Founder and executive director of the Sughar Foundation

"It has been a very, very difficult time as an entrepreneur," says activist and entrepreneur Khalida Brohi. Brohi is no stranger to difficult times: When her cousin was the victim of an honor killing in their native Pakistan, she began searching for ways to fight the tradition. In 2013 she created the Sughar Foundation, a nonprofit that empowers Pakistani women through entrepreneurship. "It took us years to find the right model," says Brohi, who also operates The Chai Spot, a tea shop that serves as a marketplace for the goods created by the women who work with the Sughar Foundation. "But it was actually a short time to fight a custom like honor killings." In the past year, Brohi was selected as an adviser to Pakistan's new "successful youth" program, which provides subsidized business loans to young entrepreneurs. "It's been quite a journey," she says. "But I'm grateful."

Jameela Jamil

Founder of I Weigh

With filming on hiatus for the past few months, you might think life would have slowed down for actress and TV host Jameela Jamil. But instead, it's just given her extra time and energy to pour into I Weigh, the allyship company and community she launched in 2018. It began as an Instagram movement (with now more than one million followers) and this year expanded to a podcast, a YouTube channel, and an editorial website. Its focus is radical inclusivity, amplifying the voices of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC creators, and talking about thorny subjects like mental health without stigma — something that requires extra finesse these days. "Having a podcast that's so deeply personal, where I talk to people about things they've often never spoken about publicly, definitely feels very strange [in a remote world]," Jamil says. "It's a struggle to create that personability, because something emotionally does get lost, so you really have to compensate for that. It's been an incredibly productive year for us, but also incredibly sad and stressful. We just want to figure out how to continue to be helpful."

Raylene Yung

Cofounder and CEO of U.S. Digital Response

"A lot of technology companies and products don't actually serve everyone," says Raylene Yung. She would know: She formerly headed up engineering teams at Facebook and Stripe before leaving to focus her attention on more existential issues, like energy science and policy and government, which she studied through a fellowship at the Aspen Institute in early 2020. "I really thought I would have to reinvent the skills I had," she says. But as COVID-19 struck, she found that her existing skill set was more valuable than she could have imagined. Local governments needed people who could scale processes and handle rapidly growing demands. So Yung, along with three former U.S. deputy CTOs, started U.S. Digital Response, an open-source and nonpartisan organization that connects volunteer technologists with government teams. "Because we started during COVID-19, many of us have never met in real life," Yung admits. Despite this, U.S. Digital Response has worked on more than 100 projects in 31 states and territories, ranging from improving food security for families in Texas and Washington, D.C., to providing reliable information on how to vote during a pandemic and helping the unemployed apply for benefits. "It's a little bit of a throwback to the early internet days, when you made friends over AOL," Yung says. "It feels like that, but in a much more rewarding way."

Lisa Falzone

Cofounder and CEO of Athena Security

"Our long-term vision," says Lisa Falzone, "is to build technology to help make people safer." Falzone and business partner Chris Ciabarra founded Athena in 2018, creating an AI system that uses security cameras to identify when someone is holding a gun. The company claims it does this with 99 percent accuracy, and it has earned clients in schools, companies, and places of worship around the world. When COVID-19 came along, Athena started thinking differently. "Public health is also an element of security," Falzone says. Their tech already had thermal scanners, so it could be deployed to identify people in buildings who may have the disease. They launched it in March and are now in more than 100 locations, including hospitals, manufacturing facilities, and 911 centers. "Who knew," she says, "that a virus was really the new gun?"

Related: 8 Women Entrepreneurs on What They Wish They'd Done Differently

Sandra Oh Lin

Founder and CEO of KiwiCo

If there's one thing parents need from 2020, it's a break. "They need to engage their kids and keep their minds active — and that will hopefully provide sanity for parents," says Sandra Oh Lin. Lin is a former chemical engineer and the founder of KiwiCo, which sells educational projects for kids of all ages, fusing creativity and STEM. In March, as schools shut down, KiwiCo's sales surged, and to further help their community, her team created an online resource hub for learning at home, complete with tips and tricks, DIY experiments, and guides to help kids understand COVID-19. Shortly after it went live, a flood of traffic crashed the brand's website. "That's how much demand there was," Lin says. So this summer, they launched Camp KiwiCo, a four-week online summer camp. "The content is all free," Lin says. "We want to make sure there's still time to capture fun."

Mandy Bowman

Founder and CEO of Official Black Wall Street

Mandy Bowman grew up in Brooklyn, wanting to be an entrepreneur. "A lot of the Black business owners in the community were like aunts and uncles," she says. "That really influenced me." In 2015, she launched Official Black Wall Street (the name refers to the once-prosperous enclave of Tulsa destroyed in the 1921 race massacre), an app that helps consumers find and support Black-owned businesses. As the pandemic had a devastating effect on Black communities and nationwide protests erupted in the wake of George Floyd's murder, more than 200,000 new members joined, eager to show support with their dollars. Bowman is using that momentum to start to play a larger role between Black business owners and brands, financial institutions, and law firms. "I'm really hopeful that things are going to change for the better."

Juliana Fetherman

Founder and CEO of Making Authentic Friendships

When Juliana Fetherman left home for college, she couldn't stop worrying about her younger brother, Michael, who is autistic. "His biggest struggle is being lonely, and his lack of social skills makes it hard for him to make and keep friends," she says. That concern has since grown into Making Authentic Friendships, a tool that helps people with special needs find friends nearby. It has attracted users in 50 states and 30 countries. Fetherman intended for the app to enable in-person meetups, but its chat function has become a lifeline during quarantine. "Being stuck at home interrupted a lot of progress and therapies, so the app was a resource for social interaction," she says. "I have parents tell me, "My daughter made friends across the world.' It's good for their self-esteem to see, There are people everywhere like me."

Jerrica Kirkley

Cofounder and chief medical officer of Plume

Dr. Jerrica Kirkley was in startup mode, and wanted to move fast. She and cofounder Dr. Matthew Wetschler closed a $2.9 million seed round in February for Plume, the first digital health startup dedicated to the trans community. Plume needed to hire, fast — but went slow, despite the strain that created. The reason: They wanted a diverse team with many trans people (which includes Kirkley). To do so, they leaned on listservs, social media, and more — something companies struggling to diversify should take as a lesson: you can't expect diversity to come to you. "It's completely worth it," Kirkley says of exploring non-traditional resources and networks. "Your environment needs to be welcoming to the people you want to bring in." Plume's team is now majority trans, and its offering is licensed in 12 states — and growing rapidly.

Related: 10 Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs on Overcoming Self-Doubt and Launching Your Dream

Christina Mace-Turner

Founder and CEO of Mab & Stoke

Christina Mace-Turner has long believed in herbal medicines. But she knows that most people can't be bothered to measure out powdered herbs multiple times a day. So in February, she launched Mab & Stoke to sell dissolvable, once-a-day herbal tablets that may help with everything from sleep to anxiety. But when the pandemic hit, she didn't feel great about selling a month's supply for north of $60. "Suddenly, we were an unaffordable product," she says. "If people can't afford your product, you don't really deserve to exist." She launched a Pay What You Can program, offering discounts of 10, 30, or 80 percent; customers who took the smaller markdowns would help subsidize others. When some offered to pay 130 percent to support the program, Mace-Turner knew she'd found something bigger than sales: "It's not about a discount. It's about a community."

Natalia Oberti Noguera

Founder and CEO of Pipeline Angels

"Our members are the friends and family for entrepreneurs who don't have the friends and family [to raise] that round," says Natalia Oberti Noguera. She's the founder of Pipeline Angels, which launched in 2011 with a two-part mission: help more women and femme founders raise capital, and teach more women and femmes how to become angel investors. Since then, more than 400 individuals have completed Pipeline Angels' boot camp and "earned their wings," investing more than $6 million in more than 80 early-stage businesses run by women and nonbinary femme entrepreneurs; 30 percent of those companies have a Black woman or Black femme founder, 14 percent have an Asian woman founder, and 9 percent have a Latina founder. This year, five of Pipeline Angels' Black members have transitioned from angel investing to venture capital, extending the network's impact. "When the most marginalized are leading the conversation, that's when inclusion happens," Oberti Noguera says. As CEO, she has worked to make sure her business walks the walk, building an increasingly inclusive team to help her lead Pipeline Angels. "Our COO, Anisa Flowers, is gay, Black, Native, Deaf, uses pronouns she/her, and leads our investing boot camp, VC-in-residence program, and our pitch process," she says. "Did it take getting a Native person to join Pipeline Angels for us to start using territory names on our website and agendas? Yes. And that's OK. It's not that each of us is supposed to know everything. It's about, How can we make rooms bigger, bring more people to the table, and co-lead to create richer cultures?"

Dawn Ostroff

Chief content and advertising business officer of Spotify

Dawn Ostroff always asks herself: What's next? She finds the answer in youth culture. That's led her to help create the CW Network and to launch publishing giant Condé Nast's video network. Now, at Spotify, which reportedly loses nearly 75 percent of its revenue to music licensing deals, she's driving the business into podcasting. She's scored exclusive deals with the Obamas and Joe Rogan and acquired studios like Gimlet and The Ringer, but her vision goes beyond flash. "The [podcast] business is so fragmented, both on the creative side and the revenue side," she says. "The goal is to aggregate the industry and help drive important change" by fostering talent and developing technology to make podcasts easier to find and monetize. "It's good for Spotify," she says, "but we're not trying to be the entire train. We're just trying to be the engine."

Christine Varney

Partner of Cravath, Swaine & Moore

When Epic Games sprung an antitrust lawsuit on Apple in August, legal experts agreed: If Christine Varney is leading this charge, then take it seriously. Varney is the chair of law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore's antitrust practice, and the lead attorney for Epic, maker of Fortnite, in its suit claiming that the App Store — through which Apple takes 30 percent of all transactions — is a monopoly. Varney knows antitrust in a way few others do: She is the only person to have served on the Federal Trade Commission and as the U.S. assistant attorney general for antitrust. Does today's political moment help Epic's case? Varney didn't respond to requests for comment, but in a speech during the 2009 recession, she said, "Antitrust must be among the frontline issues in the government's broader response to the distressed economy." So, maybe?

Related: Win the Uphill Battle for Success with Business Funding for Women

Nicole Gibbons

Founder and CEO of Clare

Nicole Gibbons never expected her product — colorful paint! — to put her at the center of the nation's cultural conversations. But, as she says, "time necessitates it." Her direct-to-­consumer interior paint brand soared this year as stuck-at-home DIY-ers avoided the aisles of big-box retailers. As sales spiked, the U.S. faced a reckoning on racial inequality — and Gibbons saw an opportunity. "As a Black CEO, I've got a responsibility to find ways to bring about change," she says. On Clare's Instagram, she posted tips on checking in on Black friends, resources for education, and organizations to donate to. "A lot of CEOs rushed to make statements, and while those are well-intentioned efforts, it didn't feel very thoughtful," she says. "There was a desire to help, but people felt paralyzed. So our message was simple: You don't have to move mountains. You can take small, impactful steps."

Jeanine Hightower-Sellitto

CEO of Atomyze

If you want to track the evolution of market-shaking movements, just track Jeanine Hightower-Sellitto's career. She spent 14 years at the International Securities Exchange, where she helped to electronify the U.S. options market and served as COO during the organization's transition to NASDAQ. "Before, it was like in the movies, with men standing on trading floors, waving papers around," she says. "The electronic system changed the business of the industry for securities." She left in 2017 and became managing director of operations at Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange that partners with Samsung. And this summer, she moved into yet another market-disrupting position — as CEO of blockchain-based fintech startup Atomyze, which is modernizing the commodities market to make physical assets (like industrial metals) more accessible to institutional investors. "The opportunity is tremendous," she says.

Founder and owner of Slutty Vegan

In 2018, when Pinky Cole launched Slutty Vegan — a meat- and dairy-free burger joint in Atlanta — she decided to lead with her conscience. "I don't care about money," she says. "It doesn't matter what the bottom line is going to look like — I put people in place to monitor that. My mission here is to help people reimagine food and uplift our community." Slutty Vegan has since grown into a beloved regional chain, with multiple locations and a food truck, both of which attract long lines of hungry customers. As the business finds new levels of success, Cole stays true to her original mission. She set up the Pinky Cole Foundation to empower entrepreneurs and equip them with financial literacy, and this year, as coronavirus gripped Atlanta, the foundation raised money to help other small businesses make rent. After the police killing of Rayshard Brooks in June at an area Wendy's, PCF partnered with Cole's alma mater, Clark Atlanta University, to set aside scholarship money for Brooks' four children. "The real secret is not the food," she says. "Philanthropy is at the core of why people continue to support this business. I pour back into the community, and people want to be a part of that journey. If more businesses understand that dynamic, they, too, will continue to remain successful."

Lilac Bar David

Cofounder and CEO of Lili

In the recent wave of neobanks, Lilac Bar David is a rare female founder. Born in Israel, she had her first hit back in 2015 with a mobile banking system for millennials called Pepper, which she grew to a team of 250 with her VP of R&D, Liran Zelkha. "But Israel is very small," she says. "Liran and I wanted to create a bigger impact. So we looked for a segment that is really underserved by the banking industry and has specific pain points that we can address." The result is Lili, their U.S. neobank for freelancers and gig workers. Free to users, it comes with a no-fee Visa Business debit card. (Lili makes money off the processing fees when you swipe.) It has tools for tracking expenses and allows users to set up automatic tax withholding, and, according to Bar David, it can save users up to 60 hours and $1,700 per year. Lili was just a few months old when the pandemic hit, and Bar David quickly turned it into a news hub of resources for the growing number of freelancers. At last count, Lili had 50,000 accounts — 60 percent of which belong to women — and $10 million in funding. Bar David says her toughest challenge has been building a team that's motivated by solving big problems: "The first thing I ask is, "What keeps you awake at night?' "

Related: Karlie Kloss Looks to These Female Founders for Inspiration

Founder and CEO of New Law Business Model

Ali Katz thinks the motivations for lawyers are all wrong. "We're financially incentivized to make things as complicated as possible," she says. "The more complex they are, the more we get paid." She was once part of the problem, but when she opened her own practice, she developed a better way: working with clients as an ongoing adviser, rather than someone who reacts to immediate needs. It helped her head off problems before they began, saving clients money and her time. That was in 2006, and the method has since evolved into New Law Business Model, a training system to help estate planning and business lawyers escape the billable-hour-obsessed model. Revenue will hit $5 million this year. "We're teaching lawyers to be business owners," she says. "Part of that is having systems that allow you to meet the needs of clients without being on call all day, every day."

Gail Becker

Founder and CEO of Caulipower

Caulipower's origin story begins like many others: A mother was searching for a solution. In 2016, after Gail Becker perfected an at-home recipe of cauliflower-based pizza crust for her two sons with celiac disease, she decided to turn it into a business and walked away from a high-profile corporate career. She knew so little about food retail that after a meeting with Walmart, she left wondering, Did we just win? They had. "I just spoke to the buyer as someone who loves food and was hearing what consumers were wanting." Fueled by the low-carb and gluten-free crazes, Caulipower did $5 million in sales its first year and $96 million in 2019. Business continued to rise in 2020, and Caulipower gave back $1 million to bring healthy food to families in need. "My father spent four years in Auschwitz," says Becker. "He always told me, "The cold was horrible; the work was horrible. Watching people die was horrible. But nothing was as bad as the hunger.' "

Mandela Schumacher-Hodge Dixon

Founder and CEO of Founder Gym

When Mandela Schumacher-Hodge Dixon took a job at Kapor Capital as portfolio services director, she started unofficially studying the funding gap. "I felt like a mad scientist," she says. "I'd see how a white male founder acts. And the next meeting would be with a Black woman, and the next with a Latina." In 2017, she launched Founder Gym, offering six-week courses that teach underrepresented founders to raise money and scale. "White men have no problem being honest," she says. "Black and Latina women often aren't as authentic because they feel pressure to defy stereotypes. I've fallen in that bucket, and because I wasn't truthful, I didn't get the help I could have." Founder Gym will hit $1 million in revenue this year and has trained 600 entrepreneurs to date — 70 percent Black — who have collectively raised more than $57 million.

Crystal Evuleocha and Candice Fraser

Cofounders of Kiira

Since the pandemic started, Crystal Evuleocha (left) got married, pivoted her company, raised a funding round, and held a #FemHealthTech Conference. The 27-year-old, who moved to America from Nigeria as a teen, started Kliit Health in 2019, after she nearly died from incorrectly diagnosing her stomach pain on "Dr. Google." The app connects users with clinicians to answer medical questions for $10 per secure chat. Evuleocha launched it with nearly $100,000 in winnings from pitch competitions, but it was part of a larger ambition to improve access to healthcare for young, multicultural women. This year, with the world in crisis, Evuleocha and her cofounder, ob-gyn Candice Fraser, saw an opportunity. They rebranded to Kiira, a telehealth clinic. Colleges subscribe and offer the platform 24-7 to students; Kiira collects data on emerging STD and COVID-19 outbreaks. It will debut in two universities this fall, with 13,000 students.

Related: 50 Ways Women Entrepreneurs Can Fund Their Businesses

Jessica Mah

Founder and CEO of InDinero

InDinero, an accounting services and software company, has been helping small-business owners manage their finances for more than a decade. But as the pandemic spread, founder and CEO Jessica Mah was suddenly hearing from much larger clients. "Our incoming customer base flipped to being bigger companies that were downsizing," she says. "I'm talking billion-dollar-market-cap companies." The CEO had been eager to grow into this space, but now her team hustled to meet the surge in demand and better serve this customer. And while business has grown for InDinero, to protect it from the unknown impact of 2020, Mah laid off about 20 of her 300 employees. Additionally, she's leaned into an aggressive acquisition strategy, integrating new companies into her business. "Everyone was like, "The fuck, you just laid off people and now you're doing acquisitions?' " she says. "But a lot of people right now are playing defense. We're playing offense, and playing to win."

Candice Matthews Brackeen

General Partner of Lightship Capital

Cincinnati-based Lightship Capital invests in underrepresented founders in the Midwest, and it launched a $50 million fund this year — its largest yet, and the largest to be run by a Black woman, general partner Candice Matthews Brackeen. "The Midwest has the most Fortune 500 companies per capita; the price to grow is cheaper, and there are great companies led by founders of color here," she says. (The fund has already invested in five startups.) But the region lacks institutional capital, something Matthews Brackeen is eager to change.Might this be the moment in the wake of calls for racial equity? "I can say there are more foundations looking to invest in emerging Black fund managers, and that makes the job a little easier, but at the same time, I want to know more about this new person, like, why are you suddenly interested?" she says. "But hopefully this reckoning is a turning point."

Sarah LaFleur and Miyako Nakamura

Cofounders of M.M.LaFleur

M.M.LaFleur is a brand that makes clothing for working women, and the founders had a plan for election night in 2016. "We had a pantsuit email prepared to go," says CEO Sarah LaFleur (left). "Wednesday rolled around and we were like, "Oh, guess we won't be sending that email.' " Instead, they emailed their customers to ask what role the brand could play in supporting female politicians moving forward. In 48 hours, the prompt received more than 1,100 responses. "Regardless of politics, the consensus was: We need to see more women in office," LaFleur says. In the years ahead, they worked to dress more women in politics and in campaigns, including Cynthia Nixon, and counted Tammy Duckworth as a fan and customer. But the real aha moment came earlier in 2020, when the brand launched Ready to Run, an initiative that would loan clothing to women running for office. To date, they've dressed more than 400 women, many of whom were first-time candidates who would other­wise struggle to afford campaign-ready clothing. "As a fashion designer, I always wonder if my work is doing any good," says creative director Miyako Nakamura. "Having a greater mission beyond just making a beautiful piece and a beautiful business? It motivates the entire team."

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Home > money & life

Tara Gentile, Sophia Amoruso and More Women Entrepreneurs Share How They Got Started

Every successful entrepreneur started somewhere.

There’s no “magic pill” that effortlessly launches you out of your cubicle confinement and into the free world of entrepreneurship . For some, the dream to be your own boss grows for a long time, even years, before it finally comes to fruition.

The truth is, great success in business grows from just one, tiny seed.

We asked some of our favorite women entrepreneurs to share how they got their  start in business . Their answers revealed the deep motivators and personal qualities that drove them to make their big idea a reality.

By reading about how they grew their businesses over the years, our goal is that you’ll identify a similar entrepreneurial seed, within yourself.

Here’s what these women had to share about getting their start as entrepreneurs.

1. Sue Bryce

“My path to self employment seemed to me, a natural evolution.”

“But, it wasn’t based on a great desire to build a business. Rather, it was borne out of necessity. After 13 years mastering my craft , I was still an employee and I simply had reached a ceiling of how much money I could earn in my career.”

“After the initial fear and hurdles, the learning curve is so great I came very close to failure. Instead of giving up, I started to develop a deep sense of passion for motivating and educating myself to reach greater heights in business and income. It became a challenge for me, and I don’t know any other way now. After 13 years of self-employment, I still challenge myself to create on a larger and larger scale every year.”

“My desire to build, create, and learn, surpasses my fear. Every challenge I’m faced with now, becomes a greater experience of learning my true power.”

Now, Sue’s teamed up with Tiffany Angeles to break down their biggest business lessons, and teach a class on how to Make More Money and Discover Your Worth .

2. Sophia Amoruso

“Don’t give up, don’t take anything personally, and don’t take no for an answer,” Sophia advises.

Since founding Nasty Gal as an eBay store in 2006, selling vintage clothing, Sophia has transformed the business into a multi-million dollar empire with their own clothing line that was named the “Fastest Growing Retailer” in 2012. Recently, the New York Times Bestseller of #GIRLBOSS has stepped out of her role as the CEO of Nasty Gal, to become the Executive Chairman and shift her focus to overseeing just the creative and brand marketing functions of the business.

Without any fashion or business experience before starting Nasty Gal, Sophia credits much of her hard-earned success to her inability to accept failure as an option. “The people who told me no, were the people who eventually told me yes,” she adds.

3.  Pamela Slim

“In addition to working full-time as an employee for 10 years, I had also been the volunteer executive director for a non-profit martial arts school in San Francisco.”

“My typical day was about 15 hours straight. Work, jump on the metro over to the studio, train capoeira for 3-4 hours, then do administrative work before bed. Weekends were filled with classes, performances, and putting up fliers around the city to attract new students to the school.”

“The tipping point came right before my 30th birthday. I got pneumonia from the non-stop grueling pace, and realized I needed to make a career move. So, contrary to how I advise my clients , I leapt with no plan, just the desire to get off the merry-go-round and find a more sustainable path.”

“After a few months of recovery and half-hearted job search, I contacted my old manager who had moved to Hewlett-Packard and asked her if she needed a little help. I started working as a consultant, and I felt like a huge fire was lit inside of me. I loved being a consultant. My problem had never been about the work, it was more about the right work mode.”

“I realized that the 10 years I had volunteered as an executive director had prepared me for entrepreneurial life. I knew how to create and fund big programs. I knew how to build a network and mobilize people to a cause. I knew how to sell and market. So, now that I had my own shingle out, I took off and built a thriving and fulfilling practice.”

“This year, I celebrate 20 years in business for myself. It hasn’t always been easy, but it continues to bring me great joy and satisfaction.”

4.  Tara Gentile

“I decided to become a business owner after I was looked over for a promotion while nine months pregnant.”

“Six months after my daughter was born, I started a little niche website and community. I then purchased an existing blog business, and almost overnight, started making more money than I had in my previous job.”

“My business has evolved significantly since then, but I’m so grateful for the way I started!”

Tara, one of our most successful business instructors here at CreativeLive, has successfully gone from selling her services, to packaging them into digital products for her clients. It’s helped here significantly scale her business, and now she teaches a class about how to turn your services into a product .

Inspired by these women? Want to build your own business?  Join Tara Gentile to learn more from one of our resident experts .

5.  Melissa Galt

“The year following my graduation from Cornell, my mom died suddenly of a brain aneurysm. It took me the ensuing 5 years to understand the lesson in her passing. Life is too short to do something you don’t love. She had been a maverick in her field, an Oscar winning actress who knew at age 7 what she wanted. It took me a bit longer.”

“I decided to pursue my dream of interior design, and went back to school full-time, while picking up full-time work in the field. However, I was still frustrated that I was not in charge of my day and my decisions.”

“Ultimately, my headstrong nature was both my undoing and my new beginning…”

“I’d planned to launch my startup in September 1994. When I asked my manager for time off, she said I didn’t have it. I said I did, and dug my heels in. Arguing with your manager when you need your job is never wise. I walked out.”

“I was unemployed, in debt, and 6 months premature to my planned launch. I launched immediately while taking up side jobs supervising a catering kitchen and teaching busy professionals (aka potential clients for my interior design practice) during evening education programs.”

“It was that magical place you hear about where fear meets breath and becomes unstoppable exhilaration. I worked 15 hour days, 6 days a week, because I wanted to. I couldn’t wait to get up, and hated to go to bed at night. I was totally on fire. I went from $70K in debt to rocking six figures and debt free in 18 months and that doubled every year for 5 years. Today, I design both home and business environments, while also advising the business and lifestyles that go on inside of them.”

“My advice is to find what lights you up, and do whatever it takes to make it happen. You will meet with unexpected success.”

6.  Beate Chelette

“Remember those huge posters of beautiful places that decorated kid’s rooms in the 80s? When I was young, I wanted them but couldn’t afford them. Then I realized, if I ordered them for my friends and became a distributor, I could get mine for free. So at the age of 12, I started a poster distribution business out of my bedroom.”

“Later in life, I worked at Elle Magazine as a photo editor. I had a lot of freedom to express my ideas (after all, ideas are what a magazine thrives on). But still… something was always missing. Upon further examination, I arrived at three facts:

1. I wanted to be the boss.

2. I had a lot of ideas, and my bosses didn’t necessarily agree.

3. I wanted to change the world.

And here I am today! I’ve been an entrepreneur pretty much my entire professional career. You have to overcome the fear, and it’s a lot of work, but the rewards are fantastic.”

7.  Sue Zimmerman

“My first entrepreneurial venture was selling my hand-painted barrettes at recess in grade school, even though I was not supposed to be.”

“My dad owned an automobile part store and often brought home model paint that I would use to paint fun, colorful, preppy themes on hair clips.”

“The passion I had for art and painting turned into a nice side hustle, and eventually gave me the confidence and validation to do what I loved at a very young age.”

8. Tiffany Angeles

“I felt dead inside working at my corporate job but was too scared to leave.”

“I was looking for a business I could start on nights and weekends. After checking into different businesses, I actually won a camera, so that sealed the deal for a photography business. I built that business by moonlighting for a few years until the income surpassed my corporate job and then went full-time.”

“That business gave me the freedom and flexibility to pursue my dream of speaking and teaching people how to be successful with money . Even though it was painful to leave my corporate security, I am forever grateful that I did, because it led to a life and business I love!”

Now, Tiffany has joined forces with Sue Bryce to teach an incredible class on how to Make More Money and Discover Your Worth .

9.  Yasmine Khater

“After a successful corporate career in a Fortune 500 company, losing my dad to cancer led me to redefine life and the impact I want to create. I knew that I didn’t want my boss’s job, any of the other senior management roles, or to work more 12 -14 hour days. I also knew I didn’t want to sacrifice my quality of life, and regret not living.”

“That’s when I decided to start my business. I brainstormed which skills I could build upon, and what people needed. At the time, my friends were searching for more career direction, so I offered 30-minute career clarity sessions. I booked 4 sessions and got my first three clients.”

“I realized shortly thereafter, that I didn’t really want to help people with their careers. Instead, I wanted to leverage my corporate experience to help small business owners build their sales processes, and develop winning sales systems that could stand the test of time.”

10.  Mayi Carles

“Wait a second! Kids can just sell lemonade on the front porch and people give them money? WOW!!! I was blown away.”

“Soon enough, I had set up my own front lawn kiosk, except that instead of selling lemonade, I crafted little masterpieces made with a little paint spinner toy thingy. The line of kids reached the end of the block. Not to brag, but I was a ROCKSTAR.”

“Right then and there, I knew I was born to do this.”

“As it turns out, the reason why my art pieces were selling like hot tamales for 50 cents a pop was because they came with a bag of Hershey’s kisses. Mayita, my mom smiled as she made the infamous confession, the chocolates were a dollar at the store.”

“Dang!”

“Alright, maybe my first business idea wasn’t profitable, but I learned the art of putting myself out there with a sense of self-worth at a very young age. That pillar has been instrumental in building my current creative empire.”

11.  Mei Pak

“One day in school, we were allowed to set up a small table to sell whatever we wanted during recess. I brought a zip lock bag of hundreds of tiny semi precious stone chips that I had gotten from my mom’s favorite jewelry store for less than $10. I knew the other kids would love them and sold five little stones for $2.00.”

“In retrospect, I’m not surprised the concept of buy low, sell high came so naturally to me. This kind of stuff is what I was meant to do!”

12.  Courtney Johnston

“I was never an entrepreneurial kid, but I was always a dreamer and a rule breaker.”

“After graduating college with a French degree in 2009 during the middle of the recession, I quickly realized that I was ‘unemployable’ and decided to start finding ways to make money for myself. A few business ideas later, I started my copywriting business, and have never looked back.”

13.  Kimra Luna

“I got my first taste of entrepreneurship when I started my own booking agency when I was 18 years. I started booking concerts for fun, and it turned into a full-time gig.”

14.  Jenn Scalia

“Entrepreneurship was something I was always destined for. But until a few years ago, I had always adhered to the status quo of having a ‘real’ job.”

“After two layoffs in two years, I got a gentle nudge from the Universe that I needed to create my own destiny and my own financial security. While staying home as a full-time mom, I started looking for opportunities where I could use my skills to make money. That’s when I discovered that I could be an online coach, and decided to dive in head first.”

15.  Barbara Findlay Schenck

“Like many others, my dive into entrepreneurship was prompted by opportunity and necessity.”

“My husband and I had just returned from a stint in the Peace Corps, and–although former employers in Honolulu invited us back to the positions we’d left two years earlier–we wanted to settle down in Oregon. So, we took a raincheck on the generous job offers, and began searching for positions in Bend, Oregon that matched our journalism, public relations, and marketing backgrounds.”

“With few such openings and no advertising or marketing agency to reach out to, entrepreneurial instinct took over and we seized the moment. We laid out plans for starting our own agency, registered a business name, drew up a list of potential clients, furnished an office (barely), put a sign on the door, and started a six-month sprint to profitability.”

“Why six months? That’s exactly how long we figured our cash reserves would last. When I tell business planners to know their funding runway, I speak from experience.”

“With the clock ticking, we beat the six-month deadline, grew the agency to one of the top 15 in the Northwest, accumulated more clients, friends, and stories than we could count, and 15 years later sold it to new owners who made it the platform for launching their own entrepreneurial journey.”

16.  Phoebe Mroczek

“To be honest, I’ve been an entrepreneur for as long as I can remember. From the stationery stand in my driveway and my fifth-grade scrunchie business, to the dual-level marketing company I joined in college, it’s really not just a passion. It’s a way of life.”

“While I dipped my toe into the corporate world in Asia, behind the scenes I’d started an events company and shortly afterwards, a travel blog to document a 15-country motorcycle trip.”

“As I built my online network, I bumped into some internet marketing resources that changed the course of my path up until that point. The most influential person I discovered was James Wedmore , whose mentorship gave me the confidence and clarity to develop my business. This was the kick in the pants I needed to define and flex my entrepreneurial muscles.”

“Within twelve months, I’d made six figures and more importantly, built a business that helped female entrepreneurs all around the world. So, I guess you could say I got my start as an entrepreneur a couple years ago once I made the decision to go for it. With a little coaching and a LOT of fear, I went for it and the rest is history!”

17.  Amy Schmittauer

“How did I get my start as an entrepreneur? Hard freakin’ work.”

“When I realized at my 9-5 that I wanted to work for myself, it was a year and a half before I actually left to make it happen. During that time, I was getting any and all experience I could in my field, on the side of my full-time job. I spent vacation time and extra money on conferences, networking, and working for anyone who would let me help. First for free and then for cheap, until I had confidence in my portfolio and made the leap to focus on my business alone.”

“Everyone wants the decision to be easy or great timing, but it never will be. Do the work. Prove you’re going to keep doing the work when you’re the only one in your corner. And then make it happen.”

If you’re ready to start (or grow) your own business, you need to learn how to value yourself. Check out Make More Money and Discover Your Worth with Sue Bruce, right here on CreativeLive.

Interested in building a community and helping to grow your business? Join Tara Gentile to learn more from one of our resident experts .

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20 Women Who Built Successful Businesses From the Ground Up

For years, men have been dominating the business world and holding the top spots on leading boards; however, with the rise of powerful women like Estée Lauder and Coco Chanel, a new era has begun for businesswomen globally. These women have inspired other females to break through the glass ceiling and achieve success in previously male-dominated industries.

In today’s business world, women are becoming increasingly successful in various industries – from publishing and technology to fashion and beauty, female entrepreneurs are making their mark on the world. To inspire you to achieve your own business goals, we’ve compiled a list of the top 20 female entrepreneurs worldwide !

Huda Kattan

Company/Brand: Huda Beauty

Net Worth: $490 million

Huda Kattan is a well-known beauty mogul who started her empire after quitting her finance job in Dubai. As a freelance makeup artist, she struggled to find top-quality false eyelashes, so she decided to start making her own. Her faux minx and synthetic eyelashes quickly became popular after being featured on Kim Kardashian, selling out within day one. Huda Beauty has since expanded to include skincare products with the launch of her latest range, Wishful. Promoting healthy and natural skin, this line has also been a huge success. There is no doubt that Huda Kattan is a force to be reckoned with in the beauty industry!

Sophia Amoruso

Company/Brand: Nasty Gal and Girlboss Media

Net Worth: $5 million

Sophia Amoruso has faced many challenges while building her firm but has persevered and created an impressive brand for millennials. Despite difficulties, she has managed to create a successful company that is an excellent role model for other young entrepreneurs.

Sophia Amoruso is a true rags-to-riches story . She went from working retail to becoming the CEO of her own company, Nasty Gal. But in 2015, after stepping down as the CEO of Nasty Gal, Sophia Amoruso witnessed the firm file for bankruptcy.

This was only a setback, though, as she went on to launch Girlboss, a website dedicated to empowering and advising women on beauty, wellness, careers, and so on. Even though her net worth dropped from $280 million in 2016 to just $5 million as of today, Amoruso’s entrepreneurial spirit got her a place on our list!

Arianna Huffington

Company/Brand: Thrive Global

Net Worth: $100 million

Huffington is known for her work in digital media, having co-founded the prominent news website HuffPost . In recent years, she has turned her focus to writing books, including her most recent release, The Sleep Revolution. Further, along with her literary endeavors, Huffington also runs the wellness website Thrive Global, offering a six-week course to help improve the overall well-being of people. Huffington is clearly passionate about helping others live their best lives, both mentally and physically.

Company/Brand: Tory Burch

Net Worth: $900 million

After spending time working in some of the major fashion houses worldwide, including Vera Wang, Loewe, and Polo Ralph Lauren, Tory Burch decided to venture out on her own and start her own label. She started her namesake fashion brand in 2004; it has gone on to be a massive success due to its unique and trendsetting designs.

Burch became interested in philanthropy after making a name for herself, and she established the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in order to support women with cancer and raise awareness about the disease among young women.

Company/Brand: Vera Wang

Net Worth: $500 million

Vera Wang was a bit later to start her fashion label than some of the other ladies on this list. She didn’t design her first wedding dress until she was 40 years old. However, she had good connections from working at Vogue magazine and was able to make her brand successful. Now her company designs everything from clothes to jewelry to kitchenware and home goods, and she is a well-known name in the fashion industry .

Company/Brand: Novelist, screenwriter, and film producer

Net Worth: $60 million

JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series is one of the most beloved book franchises of all time. However, it almost didn’t happen. When Rowling was trying to get her first book published, she faced a lot of rejection and obstacles. But she didn’t give up! Eventually, she found a publisher who believed in her work, and the rest is history. The Harry Potter books have sold millions of copies, been turned into blockbuster movies, and inspired theme parks all over the world. All because JK Rowling never gave up on her dream.

Cath Kidston

Company/Brand: Cath Kidston

Net Worth: $1 million

Cath Kidston is a British designer who is best known for her vintage-inspired homeware and fashion. After working in furniture design, she launched her own business in 1993, selling her unique, British-style designs. Vintage styles soon started becoming popular again a few years later, and Cath Kidston’s store quickly gained success. Today, her brand is recognized and loved by many people in Britain.

Martha Stewart

Company/Brand: Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

Net Worth: $400 million

Martha Stewart first gained fame as a celebrity chef, with several successful cookbooks and a regular column in various magazines. She consolidated all her businesses under the umbrella of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia in 1997. Since then, she has expanded into television and radio but remains most well-known for her culinary accomplishments.

Sara Blakely

Company/Brand: Spanx

Net Worth: $750 billion

When Sara Blakely was trying to launch her Spanx brand, she didn’t have much money to invest and faced continuous rejection from potential investors. However, once Oprah Winfrey acknowledged her business concept in public, things started to pick up for the company. Thanks to Oprah’s endorsement, people began to take Blakely and her brand more seriously, which helped her get the company off the ground.

Angie Hicks

Company/Brand: ANGI Homeservices

Net Worth: $200 million

Age: 47 or 48

When you’re in the middle of an emergency, the last thing you want to do is spend time trying to find a reputable service provider. Angie Hicks realized there was a gap in the market for a service that could help people find what they need quickly and easily; hence, she created Angie’s List.

With Angie’s List, you can find the perfect household service provider for your needs with just a few clicks. No more worrying about whether or not you’re getting the best possible service – with Angie’s List, you can rest assured knowing that you are.

Company/Brand: HTC Corporation

Net Worth: $850 million

Cher Wang founded the tech firm HTC, a billion-dollar company that creates new smartphones. Despite market slumps in recent years, Wang is determined to revive the business by creating innovative new devices. HTC’s success under Wang’s leadership is a testament to her business acumen and creative vision. Thanks to her efforts, the company is once again thriving, and sales are on the rise.

Denise Coates

Company/Brand: Bet365

Net Worth: $6.1 billion

Denise Coates is the owner of Bet365, one of the largest online betting sites worldwide. She developed and launched the site in just one year, using a loan of $20 million from the Royal Bank of Scotland. Because of her innovative vision and strong work ethic, Denise has turned Bet365 into a hugely successful business. Her story is an inspiring example of what can be achieved with dedication and determination.

Jennifer Hyman

Company/Brand: Rent the Runway

Net Worth: $300 million

Jennifer Hyman’s company, Rent the Runway, has found a niche in the market by making designer dresses affordable to everyone. The subscription package lets you rent a dress, wear it to any event and then return it in a prepaid envelope. This genius idea has made Rent the Runway a success by catering to those who want to feel like Carrie Bradshaw without spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a dress they will only wear once.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Company/Brand: Biocon

Net Worth: $3.7 billion

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in India. She is the founder of Biocon, a leading biopharmaceutical company that operates in more than 120 countries around the world. Kiran is also known for her philanthropic work, which includes supporting several causes and charities.

Company/Brand: Fenty Skin, Fenty Beauty, and Savage x Fenty

Net Worth: $600 million

Rihanna, known for her stage presence and powerful performances, is now an entrepreneurial icon. She started her own beauty line, Fenty Beauty, which includes a 40-shade foundation range that has made her notable in the beauty industry.

Rihanna also owns Fenty House and Fenty x Savage with LVMH. She is the only artist associated with the company that also manages high-end brands such as Dior and Givenchy. Rihanna’s most recent skincare line is usable for all skin types and has been met with much success.

Company/Brand: Sun Media Group

Net Worth: $3.8 billion

As one of the most successful media moguls in China, Yang Lan has built up an impressive media empire that includes the Sun Media Group. Not only is she a successful businesswoman, but she’s also a well-known talk show hostess and journalist. She has interviewed some of the world’s most famous figures, including Hillary Clinton, Keanu Reeves, and Bill Gates . Her success is undeniable, and she continues to be a powerful force in the Chinese media landscape.

Oprah Winfrey

Company/Brand: Harpo Productions

Net Worth: $2.5 billion

Oprah Winfrey is a powerful and successful woman who has overcome many obstacles in her life. She founded Harpo Productions, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, and the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).

Oprah comes from a poor background, but she has worked hard to build an empire – she started her career as a news anchor, and then she got her own talk show. Philanthropy is important to Oprah, and she has invested a lot of time and money into helping others. As a highly influential woman, Oprah is an inspiration to us all.

Kylie Jenner

Company/Brand: Kylie Skin and Kylie Cosmetics

Net Worth: $620 million

Kylie Jenner is one of the most successful young entrepreneurs in the world; at only 21 years old, she has built two extremely successful beauty brands – Kylie Skin and Kylie Cosmetics. What makes her even more impressive is that her businesses have developed and grown at a much faster rate in comparison to any other beauty brand that has come before her. This speaks to Jenner’s exceptional business strategy and ability to connect with her audience. There is no doubt that she will continue to be a force to be reckoned with in the years to come!

Sofia Vergara

Company/Brand: EBY

Net Worth: $180 million

Famously known for her role as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett on the ABC sitcom Modern Family, Sofia Vergara is also a savvy entrepreneur. In 2019, she co-founded EBY, a subscription-based underwear company that donates 10% of its profits to women in need of financial assistance.

Made with seamless comfort in mind, EBY’s selection of undergarments comes in a variety of shapes and sizes to fit all body types. With its philanthropic business model, the company has helped countless women around the world achieve economic independence.

Beyoncé Knowles

Company/Brand: IVY Park

Net Worth: $440 million

Beyoncé’s career started in music, but she has since become a successful entrepreneur in other areas as well. In addition to her musical talents, Beyoncé has also been successful in fashion with her lines House of Deréon, Ivy Park, and her very own fragrance line.

However, she has not forgotten her roots and remains true to her history. In 2019, Beyoncé made history as the first black woman to headline the Coachella music festival. This was a significant moment not only for her but also for female empowerment as a whole. Beyoncé is an inspiration to many and continues to break barriers in whatever she does.

Final Thoughts

Building your own business from the ground up is no easy feat. But these successful business women serve as proof that, with enough passion and hard work, anyone can achieve their dreams. These inspiring ladies have built successful companies through dedication and resilience, showing that anything is possible with a little elbow grease.

How did these women start their businesses?

Many of these women started their businesses with little money and a lot of hard work. They bootstrapped their way to success, proving that anything is possible with enough grit and determination.

Some of them even turned personal struggles into business opportunities, using their experiences as fuel to drive them forward. Whatever their story may be, these women are all inspirational examples of what can be accomplished through determination and perseverance.

What challenges did they face along the way?

Starting and running a business is never easy, and these women faced plenty of challenges along the way. They had to overcome obstacles such as limited access to capital, gender discrimination, and lack of experience, but they didn’t let that stop them. They worked hard and persevered until they achieved success.

How has their business grown over the years?

Their businesses have grown over the years due to their dedication and hard work. They have all been able to inspire others by showing that anything is possible if you set your mind to it. It does not matter where you come from or what your circumstances are; if you have a good idea and work hard enough, you can make it happen.

What is the most challenging thing about running a business?

There are many challenges associated with running a business, but one of the most difficult things to deal with is probably changes. Businesses must be adaptable in order to survive, and that can be tough when you’re used to doing things a certain way. Another challenge is maintaining cash flow – making sure you have enough money coming in to cover your expenses while also investing in the future of your company.

What drives them to continue growing their businesses?

These women are driven to continue growing their businesses because they are passionate about what they do and want to make a difference in the world. They also understand the importance of hard work and dedication and are constantly looking for ways to improve their businesses.

What are the most rewarding aspects of running our own business?

There are many rewarding aspects to running our own business, such as the ability to be our own boss, set our own hours, and the sense of accomplishment we feel when we achieve our goals. Another great reward is being able to see the tangible results of our hard work in the form of a successful business. Lastly, self-employment allows us to control our own destinies and create a life that we love living.

9 Of The Best University Courses To Take Up

10 easy steps to creating a company profile, conrad davis.

Hi there! I'm Conrad Davis, a writer for online blogs and an author. I love reading books, especially biographies and autobiographies. I'm always looking for a good story to sink my teeth into, and I love learning new things from different perspectives.

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By Hannah L. Miller Leaders Staff

Hannah L. Miller

Senior Editor

Hannah L. Miller, MA, is the senior editor for Leaders Media. Since graduating with her Master of Arts in 2015,...

Learn about our editorial policy

Updated Apr 5, 2022

Top Women Entrepreneurs: 10 Startup Founders of 2020

Women entrepreneurs who are changing the business landscape, positive signs of progress.

Business ownership among women is growing quickly. American Express’s State of Women-Owned Businesses Report from 2017, shows explosive growth in numbers of women entrepreneurs over the last decade. From 1997 to 2017, there was a 114 percent rise in women-owned companies. According to their studies from 2019, women in business contribute to “42% of all businesses—nearly 13 million—employing 9.4 million workers and generating revenue of $1.9 trillion.”

While these are positive signs, the number of women in major leadership roles lacks in comparison to men. Researchers from the 2018-2019 Women’s Report from The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) found that Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) among women was only 10.2 percent.

Nevertheless, women entrepreneurs across the world are guiding their companies to massive success. Leaders like Sara Blakely , have proven that women in business have their place founding and leading companies. In this article, discover the top 10 women business leaders dominating their markets. These “Women to Watch in 2020” provide inspiration and insight into what it takes to build a successful startup. Learn more about how they’re innovating their industries and acting as leaders within their organizations.   

Anne Wojcicki

Company: 23andMe

Title: Co-founder and CEO

In 2006, Anne Wojcicki co-founded 23andMe®, a direct-to-consumer DNA testing company. By submitting saliva samples, customers quickly receive insight into their genetic code. Services provided include results for ancestry and health traits. For example, through 23andMe a person can find out if they are genetically predisposed to type 2 diabetes or at risk of getting breast cancer. But that’s not all of the information people can find out about themselves. In total, the company can test up to 150+ individualized traits for a complete DNA overview.

Wojcicki is one of the most innovative women entrepreneurs in the biotech industry. A successful businesswoman, she serves as a revolutionary force in making important healthcare testing accessible and affordable to all. In an article for Fast Company, Wojcicki’s mission is described as two-fold: “bringing the power of genetic testing to everyday consumers so they can better manage their own health care, and using the aggregated data from those tests to help doctors, scientists, hospitals, and researchers discover new cures for diseases.”

23andMe has the backing of major investors such as Johnson & Johnson and Google Ventures. In 2018, the company landed a $300 million dollar investment from GlaxoSmithKline. Currently, the business is valued at $2.5 billion.

Company: Coffee Meets Bagel 

Arum Kang is a female founder who came up with the idea for Coffee Meets Bagel while in business school at Harvard. With the help of her two sisters, Kang launched the successful online dating service in 2012. By addressing concerns over consent, privacy, safety, and presenting meaningful connections, Coffee Meets Bagel fulfills a need within the market.  

Kang and her sisters rose to infamy in 2015 for turning down Mark Cuban’s offer on Shark Tank to purchase the company for $30 million dollars. After the show, Kang received backlash for her decision but remained resilient. She wholeheartedly believed her company was worth more in terms of serving users and ultimately reaching the same level as Match.com . Thus far, these women in business have raised over $23.2 million dollars. Today, PitchBook values Kang’s company at $82 million dollars. 

In terms of leadership, Kang demonstrates important lessons in knowing who you serve and playing an infinite game . By seriously considering the concerns of women, Kang’s ambitious idea turned into a serious rival among top dating apps. In an interview with GeekWire, she explains, “We’re looking at a 100-year horizon here, I’m not here to build a five, ten-year company.” 

Katie Ann Echevarria Rosen Kitchens

Company: FabFitFun

Title: Co-founder and Editor in Chief

Katie Ann Echevarria Rosen Kitchens started membership box FabFitFun as an online magazine. Her goal was to change how women consume information about health and wellness. Traditionally, women’s magazines are instructional and set unattainable beauty standards. In contrast, she shifted the conversation to be multi-dimensional and focused on self-care. Eventually, as the site grew, Echevarria Rosen Kitchens changed course to begin bringing featured products directly to consumers.

Furthermore, as a successful Latinx business owner and female founder, she places a heavy focus on ensuring FabFitFun represents Latina women entrepreneurs and creators like herself. For example, the company has partnered with Eva Longoria and participated at the #WeAllGrow Summit. “I am a big believer that you need to see it to do it. There are so many amazing, talented, smart Latinas with big dreams and ambitions. I would be doing a disservice to myself and future generations not to if I didn’t use my platform to inspire others,” she tells Hola! in an interview .

In 2019, the company hit one million subscribers, and PitchBook estimated the company’s value at $930 million dollars.

Melanie Perkins 

Company: Canva

Title: CEO and Co-founder

In 2012, the successful businesswoman Melanie Perkins and two of her business partners released Canva, a graphic design platform. The company’s core vision is to provide a space where anyone can create digital designs for marketing, presentations, invitations, social media, and more. Since opening its doors, the business has seen tremendous success as an accessible design tool. As of 2019, the company boasts over 15 million monthly users across the world. 

The most impressive thing about the female entrepreneur is how she guides her company. The company’s mission statement is: “Being a force for good.” In 2015, the business announced that registered non-profits could use the premium version of Canva, free of charge. In an interview for Forbes , Perkins tells Kathy Caprino the company provides services for “25,000+ not for profit organizations around the world” now. 

According to Business Insider Australia , as of 2019, Canva is valued at $4.7 billion dollars, securing $125 million dollars in its last round of funding. And the company shows no signs of slowing down. Perkins tells TechCrunch, “We’ll be using this new funding to further cement Canva as the default tool in every workplace.”

Cathryn Lavery 

Company: BestSelf Co. 

Cathryn Lavery and Allen Brouwer launched BestSelf Co. and their best-selling productivity planner, the SELF Journal, in 2015. Within 24 hours, the duo raised $12,500 dollars for their idea on Kickstarter . In total, their campaign raised over $355,000 dollars—nearly 24 times the amount they listed as needed for their startup. 

In an interview for Entrepreneur.com , Lavery says her dedication to the process of self-improvement is one of her key leadership strategies. For example, she tells reporter Nina Zipkin, “It’s that marginal 1 percent improvement. If you improve 1 percent a day, you’ll be three times better in a year. You want to get that quick win, the instant gratification, whereas the things that will actually help you move forward are the things that compound on each other [over time].”

Her company reflects this particular core value—taking self-improvement into your own hands and making it a part of your daily routine. BestSelf Co. resonates with those looking for a great tool for improving themselves day by day, in addition to increasing productivity levels. By doing this, Lavery explains, you develop more opportunities for yourself and those around you. 

Jasmine Crowe

Company: Goodr

Title: Founder and CEO

Jasmine Crowe, founder of food waste management platform, Goodr, is a prime example of a servant leader . Before starting her business, Crowe served her community by creatively resourcing food and providing two free meals per week to those in need. As a result, she tells Microsoft she realized, “The idea that hunger is an issue of scarcity and we need to produce more food is false.” During the research stage of her company, she found that billions of dollars and pounds of food get wasted in the United States alone. Furthermore, with this information, she realized hunger could be solved through logistics.

This female entrepreneur’s mission is simple: feed more, waste less. Seeking to make a large-scale change in her community, she developed a mobile app similar to UberEats that connects businesses with a surplus of food to delivery drivers. More importantly, Goodr created a way for the otherwise wasted food to benefit local nonprofits. In addition to feeding those in need, companies can serve the community, reduce carbon footprint, and increase their bottom line through charitable donations.

Crowe says her ultimate goal is to develop Goodr into a global organization that feeds people across the world. In three years, the company’s raised 1.1 million dollars in funding.

Sarah Leary

Company: Nextdoor, Inc. 

Title: Co-founder and Vice President of Marketing and Operations

In 2011, Sarah Leary and her business partners officially launched their community-driven social networking service, Nextdoor. Leary came up with this business idea after realizing the disconnect felt in modern neighborhoods. In essence, her goal was to provide a secure forum where neighbors could connect to current news and neighborhood information, local businesses, and public agencies.

With a long history in Silicon Valley’s tech industry, Leary explains to The Today Show she was often the only woman in the room. Although she felt supported by colleagues and those within her industry, she said it sometimes led her to question whether or not she belonged there.

As one of the most up-and-coming women entrepreneurs today, she feels it’s important to set an example for those around her. For instance, rather than running the company from a corner office, Leary literally works side-by-side with her team. Taking her own experiences into account, she knows the importance of being present as a leader. “If you can see it, you can be it. If you can see someone who’s already blazed the trail, you have a little more confidence that you can do it,” she tells Today .

As of 2020, the company is growing rapidly, securing over $450 million dollars in funding and providing service to 11 different countries. 

Company: Poo-Pourri 

Before starting Poo-Pourri in 2007, Suzy Batiz failed at multiple business endeavors and survived two bankruptcies. However, in less than 10 years, CNBC reports the toilet spray company sold more than 60 million bottles. Batiz invested $25,000 dollars of her own money into starting the business. Since then, she has not sought funding from outside investors. Furthermore, although there have been multiple offers to buy the company, she’s turned down millions each time. 

Batiz is a leader who believes chiefly in the power of connecting spirituality and divine inspiration to business. This reflects in the work environment she creates. “In addition to offering a massage room to employees, supplying healthy snacks from Whole Foods, and bringing in a feng shui guru to furnish its Texas headquarters, Poo-Pourri’s bathrooms are decked out with live plant walls and, unsurprisingly, its signature toilet sprays,” writes Dan Whateley for Inc.com . On the company website, the business boasts a creative, “work hard, play hard” culture led by 78% female executives.

In 2019, Batiz was named the 77th richest self-made woman in America by Forbes . During the same year, she was listed as one of the top “35 World-Changing Women in Conscious Business” and received Earthx2019’s “Community Leader of the Year” award. 

Emily Weiss

Company: Glossier 

Before launching Glossier with four staple products in 2014, 11 out of 12 investors turned down Emily Weiss’s investment request for $1 million dollars. Five years later, the blog turned best-selling beauty company confirmed Series D funding for over $100 million dollars. 

One of the most important contributing factors in Weiss’s success as a leader is her focus on making customers “stakeholders” in the business. “Thanks to this direct relationship with our customers, we have access to endless inspiration for new products, experiences, and ways of building an enduring business—all while staying true to our core belief that beauty should be a celebration of individuality and personal choice,” she explains in a press release .

Glossier’s company strategy puts its audience front and center—letting them inform and guide the organization. For example, from customer feedback to content creation, the business provides a platform for sharing the experiences of those who purchase their products. Weiss’s genius as a leader is her focus on giving customers a voice. In doing this, she’s created a deep sense of community and purpose within her company.  

Georgina Gooley 

Company: Billie 

Title: Co-founder

Georgina Gooley’s and Jason Bravman’s clean beauty company, Billie, opened its doors in late 2017. Gooley describes Billie’s beginnings as a ‘female-first shave and body brand’. The company opened strong, disrupting outdated practices within the grooming market. They also focus on helping women create a “better shelf.” This means using products without harmful chemicals and ingredients. For this reason, they launched a “ Clean Cash Calculator ,” which helps people find out if their daily products are safe or toxic.  

Under Gooley’s leadership, Billie’s Project Body Hair campaign reached viral success in 2018. This is largely due to the company’s advertising which boldly sends a new and different brand message. “By showing and celebrating the fact that women have body hair, we’re hoping to remove the shame around it,” Gooley tells Skincare.com . 

As of 2019, Billie has secured $25 million dollars worth of funding, showing a promising future for Gooley and her team.

The people listed above are only a few examples of successful women in business who are turning their ideas into organizations that positively impact the world around them. For instance, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that between 2007 and 2018, women entrepreneurs rose by 58 percent. Furthermore, during this time, women of color who own businesses grew by 163 percent. In addition to these positive signs of growth, the statistics also show these businesses increased their hires and revenue. Research from American Express found hires grew by 8 percent while revenue climbed by 21 percent between 2014 and 2019. In total, women entrepreneurs collectively made 1.9 trillion dollars during these years. Moreover, this information proves female-led companies are a growing, vital part of the economy. They also serve in inspiring more women to join in pursuing their own dreams.

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She Came, She Saw, She Conquered: 8 Women Who Changed The World

The next time you wear blue jeans or use a stir-fry pan, thank these women. Here's a look at eight game-changers for Women's History Month.

Most posts on The Story Exchange feature modern-day female entrepreneurs , but what about historic women whose startup stories have been forgotten — or were never really known in the first place? From postmasters to fashion designers, chefs to computer programmers, these diverse and successful women deserve to be celebrated for their accomplishments.

In honor of Women’s History Month, here are 8 of their stories.

1. The Woman Who Planted Indigo: Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722-1793)

Thank This Woman For: Your Blue Jeans

Every U.S. history textbook ever printed probably includes the words “Eli Whitney” and “cotton gin” in the Industrial Revolution section. But what about “Eliza Pinckney” and “the first successful indigo cultivation that built a multimillion-dollar cash crop industry”?

When most girls her age were preparing for marriage, 16-year-old Pinckney was managing three slave plantations in South Carolina. Determined to reduce her family’s debt, she tried growing ginger, alfalfa and other experimental crops to little success. Then, in 1739, she planted the first North American indigo plant, which was used to dye textile fabrics in England’s mills. With the help of her father’s connections, Pinckney learned how to successfully grow, cultivate, and export indigo. B y 1775, South Carolina was exporting over 1 million pounds of indigo annually, with a present-day value of over $30 million.

Fun Fact: George Washington served as a pallbearer at her funeral.

2. The Woman Who Published the Declaration: Mary Katherine Goddard (1738-1816)

Thank This Woman for: Your Independence

Most people know who wrote the Declaration of Independence, and some know who signed it. But who published it? Mary Goddard, Baltimore’s first postmaster, and likely the U.S. government’s first female employee.

Goddard made her name as publisher of The Maryland Journal for 10 years while also managing Baltimore’s post office during the Revolutionary War. In 1777, Goddard printed the first copy of the Declaration with the identities of the signers revealed — a huge political moment that brought the signer’s names into fame while hers sank into obscurity. In 1784, her brother, William, forced her out of the family business and took over her position as publisher of the Maryland Journal. Five years later, she was fired as postmaster because the new postmaster general, Samuel Osgood, claimed “more travelling might be necessary than a woman could undertake.”

Fun Fact: For those living in Baltimore, the Rite-Aid at 125 E. Baltimore Street is the most probable location of Goddard’s print shop in 1777.

3. The Woman Who Grew Hair: Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919)

Thank This Woman For: The African-American Hair Product Industry 

To cut a long story short, Madam C.J. Walker was the first American woman to become a self-made millionaire . Orphaned at 7, married at 14, and widowed at 20, she was a single mother earning $1.50 a day as a washerwoman. Two decades later, she owned a million-dollar hair-care empire. How did she “do” it?

Born Sarah Breedlove, she was the first in her family to be born into freedom, but it hardly made her career any easier. According to Time magazine, even the idea that launched her entrepreneurial success arose out of hardship: she realized she was losing hair. In the 1890s she relocated to Denver (where, apparently, black women’s hair suffered from the dry climate) and developed a hair growth formula which she turned into a lucrative line of hair products: “Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower.” Off the heels of her products’ success, she expanded into more cosmetic markets from shampoos to cold creams to hot combs. All the while, she went door to door, placed ads in newspapers, trained specialized “Walker agents,” invested thousands in her company when others wouldn’t and displayed the kind of business acumen most MBAs would drool at. It’s safe to say she got her life straightened out.

Fun fact: The house she lived in during her later years, designed by an African-American architect, was in upstate New York in Irvington, the same neighborhood as those of fellow entrepreneurial tycoons Jay Gould and John D. Rockefeller.

4. The Woman Who Created The Little Black Dress: Coco Chanel (1883-1971)

Thank This Woman For: Pants, Perfume, and Purging Corsets

Sold in stores, plastered on billboards, displayed on covers, and worn by society’s elite, her brand – like her name – has become ubiquitous in the fashion industry. She’s already cemented her legacy as one of the most iconic fashion designers of all time, but who was Coco before Chanel?

Her early years were anything but glamorous. Born Gabrielle Chanel, she was raised by nuns in a Catholic orphanage in France, where she first learned how to sew. She went on to pursue a career as a seamstress but also enjoyed a brief stint as a singer, during which she received her famous nickname, “Coco.” In 1910, she opened her first millinery; in 1913, her first boutique. As her business took the fashion industry by storm, she continued to design clothing (often inspired by menswear) that changed the way women dressed forever. To replace handheld purses, she invented the shoulder handbag; she would also popularize women’s trousers, the ever-so comfortable “little black dress,” and accessories such as costume jewelry and perfume. Women everywhere fell in love with Chanel’s elegant but simple style, ditching their corsets for a more comfortable and practical wardrobe. By 1919, her brand reached worldwide acclaim, and one thing was for certain: Chanel (and Coco) would never go out of style.

Fun fact: Coco designed the famous Chanel logo herself in the 1920s and it hasn’t changed since. Some say the interlocking C logo is an homage to Chanel’s longtime lover, Arthur Capel.

5. The Woman Who Sold Creams: Estee Lauder (1908-2004)

Thank This Woman For: Your Makeup Products 

Find the proper location. When you’re angry, never put it in writing. You get more bees with honey. These “Lauderisms” from her 1985 autobiography speak volumes about the beauty queen behind a cosmetics empire. But exactly how did Estee Lauder make herself into one of the most successful brands in the world?

Born to European immigrants, Lauder learned business from working in her father’s hardware store and her uncle’s skin-care product laboratory. In 1933, she continued to refine her uncle’s creams and gave free demonstrations at salons, hotels, and on the street — her early talent for marketing and merchandising would pay off. Lauder officially formed her company in 1946 and concocted her creams in a Manhattan restaurant-turned-factory. As a pioneer in giveaway promotions, much of Lauder’s success came from word-of-mouth, or what she called “Tell-A-Woman” advertising. Her products ultimately sold themselves in upscale department stores, and she expanded her brand to include perfumes and a men’s line and gained international success.

Fun Fact:  Lauder was famous for her “guerilla sales” method and creative tactics. When the manager at the Galeries Lafayette store in Paris refused to stock her products, she “accidentally” spilled her famous fragrance “Youth Dew” during a demonstration. The scent quickly aroused customer interest, which caused the manager to finally cave in.

6. The Woman Who Cooked Chinese Food: Joyce Chen (1917-1994)

Thank This Woman For: The Peking Wok

She’s been described as the Chinese Julia Child , but maybe Julia Child should be described as the American Joyce Chen. Joyce’s face is on the cover of a U.S. postage stamp, her name scrawled across influential cookbooks, and her special sauces sold in stores across the country. The question is, where does her culinary dynasty begin?

From a young age, Chen learned to cook Chinese cuisine by watching her family’s chef in the kitchen. During the Chinese Communist Revolution, she and her family immigrated to Massachusetts, where she often cooked for Chinese students who missed food from home. In 1958, she opened her first restaurant that served buffet-style Chinese and American meals to encourage customers to try new dishes. To bridge the language gap, she also created a menu with both English and Chinese translations and numbered items which made it easier to order. Her successes led her to star in a PBS cooking show (in the same studio as fellow Bostonian chef Julia Child’s show) as she  popularized Chinese-American meals like “Peking Duck,” “Scallion Pancake,” and “Hot and Sour Soup.” Eventually, she began to sell her brand of cookware in stores, which included her patented Peking Wok, a flat-bottom stir fry pan.

Fun Fact: A “Festival of Dumplings” is held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, every year to honor her birthday.

7. The Woman Who Wrote Code…for Rockets: Annie Easley (1933-2011)

Thank This Woman For: Hybrid Cars

Easley never planned to become a rocket scientist. When she graduated as valedictorian in high school, she set out to major in pharmacy at college. Then, in 1955, she read a newspaper article about women who worked as “human computers” for NACA (NASA’s predecessor). She applied, was hired, and spent the next 34 years of her life contributing to the aerospace industry. Who was this hidden figure?

Following her graduation, Easley — hired as one of the four African-African employees at NACA — began her career doing calculations for researchers. When human computers were eventually replaced by machines, she learned a handful of programming languages and worked as a computer programmer for NASA’s Centaur rocket project which set the technological stage for the Space Shuttle. Her work also paved the way for the development of modern hybrid cars . In the 1970s, she finally earned her mathematics degree from Cleveland State. A firm believer in education, she participated in school tutoring programs to encourage female and minority students to pursue STEM careers.

Fun fact: Late in her career, Easley became an equal employment opportunity counselor to combat workplace discrimination and even made a pact with her supervisor to wear pantsuits to work.

8. The Woman Who Took A Seat On Wall Street: Muriel Siebert (1928-2013)

Thank This Woman For: Your Stock Portfolio

The First Lady of the White House may vary, but there’s only one First Lady of Wall Street: Muriel Siebert. Siebert, or “Mickie,” as people called her, is best known for being the first woman elected to the New York Stock Exchange in 1967 . During an era and in an industry that often didn’t treat women equally, Siebert broke gender barrier after barrier before ascending to the top of the financial world. How did she “bull” it off?

With only $500 in her pocket and a used car, 26-year-old Siebert moved to New York to pursue a career on Wall Street. She started as a security analyst trainee but changed jobs three times after learning that men doing the same work were being paid more. On her way up the executive ladder, she faced discrimination at every turn: she had to change her name on her resume from “Muriel Siebert” to “M.F. Siebert” to attract potential employers, she could not use building elevators, and she was denied access to the elite Manhattan social clubs. Frustrated, she decided to strike out on her own and purchase a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. The 10th man she asked agreed to sponsor her application, but only through a Catch-22 deal: she needed a bank to loan her $300,000 (the highest price any applicant had ever been asked), but no bank would lend her money without the NYSE admitting her first. Nevertheless, she persisted, got the loan, and was elected as the first woman on the NYSE and the only one for ten years after. In 1969 she founded Muriel Siebert & Company as the first woman-owned and operated brokerage firm. Not long after, she became the New York superintendent of banking for five terms — she liked to say that no New York bank ever failed during her tenure.

Fun Fact: In 1986, in an interview with Working Woman Magazine, Siebert discussed the “craziness” of Wall Street: drinking. She said, during a business meeting with “someone who likes to drink, I matched him Scotch for Scotch. There is no double standard here.”

[Related: Listen to our podcast on successful women entrepreneurs.]

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18 Biographies of the Most Successful People in Business

It’s officially summer, so Fortune put together a reading list for those of us who can’t just sit idly by the pool with a mindless beach read.

With the help of Term Sheet readers, we compiled a list of some of the best business biographies of all time. These timeless reads are entertaining and deeply personal as they detail the lives of business magnates, tech titans, and media powerhouses.

Now, onto your suggestions:

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

A Bill Gates (and Term Sheet reader) favorite, Shoe Dog offers an inside look at how Phil Knight built his startup Nike into the global brand it is today.

Personal History by Katharine Graham

You’ve seen the movie, now read the book. Katharine Graham is the woman who led the Washington Post through the scandals of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate. This one has it all — courage, candor, and dignity.

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder

This is a personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as “The Oracle of Omaha.” Warren Buffett is one of the most respected businesspeople of our time, but his life has been a mix of strengths and frailties. As revealed in this book, Buffett’s legacy will not be his ranking on the scorecard of wealth — it will be his principles and ideas.

Related: The Best Business Books of All Time

THE ORIGINALS

Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson

You may already know that Franklin was a writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, but this is a look into how this country’s ultimate founder helped define America’s national identity.

Titan by Ron Chernow

John D. Rockefeller has been referred to as “the Jekyll-and-Hyde of American capitalism.” He was a ruthless business magnate while also being a major philanthropist. This one is a business staple.

Carnegie by Peter Krass

One of the major figures in American history, Andrew Carnegie was a businessman who made his fortune in the steel industry and ultimately gave most of it away. He used his wealth to ascend the world’s political stage, influencing the presidencies of Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt. In this compelling biography, Peter Krass reconstructs the complicated life of the titan who came to power in America’s Gilded Age.

Morgan, American Financier by Jean Strouse

For decades, J. Pierpont Morgan served as America’s unofficial central banker. He was the force behind mammoths like General Electric , U.S. Steel, and vast railroad empires. Since his death, he has remained a mysterious figure — both celebrated as a hero of industrial progress and also vilified as a rapacious robber baron.

The Patriarch by David Nasaw

This biography examines the life of Joseph P. Kennedy, the founder of the 20th century’s most famous political dynasty. It tracks the path of a man who participated in the major events of his times — the booms and busts, the Depression and the New Deal, two world wars, a cold war, and the birth of the New Frontier.

THE SELF-MADE

Sam Walton, Made in America by Sam Walton/John Huey

Over the course of his life, Sam Walton built one of the world’s largest and most powerful corporations from scratch. This is the story of a small-town folk hero who revolutionized retail distribution and changed the game as we know it. Hard to believe that was once a single store in a tiny town is now a behemoth with revenue to the tune of $500 billion.

I Love Capitalism! by Ken Langone

The life of Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone is a perfect portrayal of the American Dream. He recounts how a poor boy from Long Island became one of the most successful businessmen in America. In this memoir, Langone walks readers through how he struggled to get an education, broke into Wall Street, and scrambled for an MBA.

Jack, Straight From the Gut by Jack Welch

Under Jack Welch’s leadership, General Electric reinvented itself several times over by integrating new and innovative practices into its many lines of business. This book recounts his career and the style of management that helped to make GE one of the most successful companies of the last century.

THE TECH TITANS

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and The Age of Amazon by Brad Stone

It is mind-boggling to think Amazon started out as an online bookstore. That wasn’t nearly enough for its wildly ambitious founder, Jeff Bezos. This is an in-depth account of how Bezos’ large bets forever transformed the retail industry.

Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

I personally like this book because it delves into the psyche of one of the most innovative (albeit unusual) entrepreneurs of our time. Vance gives readers an exclusive look into SpaceX , Tesla, and SolarCity, while also giving us a better understanding of Elon Musk’s mind.

Wild Ride by Adam Lashinsky

Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky wrote about Travis Kalanick, one of the most polarizing figures in Silicon Valley. Lashinsky takes readers on quite a ride as he meticulously details Uber’s meteoric rise — and its jaw-dropping plunge into controversy.

THE DISRUPTORS

A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald K. Fierstein

This biography delves into the life of Edwin Land, the breakthrough inventor of the Polaroid. At the time of his death, he stood third on the list of most prolific inventors, behind only Thomas Edison and one of Edison’s colleagues. It’s a compelling look at the man behind one of the most important legal battles over intellectual property of our time — Polaroid versus Kodak.

Bloomberg by Bloomberg by Michael Bloomberg

Brash, aggressive, and supremely self-confident, Michael Bloomberg has been hailed as the new standard for what it takes to win in the Information Age. His specialized media approach — including manipulable online data feeds, a global newswire, and extensive magazine and broadcast outlets — have turned the business of business news upside down.

THE LEADERS

Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead by Cecile Richards

Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards has been an activist since she was taken to the principal’s office in seventh grade for wearing an armband in protest of the Vietnam War. She had a remarkable childhood in conservative Texas, where her civil rights attorney father and activist mother taught their kids to be troublemakers. In the Richards household, the “dinner table was never for eating—it was for sorting precinct lists.”

The House of Dimon by Patricia Crisafulli

In a candid look at Wall Street’s top banker, former business journalist Patricia Crisafulli goes behind the scenes to recount the critical events that have shaped Dimon’s career. He managed to survive one of the most difficult and most tumultuous periods in Wall Street history. This story reveals how he did it and explores what lies ahead.

PS: I also asked Twitter for more biography suggestions — you can find them here .

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What professional and career advice would you give to your younger self?

What career advice would you give your younger self? Image:  Cowomen/Unsplash

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Hannah ransom, michelle mormont.

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• The world celebrates International Women's Day (IWD) on March 8.
• The theme for this year's IWD is ' Break the bias '.
• We asked 11 women CEOs what they'd advise their younger selves.

If you could go back in time and take all your lived experiences with you – what career advice would you give to your younger self? This is the question that we asked 11 women CEOs who are leading the companies of tomorrow on International Women's Day.

Anna-Katrina Shedletsky – CEO and Founder, Instrumental

Embrace the reality that nothing in the plan you make for yourself may happen the way you anticipated. That's okay, there's no need to stress. There will be beautiful discoveries to be made on the way that may take you far off track — and there are wonderful futures down those paths too.

Learn about negotiation. When I first learned about shadow negotiations in a business school class years after I had started working, I realized it explained so much of what was going on around me that hadn't been apparent before. That understanding made me more effective as a team member and, later, as a leader.

Ellison Anne Williams – CEO and Founder, Enveil

Don’t be a student of the school of hard knocks. Ask for help and seek experienced insights early and often – you don’t have to learn all of the lessons on your own. I’m blessed to have been surrounded by a number of fantastic mentors and colleagues who have helped me achieve more than I could have by myself.

Careers are nonlinear. At each step, choose opportunities based more on what you think you will learn from it than on where you think that it might take you. A diverse set of experiences is invaluable in building a rich career.

View challenges as opportunities to learn and grow. Areas where I haven’t been able to take a straight path from point A to point B, which is pretty much my entire career, ultimately tended to be the most interesting and rewarding.

Ponsi Trivisvavet – CEO, Inari

First, I would tell myself to never settle. You can find something that you love and that creates a broader impact; those two things are not mutually exclusive. I am passionate about global agriculture, and I am grateful that my work at Inari allows me the unique opportunity to contribute to the global food system.

The other piece of advice I would give my younger self is that it’s smart – not cliche – to dream big and really go for it. When you have big goals it doesn’t matter how hard or how many times you fall down. Your purpose will get you on your feet again and your drive will keep propelling you forward so you can achieve great things.

I'd tell my younger self that it's smart, not cliché, to dream big and really go for it.

Diana Paredes – CEO and Co-Founder, Suade

There are 3 main things that this journey has taught me:

• Worrying is a waste of life: There is not a single thing that I can think of that was aided or prevented because I worried about it. You have to trust yourself and know that when the moment comes, you will take action and that spending any headspace on random possible negative scenarios NEVER helps. Preparing yourself for an event is very different from worrying about it.
• Good enough is often better than perfect: It is much more important to get things out of the door 80% ready than to aim for 100% perfection. The concept of 'minimum viable product' is there for a reason, lean in to that and embrace the unknown. You will be fine.
• Be present: Being an entrepreneur and leading a team is the best job in the world, so enjoy it! It’s a privilege that people have taken the leap and decided to follow you into battle so be grateful. Be present to how lucky you are. As you stop worrying and accept things for what they are, you start executing at your best. Don’t dwell on the lows and make sure to celebrate successes. The best way to be fearless is to clear your headspace and be in the moment, wherever you are as part of your journey.

Have you read?

Why overcoming gender barriers in the workplace might boost women's careers, valuing women’s work and the value of working women, is working from home harming women’s careers, netta korin – co-founder, orbs.

Above all else, dare. Do not let fear get in the way of your success or of your choices. Do not look at your role models and wonder if, or fear that – you are not enough, or that you do not have what it takes.

Those who are more successful than you really only have one thing that you don’t have (yet) – experience. What separates you from them, if you work hard and dedicate yourself to the cause, is only the time it takes to acquire that experience.

The path to success is rarely a straight line, it is filled with pitfalls, hurdles, and hardships. Those will all be looked upon as gifts one day, when you have overcome them and you are stronger.

Every painful lesson, every embarrassing faux pas, is an opportunity to improve – and you will improve. Embrace the difficult, do not fear it. And when you make it, stay humble by remembering that you too were once that scared little girl who made mistakes.

Elizabeth Rossiello – CEO and Founder, AZA Finance

My advice to all women (and what I would love to tell my younger self) is to intentionally find and work with good people. Start by finding a mentor who can pull you up, and get you access to the networks that will support your growth. Women are often left out of these circles – so if you can’t get into one, make your own.

Start fostering your own confidence so when the opportunity arises, you can put yourself in those rooms, at those tables. And while you’re there, do not ever underestimate yourself. You are worth the salary, compensation, equity and respect you seek. Go get it.

Miku Hirano – CEO and Founder, Cinnamon AI

Purpose is what moves me forward. It is the fuel that drives me. From a young age, I spent time reflecting to try to understand my purpose. What is it that drives my emotions – anger, fear, doubt, sadness, excitement? What about our society triggers me? For future leaders and entrepreneurs, my strongest advice is to take time to reflect and realize what triggers your emotions.

In addition to emotional self-awareness a strong purpose requires a 'who'. Who am I changing the world for? For me, I want to extend the potential of future generations, particularly my children, by providing the tools needed to prosper and improve their lives.

For me, those tools are artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technology. Properly using AI will be a key component to solving major issues, like climate change. Driving the development of AI is my attempt to make my purpose a massively transformative one.

Maggie Louie – CEO and Co-Founder, otto JavaScript Security

When I started the company in 2017 – well before COVID was on anyone’s mind – I knew very little about the start-up world. I had the good fortune of figuring out a clever way to detect hackers exploiting digital ads to spread malware and steal money, but turning that idea into a company has been a learning process.

Maybe the most important thing I would tell 'circa 2017 Maggie' is: "To thine own self be true." Let the ‘why’ you do what you do be 'true north'. For me, that means never forgetting I am an inventor who is entrepreneurial, not an entrepreneur who is inventive.

But in a general sense it means: know what motivates you, know what you believe in. Then, choosing the right investors, advisors, and team members becomes simple. Surround yourself with people who believe what you believe. Those who strengthen, never weaken your vision. And just keep going.

Jennifer Holmgren – CEO, LanzaTech

You can succeed by working hard but be patient and don’t forget your conscience! Dream the big dream and know that good ideas aren't enough, you need to execute if the idea is going to be a success.

You should do what you want to do and make your own decisions. Go with your gut instinct and make personal decisions that you think are right for you. Listen to people and take advice, but what they see as your trajectory and the path you choose do not have to be the same.

Be positive. See the potential for good outcomes, while still being aware of the risks. Focus on the prize – if you fail, course correct, learn, and move on!

Lisa Dyson – Founder and CEO, Air Protein

I've had the privilege of working with some exceptional mentors throughout my career who have given invaluable insights that have helped me found companies, grow teams, and build the foundation for having an impact on the world. If I were able to advise my younger self, I would emphasize a few guiding principles for following one's passion.

Learn as much as you can in areas that interest you, and even in some areas that don’t. Expand your mind and viewpoints by surrounding yourself with people who have had diverse experiences and different ways of seeing the world. Do what you love, follow your heart, keep that focus. Make sure to understand the importance of the people in the process.

Finally, I would tell my younger self to amplify the good, find the bright spots, and, above all else, have fun.

The World Economic Forum has been measuring gender gaps since 2006 in the annual Global Gender Gap Report .

The Global Gender Gap Report tracks progress towards closing gender gaps on a national level. To turn these insights into concrete action and national progress, we have developed the Gender Parity Accelerator model for public private collaboration.

These accelerators have been convened in twelve countries across three regions. Accelerators are established in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico and Panama in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank in Latin America and the Caribbean, Egypt and Jordan in the Middle East and North Africa, and Japan and Kazakhstan in Asia.

All Country Accelerators, along with Knowledge Partner countries demonstrating global leadership in closing gender gaps, are part of a wider ecosystem, the Global Learning Network, that facilitates exchange of insights and experiences through the Forum’s platform.

In these countries CEOs and ministers are working together in a three-year time frame on policies that help to further close the economic gender gaps in their countries. This includes extended parental leave, subsidized childcare and making recruitment, retention and promotion practices more gender inclusive.

If you are a business in one of the Gender Parity Accelerator countries you can join the local membership base.

If you are a business or government in a country where we currently do not have a Gender Parity Accelerator you can reach out to us to explore opportunities for setting one up.

Katrina Donaghy – CEO and Co-Founder, Civic Ledger

“The importance of networks and paying closer attention to layering the right foundations to support people and culture – at the right time.”

When you set out on the entrepreneurial journey, the earliest decision-making over product, market, customers, revenues, and brand positioning can be quite overwhelming as you are building a company with no money, no team apart from the founders, no brand awareness. So, different parts of the company will take a different priority depending on the day.

As such, time becomes the most important resource you have, but it is irreplaceable when spent. My advice would be to use your time wisely. First of all, build a strong network around you who you can seek counsel from to hold you accountable for your decisions. It is inevitable that you will make mistakes, that is the entrepreneur’s journey.

Secondly, prioritise layering the foundations in your company that will support your future people and foster a positive working culture. Your people are the most important priority.

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World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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The top 10 traits of successful, creative businesswomen

With ongoing news of inequality , unequal pay and a lack women at boardroom level , businesswomen clearly still have challenges to face.

I've been running my PR agency Boomerang for four years now and it certainly hasn't been easy. Seven-day weeks, 12-hour days – it's tough, but being a woman hasn't even come into it in my opinion.

There have been rare occasions when I've suddenly become uncomfortably aware of my gender. A prospective client once asked questions that hinted at whether I intended to have children – I suppose my answer would have determined his decision to hire me.

Then there's the look of surprise when you tell certain men you are the managing director or the misogynistic comments, patronizing remarks and not being treated as an equal in meetings.

But despite the odd experience, I don't believe being a woman has held me back or altered my chance of success. Being a successful businesswoman really comes down to personality. I've always been fiercely independent, confident and determined to succeed. And whenever I meet other female entrepreneurs, they share similar characteristics.

With this in mind, if you're a woman (or indeed a man) who wants to start your own business, read the following top 10 traits that I believe make a successful entrepreneur.

Self-belief

Look at any successful businesswoman and you will discover how much they truly believe in themselves. Self-belief is probably the single most important trait possessed by any successful entrepreneur. If you don't believe you can succeed, then you won't get very far.

In the words of Mary Kay Ash who founded Mary Kay Cosmetics: "If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right." This was a woman who continued to build her business, just a month after her husband's death.

Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg recently challenged women to have the courage to be as ambitious as men. While this makes me cringe because all the women I've ever known are ambitious, it's definitely a trait that both successful men and women possess.

You have to really want something if you're going to succeed. And you should never settle for second best. Always strive to push forward. Always aim for the top. What's stopping you?

Confidence is essential if you want to win clients and build a profitable business. Confidence will win people's respect, earn their trust and gain you a solid reputation.

When walking into any room, hold your head up high and stand tall. When greeting people for the first time, smile, shake their hand, hold eye contact – be confident. And if you're having an 'off day' repeat positive affirmations in your head. Take inspiration from female aviator Beryl Markham: "Success breeds confidence."

Successful female entrepreneurs are always passionate about what they do because they tend to create businesses around the things they enjoy.

Oprah Winfrey suffered a difficult childhood, then built a career around her passion to help others. Anita Roddick was passionate about environmental and social activism and her company, The Body Shop, was the first to prohibit the use of products tested on animals.

Find your own passion, believe in it and turn it into something you can really be proud of. As Anita Roddick once said: "To succeed you have to believe in something with such a passion that it becomes a reality."

Humility and a willingness to learn

You cannot rest on your laurels when you run your own business. The creative industries are always changing, so you will constantly need to keep up and innovate. Successful female entrepreneurs know this and will work hard to learn and improve all the time. They'll read books, go to workshops and be willing to learn from others.

Successful businesswomen will always be humble. They'll never be afraid to admit they don't know everything and will always strive to boost their skills.

Sense of purpose

There is no point in starting a business unless you possess a strong sense of purpose. You have to believe that you are destined for great (and good) things.

Just look at women like Coco Chanel or Oprah Winfrey – they believed they had a purpose in life. They wanted to make a difference, and they certainly did.

To be a successful female entrepreneur you have to believe in yourself and believe that what you are doing is making a difference. That strong sense of purpose will be reflected in your business, which will only stand the test of time.

Assertiveness

To be a successful businesswoman you have to be assertive, otherwise people will not respect you. Convey assertiveness by being fearless, speaking with authority and purpose. Adopt a confident manner, deal with any criticism rationally and be calm, cool and considered.

Singer Marsha Evans once remarked: "You can have unbelievable intelligence, you can have connections, you can have opportunities fall out of the sky. But in the end, hard work is the true, enduring characteristic of successful people." Even Margaret Thatcher said: "I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe."

Hard work is the secret to success. You have to be prepared to work long hours and sacrifice your spare time to build up a business.

Whether you're a man or woman, it takes guts to run a business and deal with all the difficult challenges you will undoubtedly face.

You have to constantly push yourself out of your comfort zone to move forward, boost confidence and ultimately succeed. This means you have to take risks and accept that when things go wrong, you can always survive and turn things around. Be brave and you will never look back.

Persistence

Starting a business is one thing, keeping it going is another matter entirely. To be a successful businesswoman, you have to be persistent and never give up.

Granted, there will be days when you feel like sticking your head in the sand. But when you're feeling down, remember why you went solo in the first place. Remind yourself of all the things you've achieved. Stick at it because the next best triumph could be just around the corner.

Katy Cowan runs the Creative Boom website voluntarily – she is a trained journalist, writer and PR professional. Follow her on Twitter @KatyCowan and Creative Boom @Creative_Boom

This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional . To get more articles like this direct to your inbox, sign up free to become a member of the Culture Professionals Network .

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18 Best Business Biographies to Read in 2024

You found our list of top business biographies .

Business biographies are narratives that tell the stories of entrepreneurs and the birth and growth of influential companies. These works deal with topics such as childhood influences, education and early career, business founding, and the evolution of entrepreneurial empires. The purpose of these books is to provide further context and insight into the personal factors that contributed to the creation of companies, and to inspire and educate current and future entrepreneurs.

These works are a subset of business books and are similar to entrepreneur books and CEO books .

This list includes:

• autobiographies of business founders
• biographies of business leaders
• entrepreneur biographies
• business biographies about women

Here we go!

List of business biographies

Here is a list of biographies of business leaders that shed light on how to launch and nurture legacies and empires.

1. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

Shoe Dog is one of the most popular autobiographies of business founders of all time. This memoir has received endorsements from the likes of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.

In his own words, Nike founder Phil Knight recounts the journey of founding the sneaker company and its ascent into a top athletic wear brand. Knight gives a peek into his early life and influences, as well as insights into his leadership and business philosophy. Shoe Dog is a masterful illustration of tenacity, vision, and the business lifestyle.

Notable Quote: “Beating the competition is relatively easy. Beating yourself is a never-ending commitment.”

Read Shoe Dog .

2. Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire by Brad Stone

Amazon Unbound is Brad Stone’s followup to the bestselling book, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. This latest biography about the founder of Amazon charts the company’s rise to global titan status and chronicles Bezos’ evolution as a leader within the past decade. The work includes the company’s development of cloud technology, Alexa, and Prime Video, as well as acquisitions of Whole Foods and The Washington Post . The book continues the narrative of the story of Amazon and its founder and lays forth the next chapter in the saga of the e-commerce giant.

Notable Quote: “Jeff is master of ‘this isn’t working today, but could work tomorrow.’ If customers like it, he’s got the cash flow to fund it.”

Read Amazon Unbound .

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3. Iacocca: An Autobiography by Lee Iacocca

Iacocca: An Autobiography is a firsthand account of the life of the legendary auto executive. Lee Iacocca’s life is a prime example of the American dream– raised by immigrants, he rises up the ranks in corporate America and dominates the auto world. In the course of this journey, Lee Iacocca revolutionized the automobile industry and earned icon status. The autobiography traces the highlights of Iacocca’s illustrious career, from his part in creating the Mustang and ascent to president of Ford, to saving the Chrysler brand, and defeating hurdles along the way. Iacocca: An Autobiography is a motivational read and a rallying call for resilience.

Notable Quote: “In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits. People come first. Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two.”

Read Iacocca: An Autobiography .

4. Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow

Titan  traces the life of legendary businessman John D Rockefeller. This biography aims to examine Rockefeller through a new lens. Many other accounts either overly-glorify Rockefeller as a hero or condemn him based on The Standard Oil Company’s later scandals. Ron Chernow angles to lift the veil on and gain insight into the notoriously private Rockefeller by compiling a comprehensive account of his full life. The book follows John Rockefeller Sr from his childhood to death. In doing so, the author not only recounts the moves and deals that helped build a business and charity empire, but also shares stories and quotes that more thoroughly flesh out the figure behind the great deeds.

Notable Quote: “Rockefeller equated silence with strength: Weak men had loose tongues and blabbed to reporters, while prudent businessmen kept their own counsel.”

Read Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

5. The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution by Gregory Zuckerman

The Man Who Solved the Market is a bestselling book about Jim Simons, the mathematician who pioneered an algorithm-driven approach to investing that achieved unheard-of market returns. The book unpacks Simon’s backstory by tracing the codebreaker’s early adolescence, education at MIT, early career, and finally the late-life acclaim and founding of Renaissance Technologies. Gregory Zuckerman connects Simons’ story to the broader current climate and notes the influences the discovery had on the wider world. The Man Who Solved the Market also holds lessons about teamwork and professional collaboration.

Notable Quote: “Scientists and mathematicians are trained to dig below the surface of the chaotic, natural world to search for unexpected simplicity, structure, and even beauty”

Read The Man Who Solved the Market .

6. How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big is equal parts amusing and profound. In this book, Dilbert comic creator Scott Adams traces his career, paying special attention to the flops, setbacks, and disappointments. By focusing on failure, Adams explains how he was able to transform losses into lessons and eventual opportunities. The author’s signature wry sense of humor elevates the underdog narrative beyond motivational fluff and into actionable advice.

While telling his own tale, Adams drops tidbits such as:

• Goals are for losers. Systems are for winners.
• The most important metric is to track your personal energy.
• Conquer shyness by being a huge phony (in a good way.)

While this book is structured more like a self-help guide than a traditional biography, it is full of personal anecdotes that provide a much more rounded picture of the famous cartoonist.

Notable Quote: “Failure always brings something valuable with it. I don’t let it leave until I extract that value.”

Read ​​ How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big .

7. The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder

The Snowball provides a personal portrait of the Oracle of Omaha. In this exclusive biography, Warren Buffet allows Alice Schroeder and the readers intimate access into his inner life by way of years of one-on-one interviews with the author. The book reveals previously non-public details about Buffet’s childhood, career, and relationships, and sheds light on the investor’s inner-drivers, values, and areas of personal growth. The Snowball shows Warren Buffet’s human side and gives extra context to the magnate’s extraordinary accomplishments.

Notable Quote: “Intensity is the price of excellence.”

Read The Snowball .

8. Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and the Things That Last by Wright Thompson

Pappyland is a tale of familial entrepreneurial duty and legacy preservation. The book tells the tale of Julian Van Winkle III’s battle to save his father and grandfather’s lifework and the reputation of the family whiskey business. The work chronicles Van Winkle’s early struggles to keep the business afloat in leaner years to the eventual rise to several-hundred-dollar-a-bottle prestige, and the resulting need for innovation and reinvention that stayed true to the company’s roots. Few entrepreneur biographies touch so heavily on themes of family devotion and obligation, making Pappyland a moving and relatable read as well as a practical business study.

Notable Quote: “That’s the work of adulthood. Sorting out the good and bad within.”

Read Pappyland .

9. The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Robert Iger

The Ride of a Lifetime is a self-penned profile of Disney executive Robert Iger. The book recounts Iger’s rise from entry-level employee at ABC to head of the most powerful media company in the world. Iger reflects on the industry changes that he saw and had a hand in during his long and lucrative career, and highlights the keys to his professional success. While the book is not strictly a memoir, Iger structures this guide with personal details that give context to his business behaviors. The Ride of a Lifetime provides a direct look at the philosophies of the man behind the mouse.

Notable Quote: “Ask the questions you need to ask, admit without apology what you don’t understand, and do the work to learn what you need to learn as quickly as you can.”

Read The Ride of a Lifetime .

10. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson’s official profile on Steve Jobs ranks as one of the best biographies of business leaders. Drawing on over 40 interviews with Jobs and hundreds more with family and friends, colleagues, and rivals, Isaccson weaves a thrilling account of the icon’s life. The result is a comprehensive collection of life events that shaped the subject told from multiple perspectives. From childhood to college, inventions and product launches, collaborations and clashes, career setbacks and redemptions, and roller-coaster relationships, Steve Jobs paints an appropriately complex portrait of a larger than life figure with undeniable human flaws.

Notable Quote: “One way to remember who you are is to remember who your heroes are.”

Read Steve Jobs .

11. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance

Ashlee Vance’s Elon Musk is a profile of a monumental current businessman. This biography retells Musk’s extraordinary story of overcoming childhood adversity in South Africa only to become one of the most influential figures in Silicon Valley and modern industry. The book touches on Musk’s early pursuits in PayPal, the founding of Tesla, as well as the eventual decision to set sights on space and enter the aerospace frontier. The book is an exploration of Musk’s character and vision, charting his life through his innovations and ideas.

Notable Quote: “Good ideas are always crazy until they’re not.”

Read Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future .

12. Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton

Sam Walton: Made in America is the story of Walmart and the man who made Walmart the behemoth that it is today. This autobiography reveals how Walton grew a single dime store into a retail giant. The book explores how Walton built his foundations, structured his business, grew the company, bounced back from missteps, and kept control over his mission even as his empire expanded around the country and the world. Sam Walton: Made in America is a book about big business world ambition paired with small-town values, and is a distinctly American tale of commercial success and the achievement of a distinct vision.

Notable Quote: “Great ideas come from everywhere if you just listen and look for them. You never know who’s going to have a great idea.”

Read Sam Walton: Made In America .

13. Empire State of Mind: How Jay Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office by Zack O’Malley Greenburg

Empire State of Mind is a love letter to Jay Z’s business acumen. This biography recounts the rapper’s meteoric rise from ghettos to boardrooms. The book highlights some of the key points in Carter’s career, including the inception of Roc-a-Fella records, marriage to Beyoncé, birth of Roc Nation, and expansion into the streetwear, alcohol, and streaming spaces. Viewing Jay-Z as a businessman above all and hailing his hustler mindset, Empire State of Mind spins a tale of entrepreneurship, self-creation, and re-invention.

Notable Quote: “One of the main reasons for this success is Jay-Z’s ability to build and leverage his personal brand. As much as Martha Stewart or Oprah, he has turned himself into a lifestyle.”

Read Empire State of Mind .

14. Authentic: A Memoir by the Founder of Vans by Paul Van Doren

Authenti c is one of the final projects of Vans founder Paul Van Doren. The memoir tells the tale of how a high school dropout went on to helm one of the most beloved shoewear brands in the world. This autobiographical account charts Van Doren’s journey of working in a rubber factory as a teenager to creating the renowned skateboard shoe company, to preserving the legacy throughout the decades. The book examines the decisions that made the foundations of the empire and the elements that rocketed the company to fame. The story also deals with the personal and professional obstacles that threatened and informed the work. Authentic is a parable for following passions and staying true to style and vision even in the face of change.

Notable Quote: “What I’ve accomplished comes down to one thing: my knack for identifying and then solving problems. What I do better than anything else is cut out distractions. If a system isn’t working efficiently, I can see where it’s jammed, eliminate the problem, and find a way to keep everything moving forward.”

Read Authentic: A Memoir by the Founder of Vans .

15. Believe IT: How to Go from Underestimated to Unstoppable by Jamie Kern Lima

Believe IT tells the life story of Jamie Kern Lima, founder of IT Cosmetics and waitress-turned-entrepreneur who overcame the odds to build a company worth a billion dollars and to become the first female CEO of a L’Oreal brand. The book lays out defining events such as Lima learning of her adoption in early adulthood, and shows how the authors’ life hardships prepared her to face the adversity of a beauty industry that constantly told her she would not succeed. Believe IT is part manifesto and part memoir, and full-throttle motivational read.

Notable Quote: “How we react to times of uncertainty, and whether we make decisions based in love or fear, can change the course of our life. Champions aren’t made when the game is easy. In any area of life.”

Read Believe It: How to Go from Underestimated to Unstoppable .

16. The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It by Tilar J Mazzeo

The Widow Clicquot is a historical business biography, and is one of the most fascinating business biographies about women. The book tells the tale of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, a businesswoman who gained control of her family’s business and revolutionized champagne. The biography describes how Clicquot Ponsardin turned misfortune into fortune and made a mark on the world at a time when opportunities for women were limited. The Widow Clicquot is an empowerment message and fascinating historical story wrapped into one riveting account.

Notable Quote: “Widowed at the age of twenty-seven, with no formal business training and no firsthand experience, Barbe-Nicole transformed a well-funded but struggling and small-time family wine brokerage into arguably the most important champagne house of the nineteenth century in just over a decade.”

Read The Widow Clicquot .

17. Losing My Virginity: How I’ve Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way by Richard Branson

Losing My Virginity is billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson’s first autobiography. The book pinpoints the most essential events and influences in Branson’s life. As most business biographies do, the work starts with the executive’s upbringing and moves through his life chronologically. Branson’s many adventures include professional forays into the music and airline industries, as well as personal exploits such as trying to circle the globe in a hot air balloon. Alongside his colorful stories, the businessman shares his personal and professional philosophies, chiefly the belief of working hard yet having passions and wins beyond work. Losing My Virginity advocates for living a full and rounded life and taking control in both personal and business spheres.

Notable Quote: “I can honestly say that I have never gone into any business purely to make money. If that is the sole motive then I believe you are better off not doing it. A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.”

Read Losing My Virginity .

18. Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built by Duncan Clark

Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built is a striking profile of the founder of one of the most expansive eCommerce companies in China and the world at large. The book highlights Ma’s humble beginnings as an English teacher as well as his late start to the world of entrepreneurship, and explores how the businessman rapidly climbed from running a company out of an apartment to securing a record-setting multi-billion dollar IPO. Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built provides a comprehensive history of Jack Ma’s life and professional journey and Alibaba’s evolution.

Notable Quote: “Today is brutal, tomorrow is more brutal, but the day after tomorrow is beautiful. However, the majority of people will die tomorrow night.”

Read Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built .

Founders, CEOs, and industry leaders are so often mythologized and painted as larger-than-life, that it can be easy to forget that these figures are humans with backstories and deeply personal lives. Business biographies provide perspective and additional insight into the motivations and influences of these legends and help flesh out more fully-formed profiles of these grand personas. These memoirs also portray the history of major companies and can paint fuller portraits of organizations’ origins and growth. By reading biographies on business leaders, professionals can be more mindful and in-control of their own work aspirations.

For more reading recommendations, check out this list of books on leadership or these business books by women .

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FAQ: Business biographies

Here are answers to common questions about business biographies.

What are business biographies?

Business biographies are narrative nonfiction works that follow the lives of industry leaders and chart the launch and growth of important organizations. These books often draw from interviews and mix facts and history with philosophy.

What are the best business biographies?

The best business biographies include Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, The Snowball by Alice Schroeder, and Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.

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How Americans see the state of gender and leadership in business

Women now account for record shares of Fortune 500 chief executives and board members in the United States – 10.6% and 30.4%, respectively. Still, the share of women in top business leadership positions remains well below their share of the population.

Pew Research Center conducted this study to explore Americans’ views about the current state of gender and business leadership.

This analysis is based on a survey of 5,057 U.S. adults conducted July 17-23, 2023. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. Address-based sampling ensures that nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and the survey methodology .

A majority of Americans (55%) say there are too few women in top executive business positions, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. This is down somewhat from 59% who said this in 2018 .

Among those who say there are too few women in top business positions, most (79%) say it would be ideal to have the same number of women and men in these roles. One-in-ten say having more women than men would be ideal. The same share (10%) say it would be ideal to have more women in these positions than there are now, but still not as many women as men.

Related: Women and Political Leadership Ahead of the 2024 Election

Why aren’t there more women in top executive business positions?

Americans see many factors as major reasons why there aren’t more women in top executive business positions, such as:

• Women having to do more to prove themselves than men (58% say this is a major reason)
• Gender discrimination (50%)
• Family responsibilities (48%)
• Many businesses not being ready to hire women for these positions (43%)
• Sexual harassment creating an environment that makes it harder for women to succeed (40%)

Will there ever be as many women as men in top executive business positions?

Americans are divided on this question. Half say that, even as more women move into management roles, men will continue to hold more of these top positions. A similar share (48%) say that as more women move into management roles, it’s only a matter of time before there are as many women as men in top executive positions in business. 

How views vary by gender

On nearly every question we asked, women and men express different views about the current state of gender and business leadership:  

• 65% of women say there are too few women in top executive business positions, compared with 45% of men. Men are more likely than women to say the number of women in these positions is about right (46% vs. 29%).
• 55% of women say men will continue to hold more top executive business positions in the future. In turn, more than half of men (54%) say it’s only a matter of time before there are as many women as men in these roles.
• By large margins, women are more likely than men to see nearly all of the potential obstacles we asked about as major reasons why there aren’t more women in top business leadership positions.

How views vary by party

There are also differences in the views of Democrats and Democratic leaners when compared with Republicans and those who lean to the GOP. Among these differences:

• 76% of Democrats say there are too few women in top business leadership positions, compared with 33% of Republicans. A majority of Republicans (56%) say the number of women in these positions is about right.
• Most Democrats say women having to do more to prove themselves than men (73%) and gender discrimination (67%) are major reasons why there aren’t more women in top business leadership positions. This compares with 42% and 30% of Republicans, respectively.
• Among Republicans, family responsibilities are cited more often than any other factor as a major reason why there aren’t more women in top leadership positions in business. Similar shares of Republicans (48%) and Democrats (49%) see this as a major reason.

Gender differences among Republicans and Democrats

On many questions, there are differences by gender within each party. Republican and Democratic women are more likely than their male counterparts to say there are too few women in top business leadership positions and to point to certain factors as major obstacles for women.

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and the survey methodology .

• Business & Workplace
• Economics, Work & Gender
• Gender & Leadership

Juliana Menasce Horowitz is an associate director of research at Pew Research Center

A look at small businesses in the U.S.

Majorities of adults see decline of union membership as bad for the u.s. and working people, a look at black-owned businesses in the u.s., from businesses and banks to colleges and churches: americans’ views of u.s. institutions, 2023 saw some of the biggest, hardest-fought labor disputes in recent decades, most popular.

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The Evolving Danger of the New Bird Flu

An unusual outbreak of the disease has spread to dairy herds in multiple u.s. states..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Sabrina Tavernise, and this is “The Daily.”

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The outbreak of bird flu that is tearing through the nation’s poultry farms is the worst in US history. But scientists say it’s now starting to spread into places and species it’s never been before.

Today, my colleague, Emily Anthes, explains.

It’s Monday, April 22.

Emily, welcome back to the show.

Thanks for having me. Happy to be here.

So, Emily, we’ve been talking here on “The Daily” about prices of things and how they’ve gotten so high, mostly in the context of inflation episodes. And one of the items that keeps coming up is eggs. Egg prices were through the roof last year, and we learned it was related to this. Avian flu has been surging in the United States. You’ve been covering this. Tell us what’s happening.

Yes, so I have been covering this virus for the last few years. And the bird flu is absolutely tearing through poultry flocks, and that is affecting egg prices. That’s a concern for everyone, for me and for my family. But when it comes to scientists, egg prices are pretty low on their list of concerns. Because they see this bird flu virus behaving differently than previous versions have. And they’re getting nervous, in particular, about the fact that this virus is reaching places and species where it’s never been before.

OK, so bird flu, though, isn’t new. I mean I remember hearing about cases in Asia in the ‘90s. Remind us how it began.

Bird flu refers to a bunch of different viruses that are adapted to spread best in birds. Wild water birds, in particular, are known for carrying these viruses. And flu viruses are famous for also being shapeshifters. So they’re constantly swapping genes around and evolving into new strains. And as you mentioned back in the ‘90s, a new version of bird flu, a virus known as H5N1, emerged in Asia. And it has been spreading on and off around the world since then, causing periodic outbreaks.

And how are these outbreaks caused?

So wild birds are the reservoir for the virus, which means they carry it in their bodies with them around the world as they fly and travel and migrate. And most of the time, these wild birds, like ducks and geese, don’t even get very sick from this virus. But they shed it. So as they’re traveling over a poultry farm maybe, if they happen to go to the bathroom in a pond that the chickens on the farm are using or eat some of the feed that chickens on the farm are eating, they can leave the virus behind.

And the virus can get into chickens. In some cases, it causes mild illness. It’s what’s known as low pathogenic avian influenza. But sometimes the virus mutates and evolves, and it can become extremely contagious and extremely fatal in poultry.

OK, so the virus comes through wild birds, but gets into farms like this, as you’re describing. How have farms traditionally handled outbreaks, when they do happen?

Well, because this threat isn’t new, there is a pretty well-established playbook for containing outbreaks. It’s sometimes known as stamping out. And brutally, what it means is killing the birds. So the virus is so deadly in this highly pathogenic form that it’s sort of destined to kill all the birds on a farm anyway once it gets in. So the response has traditionally been to proactively depopulate or cull all the birds, so it doesn’t have a chance to spread.

So that’s pretty costly for farmers.

It is. Although the US has a program where it will reimburse farmers for their losses. And the way these reimbursements work is they will reimburse farmers only for the birds that are proactively culled, and not for those who die naturally from the virus. And the thinking behind that is it’s a way to incentivize farmers to report outbreaks early.

So, OK, lots of chickens are killed in a way to manage these outbreaks. So we know how to deal with them. But what about now? Tell me about this new strain.

So this new version of the virus, it emerged in 2020.

After the deadly outbreak of the novel coronavirus, authorities have now confirmed an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of influenza, a kind of bird flu.

And pretty quickly it became clear that a couple things set it apart.

A bald eagle found dead at Carvins Cove has tested positive for the highly contagious bird flu.

This virus, for whatever reason, seemed very good at infecting all sorts of wild birds that we don’t normally associate with bird flu.

[BIRD CRYING]

He was kind of stepping, and then falling over, and using its wing to right itself.

Things like eagles and condors and pelicans.

We just lost a parliament of owls in Minneapolis.

Yeah, a couple of high profile nests.

And also in the past, wild birds have not traditionally gotten very sick from this virus. And this version of the virus not only spread widely through the wild bird population, but it proved to be devastating.

The washing up along the East Coast of the country from Scotland down to Suffolk.

We were hearing about mass die-offs of seabirds in Europe by the hundreds and the thousands.

And the bodies of the dead dot the island wherever you look.

Wow. OK. So then as we know, this strain, like previous ones, makes its way from wild animals to farmed animals, namely to chickens. But it’s even more deadly.

Absolutely. And in fact, it has already caused the worst bird flu outbreak in US history. So more than 90 million birds in the US have died as a result of this virus.

90 million birds.

Yes, and I should be clear that represents two things. So some of those birds are birds who naturally got infected and died from the virus. But the vast majority of them are birds that were proactively culled. What it adds up to is, is 90 million farmed birds in the US have died since this virus emerged. And it’s not just a chicken problem. Another thing that has been weird about this virus is it has jumped into other kinds of farms. It is the first time we’ve seen a bird flu virus jump into US livestock.

And it’s now been reported on a number of dairy farms across eight US states. And that’s just something that’s totally unprecedented.

So it’s showing up at Dairy farms now. You’re saying that bird flu has now spread to cows. How did that happen?

So we don’t know exactly how cows were first infected, but most scientists’ best guess is that maybe an infected wild bird that was migrating shed the virus into some cattle feed or a pasture or a pond, and cattle picked it up. The good news is they don’t seem to get nearly as sick as chickens do. They are generally making full recoveries on their own in a couple of weeks.

OK, so no mass culling of cows?

No, that doesn’t seem to be necessary at this point. But the bad news is that it’s starting to look like we’re seeing this virus spread from cow to cow. We don’t know exactly how that’s happening yet. But anytime you see cow-to-cow or mammal-to-mammal transmission, that’s a big concern.

And why is that exactly?

Well, there are a bunch of reasons. First, it could allow the outbreak to get much bigger, much faster, which might increase the risk to the food supply. And we might also expect it to increase the risk to farm workers, people who might be in contact with these sick cows.

Right now, the likelihood that a farmer who gets this virus passes it on is pretty low. But any time you see mammal-to-mammal transmission, it increases the chance that the virus will adapt and possibly, maybe one day get good at spreading between humans. To be clear, that’s not something that there’s any evidence happening in cows right now. But the fact that there’s any cow-to-cow transmission happening at all is enough to have scientists a bit concerned.

And then if we think more expansively beyond what’s happening on farms, there’s another big danger lurking out there. And that’s what happens when this virus gets into wild animals, vast populations that we can’t control.

We’ll be right back.

So, Emily, you said that another threat was the threat of flu in wild animal populations. Clearly, of course, it’s already in wild birds. Where else has it gone?

Well, the reason it’s become such a threat is because of how widespread it’s become in wild birds. So they keep reintroducing it to wild animal populations pretty much anywhere they go. So we’ve seen the virus repeatedly pop up in all sorts of animals that you might figure would eat a wild bird, so foxes, bobcats, bears. We actually saw it in a polar bear, raccoons. So a lot of carnivores and scavengers.

The thinking is that these animals might stumble across a sick or dead bird, eat it, and contract the virus that way. But we’re also seeing it show up in some more surprising places, too. We’ve seen the virus in a bottle-nosed dolphin, of all places.

And most devastatingly, we’ve seen enormous outbreaks in other sorts of marine mammals, especially sea lions and seals.

So elephant seals, in particular in South America, were just devastated by this virus last fall. My colleague Apoorva Mandavilli and I were talking to some scientists in South America who described to us what they called a scene from hell, of walking out onto a beach in Argentina that is normally crowded with chaotic, living, breathing, breeding, elephant seals — and the beach just being covered by carcass, after carcass, after carcass.

Mostly carcasses of young newborn pups. The virus seemed to have a mortality rate of 95 percent in these elephant seal pups, and they estimated that it might have killed more than 17,000 of the pups that were born last year. So almost the entire new generation of this colony. These are scientists that have studied these seals for decades. And they said they’ve never seen anything like it before.

And why is it so far reaching, Emily? I mean, what explains these mass die-offs?

There are probably a few explanations. One is just how much virus is out there in the environment being shed by wild birds into water and onto beaches. These are also places that viruses like this haven’t been before. So it’s reaching elephant seals and sea lions in South America that have no prior immunity.

There’s also the fact that these particular species, these sea lions and seals, tend to breed in these huge colonies all crowded together on beaches. And so what that means is if a virus makes its way into the colony, it’s very conducive conditions for it to spread. And scientists think that that’s actually what’s happening now. That it’s not just that all these seals are picking up the virus from individual birds, but that they’re actually passing it to each other.

So basically, this virus is spreading to places it’s never been before, kind of virgin snow territory, where animals just don’t have the immunity against it. And once it gets into a population packed on a beach, say, of elephant seals, it’s just like a knife through butter.

Absolutely. And an even more extreme example of that is what we’re starting to see happen in Antarctica, where there’s never been a bird flu outbreak before until last fall, for the first time, this virus reached the Antarctic mainland. And we are now seeing the virus move through colonies of not only seabirds and seals, but penguin colonies, which have not been exposed to these viruses before.

And it’s too soon to say what the toll will be. But penguins also, of course, are known for breeding in these large colonies.

Probably. don’t have many immune defenses against this virus, and of course, are facing all these other environmental threats. And so there’s a lot of fear that you add on the stress of a bird flu virus, and it could just be a tipping point for penguins.

Emily, at this point, I’m kind of wondering why more people aren’t talking about this. I mean, I didn’t know any of this before having this conversation with you, and it feels pretty worrying.

Well, a lot of experts and scientists are talking about this with rising alarm and in terms that are quite stark. They’re talking about the virus spreading through wild animal populations so quickly and so ferociously that they’re calling it an ecological disaster.

But that’s a disaster that sometimes seems distant from us, both geographically, we’re talking about things that are happening maybe at the tip of Argentina or in Antarctica. And also from our concerns of our everyday lives, what’s happening in Penguins might not seem like it has a lot to do with the price of a carton of eggs at the grocery store. But I think that we should be paying a lot of attention to how this virus is moving through animal populations, how quickly it’s moving through animal populations, and the opportunities that it is giving the virus to evolve into something that poses a much bigger threat to human health.

So the way it’s spreading in wild animals, even in remote places like Antarctica, that’s important to watch, at least in part because there’s a real danger to people here.

So we know that the virus can infect humans, and that generally it’s not very good at spreading between humans. But the concern all along has been that if this virus has more opportunities to spread between mammals, it will get better at spreading between them. And that seems to be what is happening in seals and sea lions. Scientists are already seeing evidence that the virus is adapting as it passes from marine mammal to marine mammal. And that could turn it into a virus that’s also better at spreading between people.

And if somebody walks out onto a beach and touches a dead sea lion, if their dog starts playing with a sea lion carcass, you could imagine that this virus could make its way out of marine mammals and into the human population. And if it’s this mammalian adapted version of the virus that makes its way out, that could be a bigger threat to human health.

So the sheer number of hosts that this disease has, the more opportunity it has to mutate, and the more chance it has to mutate in a way that would actually be dangerous for people.

Yes, and in particular, the more mammalian hosts. So that gives the virus many more opportunities to become a specialist in mammals instead of a specialist in birds, which is what it is right now.

Right. I like that, a specialist in mammals. So what can we do to contain this virus?

Well, scientists are exploring new options. There’s been a lot of discussion about whether we should start vaccinating chickens in the US. The government, USDA labs, have been testing some poultry vaccines. It’s probably scientifically feasible. There are challenges there, both in terms of logistics — just how would you go about vaccinating billions of chickens every year. There are also trade questions. Traditionally, a lot of countries have not been willing to accept poultry products from countries that vaccinate their poultry.

And there’s concern about whether the virus might spread undetected in flocks that are vaccinated. So as we saw with COVID, the vaccine can sometimes stop you from getting sick, but it doesn’t necessarily stop infection. And so countries are worried they might unknowingly import products that are harboring the virus.

And what about among wild animals? I mean, how do you even begin to get your head around that?

Yeah, I mean, thinking about vaccinating wild animals maybe makes vaccinating all the chickens in the US look easy. There has been some discussion of limited vaccination campaigns, but that’s not feasible on a global scale. So unfortunately, the bottom line is there isn’t a good way to stop spread in wild animals. We can try to protect some vulnerable populations, but we’re not going to stop the circulation of this virus.

So, Emily, we started this conversation with a kind of curiosity that “The Daily” had about the price of eggs. And then you explained the bird flu to us. And then somehow we ended up learning about an ecological disaster that’s unfolding all around us, and potentially the source of the next human pandemic. That is pretty scary.

It is scary, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed by it. And I feel like I should take a step back and say none of this is inevitable. None of this is necessarily happening tomorrow. But this is why scientists are concerned and why they think it’s really important to keep a very close eye on what’s happening both on farms and off farms, as this virus spreads through all sorts of animal populations.

One thing that comes up again and again and again in my interviews with people who have been studying bird flu for decades, is how this virus never stops surprising them. And sometimes those are bad surprises, like these elephant seal die-offs, the incursions into dairy cattle. But there are some encouraging signs that have emerged recently. We’re starting to see some early evidence that some of the bird populations that survived early brushes with this virus might be developing some immunity. So that’s something that maybe could help slow the spread of this virus in animal populations.

We just don’t entirely know how this is going to play out. Flu is a very difficult, wily foe. And so that’s one reason scientists are trying to keep such a close, attentive eye on what’s happening.

Emily, thank you.

Thanks for having me.

Here’s what else you should know today.

On this vote, the yeas are 366 and the nays are 58. The bill is passed.

On Saturday, in four back-to-back votes, the House voted resoundingly to approve a long-stalled package of aid to Ukraine, Israel and other American allies, delivering a major victory to President Biden, who made aid to Ukraine one of his top priorities.

On this vote, the yeas are 385, and the no’s are 34 with one answering present. The bill is passed without objection.

The House passed the component parts of the $95 billion package, which included a bill that could result in a nationwide ban of TikTok.

On this vote, the yeas are 311 and the nays are 112. The bill is passed.

Oh, one voting present. I missed it, but thank you.

In a remarkable breach of custom, Democrats stepped in to supply the crucial votes to push the legislation past hard-line Republican opposition and bring it to the floor.

The House will be in order.

The Senate is expected to pass the legislation as early as Tuesday.

Today’s episode was produced by Rikki Novetsky, Nina Feldman, Eric Krupke, and Alex Stern. It was edited by Lisa Chow and Patricia Willens; contains original music by Marion Lozano, Dan Powell, Rowan Niemisto, and Sophia Lanman; and was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Andrew Jacobs.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Sabrina Tavernise. See you tomorrow.

• April 24, 2024   •   32:18 Is $60 Billion Enough to Save Ukraine?
• April 23, 2024   •   30:30 A Salacious Conspiracy or Just 34 Pieces of Paper?
• April 22, 2024   •   24:30 The Evolving Danger of the New Bird Flu
• April 19, 2024   •   30:42 The Supreme Court Takes Up Homelessness
• April 18, 2024   •   30:07 The Opening Days of Trump’s First Criminal Trial
• April 17, 2024   •   24:52 Are ‘Forever Chemicals’ a Forever Problem?
• April 16, 2024   •   29:29 A.I.’s Original Sin
• April 15, 2024   •   24:07 Iran’s Unprecedented Attack on Israel
• April 14, 2024   •   46:17 The Sunday Read: ‘What I Saw Working at The National Enquirer During Donald Trump’s Rise’
• April 12, 2024   •   34:23 How One Family Lost $900,000 in a Timeshare Scam
• April 11, 2024   •   28:39 The Staggering Success of Trump’s Trial Delay Tactics
• April 10, 2024   •   22:49 Trump’s Abortion Dilemma

Hosted by Sabrina Tavernise

Produced by Rikki Novetsky ,  Nina Feldman ,  Eric Krupke and Alex Stern

Edited by Lisa Chow and Patricia Willens

Original music by Marion Lozano ,  Dan Powell ,  Rowan Niemisto and Sophia Lanman

Engineered by Chris Wood

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The outbreak of bird flu currently tearing through the nation’s poultry is the worst in U.S. history. Scientists say it is now spreading beyond farms into places and species it has never been before.

Emily Anthes, a science reporter for The Times, explains.

On today’s episode

Emily Anthes , a science reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading

Scientists have faulted the federal response to bird flu outbreaks on dairy farms .

Here’s what to know about the outbreak.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

Special thanks to Andrew Jacobs .

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

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