A Look At The Powerful Women Of Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley has a reputation for being a difficult place for women. It's so bad that it's sparked numerous think pieces – from The Atlantic's "Why Is Silicon Valley So Awful To Women" to the various controversies surrounding Uber's discrimination lawsuits. That doesn't mean women can't cut through the glass ceiling and pave their own way to success in the notoriously unkind boy's club. These women have succeeded despite the odds and launched companies that changed the world of tech.
Adi Tatarko (Houzz)
Adi Tatarko has always been one smart cookie, moving from Israel to the United States in order to work as an adviser at an investment firm. Her husband served as a senior engineer at eBay. Together, they're an unstoppable force in Silicon Valley. Tatarko found inspiration when she bought a three-bedroom home in Palo Alto, California. She struggled to find the right professionals to bring her dream home to life. As a result, the couple launched Houzz, a Holy Grail of inspiration stocked with millions of shoppable photos in the home design space.
Here, designers, decorators, and contractors can advertise their services and the drool-worthy work they produce. It's become a mecca for those looking to remodel their home and has attracted over 40 million monthly users including celebs like Kristen Bell and Mila Kunis. Tatarko's company is currently valued at around $4 billion and is the most valuable private tech company founded by a woman.
Anne Wojcicki (23andMe)
You've probably seen the commercials offering insights about your family tree. It's no denying that 23andMe has grown wildly popular in the last couple of years – it's actually valued at $1.7 billion. That's a whole lot of DNA passing through their doors. The brilliant idea behind the genetic testing company is actually the work of a female Yale graduate – Anne Wojcicki.
Wojcicki is the kind of cool California girl who is equally as comfortable on a surfboard as she is in the boardroom. Before launching her company in 2006, she worked as a health care analyst on Wall Street. Today, over five million people have turned to 23andMe's at-home genetic testing kits to find their origins, and after a brief snafu with the FDA, Wojcicki is hoping to also include disease predictions.
Katrina Lake (Stitch Fix)
Want that Kardashian-level style without paying for a personal stylist? Stitch Fix has you covered. In a world where we're bombarded with so many online shopping choices, Stitch Fix aims to cut through the noise by creating an affordable personal shopping experience driven by algorithms and data. The billion-dollar idea was created by a Harvard Business School student, Katrina Lake.
Lake came up with the idea for Stitch Fix when she realized her classmates loved shopping but found the actual experience of browsing hundreds of items in an e-commerce store or through the racks of Nordstrom and the like to be a bit overwhelming. She started small by having her friends fill out a detailed questionnaire (which is still a staple of the technology) before embarking on her own personal shopping journey for them. Now it's a seamless process where subscribers receive five pieces monthly, bimonthly, quarterly or on demand. They pay for the ones they like and send back the ones they don't. After Stitch Fix's IPO, Lake became a bonafide millionaire.
Arum, Dawoon and Soo Kang (Coffee Meets Bagel)
Arguably the worst part about dating apps is the fact that women constantly get bombarded with creepy messages from weird strangers. Coffee Meets Bagel aimed to solve that issue by connecting women with mutual friends and curating their matches via an algorithm. No one's really a stranger within this app, because everyone has a buddy in common. Women have to make the first move in all heterosexual matches.
The growing dating service was founded by three sisters: Arum, Dawoon and Soo Kang. Aside from their great product, their claim to fame is turning down a $30 million deal from Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban. Instead, they've raised over $8 million on their own and took on 35 employees.
Emily Weiss (Glossier)
You may recognize Glossier by their intense Facebook campaign but the direct-to-consumer beauty brand has ruffled feathers in their own right. Glossier takes a stand against the idea of perfection by giving women beauty products that don't cover flaws. Rather, they enhance your best features.
Glossier was founded by Emily Weiss, a former editor and founder of the popular beauty blog Into The Gloss. After interviewing hundreds of women, she discovered that the traditional idea of beauty is totally flawed. She launched Glossier with the idea of skin first, beauty second. It focuses on your skin's health rather than products to cover it up. The company has since raised $24 million and garnered a huge loyal following.
Tina Sharkey (Brandless)
Everyone wants to save a little money, and sometimes it's just not worth getting the brand name item. Brandless CEO Tina Sharkey understands this, which is why she launched her company that sells home staples directly to consumers for $3 a pop. Why is it so cheap? Because they removed the so-called "brand tax" that hikes up prices and items are labeled as what they are – from "medium roast single serve coffee" to "moisturizing shampoo."
Sharkey has an impressive resume in the tech space, after serving as the CEO of Sherpa Foundry and the SVP of AOL. According to TechCrunch, the company is so popular that it managed to raise $50 million in three rounds of funding prior to its launch.
Kimberly Bryant (Black Girls Code)
The lack of women in STEM fields isn't really Silicon Valley's biggest secret. That's why Kimberly Bryant decided to take her talent and enact real change. Bryant admitted that she felt culturally isolated while studying coding in college. Most of the students were not African American, and they certainly weren't women.
In order to combat the stigma behind being a female person of color in a white, male-dominated industry, Bryant decided to launch Black Girls Code. The non-profit organization is dedicated to helping pre-teen girls of color learn technology and computer programming skills. Her hopes are that by introducing programming and technology to girls when they're young, she'll create an innovative generation of women who aren't afraid to jump right into the thick of Silicon Valley's boy's club.
Michelle Phan (Ipsy)
Michelle Phan started her tech career on YouTube – she was one of the original YouTube beauty vloggers. Now, with an empire of over 8.9 million subscribers, the 31-year-old has ventured into the world of Silicon Valley startups. Phan founded the sampling beauty box business Ipsy.
Ipsy's million-plus members are beauty addicts, just like Phan. They take a quick survey of their beauty preferences and receive a monthly box of samples for a low subscription cost.
Lydia Gilbert and Nadia Boujarwah (Dia&Co)
A whopping 65 percent of women in the United States are sized 14-32, yet traditional retailers don't usually have a whole lot of options in that size range. This is why Lida Gilbert, a Harvard Business School graduate, partnered with Nadia Boujarwah to launch Dia&Co.
The company is similar to StitchFix in that customers take a style quiz, and then are sent a variety of items they can either return or pay to keep. The difference is that between the quiz and getting the goods, a real personal stylist evaluates every single profile. The company has raised around $20 million in funding.
Gina Bianchini (Mighty Networks)
In today's climate, it's not easy being a creator. There are so many people making online content that it's almost inevitable to get lost in the noise. Gina Bianchini aimed to solve this issue by helping creators develop online communities for their fans and followers.
Bianchini is a Silicon Valley vet, having co-founded the social platform Ning. Ning grew to 90 million users under her watch. Her new venture Mighty Networks aims to help creators build a community around their passions and get paid. If anything is going to help cement a creator's career, it's fostering a real connection with their audience. Mighty Networks help creators offer exclusive content and behind-the-scenes experiences that raise brand loyalty.
