Woman Founders edition — Why they did what they did?
It is often thought that a successful product fills a gap or that only such a product grows into a unicorn or goes viral.
Here, I look into some founders and their motives behind developing a product/app.
Where did Bumble’s female-first approach to dating come from? Have you ever thought about it? Yes, it’s empowering to the woman, and for her to make the first move, it wouldn’t be impulsive and well thought about and, hence, a more promising match. But what made Bumble’s founder — Whitney Wolfe Herd make this revolutionary change in her abusive past it is. So, the gap she filled here was not allowing the other half to decide what was suitable for women. She became the youngest woman to take a company public in the United States. Bumble’s IPO was a resounding success, instantly making Wolfe Herd a billionaire. Today, Bumble boasts over 100 million users across six continents, with 1.5 billion first moves made. Wolfe Herd’s vision has transformed the dating landscape and how women approach networking and friendships.
“I’m more dedicated than ever to helping advance gender equality — and putting an end to the misogyny that still plagues society,” Wolfe Herd declares.
Canva, who does not use it? My yoga teacher uses it, and so does my designer. That’s the power of that platform. The idea of democratizing design drove Canva’s development. Melanie Perkins, with her cofounders, coined the idea when she was a university student in Perth, Australia. Melanie Perkins’s journey with Canva is filled with challenges, breakthroughs, and unwavering determination to make design available to everyone. Their freemuim model makes it all the more accessible for everyone. Offering a free version with basic features and paid subscriptions for premium features, this model allowed them to attract a large user base while generating revenue from power users and businesses.
Now closer to home, Falguni Nayak of Nyka started it when no one thought of starting up, at the age of 49. In the Indian startup context, every founder is below 30. Surviving the risk, she converted her passion for Makeup and the gap in its availability in India into an aggregated retail setup.
Kiran Majumdar Shaw was another stalwart who forrayed into a field quite unknown to a woman in those times. She made a leap into India’s brewing and biotech industry, making it a billion-dollar business. By education, she studied brewing and practiced it in the UK, as chances for it in India weren’t there for a woman. But when an opportunity to produce enzymes for brewing in India came her way, she took it up and made it big. From her example, we see that she seizes an opportunity entirely unknown and excels in it.
There are many, here is the list
