[Updated October 2024 to reflect current roles of female founders and current status of each company]
Female founders are growing in numbers in the startup world. The most recent State of Business report by American Express in 2019 found that there are nearly 13 million women-owned businesses, about 42% of all companies in the U.S.[1]. Many entrepreneurial women are paving paths to start their own business in a male-dominated world.
At MicroVentures, we have seen many women-led companies become some of our many portfolio companies. In this blog, we will take a closer look at a few of these strong female founders.
Khatija Ali
Company: BioSapien
Founded: 2018
Role: Founder and CEO
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kpalimd/
Khatija Ali is the founder and CEO of BioSapien, a venture capital-backed, pre-clinical biotech startup seeking to bring drug delivery solutions to cancer. Her desire to find new cancer solutions began suddenly when her father was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2008. After his passing, Ali applied to medical school. She spent the clinical years of medical school immersed in research – publishing over five peer-reviewed research papers on various subjects in medicine, including an oncology case study, drug delivery systems, and surgery. Since graduating from medical school, she has published numerous publications in the field of medicine. Ali also has one year of wet lab experience, including working with stem cells, and over three years of 3D printing experience. In total, she has over 15 years of professional work experience. She has founded two Canadian businesses, one in the consumer industry (2015) and one in the finance industry (2011). She holds an undergraduate degree in philosophy from McMaster University, Ontario, and an MD from Windsor School of Medicine.
Tiffany Taylor
Company: Blendtopia
Founded: 2015
Role: Founder and CEO
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-taylor-9742b015/
Tiffany Taylor is the founder and Sales & Marketing Director of Blendtopia which offers certified organic superfood smoothie kits distributed in retail stores nationwide. A certified Raw Food Nutritionist and Holistic Health Coach, Tiffany has many years of advertising and marketing experience. She has previously held management positions at advertising firms in San Francisco and London. Tiffany is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, majoring in Communication, Marketing, and Advertising.
Blendtopia was acquired by Peak Foods LLC in 2019, a joint venture between Interstate Food Processing Corporation and Lakeside Foods that specializes in store brand whipped toppings.
Shara Ticku
Company: C16 Biosciences
Founded: 2017
Role: Co-founder and CEO
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharaticku/
Shara Ticku is CEO and co-founder of C16 Biosciences, a New York-based start-up solving the palm oil problem. C16 Biosciences uses microbiology to produce sustainable, bio-based edible oils that look and function just like palm oil. Prior to founding C16 Bio, Shara worked at Goldman Sachs, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and the United Nations. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA/BBA from the University of Texas at Austin.
Stacey Hronowski
Company: Canix
Founded: 2019
Role: Co-founder
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacey-hronowski-3893a43a/
Stacey Hronowski is the CEO and co-founder of Canix, a software company built for cannabis companies serving cultivators, extractors, and distributors of all sizes. She is also a Forbes 30 Under 30 Honoree, and 2020 Winner of TechCrunch Disrupt. Prior to founding Canix, Stacey co-founded TDS Realty, an investment fund. Prior, she was on the investment team at H.I.G. Capital and the technology investment banking team at Cowen and Company.
Nirali Zaveri
Company: Friz
Founded: 2020
Role: Co-founder and CEO
https://www.linkedin.com/in/niralizaveri/
Nirali is the CEO and co-founder of Friz, a venture backed company that went through the W21 batch of Y Combinator. At Friz, Nirali and her co-founder Ash built the first of its kind neobank for freelancers in south east Asia and changed the way project based flexible workers are able to access financial services. Nirali got the inspiration to build Friz during her time at Mastercard where she worked in product management and business development roles.
Friz was acqui-hired by Deel in April 2024, a platform that combines payroll, HR, performance, and compliance through a single platform. Nirali now serves as the Senior Product Manager at Deel.
Neng Bing Doh
Company: Healthcrowd
Founded: 2013
Role: Founder, CEO, and President
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nbdoh/
Neng Bing Doh (Bing) is CEO and co-founder of HealthCrowd. Neng is a pioneer in mobile messaging for healthcare, with a special interest in underserved populations. She founded HealthCrowd to reinvent healthcare communication by applying behavioral change techniques and consumer analytics mastered from her experience in the online advertising industry, to healthcare. Today, HealthCrowd is used by health plans and numerous other healthcare companies to power multimodal member communications at scale in a risk-managed way, and has emerged as a thought leader in this area. Prior to HealthCrowd, Neng was a senior executive in both business development and product functions within the digital advertising network space, responsible for leading the creation of hundreds of compelling consumer experiences. Neng started her career as a software engineer at Hewlett Packard, holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and earned an MBA from Cornell, where she was a SC Johnson Merit Scholar.
HealthCrowd was acquired by mPulse Mobile in January 2022, a digital health engagement company. Neng now serves as a full-time Principal at healthNeuron, part-time Coach at Alchemist Accelerator, and part time Menlo Fellow at Menlo Ventures.
Benjamina Bollag
Company: HigherSteaks
Founded: 2017
Role: Founder and CEO
https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminabollag/
Benjamina is a serial entrepreneur who has always been passionate about impacting people’s health and the environment. A passion that was amplified during the completion of her master’s in chemical engineering from Imperial College London, which is in the top ten global universities for engineering in the world and top three in the U.K. A life-long passion for commercial enterprise, coupled with a new-found understanding of the world’s food supply problem, led her to develop Uncommon Bio, formerly Higher Steaks. She started her career gaining valuable marketing experience at PepsiCo. She later went on to become a co-founder of two startups, My Modulit and Zestful, and was the lead developer at UniBuddy, a venture backed startup. Benjamina believes her experiences as a chemical engineer designing a peptide plant, developing new molecules for flavoring with Firmenich, and being part of a team solving a solidification problem within Stratasys’ additive manufacturing materials led her to start Uncommon Bio.
Dr. Ke Cheng
Company: HistoWiz
Founded: 2013
Role: Founder and CEO
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ke-cheng-b18537/
Dr. Ke Cheng is the founder and CEO of Histowiz, a company that provides histopathology services and tools to biomedical researchers. Ke has more than 10 years of experience in mouse histopathology and cancer research. She finished her PhD in Cancer Biology from Pier Paolo Pandolfi’s lab at Harvard and led a team of investigators to publish papers in journals such as Nature and Blood. Prior to founding HistoWiz, she worked at a cancer diagnostics company, Cancer Genetics Inc (NASDAQ: CGIX), and completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Douglas Hanahan at the Swiss Institute of Experimental Cancer Research. Ke is actively involved in the NYC bioscience community and plays water polo in her free time.
Dr. Elizabeth Clarke
Company: iMicrobes
Founded: 2014
Role: Founder and CTO
https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethclarke/
Dr. Elizabeth Clarke is the head of the Research and Development (R&D) at iMicrobes. She achieved and is responsible for the technical breakthroughs that form the company’s core technology and intellectual property. She is also the technical lead on all joint development agreement (JDA) projects. Dr. Clarke has dozens of years’ experience engineering enzyme catalysts for the production of specialty chemicals. Her expertise includes engineering large enzyme complexes and accelerating the rate of enzyme and strain evolution. Previously, Dr. Clarke managed a team of scientists responsible for a successful commercial joint development between LS9 and Procter & Gamble. Dr. Clarke has a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD from the University of California, San Francisco, from the lab of Professor Chris Voigt (now at MIT).
Felicity Chen
Company: Potli
Founded: 2017
Role: Co-founder and CEO
https://www.linkedin.com/in/felicitychen/
Felicity is a third generation sauces and spice maker and launched Potli as a way to promote healthy living. Potli expands upon Felicity’s heritage and passion for functional ingredients by creating high-quality, craftsman kitchen staples for everyday use. Felicity is born and raised in the Bay Area and is committed to sourcing delicious ingredients from her home state. As the CEO, Felicity oversees Potli’s revenue and operations, ensuring the quality of ingredients – the primary reason customers choose Potli – is at the highest levels. Prior to Potli, Felicity worked in the food tech space at companies like UberEats and Gilt.com where she constantly thought about new ways to bring food to consumers.
Christie Lagally
Company: Rebellyous Foods
Founded: 2017
Role: Founder and CEO
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christie-lagally-875b9a4/
Christie Lagally is the founder and CEO of Rebellyous Foods. Christie is a mechanical engineer with 15 years of engineering experience. She spent much of her career in the aerospace industry working on commercial airplanes and spacecraft in testing, design, and manufacturing, and has previously served as the project manager for the R&D effort for the 777X wing manufacturing unit at Boeing. Christie served as a Senior Scientist for the Good Food Institute uncovering the technical barriers in the development of plant-based meat and clean (i.e. cultured) meat. She holds bachelor’s degrees in Organizational Psychology from Sonoma State University and Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She also holds a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of British Columbia.
Adina Mangubat
Company: Spiral Genetics
Founded: 2018
Role: Co-founder and CEO
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amangubat/
Adina serves as CEO at Spiral Genetics, where she leads complex sales to highly technical individuals. Adina also drives business development and product vision and has built a diverse team of highly talented technical and scientific individuals to develop the world’s most advanced bioinformatics technology. A graduate of the University of Washington, Adina holds a B.S. in Psychology with a focus on Entrepreneurship and was recognized by the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association as one of the 2013 Women to Watch in Life Science. Additionally, she was featured in Forbes’ 30 under 30 in 2013 for Science and Healthcare. In 2017, Forbes named her as one of the All Star Alumni for the 30 under 30 in Science and Healthcare.
Spiral Genetics was acquired by Fabric Genomics (formerly Omicia) in 2017, an AI-driven genomics software to analyze whole genomaes, exomes, and gene panels with clinically actionable insights. Adina now serves as the Accelerator Director at AirMiners, a global community supporting the development of carbon removal solutions to reverse climate change.
Deb Noller
Company: Switch Automation
Founded: 2012
Role: Co-founder and CEO
https://www.linkedin.com/in/debnoller/
Deb Noller is the co-founder and CEO of Switch Automation, a global real estate software company that helps property owners and facility managers reduce operating costs, improve energy efficiency, and deliver exceptional occupant satisfaction. Deb brings more than 20 years of experience in technology, sustainability, and commercial real estate to her role as CEO of the Switch Automation team. As CEO, her biggest passion is helping large industries use technology to run more efficient business operations. Previously, Deb worked with Co-founder John Darlington in a number of technology businesses involved in mining and logistics. She holds a Bachelor’s of Commerce in Computer Science from James Cook University in Australia.
Nadja Mannowetz
Company: YourChoice Therapeutics
Founded: 2018
Role: Co-founder and CSO
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadja-mannowetz-b7633655/
Nadja Mannowetz is the co-founder and CSO at YourChoice Therapeutics, a biotech company focused on developing the first hormone-free birth control pill for men. Nadja is an expert in reproductive biology and fertilization, with over ten years of research experience and publications in top journals. She started her career in Germany focusing on studying sperm cell motility. In 2012, she joined Polina Lishko’s lab to become an expert in sperm ion channels and their implications in fertilization. She is a critical thinker and creative problem solver.
Final Thoughts
These are just a few of the strong women entrepreneurs whose companies have become part of MicroVentures’ portfolio. Could you be the next female founder of MicroVentures’ Portfolio? You can submit your company for consideration at https://microventures.com/startups
*****
The information presented here is for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be, nor should it be construed or used as, comprehensive offering documentation for any security, investment, tax or legal advice, a recommendation, or an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, an interest, directly or indirectly, in any company. Investing in both early-stage and later-stage companies carries a high degree of risk. A loss of an investor’s entire investment is possible, and no profit may be realized. Investors should be aware that these types of investments are illiquid and should anticipate holding until an exit occurs.
[1] https://s1.q4cdn.com/692158879/files/doc_library/file/2019-state-of-women-owned-businesses-report.pdf
