Behind Her Empire

Keren Eldad is an acclaimed motivational speaker, leadership psychology expert, and founder of With Enthusiasm, where she provides world-class personal and professional coaching.  Before becoming an internationally-recognized coach, Keren had an illustrious business career. After spending years in the world of publishing, she then founded her own marketing company, Digiluxe. Despite all of th...

Minnie Ingersoll is an investor, co-founder, and former COO of Shift, an online marketplace for used cars. After 12 years at Google, working as a product manager and later principal with Google.org, she co-founded Shift in 2013 while she was on maternity leave. Minnie shares that she never thought she’d be a founder and in the used car industry, but the opportunity to build a business from scratch...

Holly Thaggard is the founder of Supergoop!, the first and only skincare brand that is 100% dedicated to UV protection. In 2005, Holly’s life and career path completely changed when a good friend of hers was diagnosed with skin cancer. It was at this point, she realized that people weren’t taking sunscreen seriously. Holly realized that it was important for someone to make sunscreen “cool” in orde...

Prerna Gupta is a serial entrepreneur and investor. After being at the helm of many successful startups, Prerna is now the CEO and Founder of Hooked, a company that is redefining fiction for the Snapchat generation. Hooked has over 100 million viewers across social media, a short form video streaming app called Hooked TV, and has received funding from Ashton Kutcher, Mariah Carey, LeBron James, an...

Shilpa Shah is the Co-Founder of Cuyana, a fashion brand that marries luxury-level branding with premium quality apparel and accessories, offering "fewer, better things" to women at accessible price points.  Shilpa spent the first part of her career designing web and mobile interfaces for Fortune 500 companies. Although she was passionate about design, it wasn't until she was pregnant with he...

Liz Elting is a self-made businesswoman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She co-founded and was the co-CEO of TransPerfect, the world’s largest provider of language and business solutions valued at over a billion dollars. As someone with a passion for languages and business, Liz wasn’t always sure about the path she was going to take. When she decided to follow her interests and study languages,...

Seema Bansal is the co-founder of Venus ET Fleur, the company behind Eternity Roses, which are real roses that stay fresh for a full year, an invention that has permanently transformed the billion-dollar floral industry.  Seema never set out to start a company in the floral business. In 2015, Seema was in a long-distance relationship with her now husband and business partner, Sunny. He sent h...

Sharon Rechter is the co-founder of First Media, a multi-platform, content publisher that is dedicated to the do-it-all millennial woman.  First Media's clever, lifehack style videos bring in over 1.7 billion monthly views on social media and their BabyFirst TV cable network reaches over 60 million US homes. Their social media brands, So Yummy, Blusher, and Blossom, have an average of 50mm vi...

Shalini Vadhera is a beauty entrepreneur, celebrity make-up artist, bestselling author, and founder of a multi-million dollar global cosmetics company that started from her garage. Shalini’s journey was far from easy. Although her business scaled to over $20 million in revenue and found instant success in large retailers like Sephora and QVC, Shalini lacked mentorship and faced a whole host of cha...

Sarah LaFleur is the Founder and CEO of M.M.LaFleur, a fashion company creating practical, inspired wardrobes for the modern, professional woman. From an early age, Sarah was exposed to high-end fashion through her mother who worked in the industry. When Sarah graduated from college and started shopping on her own for work clothing, she realized the experience and clothes were lacking despite spen...

Gail Becker is the founder and CEO of CAULIPOWER, a company revolutionizing our favorite comfort foods by making them better and better for you.  As a mother of two sons with Celiac disease, Gail was always desperate for nutritious gluten free options. She found hundreds of thousands of recipes for cauliflower pizza to make for her kids - and they loved it. However, it took forever to make an...

Sarah Flint is the executive chairman, creative director, and founder of Sarah Flint, a luxury shoe brand aimed at on-the-move women who need comfort just as much as fashion and style.   In 2013, Sarah was on a mission to create luxury shoes made from the finest materials that not only looked good but also felt amazing. Early on in her business, she was a full-time nanny and was looking...

Ellen Bennett is the founder & CEO of Hedley & Bennett, an LA-based culinary workwear and lifestyle brand that has transformed the way professional (and home) chefs dress forever. By making her dream into a reality, she has created the largest gourmet apron factory in the world. Being raised by a single mother who made her feel safe to try new things and get comfortable with failure, Ellen...

Lizanne Falsetto is the founder of thinkThin, health and wellness visionary, business media commentator, and adviser to the next-generation of entrepreneurs. In 2000, after a decade of world travel and a successful career modeling internationally, Lizanne launched thinkThin from her own need of wanting to create a better-for-you, high protein nutrition bar for active women on the go. Starting smal...

Nisha Dua is a General Partner at BBG Ventures, which she co-founded with Susan Lyne in 2014. BBG Ventures is an NYC-based seed fund investing in consumer tech start-ups with a focus on women and underrepresented founders.  Nisha believes the greatest untapped opportunity for venture capital lies in backing women who are using technology to address common life-challenges and transform daily h...

Misha Nonoo is a New York-based womenswear designer who is known for her sustainable, sleek, and timeliness ready-to-wear pieces.  From the time Misha was a young girl, she was fascinated with fashion and empowering women as she witnessed the dichotomy of women’s roles growing up in Bahrain as well as London. Her upbringing gave her an appreciation for different cultures and an understan...

Karissa Bodnar is the Founder and CEO of Thrive Causemetics, a high-performance vegan, cruelty-free direct-to-consumer cosmetics brand. Karissa grew up on a farm in Washington state and always loved creating makeup since she was a young girl. After working as a make-up artist to pay her way through college, she landed a job at Clarisonic and then was working in L'Oréal’s luxury division. Kari...

Ashley Merrill is a serial-entrepreneur and investor whose personal mission is to elevate and empower all women & girls.  In 2012, Ashley just started business school and in the same month realized she was pregnant with her first child. The news lit a now-or-never fire and pushed Ashley to overcome her fears and launch the company she had been thinking about for years, Lunya, a luxury sle...

Lindsey Boyd is the co-founder of The Laundress, a premium collection of eco-friendly laundry and home cleaning products.  Before starting the company, Lindsey was working in high-end fashion in NY as a manager of Chanel’s Ready-to-Wear division. While working in the industry, Lindsey noticed a real need and void in the market. Although consumers were willing to spend a lot of money on their...

Janice Bryant Howroyd is the founder and CEO of the ActOne Group, a multi-billion dollar global business providing workforce solutions.  Janice’s entrepreneurial journey started with very humble beginnings. As a temporary secretary for her brother-in-law’s company, Janice saw an opportunity in the market where other executives were looking for quick and effective clerical help. She decided to...

Kelly Rutherford is an activist and actress who has impressed audiences with her roles in Melrose Place, Gossip Girl, and most recently, Dynasty and Pretty Little Liars.  Kelly is also known for her very high-profile and public custody battle she had with her ex-husband. A California judge went on to rule that it was in the best interest of the kids to live with their father in Monaco which i...

Dr. Sabrina Kay is a serial entrepreneur, investor, fashion designer, and philanthropist. Born in South Korea, Sabrina moved to the U.S. with her family at 18. As a recent immigrant who barely spoke English, Sabrina became a janitor to help make ends meet and enrolled in a local college to pursue the education she always dreamed of. By the age of 20, Sabrina dropped out of school and was a single...

Natasha Case is the co-founder and CEO of Coolhaus, a leading women-founded and -led ice cream and frozen dessert brand creating premium cookie sandwiches and pints. After earning her masters in architecture and landing her dream job at Walt Disney Imagineering, Natasha discovered her newfound passion for creating architecturally-inspired ice cream sandwiches as a way to bring joy to her coworkers...

Tonya Rapley is a serial entrepreneur, best selling author, millennial money expert, and creator of the award-winning site, My Fab Finance which provides financial advice for modern millennial women.  Tonya launched her business based on her personal needs. She took a traumatic experience as a survivor of domestic violence and turned it into her greatest creation - the My Fab Finance platform...

Tracy Holland is the co-founder of HATCHBEAUTY Brands, a top beauty and wellness incubator that has grown to over $100 million in sales.  After leaving a career in public service, Tracy founded her first business in grad school where she went all in and invested every dollar she had to build something that would later be the foundation of her business today. HATCHBEAUTY works with top retaile...