Note: This article is part of a series. Check out the full series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13.

Launching a new business is not easy, never mind bringing to market an entirely new product or service.

In this series of articles, we gathered 100+ successful female entrepreneurs to share their stories and tips on building a business from scratch.

Lacey Kaelani

Co-Founder - Casting Depot

Q: What inspired you to found Casting Depot and what were the main challenges you faced?

In 2019, Casting Depot became a prominent casting company generating content for a handful of Fortune 500 companies such as Hearst Media, HGTV, Bustle Digital Group, MTV, and more. What became increasingly frustrating was the inefficiency within the talent-booking process. Why do companies spend millions of dollars on casting every year when they don't need to? And voilá - Casting Depot was born.

Today, Casting Depot is the professional network for media and entertainment. Our freelance management tools creates efficiency for creators and talent in gig booking, payroll processing and legal document management. Our business attacks a $28B SOM. We're a unique vertical in the professional networking model across tech today.

Our biggest challenge to-date has been handling the range of castings that have come on to our platform. It's something that we didn't anticipate would happen pre-launch. We see every type of connection happening on our site - from startups looking to connect with talk-show segments, single ladies wanting to be booked on dating shows, to traditional actors looking for their next role. This massive range quickly taught us that our platform has the potential to be home to anyone - and everyone - who would want a relationship with the media.

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

I'm lucky to work alongside my Co-Founder and CTO Brad Larson. His background in building gig marketplaces, excitement in finding PMF, and frankly his contagious ambition, made this platform possible.

Q: What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

We're a free professional network. We take revenue out of processing transactions and upgraded recruiter packages. We've grown our MRR & projected ARR through on-boarding users in the masses in efforts to increase the number of bookings - and thus transactions - that happen on our site.

Stacy Anderson

Founder - KENT

Q: What inspired you to found KENT and what were the main challenges you faced?

It all started in London while I was studying for my Masters at London College of Fashion in 2007, when sustainable fashion was rising up and I felt equally inspired and frustrated. Frustrated specifically by the intimate apparel industry, where the hyper-sexualization of women, over-use of synthetic materials and constriction over comfort was prioritized. After out-growing frilly, lacey and stretchy underwear, I searched for those simple pairs of 100% organic cotton underwear to match my simple everyday style - though found everything but. After moving to LA, I met the right people to help bring my vision to life from a product development and production perspective.

The main challenges I faced were:

- Product Development. Making bras and underwear is hard! Give me a t-shirt and I can do that any day of the week :) Making products that fit snugly against the body or designed to 'perform' like a bra, require engineering, specialized expertise and a lot of trial and error. I spent a year in this phase before we even began to think about meeting with retailers.

- Finding a local LA factory that not only specialized in lingerie, but would also take me on as a brand new brand. This alone took 6 months, dozens of meetings, many turn downs, but eventually through a recommendation referral I found the factory that we've now been working with for 3 years.

- Finding a retailer to give us a chance. We started out as a wholesale business, and I spent months pitching, arranging meetings and speaking with retailers and often receiving no after no. Luckily, at a chance encounter at a panel discussion event, I met Brooke, founder of beautiful online shop The Dreslyn, and she took a chance on me (and KENT) and was our first exclusive retail partner.

- Sourcing. Many materials, trims, labels, etc. require high minimums that a new brand can't always meet. It's about researching, trialing and also taking a leap of faith that you believe in what you're doing and other people will too.

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

I did! Though with a community of incredible supporters of friends and family that believed in me when I didn't, helped guide the way when I couldn't see through the fog, and share insights from those who had been in my shoes before.

We now have a team around the business of amazing advisors, interns and my husband who helps lead our creative, copywriting, and everything inbetween.

Q: What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

We began as a wholesale business, and grew to work with retailers including independent specialty boutiques across America, J Crew and Selfridges in the UK (a dream of mine since living there during my MA).

Last year, we tested our first direct to consumer only product through a kickstarter pre-order, and this past June we fully re-launched our brand and business to focus exclusively on ecommerce. It was a pivot in the works end of 2019, and now in light of the global pandemic, feels all more like the best decision for our business in order to not only build and grow but remain sustainable in the current climate. We are focused on nurturing our community and those who have supported us with this new product, understanding who she is, what she's looking for and so far receiving amazing feedback from women across America that are loving and living in our briefs. A bit more specifically, we have supported our growth to date without any paid ad spend, through word of mouth, referrals, organic search.

Sarah Marshall

Founder - Marshall’s Haute Sauce

Q: What inspired you to found Marshall's Haute Sauce and what were the main challenges you faced?

I spent many years working with at-risk youth, canning and preserving re-entered my life during that time. When I couldn’t fix the problems of the people I wanted to heal, I fed them. My long work shifts were packed with crisis intervention; I would come home from intense counseling sessions, and found late night canning sessions meditative. I started teaching my co-workers and families how to cook and can, and became addicted to creating recipes that brought people joy. With a heavy heart I left my job. I had dreamed up a business that could honor the farmers who had donated food to the families I worked with, help me educate others on canning and preserving, and give me the opportunity to have a flexible schedule with a baby on the horizon. I built every aspect of Marshall’s Haute Sauce to encourage socially conscious community by encouraging farming, cooking, food preservation, and food waste prevention.

As with any woman foraging her own path, my biggest challenge was people telling me that what I was setting out to do was impossible. I was a woman entering into the male dominated hot sauce world. In shelf stable food production, most people don’t make their own products; they have a co-packer make their sauce for them. I wanted to make each bottle myself, with locally sourced produce, and I was told that was not sustainable. I did it anyway.

Myself included, many women have a difficult time securing capital, I started a small fundraising campaign, with rewards of home cooked dinners and canned goods I could make for the people I loved, while they helped get my business off the ground. I didn’t need much, just some big pots, commercial blenders, and lots of emotional support. My friends and family continue to be part of my journey, and keep me going.

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

I started Marshall’s Haute Sauce on my own, but it has taken every member of my community of friends and family to keep it thriving. I wanted this business to be small, and even now, as we are moving into our tenth year, we are a three-person operation. My husband, one dedicated employee (currently our kitchen maven, Chef Gwenny), and myself are processing 100’s of pounds of peppers every day. After managing many people in my past career, I wanted to keep things small and simple, but you can be a mighty powerful team - we bring many bottles of sauce to life with our hardworking hands. I like the freedom of making my own decisions, and mistakes.

Q: What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

My business model is a hybrid model. We do every part: manufacture, distribute, and retail via our farmers market booth and website. I like to describe this style of business as having a local butcher shop. We do everything in house, by hand, for you and your family to enjoy. We do the work for you to experience the local produce surrounding us. My business model also includes innovation for other companies by writing recipes and creating products for other makers. My business model also highlights my mission to open doors for future female entrepreneurs by guiding and encouraging them. The vehicle I use for this is my podcast Masoni and Marshall: The Meaningful Marketplace.

Francine Allen-Humphrey

Founder - Black Tops Business Services

Q: What inspired you to found Black Tops Business Services and what were the main challenges you faced?

I was inspired to start Black Tops when it was brought to my attention by one of my male associates that men were interested in my program, but felt it was geared towards women only. And in this day of inclusion that was not my intention.  I developed the program to be diverse and inclusive.

My mission is to empower women and men to reach short-term and long-term goals of small business ownership or career development. To educate, train and support each client from start-up to opening their home business or brick and mortar.

I believe my biggest challenge was my branding or identity, because sometimes when folks know you for one thing they tend to believe that’s all you can do or the opposite that you are all over the place doing too much. I stay true to who I am, making great headway with Black Tops.

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

I started this venture alone, but I have a great support system and a new administrator as of this past month.

Q: What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

I encourage anyone wanting to start a business to do their research, develop the skillsets needed and create a business that will create economic independence, especially in the every changing economy of 2020.

My business model: 5 Steps Program for a start -up business

1. Identify the client’s needs
2. Mindset and Strategies
3. Develop Skills and Mentorship
4. Start-up Program
5. Implementation
   

Lori Turk

Founder - SAFEGRATE

Q: What inspired you to found SAFEGRATE and what were the main challenges you faced?

I was inspired to invent and manufacture SAFEGRATE simply because I had cut a nail grating a potato and I was tired of cutting my nails and knuckles grating food in the kitchen.  I was confident I could design something that worked and that others could use in their families to protect their loved-ones.  I’ve always been so impressed with people who invented and created a product to solve a problem and because this was a genuine problem for me and so many other people, I felt SAFEGRATE had the potential to become a successful product.

By far the main challenge I had was finding a manufacturer. I wanted the product to be made in North America but I wasn’t sure where to start. Half the time manufacturers wouldn’t get back to me if I emailed or phoned them. I eventually found a firm in Utah that could help source a manufacturer for me and that gave me the confidence I needed to move forward.    

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

I started this venture on my own. I also tried to utilize local resources that I could afford (I never asked for free help from family, friends, or colleagues) through each step of the process. (I.E. Hired an engineer to create a computer rendition of our design, a friend’s son to make a video, etc.)

Q: What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

My business model has been to start selling immediately at local retail stores and on Amazon. I made my own sales calls at these stores and I had 30 stores purchase my product including the flagship store : Gourmet Warehouse which also did a Christmas cooking show using SAFEGRATE in their demo. I now have a sales agency selling it for me across Canada and I hope to get one for the USA this year. I advertise on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and Amazon to increase awareness and build desire for the product.

Our revenue is generated through social media, webinars and by referrals which is the best compliment.

Sasha Schriber

CEO and co-founder of Nanos.ai

Q: What inspired you to found Nanos.ai and what were the main challenges you faced?

During my corporate research career, I was very fortunate to be part of one of the largest entertainment companies in the world. I also had an intrinsic insight into one of the most prominent research communities. In those days, my primary job was to look into specific problems of an existing business, posit it in the form of a research question, think of possible solutions, and try to answer this question in the form of a hypothesis. For instance, what is the future of VR in the industry, or YouTube as a platform, or online advertising as a service? Should they continue to be done manually, or are there parts of the process that we can automate; for instance, in the ad creation process. Then I would think of what technologies needed to be developed for this solution, and what existing technologies are already available. Then I’d build a prototype that combines both new and existing technologies.

After 7 years in this highly paid corporate job, I applied these principles to my next company - nanos.ai. At Nanos we built a technology that automates most processes related to advertising. It wasn’t easy from the start - there wasn’t a large pool of tech talent available, as machine learning and AI were not old standalone sciences as they are now. We also experienced a lack of available data, and the high expense of computer power and cloud services. But what drove me is that I knew how many people out there could benefit from this technology. Not everyone has technical, marketing or design backgrounds, or they may have difficulty learning digital marketing, or simply didn’t want to. The other important factor; as a small business they don’t have big budgets to spend on marketing and already tried once or twice, on their own or with an agency, and failed. This is why Nanos was created.‍

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

I am a firm believer that almost nothing on Earth can be built by one person alone. It’s always a team effort, whether it is planting a tree, raising a child, or building a company. Nanos would never have happened without its founders’ team of researchers from ETH, as well as investors who believed in us and Nanos from the start even more than we believed in ourselves. This is a very important foundation for every venture that paves the road to success.‍

Q: What’s your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

Nanos’ business model is very simple. Like Uber, we take a percentage, only ours is from each campaign that is being created, placed, and optimized through our AI platform. It’s a transactional business model, which means there are no monthly subscriptions or any other fees involved. For us it was important to keep the business model as straightforward as possible - it’s a pay-as-you-go, do-it-yourself platform, so our clients are always in control of how much money they are spending on advertising. I myself am very allergic to any kind of hidden fees, so I made sure what we created was the opposite - everything is transparent and the client can always stop and get a refund of the remaining ad budget if they decide to do so. What also has helped us grow our revenues is our solutions for larger clients who use a more professional version of Nanos to save on time and efforts for ad campaign creation, placement, and optimization on Google, Facebook and Instagram. With our system they can simultaneously create many text versions of an ad, in multiple languages, place it all at once on these 3 platforms. This is an enormous effort if applied to multiple products, or in different countries. Here Nanos come as a huge help and support to improve on the costs involved. This is where Nanos technology shines giving help and support to improve on the costs involved in marketing.

Natacha Seroussi

Co-founder of LaFlore Paris

Q: What inspired you to found LaFlore and what were the main challenges you faced?

My father, Elie, was the initial inspiration for the LaFlore Paris brand. As a 30-year veteran of the Paris fashion industry, he had the most beautiful collection of vintage leather bags. As I grew up surrounded by these classic, timeless designs, I became fascinated with every detail. After my art study, I also became very passionate about sustainability and recognized that we all need to make intelligent changes in our day-to-day lives in order to protect the planet, the animals and the natural resources around us. While my father’s background was in traditional, leather handbags, I looked for a better way to create accessories that were equally as elegant but vegan, and better for the environment. After exploring many different vegan leather options, cork came into the picture.

Cork is an ideal material for sustainable fashion. Harvesting the bark of a cork tree only happens every 7-9 years and actually helps the source tree to flourish and grow. The process itself is also zero-waste because even the smallest remnants of the harvest can be used for chipboard and other cork products. Although the finished product looks a lot like the traditional leather bags we’re used to seeing, the material is actually 3x lighter than leather, making the finished purse a perfect everyday companion.

One of the toughest challenges that we faced was the COVID-19 pandemic springing to life just as we tried to fulfill orders from our crowdfunding campaign, a mere month after we launched our e-commerce store, and as we were trying to prepare for the grand-opening of our store in Paris. Production and logistics became increasingly difficult as the number of cases started to climb across the world and stay-at-home orders were issued. But we hung in there. We were so fortunate to have a community standing beside us who were enduringly understanding of the issues we faced and showed us an immense amount of grace and patience. We worked day and night to overcome the pain points companies all over the world were dealing with as well and were fortunate enough to come out on the other side a stronger brand with an infinite amount of appreciation for our customers.

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

I am lucky enough to have a partner in LaFlore Paris who has been by my side my entire life encouraging me, pushing me, and inspiring me - my father. He has been in the fashion industry for as long as I can remember, creating beautiful bags and allowing me to see firsthand what it takes to create a successful business. I spent many days during my childhood in the atelier learning from him, and now I get to do it with him - what could be better than that?

Q: What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

One of the top priorities of LaFlore Paris is to create accessories that are not only beautiful but eco-friendly and vegan as well. And with that goal in mind, we launched our first product on Kickstarter to gauge interest in our design, our brand, and our mission. Kickstarter allowed us to gain proof of concept before producing bags that could sit in a warehouse - which simply did not align with the ethics we envisioned for the brand.

The Kickstarter campaign for our first product, the bobobark 3-in-1 convertible backpack, exceeded all of our expectations. We found that this wasn’t just a bag for vegans or environmentalists, women loved the bag because it was unique, chic, well designed, and practical. For many of our customers, sustainability was a bonus and ultimately became an inspiration, proving that women can wear vegan bags without compromising their style. Bobobark eventually went on to become the most funded women’s handbag in Kickstarter history, raising more than $1.3M.

Shortly after the campaign ended, we set up our international e-commerce store so that we could build a community of bobobark enthusiasts, providing information not only about our products, but also about our eco-friendly promise, how to style and wear the bag, and even the story of how LaFlore came to be. As I mentioned before, trying to launch an e-commerce shop in the middle of a pandemic was no small feat, but we were eventually able to move to a ready-to-ship business model that allows our new customers to purchase a bobobark and receive their purchases quickly.

The quality of our product and the way that we build our community, I believe, are the most impactful ways that we have grown our revenue. By engaging with our customers via social media, the website, and more recently newsletters, we foster mutual respect and appreciation with our customers. Many customers buy the bobobark in both colors and mention to us that they purchased additional bags or accessories for friends and family. In reviews we receive through the website, we also often hear that customers are frequently stopped and asked about their bag, so word of mouth has also been a big driving force for the LaFlore brand.

We also have a brick and mortar LaFlore Paris Shop in the Le Marais district in Paris and encourage those visiting the city to stop by, have a chat with me or Elie, enjoy a cup of coffee, and get a first-hand experience with the bobobark, or our new product, the bebebark. Elie and I both love to meet our customers in person and would happily spend all day talking about what’s next for LaFlore or offering recommendations on places to visit in the city, where to eat, what to experience, and more.

Liz Elting

Founder and CEO of the Elizabeth Elting Foundation

Q: What inspired you to found the Elizabeth Elting Foundation and what were the main challenges you faced?

After departing from my company after twenty-six years, I decided to devote myself to using my money and resources to make the world a better place. We started out focusing on helping women succeed in the workplace, but when COVID hit, we quickly expanded to pandemic relief. The earliest challenges were logistical; what is the best way to help? Where should we pitch in? I already had a longstanding relationship with the American Heart Association, where I serve on the NYC Board of Directors, so after lockdown started I immediately turned to them to see how we could have the biggest impact and help those hit hardest.

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

Nobody does anything alone, least of all me. I have been backed by the help of countless people. My family, my team, my colleagues – all of them have been instrumental in helping make this foundation a reality.

Q: What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

Well, as a philanthropic foundation, we don’t have a business model or revenue; we’re primarily concerned with spending money, which I think we can all agree doesn't align with a business model. But before the foundation, when I was at TransPerfect, our business model revolved around comprehensive client-focused language and business solutions. Our revenue growth was almost entirely through referrals and new service offerings nobody else was doing yet. Coupled with revenue-driven expansion so we were never financially beholden to a bank or investor. When it comes to business, I'm an advocate for organic, sustainable, long-term growth.

Thuong Tan

CEO and founder - Noodelist

Q: What inspired you to found Noodelist and what were the main challenges you faced?

I was inspired to create Instant Noodle 2.0 - to create a premium, plant-based, flavorful and authentic experience that is not only good for you but good for the environment too. And it's also fun to eat with friends and colleagues (my friends and colleagues were not a fan of current instant noodle options. And their reasons for not eating them, gave me the spark to try to make a better version of instant noodles.)

What more could you ask for? You'll find the only thing left on your plate is for you to share the oodles of love of our noodles. Be Happy and Noodle on!

Challenges

I didn't have experience from CPG or the food industry but I was very interested in learning so didn't feel the starting part challenging. I guess each phase has its hurdles: First it was trying to find the right food scientist, co-packer, ingredient vendors, 3rd party fulfillment etc. There were so many options in each of those areas but I'm lucky to have a mentor from the CPG industry who introduced me to the relevant contacts.

Being a sole founder is very lonely. Fundraising is challenging when you don't have a team. And you can't build a team with lack of funding.

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

Yes, I started alone but with the support of friends and family's angel funding.

I had absolutely no formal experience in the consumer packaged goods industry beforehand. However, what I have was a passion for eating, a great support system and wonderful connections I had made through earlier years of networking which allowed me to jump out of my comfort zone and start my first start-up. The Noodelist product would not have come to life without the help of my amazing connections including the award-winning Chef Petteri Luoto who created the taste and culinary recipe; the food scientist Scott Loh who made it shelf stable; Dana Abarca who mixed the ingredients and packed them into pouches; and the designers Renne and Henrik Angelvuo who came up with the name, logo and design.

Q: What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

We are currently selling direct to consumers through our own website. But later will be available on Amazon, Good Eggs, Thrive and other e-commerce markets.

Also, we are partnering directly with tech companies and reaching out to the techies and busy parents working from home to help get the Noodelist brand more recognized.

Additionally, we are building up the Noodelist community by attending Yelp Elite events to show what else you can make with Noodelist noodles and the soup base through the help of recipes created by award-winning chefs.

Taylor Tomanka

Founder - the Extra

Q: What inspired you to found the Extra and what were the main challenges you faced?

My inspiration for the Extra came from being President of my local Junior League chapter. Throughout that year, I was told in some not-so-kind ways that I was “a bit much” and that I needed to tone it down. I thought that for an organization that is so focused on building and empowering women leaders to get this feedback, what types of comments do women get int he real world from other women? So I outright rejected those women’s constructs of who and what a women should be and build the Extra to be a platform where women can lift other women up and be confident in their style and lifestyle choices. I hope to empower women to live life boldly, out loud and in color – just the way we should be and can be living if we truly embraced who we are. 

The main challenge I’m facing right now, since my social platform the Extra is so new (founded July 21, 2020) is gaining followers and brand trust. There’s also a highly saturated market for women bloggers in today’s world. My biggest issue is differentiating myself from other bloggers out there. I am growing steadily, which is great and I really feel that my focus on lifting up other women while doing styling and lifestyle blogging differentiates me enough to where I can continue to grow at a good pace. 

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

Yes, completely on my own – though I have had plenty of support and help from friends and my super supportive husband. Though I am in talks with several photographers to narrow it down to one photographer that I would work with exclusively to photograph for my blog. 

Q: What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

I focus my business and brand interactions on women-owned businesses and socially conscious businesses. These are my revenue sources, though how I can make money with each of these businesses varies greatly. I offer social media exposure (Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, + YouTube), features on my blog , in-person events and styling, product reviews, contests + giveaways, social media takeovers, affiliate advertising, etc. I’ve noticed that businesses who are more socially or gender focused really want followers who care that their business cares about these things. If they have a tab on their website dedicated to donations or giving back – that’s a great indicator that the business is probably someone I would love to work with. 

My customer base is women ages 24-35 who want a fun, authentic platform where they can learn styling tips and tricks about fashion and life. They lean towards women-owned businesses and/or empowering women in some way. Knowing that the businesses and brands I recommend are “clean” and good for everyone, especially women makes them feel even better about their purchase.

Kay Sides

Founder/CEO of Hatch Inc. and R0AM

Q: What inspired you to found Hatch Inc. and R0AM and what were the main challenges you faced?

I was so inspired to create R0AM out of an honest need and void I found in the market....A super supportive, ultra-comfy fashion footwear option that was a go to choice for women who had dimensional lives. I wanted something that could take you from school drop off to board meetings, to workout, to walk the dog to travelling around the world. Since nothing like it existed in the marketplace the challenges were creating something from an idea and step by step working diligently to perfect our details that make our footwear inherently ROAM. It starts with a custom molded footbed. I am a lifelong runner and wanted something that was both comfortable and supportive. Our footbeds are wrapped in neoprene for breathability and wicking. We figured out a way to incorporate a very innovative technology (mostly done by hand) of inserting memory foam into our uppers. This enables our shoes to form and mold to each person's foot, literally creating a signature hug for the feet. We have a recycled durable flex tread that is both extremely comfortable and long lasting and skid resistant.

Q: Did you start the venture alone?

Yes, I did.

Q: What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

‍We have a very healthy and vibrant wholesale arm as well as a strong DTC business. We are so grateful for our ROAM community around the world. We have grown our revenue on super-efficient customer engagement, coming strong with constant newness yet staying aligned with our core principles that puts ROAM in its own individual lane and staying always truthful to ourselves and who we are. We are engaged with our customers and make sure they know how much we appreciate them both wholesale as well as direct.

Note: This article is part of a series. Check out the full series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13.