female entrepreneur Archives - Don't Stop Us Now

AI Visionary – Lee Yearsley

April 11, 2024April 12, 2024
by Claire

Every now and then we meet with a guest who blows us away by the scale and worthiness of their vision. And there’s no doubting this week’s guest is one of those.

Lee Yearsley is an AI veteran and entrepreneur with a unique track record that speaks to her skill of anticipating the future. Raised in Zimbabwe and South Africa, Lee sold her last AI company 10 years ago to IBM. It was the first company in the world to deploy AI in businesses such as banks, insurance companies and health care.

And now Lee’s at it again channelling her philosophy of building a global AI company that the world will need, not today, but in 5 years time. Her vision is big; she wants to reach more than 100 million customers worldwide.

Lee’s business is called Akin and her determination to use technology for good has seen her incorporate as a public benefit corporation (that’s an American legal entity that embeds a business model that benefits both shareholders and society).

Akin is bringing a new and more advanced type of AI to market, called Adaptive Reasoning.

It already has customers ranging from NASA to healthcare companies with disabled clients.

Now despite the fact Lee has a track record of founding and exiting several businesses, she shares with us just how difficult it is to raise funding as a female founder.

In this episode you’ll hear:

How Lee was positively dissuaded, if not barred, from studying computer science at Uni because she was a woman
How she says she ignores the accepted wisdom of how to build a successful startup and that others should ignore it too
How pervasive AI systems already are and how much they’re influencing the decisions we make in a negative way; and
The creative and unique way Lee goes about envisioning, building and growing her business.

We were lucky to spend time with Lee after she spoke at the Impact Investment Summit in Sydney recently.

Enjoy this episode with the visionary and genuinely pioneering Lee Yearsley.

Useful Links

Akin AI

Lee on LinkedIn

Credit top left photo – Dion Georgopoulos

Interview

Taking on Goliath – Sue Fennessy

July 11, 2023July 11, 2023
by Claire

We have a truly incredible guest in this week’s episode. We don’t think we’ve ever met someone with so much drive and conviction as serial entrepreneur, Sue Fennessy.

Sue’s vision for her latest, purpose-led-business ‘WeAre8’ is absolutely epic. So large is the vision, that she’s spent the past 8 years building the technology platform required to take on the social media giants of the world. Yes, this one woman ‘tour de force’ is taking on the goliaths of social media with a determination to make social media better for all.

She’s also invested more than $11 million of her own money to get WeAre8 to where it is today. She’s been able to do this because of her phenomenal track record building and exiting businesses. To date, she’s scaled and sold three previous businesses.

The last business that Sue co-founded and then sold in 2022, the global Standard Media Index, was bought for $200million. SMI, as it’s also known, was a pioneering data and technology business recording global media spends across different advertising channels. It required years of persistence and serious influence skills to get all the world’s largest media agencies on board to have access to all that data. Sue has these in spades!

These days, after numerous years living in New York, Sue is based in London where we visited her at her HQ in central London.

In this epic conversation you’ll learn :

How Sue thinks about her Purpose in life
How she plans to transform the worlds of social media AND digital advertising
The high personal cost of Sue’s single minded focus on making WeAre8 a success; and
The crazy and sexist things Venture Capitalists have said to her.

In short, this is a truly memorable conversation so please enjoy this episode with the purposeful and driven, Sue Fennessy.

Useful Links

WeAre8: https://www.weare8.com/

Sue on LInkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/sue-fennessy/

Interview

Nothing by Halves! – Kerry James

April 5, 2023April 5, 2023
by Claire

Our fabulous guest this week is Kerry James, CEO and co-founder of not one, not two, but three different businesses! Not so remarkable you may be thinking if these businesses came one after the other, but no, Kerry is doing this all simultaneously.

After spending many years successfully running and co-owning a high end real estate business in Singapore, Kerry is now building two other businesses in completely different industries.

The first new venture is in the flower delivery and subscription business, and the second business is filling a niche she spotted more recently in online and corporate gifting.

Now while Kerry knew everything about real estate in Singapore after building that business for more than twenty years, she and her friend, turned co-founder, Sandi Sadek, knew nothing about the flower industry, delivery logistics or e-commerce prior to launching their online flower business, Flower Addict. What’s more they both still retain their big full time work roles.

Despite these novices starting from scratch, Flower Addict has been a roaring success, being voted number one florist service in Singapore for five years, and they’ve only been going for five years!

In this episode you’ll learn how:

Kerry manages her time juggling three businesses and a big family
The huge learning curve she had with the ins and outs of a fast moving ecommerce business
How asking for help and being prepared to invest in getting the help she needs makes all the difference
How she shifts her attention from one business to another in the most positive way; and
Exactly why Kerry even wants to run three businesses all at once.

Enjoy this episode with the positive and unstoppable Kerry James.

Useful Links

Flower Addict website

Flower Addict on Instagram

GiftBoxLove website

GiftBoxLove on Instagram

Citiprop website

Interview

Marching to Her Own Beat – Dot Bustelo

December 8, 2022December 23, 2022
by Claire

Our guest on the show today pivoted away from a long standing career in the music industry to found a venture focused on the visual arts.

Dot Bustello is founder and CEO of a business called Loupe, which streams and sells art from around the world and in doing so helps make all those black TV screens in our daily lives way more interesting and appealing.

Not only that, Loupe is ranked number one lifestyle app in 73 countries on Apple TV.

Dot founded Loupe seven years ago after spending nearly ten years at Apple as well as being a music producer.

Never one to believe in having a conventional career, in this episode you’ll hear Dot explain:

How she came up with the idea for Loupe and why she couldn’t believe it hadn’t already been done
The key thing she learnt after nearly a decade working at Apple
Why she thinks NFTs (non fungible tokens) are so revolutionary
Dot’s firm belief that we all have more control over what we do in our careers than most people think; and
The number 1 habit Dot relies on to stay focussed and centred.

Enjoy this fascinating conversation with the uniquely creative and entrepreneurial Dot Bustelo.

Useful Links

Loupe website – stream for free and buy art here

Loupe Insta

Dot on LinkedIn

Interview

Bringing Nature Indoors – Belinda Everingham

June 7, 2022June 7, 2022
by Claire

This week we have a treat in store for you: an Australian entrepreneur who’s literally bringing nature indoors with her creation of a whole new segment using Australian native botanicals for products such as hand wash, cleaning products, and dog shampoo.

Founder of Bondi Wash, Belinda Everingham, launched her business in 2013. Today, the premium Bondi Wash range is sold and known around the world for its quality, chemical-free formulations and beautiful scents.

Curiously, what Belinda’s doing now with her business is light years away from how her career started as a management consultant.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How serendipity helped Belinda scale her overseas presence not long after launching
What happened when Belinda had to go into battle with a US giant trying to stop her using her brand name
The one thing she believes is critical for success in business
And why, when starting Bondi Wash, Belinda threw her rigorous and structured management consultant training out the window.

We think you’ll love this episode with the super thoughtful and inspiring Belinda Everingham.

Useful Links

Future Proof Me Mini Episode

Succeeding with Co-Founders – Future Proof Me

March 15, 2022March 16, 2022
by Claire

This week’s mini episode explores what it takes to build a successful partnership with a co-founder.

One thing we’ve noticed with numerous early stage startups is the challenge in those very early days of finding a co-founder, or co-founders, whom you can really work with for the long term, even when the pressure’s on.

So often you hear of acrimonious founder breakups and it got us asking ourselves, how do you create a good working relationship over time if you have co-founders?

One person who’s brilliantly navigated the co-founder challenge is serial Scottish entrepreneur Lesley Eccles, who with her 4 other co-founders built a blockbuster business called FanDuel. We spoke to Lesley on the podcast a year ago and she has some amazing stories and experiences if you haven’t heard that episode.

In this mini episode you’ll hear how Lesley and her co-founders made a success of working and pivoting together for more than ten years to create a business that has ultimately been valued over $11 billion.

We also share some of our observations from the four years of producing this podcast and from years of observing and advising numerous startups first hand.

As the saying goes: “it takes two to tango” and it typically takes two or more to build an epic business. So enjoy this mini episode on Succeeding with Co Founders.

Links

Link to Lesley Eccles original episode

Link to Adina Jacobs orig episode

Interview

Stefanie Nissen – Style & Hope Shine Through

November 30, 2021November 30, 2021
by Claire

Happy December everyone!

The end of the year can mean travel planning for a lot of people, and business trips and holidays are the bread and butter for the fashion entrepreneur and founder on the show this week, Stefanie Nissen.

California-based Stefanie founded her business ‘Trvl Porter’ with the idea that you would arrive at your destination to find a hand-picked travel wardrobe waiting for you at your hotel. When you’re heading home, you can buy the pieces you love, or return them all simply by leaving them with your hotel.

The business was starting to take off when Covid effectively put Stefanie’s business into hibernation. All the more frustrating as not only had the business been really starting to get traction, it had also enjoyed some great coverage in the NY Times as well.

In this episode you’ll hear where Stefanie is at today in figuring out the future for Trvl Porter as well as:

How she started her career in fashion design
The advice her designer employer gave her that made her really change direction
How losing her luggage inspired the idea for a brand new business
And, Stefanie shares how a significant trauma actually led her to have the courage to start her new venture

This episode shares stories that are both moving and hopeful. So if you’re after some inspiration, hope and courage in your life, don’t miss this one with the resilient and courageous Stefanie Nissen…

Useful Links

Stefanie on LinkedIn (Stefanie’s new married name is Barkman)

Stefanie on Instagram

TrvlPorter website

Interview

Tessa Clarke – The Difference One Person Can Make

November 1, 2021November 2, 2021
by Claire

We’re excited to be bringing you an inspiring and very relevant guest this week given world leaders have been meeting at COP26 in Glasgow for vital climate talks as this episode goes to air.

Tessa Clarke is Co-founder and CEO of the international food sharing and household goods app called OLIO. Her passion for sustainability and for creating simple ways to help all of us to take simple but powerful steps to help the environment is just what we need right now!

Tessa and her Co-founder (whom she met at Stanford doing her MBA) launched OLIO in 2015 and originally focused on food waste in the home, although now you can find new homes for all kinds of other items as well.

OLIO has just successfully closed a Series B fundraising round raising $43 million dollars from top tier VC firms who have described OLIO’s 5-fold growth in the past year as phenomenal. More than 5 million OLIO users in 53 countries are now reducing not only food waste but also preventing more than 3 million household goods going to landfill as well.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How Tessa wished she’d made the time earlier in her career to stop and really reflect about what she was passionate about doing in her career
How Tessa came up with the idea for OLIO;
Her four tips for female founders raising funds;
How food waste globally results in greenhouse gas emissions that would make it the 3rd largest country in emission terms in the world.
And last but not least, Tessa shares how western householders make up for HALF of all that food waste.

So dear fellow citizen of Planet Earth, please make haste and devour this episode with the determined and passionate Tessa Clarke. Enjoy!

Useful Links

OLIO website

OLIO in the App store – Google & Apple

Dana Kanze TED Talk on the real reason female founders get less funding

Interview

Lena Andersson – Not a Quitter

October 19, 2021October 19, 2021
by Claire

It doesn’t take much imagination to work out how many challenges tourism businesses have been facing during the pandemic.

Typically, those who’ve been challenged the most can offer us the most interesting and helpful stories and advice. So our latest episode features the first of several amazing female travel entrepreneurs we’ll be featuring in the coming weeks.

Lena Andersson is the Founder and CEO of ‘Go Running Tours’, a global platform where you can book guided sightseeing runs in more than 70 cities and towns around the world.

Pre Covid last February, Lena’s business was really hitting its strides (excuse the pun!) and receiving record bookings. . . and then Covid happened.

Prior to founding her global running tours business, Lena had a successful career in marketing for large corporates in the UK and Denmark. She was traveling more than 200 days a year and that’s when she came upon the idea that literally inspired her to quit the very next day. A friend in a foreign city took her for a run that combined running with sightseeing and Lena thought how amazing it would be if she could do this in every destination she travelled to.

Little could Lena have imagined 8 plus years ago that she’d have to deal with all the trials and tribulations a global pandemic would bring.

We think you’ll be blown away by Lena’s resilience and positivity and you’ll also hear:

How Lena decided her next steps when the world shut down last year
How she’s got through the devastating impact COVID has had on her business
Lena’s career advice if you’re an introvert; and
Why she’s optimistic about the future for her business despite everything she’s been through.

Enjoy this episode with the positive and purposeful Lena Andersson.

Useful Links

Go Running Tours Website

Lena on LinkedIn

GoRunningTours on Insta

GoRunningTours on Facebook

GoRunning Tours on Strava

Interview

Sonika Manandhar – & Her Fintech Changing Lives in…

August 31, 2021August 31, 2021
by Claire

Our latest episode takes you on a journey all the way to Kathmandu in Nepal.

We speak with Sonika Manandhar, a Nepalese entrepreneur and former senior software developer for Microsoft, who’s now a fintech founder committed to improving the lives of women small business owners in Nepal.

Sonika is co-founder and CTO of Aeloi Technologies, an innovative social enterprise and fintech that uses digital tokens to facilitate affordable loans to Nepali small businesses that are working in a sustainable and climate-friendly fashion. Think things such as electric mini buses and sustainable agriculture.

She also happens to be one of Nepal’s highest flyers, almost literally, as she was selected to participate in International Space training at the Korean AeroSpace Research Institute.

Not only that. Sonika was named a National Geographic Explorer for 2020, a UN Young Champion of the Earth in 2019, and she attended Singularity University where exponential thinking is cultivated.

In this episode you’ll hear:

How Sonika is going about creating change when her customers have low literacy levels
Her advice for introverts
How her use of digital tokens is helping to build trust between financiers and female-run businesses; and
Her inspiring advice for women who want to start their own business.

So come on this journey with us and enjoy this episode with the purposeful and pioneering Sonika Manandhar.

Useful Links

Sonika on LinkedIn

Sonika on Instagram

Aeloi Technologies Website

Singularity University