Female Founders: Vera Oh of VOESH New York On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Never assume people understand how your brand can change their lives. Tell them. This is something I learned from the book “Building a StoryBrand” by Donald Miller. Sometimes, we are busy making new products and assume people understand, but it doesn’t work that way.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Vera Oh, Co-CEO and founder of Voesh New York and glowoasis.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

Thank you for having me! My career started off at Samsung as a heavy equipment designer. I was actually the very first female heavy equipment/machinery designer at that time. In this role, I had to find a way to succeed during my first career in a male dominated space. Mixing the safety and technologies with the understanding the needs from the machinery drivers made me approach the design from a very different perspective. Next, I was also a Principal at Design Continuum-Design, a strategy and consulting firm. It was a blessing to join the firm to learn design strategy, innovation and its impact for business overall for some key industry leaders like BMW, Philips, Samsung Electronics and more.

Then, my career led me into my own business, which grossed to about $80 in revenue from $0. I actually came up with the idea during a business trip to Berlin on the plane! However, despite the business growing, I struggled with an autoimmune disorder and my health worsened. From then on, naturally, I felt I wanted to create something which can make people healthier and safer. That is how Voesh was started.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

In the fall 2013, my partner, Joseph and I realized we had spent all of our savings to develop our products, patent applications, and purchase inventory. For our two revolutionary pedicure products, we only had a few customers in New York and the New York weather was getting too chilly for pedicures.

One chilly morning, we knew something had to be done but we were speechless the whole morning. In the afternoon, Joseph told me “Give me a week, I need to go somewhere where snow never falls”.

With that statement, Joseph made his way all the way down to Florida. Trunk full of samples and head full of determination, he stopped by every state and every beauty supply store he possibly could. Along the way, he met people and made connections with respectful people, who couldn’t be more excited about our products, believed us and were willing to help us. That’s how we could start distributing our products to all states, not just locally. We couldn’t agree more about the famous quote “when one door closes, another door opens”.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Before we officially launched our products, we acquired a tiny booth at our very first trade show in Chicago. We were faced with tough questions and tougher critics, as not knowing what to expect and unprepared for any basic technical questions. One customer asked me “What preservatives do you use”? I had no idea and I could only answer “I do not know”. At that moment, reality struck and I realized this is not right. Starting that day, I slept and woke up with a pile of chemical research next to me and had daily meetings with our labs. The “I don’t know”s became knowledgeable answers. I made sure questions were not left unanswered.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

We are grateful to all of our customers, who are our best critics. They helped in many ways to improve our products and services. I start my daily routine by carefully reading our customers’ feedback about our products and our services.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

There are multiple obstacles holding women back from starting companies. First, women are generally unfairly disadvantaged in the business world due to less opportunities given. True equality is long overdue. Second, when women reach their prime in their careers, many women get to a place where they have to choose between work or having children. For decades, it has been a choice of work or having a family. I have seen some high-level women having to cut their maternity leave to a few weeks and working nonstop even during their short leave, which is not ideal at all and holds them back. Third, there is a misconception that entrepreneurship is a male occupation. Equality is better off than ever in history but still women need to put more effort to prove themselves as leaders of an organization because the vast majority of the leaders are still men.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

I think individuals, especially women founders, should mentor and offer fair opportunities FOR other women. At VOESH, we are a female-dominated company and equal opportunities are very important to all of us. We encourage our team to take full maternity leave and our team does a fantastic job stepping up and supporting each other when a team member is on maternity leave. Plus, thanks to the evolution of online and virtual work, our team works from home and has the flexibility to take care of their families. We’ve been working remotely for 2 years and 7 months, and we haven’t seen any reduction in productivity.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

Yes, absolutely! From some statistics, women grow their businesses faster and create more jobs than men. According to women-owned businesses statistics, female companies have increased revenue by a good 84% since the beginning compared to men’s businesses of 78%. Female founders or owners bring different perspectives to the business and make an impact on the community. Based on this report, female entrepreneurs are often less motivated by financial gain and more likely to prioritize corporate social responsibility. With more female entrepreneurs and founders, our world can be a better place to live. However, definitely any coalition must also include everyone — men, women, and anyone in between.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

We have lives outside of work. Our brains may work longer, but we’re regular people, too!

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

From my experience, many successful executives are insightful. Business environments, customers’ behavior, and business tools are evolving on a daily basis. Without continuous learning, it will be hard to lead a company in the right way. The successful executives learn not just skills, but they understand the deeper level of the information. It gives them the confidence to make proper decisions with flexibility.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. You will pay the tuition fee. Your mistakes are the tuition fee you will pay. It’s better to experiment earlier rather than later.

2. Competitors are not your enemies. Good competition is actually a blessing for your business.

3. Finding good people is hard. You should invest a lot of time and effort to find the right people that fit your company needs and culture.

4. It’s okay to make mistakes. But never leave them unfixed. Also, try to learn from every experience and don’t make the same mistakes twice.

5. Never assume people understand how your brand can change their lives. Tell them. This is something I learned from the book “Building a StoryBrand” by Donald Miller. Sometimes, we are busy making new products and assume people understand, but it doesn’t work that way.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

Several years ago, I was invited by one of the board members to be a part of a foundation called Binchae. I had the opportunity to contribute my time and money to help feed hungry children in developing countries. They recently reached 54 million meals that they have provided to children in Nepal, India, and Africa. VOESH New York constantly donates 2% of our e-commerce sales to the foundation. In the last year, we started supporting Charity : Water, an organization that helps bring clean drinking water to impoverished areas by building biosand filters to eliminate harmful bacteria.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

If I could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, it would be “Believe in yourself.” Love yourself and accept yourself as you are. Just be authentic.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Tim Cook! Steve Jobs is one of the most famous CEOs ever. After Steve Jobs, many people thought Apple’s innovation would be gone. However, Tim Cook showed his leadership by trusting people around him and truly understanding the core of Apple (not just about the products, but more about the customers and his team). He has shown his leadership very differently from Steve Jobs in such an amazing way!

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.