Celebrating female business owners for #womancrushwednesday
Every Wednesday during Women’s History Month, we’ll be featuring a list of women we admire for #womancrushwednesday. This week, we’re sharing some of our favorite companies started by women.
Audrey Gelman & Lauren Kassan, The Wing
“Audrey Gelman and Lauren Kassan started The Wing out of a need for more safe spaces for women to get together and share ideas. I love that they saw the need and they responded. Today, you can find a location of The Wing in most major cities.”
— Kimberly Schwab, Support Lead
Cindy Zell, WKNDLA
“I fell in love with WKNDLA’s jewelry because of the beautiful style but I got to meet the owner Cindy Zell at a few craft fairs. She’s a one-woman show who runs every aspect of WKNDLA, but she’s always so genuine in her interactions both in-person and online. She’s really open about how she’s an introvert and some of her jewelry styles are even named after things she feels like are important to getting to know people but also give her a little bit of anxiety, like “Small Talk” and “Personal Space.” In addition to a jewelry maker, she’s also a fiber artist and realtor, and it’s super cool to follow along on her journey of how she’s melding these professional fields together to express her passions.”
— Priscilla Leung, Head of Design & Creative
Dana Doll & Tarah Carnahan, Treetops Collective
https://treetopscollective.org/
“Treetops is a local organization that welcomes new refugees into mycity, Grand Rapids, and provides employment and builds community so that they can flourish in this new country. I love that these women saw a need, and acted on it, instead of wistfully wishing for a better future. They have done some really creative things to raise revenue and create a sustainable community where these new refugees and their families can thrive.”
— Kara Hoholik, Consultant Success Lead
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Special Olympics
“Special Olympics is one of those organizations that makes a direct impact on people’s happiness and sense of purpose.”
— Dennis Best, Senior Software Engineer
Stina Ehrensvärd, Yubico
“Yubico is making security EASIER for users. I feel they recognize that fundamentally Security is a UX problem.”
— Xiao Fan, Senior Software Engineer
Maxine Clark, Build-A-Bear Workshop
“One of the few stuffed animals I own is from Build-A-Bear Workshop. I got this special bear from my childhood best friend before my family moved to a new town when I was 10-years-old. My sons now have their own bears they hand picked for Christmas and birthdays one year. It is an experience every child should get to enjoy!
— Aubrey Mueller, Consultant Success Lead
Melissa Wirt, Latched Mama
“Melissa saw the need for comfortable, affordable, and practical nursing clothes while sitting on a park bench at a playground. And then she went out and built a company to solve the problem!”
— Kristen Lingwood, Software Engineer
Payal Kadakia, ClassPass
“One of the first things I realized after starting Maven was how important it is to exercise regularly. It’s my therapy and it clears my head after a long, busy day. Since last summer I’ve been traveling constantly for work and found that if I couldn’t go regularly to my local barre studio that it became unaffordable. ClassPass helps you discover different fitness studios in any city with a monthly, low-cost membership. I love discovering new types of classes with ClassPass in different cities I travel to (I tried boxing for the first time a few months ago) and am constantly delighted by how it cheers me on!”
Amal Dar Aziz, CEO & Co-founder
Rebecca Minkoff, Rebecca Minkoff & Female Founder Collective
https://www.rebeccaminkoff.com/ https://www.femalefoundercollective.com/
“Rebecca Minkoff’s designs are timeless and I fell in love with her design and style years ago as a friend and blogger shared her. I recently discovered she created the Female Founder Collective, a platform that will allow female business leaders to connect and support one another. I am heart eyes for this movement and the ability to quickly acknowledge a woman-founded business.”
— Janessa Oriol, Head of Community
