Reflections Of A Female Founder: I Am Woman, Hear Me Om
Recently, I’ve started my days by journaling three things I’m grateful for. Inspired by the 2018 International Women’s Day, I spent this morning writing three reasons I am so grateful to be a woman and how it has helped me build Simple Habit.
First of all, I am grateful for the women I work with every day.
Research shows that teams with female leaders are more likely to attract other female talent. I can’t help but wonder if this is why I’m lucky enough to be working alongside such a smart, amazing team of men and women at Simple Habit. Compared to the average startup (where women make up less than 25% of the team], more than 50% of our team at Simple Habit are women. We have simultaneously attracted some of the world’s top female meditation teachers to join our teacher community. Collectively, these teachers are working with our team to create meditations that cater to women’s needs. This has never been more evident than now, as Simple Habit prepares to release #womenbywomen — the first-ever meditation playlist created entirely by women for women — to celebrate International Women’s Day.
Take a peek and listen to one of the new series included in the playlist — Celebrate Being A Women.
Second, I am grateful to be a woman because it helps me understand challenges women go through, which helps us build a better product.
There are challenges unique to being a woman. For starters, PMS. Women spend almost a quarter of their lives experiencing the emotional and physical period pains. I’m one of the many women who happen to experience PMS symptoms pretty severely. So, when brainstorming what types of meditations our users need, it was a no-brainer to create a meditation series to help women cope with the symptoms of PMS. Simple Habit is the meditation app with the most extensive offering of female-focused meditations. We now have an entire library of guided meditations tailored to women and the unique challenges we face — everything from fertility to sex to women’s health and female empowerment. Examples are Resilience For Women, Overcoming Orgasm Anxiety For Women, Relaxing Into Pregnancy and PMS. Most software products we use are built by men, so being a woman gives me a unique, competitive advantage as a product leader. The results speak for themselves: more than half of Simple Habit users are women.
Third, I am grateful to be a woman in an era where women are inspiring other women to be leaders and entrepreneurs.
When I think about what it was like for women to work in the 50s and 60s, I feel grateful for these predecessors who broke barriers and fought battles to redefine what is now possible for women like me. Katerina Markov Schneider is the female CEO of Ritual, who was pregnant when she started her company and raised funding. Arum Kang, is the female CEO of Coffee Meets Bagel and mother of one. Both are demonstrating to the rest of the world that women can have both family and a career. Admittedly, there are nights when I walk home late thinking I would never be able to raise a family and kids on top of building a company. But, on many of these nights, I also think about women like Katerina and Arum who have proven that it can be done. This realization both humbles and inspires me. By seeing women as leaders and entrepreneurs today, we are helping to raise the bar of what’s possible for the future generations of female leaders. I am grateful for these women who inspire me to see what’s possible because they refused to believe in the status quo.
Today is one of those days I’m very proud and grateful to be a woman.
Yunha
Simple Habit is a 5-minute meditation app designed to help busy people stress less, achieve more, and live better.
Available on the App Store and Google Play
