J-lin Zhang
Women can be power, as long as you have a great ideas. Today, I want to introduce the most powerful women entrepreneurs to you.
Company: The Honest Company Though Alba is known for her work on screen, she's spent this year behind the scenes at The Honest Company, the eco-friendly firm she co-founded with Healthy Child, Healthy World author Christopher Gavigan, LegalZoom.com, ShoeDazzle.com founder Brian Lee, and former PriceGrabber.com VP Sean Kane.
Company: Cambridge Nanotech Inc. After graduating from Harvard with a Ph.D in Chemistry, Becker realized developed a love for Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). The process creates an ultra-thin film with special properties like anti-reflection, electrical conductivity, and UV-blocking that can be used on items like smartphones, solar cells, and sunscreen products.
Blippar allows users to add interactive augmented reality layers to pictures you take on your smartphone (e.g. take a picture of a poster for Kit-Kat bars and it turns into a users choice poll).
Company: Provident Trust Group Fette's company focuses on "self-directed" IRAs, helping about 30,000 clients look into alternative investments to boost their retirement funds. The Las Vegas-based entrepreneur created Provident Trust Group to revive what she describes as a stagnant financial world. With over $3 billion in client assets, Provident Trust sales are projected to top $5 million this year.
After graduating from Parson's School of Design in 1997, Lemieux was working on surface design at home goods store Portico in New York City. She tried out several trendier, fashion-driven pieces on the floor and customers seemed to love them, inspiring her to leave and start her own company.
Company: Silver Tail Systems Mather got her Ph.D in computer science from the University of Colorado, and then worked at the National Security Agency, Britannica.com, and eBay , before deciding to start her own security software company.
Company: Wildfire Interactive Ransom's career began at Morgan Stanley , where she worked in investment banking. As round after round of layoffs began in 2001, she hoped for something better in her career and founded adventure travel company Access Trips with her partner (and Wildfire co-founder) Alain Chuard.
The India-born Sinha received her Ph.D in psychology from Brown University in 1998, but the lab bored her; she ended up moving into software development instead. She founded user experience consulting company Uzanto in 2003, which led to Sinha's newest venture, SlideShare, a platform that allows users to share presentations on the web.
As a trader at Morgan Stanley in 2006, Von Tobel began filling out her first 401k and realized how little she knew about personal finance. Many of her girlfriends found themselves in similar positions -- and there were no resources that appealed (or helped) these young women.
Company: CSOFT International After nine years as an executive at two localization firms (companies that help businesses expand overseas) -- including Lionbridge Technologies -- Yee founded global communications firm CSOFT International. The opportunity to "unite business with creativity and bridge 'global' with 'local'" by using the skills she had acquired was an offer she couldn't resist, Yee recalls.
