Female Founders Changing the World

Sherry Coutu is a powerhouse entrepreneur and angel investor who’s spent her career building, scaling, and championing the next generation of tech companies.

Having been a successful angel investor, she turned her hand to philanthropic work, founding Founders4Schools in 2015. Through Founders4Schools, Sherry launched Digital Boost to upskill founders and bridge the tech skills gap.

Image: Sherry Coutu

After seeing her university students struggle with clunky design software, the idea for Canva was born! She famously faced over 100 investor rejections, even taking up kitesurfing just to break into the Silicon Valley inner circle and pitch her dream.

As the CEO of Canva, Melanie has totally democratised design and is one of the world’s youngest tech female founders. Not only has she revolutionised the design world, she’s also committed to making the world a better place and commits the majority of her equity to philanthropic causes.

Image: Melanie Perkins

In 2008, Leah was heading out for dinner when she realised she was all out of dog food. She thought how handy it would be to have someone run her errand for her, and the idea for TaskRabbit was born!

She cashed her retirement fund, quit her 9-5 and spent 10 weeks coding the first platform version of TaskRabbit. Initially canvassing local community groups to gauge interest and handpicking the first taskers, TaskRabbit has grown to 200k taskers and was bought by Ikea in 2017.

Image: Fortune

After a messy exit from Tinder ( which she co-founded) Whitney found herself at the centre of a media storm and a brutal wave of online harassment. Instead of retreating, she decided to fix the very industry that had burned her by creating a space where women held the power.

She launched Bumble in 2014, introducing the revolutionary “women make the first move” rule to cut through the toxicity of online dating. At age 31, Whitney became the youngest woman to take a company public, turning her mission for a “kinder internet” into a multi-billion dollar success story.

Image: Forbes

Tessa was moving home and had leftover sweet potatoes she couldn’t bare to go to waste. She went knocking on neighbours doors until she found her veggies a new home – and the idea for a food saving app was born! She shared the idea with Saasha, who shared her passion for food waste, and they tested a simple food-sharing WhatsApp group with their neighbours.

The Whatsapp was a huge success and led to Olio, a global movement where millions now swap everything from groceries to gadgets to protect the planet.

Image: Olio

Having built global giants like Soap & Glory and FitFlop, you might have thought Marcia had achieved all her dreams.

But when she attended a press day and realised the goodie bag contained $5k worth of products that actually cost a fraction of that to make, she realised her audience needed to see behind the smoke and mirrors of the beauty industry – and Beauty Pie was born.

Beauty Pie has totally disrupted the beauty world, allowing buyers to purchase luxury formulas at a fraction of the cost.

Image: Marcia Kilgore

In 2010, Payal Kadakia spent over an hour frustratedly clicking through “clunky” websites just to find a single dance class in New York City. Realising that the difficulty of booking was stopping people from living their passions, she set out to solve the problem.

It took several iterations of the idea before it was a success, but Payal kept going, firm in her belief that she could build something that made exercise fun again for everyone.

ClassPass is now a billion-dollar company used in over 30 countries.

Image: Chief

In 2013, Ida Tin realised that while people could track their sleep and steps, there was no sophisticated tool for women to track their own bodies – and so Clue was born!

Ida didn’t just build an app; she famously coined the term “FemTech” to give a name to an entire industry that male investors had long ignored.

Despite the challenge of pitching women’s health to sceptical rooms of venture capitalists, her vision paved the way for a sector now projected to be worth $1 trillion, and putting women’s health at the centre of the conversation.

Image: Ida Tin

Eshita Kabra-Davies was planning her honeymoon when she realised she didn’t want to buy a whole new wardrobe she’d never wear again. Having witnessed the impact of textile waste in India, she was inspired to create a solution that combined her love for fashion with a commitment to the planet.

By Rotation started as a side hustle from her bedroom. Eshita hand-delivered clothes to the first few users to build a community founded on trust. Today, the platform has evolved into the “world’s largest shared wardrobe,” and Eshita is blazing the trail for positive change in the fashion industry.

Image: British Vogue

In 1984, Sandy was frustrated that she and her husband couldn’t easily share files between their computers at Stanford. Determined to fix the problem, she co-founded Cisco Systems.

Cisco Systems went on to develop the first commercially successful multi-protocol router. This breakthrough allowed computer networks to communicate for the very first time, and laid the foundations for modern day connectivity.

After a difficult exit from Cisco Systems, Sandy launched Urban Decay, a cosmetics brand that challenges traditional beauty standards.

Image: Medium

Josephine Philips founded SOJO in 2021 to solve a personal frustration: making second-hand clothes fit perfectly.

Known as the “Deliveroo of clothing repairs,” her app connects customers with local tailors via bicycle couriers, making alterations as easy as ordering a takeaway.

By simplifying how we fix and fit our garments, Josephine is tackling “throwaway culture” and helping the fashion industry move toward a circular economy. Her mission has earned her a spot on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and transformed how we care for our wardrobes.

Image: Vogue

After a divorce, accumulating £1.5 million in debt and personal loss, Katie turned everything around and founded Stripe & Stare.

When her search for the perfect pair of knickers came up short, she set out to create sustainable knickers that were good for the customer and good for the planet!

Her knickers are now cult products and she’s on a mission to empower other female founders through the S&S foundation.

Image: Katie Lopes

While studying at Harvard, Michelle Zatlyn teamed up with classmate Matthew Prince to enter a business plan competition with a “crazy” idea to fix the internet.

She turned down a high-paying job offer to move to Silicon Valley and launch Cloudflare. Cloudflare is a platform dedicated to making the web faster and more secure. Today, Cloudflare is a global powerhouse that protects millions of websites and one of the most important infrastructure companies in the world.

Image: Forbes

While studying at Harvard Business School, Tan decided to fix a problem that hit close to home. Back in Malaysia, taxi services were so chaotic and unsafe that her mother would stay up late tracking her via a “manual GPS” of text messages to ensure she arrived safely.

Inspired by this experience, Tan and her classmate co-founded Grab. What started as a mission for safety has since transformed transportation across Southeast Asia, growing into a “super-app” with over 5 million drivers and worth over $17 billion.

Image: Tatler Asia

After undergoing life-changing surgery in 2012, Victoria Jenkins realised how little adaptive clothing was on the market.

With an extensive career in fashion design, she set about creating clothes that made her customers look and feel amazing whilst supporting their accessibility needs.

UnHidden has been featured at London Fashion Week and continues to go from strength to strength, setting the standard for fashion that’s inclusive for everyone.

Image: Victoria Jenkins

University friends turned founders, Twumasi-Corson and Mate, launched Afrocenchix in 2010, following a conversation about their struggles with hair loss and sensitive scalps.

Through Afrocenchix, they create and sell natural, ethical products tailored to Afro, coily, and curly hair. Their products are now sold in over 54 countries!

Image: Sifted