Latest news with #femaleFounders
Fast Company
30-07-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Ty Haney on the female founder comeback era
Ty Haney is wearing a blinged-out zip hoodie, with the words 'Doing Things' emblazoned in diamanté. This was the motto of Outdoor Voices, the activewear brand she founded in 2013 at the age of 23. Five years ago, Haney left Outdoor Voices in the midst of crisis. Reports swirled that Haney was experiencing conflict with retail magnate Mickey Drexler, who had been brought in as chairman, and that the company was losing money. Last year, Outdoor Voices shuttered all retail stores and was acquired by the private equity group Consortium Brand Partners. And in a twist, Consortium reached out to Haney to see if she would want to come back to lead the company again. Haney said no. In her time away from Outdoor Voices, she had launched two other companies: Joggy, an energy drink brand that is now sold at Target, and Try Your Best (TYB), a consumer loyalty platform with 200 brands on it. 'I was, like, 'No, I'm busy,'' she recalls. 'I enjoy what I'm doing.' It wasn't just that Haney had a lot on her plate, running two startups as a mother of two. It was also that her departure had been so traumatic. Haney was part of a broader wave of female founders who left their companies over the last five years, sometimes in a shroud of disgrace, in what has been described as the end of the girlboss era. Steph Korey, cofounder of Away, stepped down after being accused of creating a toxic work environment. Yael Aflalo, founder of Reformation, stepped aside because of allegations of racism. Gregg Renfrew, founder of Beautycounter, was ousted from her company after she sold it to private equity group Carlyle. In Haney's case, the problems were largely focused on profitability. The company had raised more than $60 million from investors like Forerunner and General Catalyst, who bet that Outdoor Voices could one day grow to the size of Nike or Lululemon. But six years in, it was losing $2 million a month, with annual sales of $40 million. Drexler was brought in to help steer the ship, but his strategies and leadership style were at odds with Haney's. And she saw no other path but to leave her fledgling brand. But even after turning down Consortium's offer, the private equity firm kept coming back. And it struck Haney that she had an opportunity to revive the brand she had poured so much of her life into building, and to make it relevant to the next generation of consumers. 'They saw a brand without a founder and a brand without vision, and that's not a good scenario,' she says. 'I began to think this could be a really awesome creative outlet.' Haney quietly returned to Outdoor Voices a year ago. But she's announcing her return this week in conjunction with the brand's relaunch. Today, the website comes back online with a new collection of clothes thoughtfully designed to appeal both to the brand's original millennial audience, but also to Gen Z. The products will be exclusively available to the TYB community, but will be shoppable to the wider public on August 5. 'We want to reactivate the original millennial loyalists,' Haney says. 'But we're introducing the 'Doing Things' philosophy to the next generation. The collection is boldly fashion-forward and fits into your lifestyle. I'm seeing Gen Z mixing in vintage and natural materials into their looks.' I sat down with Haney to discuss why so many female founders came under attack, and how she plans to run Outdoor Voices differently this time around. Looking back, why do you think so many female founders left their businesses? What do you make of the narrative of 'the fall of the girlboss'? There were a lot of dynamics at play. Firstly, the direct-to-consumer venture-funded model wasn't a home run success. All of these sexy businesses and founders got a lot of capital—in my case, when I was quite young. The expectations to grow were massive. We were growing, but we were not a technology business. When you get inventory involved, growth becomes very challenging. But challenges in business are normal. You face a hundred of them a day. It was unfortunate that the culture at the time was to take down women who had a lot of success. What I'm most concerned about is the effects these massive takedowns of female founders have had on women's appetite to start their own businesses, raise money, and go for big things. Right now, I want to model that a female founder can return. And that women should want to build big companies. As I've written before, many of the female founders who were the face of their brands experienced the most misogyny. And female founders who were behind the scenes often avoided the worst of these attacks. Unfortunately, I think this has made many women in business more camera-shy. How do you feel now, coming back? It's still very important for me to own the message. Even for this relaunch, there's a video in which I'm narrating and breaking the news. In my experience, using PR and social media to amplify the story has been very helpful. And I've learned that it is important for me to be the first to speak. I'm not a first-time founder anymore. When I was 23, I was scared of allegations and articles that would end my career, or my life as I knew it. I keep coming back to the fact that this is par for the course if you're going to build a business in the public eye. I want to show that you can get through negative press. There are always going to be mistakes and unfortunate incidents in business, but we can solve them. That's what I care about most. Given how traumatic it was to leave the company, why did you choose to come back? Why not launch something entirely new? I'm irrationally optimistic. It's almost like childbirth; you kind of forget the bad things. I am very grateful for that first chapter. When I look back, I feel like 90% of building Outdoor Voices was awesome, and 10% was hard. But that's life. But also, there is still a lot of brand equity with Outdoor Voices. There's an emotional connection to Outdoor Voices because of its mission, which is to move. We have a strong foundation, so I am eager to see how we can reactivate that. With this new chapter of Outdoor Voices, you're integrating your other companies—Joggy and Try Your Best. Were you surprised that Consortium was so eager for you to bring all these businesses together? All of these companies are synergistic. TYB has more than 200 of the top consumer brands on the platform. The tool is really working to help brands engage with their community and make them more valuable over time. So it's a tool that was made for Outdoor Voices in many ways. And for Joggy, it has a similar mission to maximize happiness through movement. So having a can in hand while you're 'doing things' just makes sense. It's not that deep, but you'll see how the brands continue to work together. I think it's very meaningful that Consortium really sees me, and came to me first. I believe in my ability to set a vision and execute against it. Being here feels right, and I think it's a recipe for success. The early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is Friday, September 5, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
Forbes
21-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
'My Kidneys Shut Down'–ILIA Beauty Founder's Wake-Up Call After Scaling To $100M
Founder of ILIA Beauty Sasha Plavsic experienced near-fatal burnout after scaling to $100M Sasha Plavsic was on opioids, trying to show up to meetings, her kidneys shutting down from years of relentless stress. The founder of ILIA Beauty had just sold the majority of her company after scaling it from $5 million to $100 million in under four years—a trajectory that should have left her basking in triumph. Instead, she was fighting for her life. "It could have killed me," Plavsic tells me, reflecting on the 2021 health crisis that took two and a half years to recover from. Today, ILIA Beauty stands as one of clean beauty's greatest success stories, acquired for an undisclosed amount by the prestigious Courtin-Clarins family—their first major investment. But Plavsic's journey from late-night side hustle to a nine-figure exit offers crucial lessons for the seventy-five percent of female founders who, according to new research from the Female Founders Alliance, experience burnout while building their companies. I met Plavsic serendipitously on a Whistler hiking trail, where her grounded presence gave no hint that success had nearly killed her. But as she described choosing to step back from her company due to her body's breakdown from overwork, I knew more women needed to hear her story. And recently, I had the honor of having her as a guest on The Failure Factor Podcast. The Beginning of Her Climb In 2009, Plavsic had hit what she described as "rock bottom." Fresh off a breakup and battling severe acne that had plagued her since childhood, the 30-year-old moved back into a studio suite next to her parents' garage in Vancouver. Her mother—already health-conscious from helping Plavsic's brother navigate severe allergies and asthma in the 1980s—urged her to examine her skincare products. What Plavsic discovered shocked her: many of the products meant to help her acne were actually making it worse. This was 2009, when "clean beauty" wasn't yet a category. The market was split between natural products that didn't perform and luxury beauty loaded with questionable ingredients. Plavsic saw an opportunity in the gap. "I wanted to disrupt the beauty industry and make products that people trust," she declared. Armed with a $25,000 line of credit and two credit cards, she spent two years developing her first product: a hybrid lipstick-balm that tinted and hydrated. While working days at an aromatherapy company, she'd come home and work from 8pm to 2am formulating and refining. She went through three manufacturers who told her it couldn't be done before finally finding one willing to work with her vision of clean beauty. "Being young and naive is a really good combination," Plavsic muses in reference to her perseverance despite repeated challenges and rejections. 'I felt safe in failing.' Following Her Inner Compass Her instincts would prove invaluable when Sephora approached ILIA for partnership in 2012, just a year after launch. Most founders would have jumped at the opportunity. Plavsic said no. 'I [didn't] have any money,' she explained, recognizing that in order to maximize the opportunity with Sephora, she needed capital and strategy. This decision proved prescient. She was approached again by Sephora in 2015 to help them define the standards for their entire clean beauty category. By 2017, when ILIA finally launched in Sephora with just two products, the timing was perfect. The brand's hero product, the Super Serum Skin Tint SPF 40, has since sold over one million units. ILIA Beauty's Skin Tint SPF 40 has sold over 1 million units. "The more we can get in touch with our intuition, the better," Plavsic advises. "A lot of decisions I've made are from that little voice in your head or feeling in your stomach. It's amazing what we do to cover it up and not listen to it." Gaining Elevation, Losing Herself As ILIA's revenue skyrocketed from $5 million in 2018 to $16 million to $36 million to $100 million by 2021, so did the demands on Plavsic's time and health. She had her first child in 2015, lost a parent, and was essentially running the company alone while her husband traveled eight months a year for work. "I was so burned down [sic]. I was sad all the time. I was pretty much dying inside," she recounts. Her experience mirrors a broader crisis among female founders. According to the FFA report, fundraising pressure is the primary cause of burnout for fifty-eight percent of VC-backed founders, with women facing the additional burden of pitching to skepticism while men pitch to opportunity. The report also found that forty percent of female founders cite gender as their top fundraising barrier—a challenge Plavsic knows firsthand. "It was worse than I ever could have imagined," she reflected on the fundraising landscape. Even with over $1 million in revenue, "it was like pulling teeth." Hoping to reduce her responsibilities, Plavsic made a crucial decision: she hired a CEO. 'There are a lot of founders who want to be a CEO,' Plavsic states. "But unless you understand how to run a business—especially once you hit the 5, 10, 30 million [mark]—you should be pulling somebody else in who's gonna know how to scale." If You Don't Say 'Enough,' Your Body Will Despite having a partner in the business, the relentless pace eventually caught up with Plavsic. In 2021, she made the difficult decision to sell the majority of ILIA to the Courtin-Clarins family. After the sale and relocating to Canada, her body finally succumbed to the exhaustion. She learned that her kidneys were failing—the culmination of years running on adrenaline. 'It was a moment of like, okay, I got to figure this out because actually nothing else matters,' she recalled. The timing of the sale proved fortuitous as the M&A market cooled significantly in subsequent years. But more importantly, it gave her something money couldn't buy: the space to heal. Recovery took two and a half years. Today, Plavsic offers a powerful metaphor for her transformed relationship with work: "If you think of an icy lake in Canada with soft spots, I'm on top of the lake now. I can look into the softer spots and reach in to help when needed. Before, I was at the bottom, holding my breath." Is The View Worth The Climb? As ILIA continues to thrive under its new ownership structure—with Plavsic maintaining a significant stake and focusing on product development—her story serves as both an inspiration and a reality check: Yes, you can bootstrap a beauty brand to $100 million in revenue. But as Plavsic learned, knowing how to grow is only half the equation. The other half is knowing how to do so sustainably. Her advice to entrepreneurs, particularly women juggling business and motherhood, calls us to get clear on what really matters: 'If you were to strip away everything—your business, your goals—what brings you joy at a very base level? That truth is something you can carry through any situation.' As a therapist and executive coach, I call this exercise 'diversifying our self-worth portfolio:" In pursuit of success, founders have a tendency to neglect the areas of their lives that give them a sense of relevance. The result? Feeling like they can't set boundaries with work, because they believe if they fail they will have—and be—nothing. Leaving Guilt Behind Despite her more grounded perspective, Plavsic still grapples with balancing motherhood and leading product development: 'I think guilt is still very prevalent for me weekly," she admits. The guilt Plavsic describes isn't just personal—it's systemic. Society demands that women be both perfect mothers and fearless founders, then ensures they'll fail at one or both. Stay home and you're "not providing for the family." Build a business and you're "an elusive mom." This isn't about individual choices; it's about a culture that turns motherhood into a no-win game. The guilt is an inevitable product of the system. Plavsic believes in letting go of the 'have it all' narrative, which helps her release guilt and prioritize her family. 'You'll never regret picking your family over some opportunity in business. You won't remember that one meeting. You'll remember the other moments.' That day on Whistler Mountain, I followed Plavsic as she hiked steadily and intentionally. She moved like someone who—after nearly dying to reach $100 million in revenue—had finally learned to pace herself and wanted to be present for the journey. For the seventy-five percent of female founders experiencing burnout, Plavsic's journey offers both validation and hope: In a culture that glorifies sacrificing everything to "have it all," the real courage lies in knowing which views are worth the climb. Megan Bruneau, M.A. Psych is a therapist, executive coach, and the founder of Off The Field Executive & Personal Coaching. She hosts The Failure Factor podcast featuring conversations with entrepreneurs about the setbacks that led to their success. Listen to her episode with ILIA Beauty founder Sasha Plavsic on Apple and Spotify.
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Female founders are optimistic that AI could solve challenges they face funding and scaling startups
– Founding story. Forty percent of female founders say that macroeconomic conditions have hurt their businesses—and 46% say that political uncertainty in the U.S. is a direct threat, too. But amid the challenges of tariffs, weakened consumer confidence, and political attacks on diversity and inclusion, female founders see opportunity in other areas—namely, AI. The early-stage VC firm Graham & Walker gathered these results from a survey of 180 female founders of 'VC scalable' startups in North America. Fifty-six percent of all-female founding teams see 'more opportunities' because of AI, compared to only 46% of mixed-gender founding teams who say the same. This report speculates that female founders—who also cite fundraising as, still, a major challenge—could be looking at AI as a way to scale with less capital and avoid some of those fundraising challenges. Seventy-one percent of founders surveyed said raising their last round was harder than they thought it would be. Forty percent of founders still say their gender was a top factor in that difficulty. In 2024, according to Pitchbook, teams including female founders raised 27% more capital than the year prior, with $38 billion closed—but across 13.1% fewer deals than 2023. Other fundraising challenges include 'shifting goalposts'—with norms changing for early-stage funding and early-stage investors expecting founders to meet benchmarks that might have previously been reserved for Series A. Fourteen founders in the survey specifically called out their experiences with female investors. Many of the concerns they raised are likely related to the pressure those female investors are under. One founder surveyed said female investors are 'harder to win over' and 'require every box to be checked,' while another said that they've pitched women who have 'no real ability to do deals.' Emma The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune's daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today's edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here. This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
The Sun
03-06-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Meghan Markle couldn't get Beyonce so settled for her mum… but even a global star couldn't save As Ever, expert slams
Emily Jane Davies Summer Raemason Published: Invalid Date, MEGHAN Markle couldn't bag Beyonce for her podcast so she settled for her mum instead, an expert claimed. The Duchess of Sussex, 43, sat down with Tina Knowles for the latest episode of Confessions of a Female Founder this week. 6 6 6 But marketing expert Nick Ede told The Sun how chats with famous celebs won't be enough to save her brand. This comes as the Duchess decided to"just pause" restocking As Ever - after previously selling out in under an hour. Meg said she wants to wait until it is "completely stable and we have everything we need" as to not annoy customers. Mr Ede said: "Meghan obviously is trying really hard to establish herself in a big way, and associating herself with other female founders, was kind of a good idea, because it went well with the As Ever brand, and how that was developing. "But the issue is that actually the As Ever brand hasn't really gone particularly far, so she can't really say that she's a particularly great female founder. "And so when she's been interviewing some of these brilliant people like Sarah Blakely, for instance, who who came up with Spanx and was one of the first youngest billionaires in the world, that's somebody who's actually aspirational, somebody who's worked really hard and created a product which is sold around the world and recognized around the world. "And unfortunately, as ever isn't." Mr Ede dubbed it more of a "PR spin" than a proper brand. He also compared it to Tina Knowles ' success as a bestselling author in America and a popular fashion designer. "Meghan is great at piggybacking off other people's success," the expert added. But, despite chatting to popular celebs on the podcast, Mr Ede didn't think it would be of much benefit. "I think one of the biggest problems with this is that unfortunately, Meghan hasn't had the people who are going to get the bums on seats who are going to get the listeners who are going to get the downloaders," he said. "And also the conversations aren't particularly interesting. "They're only interesting to people who want to be female founders, and if they're not, then it doesn't really give them much to talk about." Mr Ede also highlighted how the Duchess "isn't particularly relatable". He said there's a "massive disconnect" as "really she's not a female founder". The expert suggested the mum-of-two's best bet would be venturing into the fashion world. "I don't think she'll do another podcast. I just don't think it's working," he continued. "I would really sit back and go, 'how front facing do I need to be? Do I actually need to be right at the forefront of it? Or can I just use my name to influence and drive sales, make money and feel much more protected?' "I think that would be the best strategy for her in the long run." Meghan has previously told of the difficulties of building her firm and "how many tears" she has shed behind the scenes. She chatted about As Ever on a bonus episode of her podcast featuring Beyoncé's mother Tina Knowles. The Duchess has suffered a myriad of problems with the business, from branding rows to claims she is "out of touch" with reality with her pricey jams. The 43-year-old has previously admitted As Ever "overwhelms" her and she stays up stressing about it until 3am. On the podcast, she also expressed her dream of launching a future business with daughter Princess Lilibet, after talking to Tina about the Cecred haircare line she started with Beyoncé. "I wonder if one day I'll be in business with Lily and we'll be building something," the Duchess said, with Tina adding: "That's the best." Meghan spoke about the April launch of her As Ever products including jam and herbal tea. She said that the "scarcity mentality at the beginning might be a hook for people", comparing it to "a sneaker drop". But she feared it might be "annoying" for customers, adding: "I don't want you to eat that jam once every six months. I want that to be on your shelf all the time." Meghan said: "So for me at the moment, with As Ever, it was great. We planned for a year we get and then everything sells out in 45 minutes. "Yes, amazing, great news. Then what do you do? And then you say 'Ok, we planned as best as we could. Are we going to replenish and sell out again in an hour? Or is that annoying as a customer? "I'm looking at it saying 'Just pause. That happened. Let's wait until we are completely stable and we have everything we need'." She added how people "see all the flashy stuff and they see the product. But that end game... those behind the scenes moments, how many tears I've shed". But experts claimed she used a sneaky "ploy" to make sure her pricey food brand sold out in minutes. When Meghan, 43, finally launched her highly anticipated As Ever items, from £11 jars of jam to £22 limited edition honey, it was swiftly out of stock. But a source said: "This is simply a marketing ploy. "You make a relatively small amount available so it all gets bought and then you can say it's so popular it sold out." Meg's chat with Tina comes she shared snaps with Prince Harry as the couple enjoyed watching a Beyonce concert last month. The pair were seen dancing in a luxury suite worth thousands of dollars at the singer's Cowboy Carter tour in LA. Harry, 40, was standing and bopping his head awkwardly while the Duchess repeatedly threw her hands in the air as Beyonce belted out Texas Hold'Em. A separate official photo posted onto Beyonce's official tour website showed the couple smiling with their arms around each other. 6 6 6
Forbes
27-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Gusto 2025 Report: Female Founders & AI Are Rewriting Startup Culture
AI Furnace's cofounders Angela Mascarenas and Hamza Zaveri at its AI Hot 100 Summit last year. Despite economic headwinds and corporate layoffs, U.S. entrepreneurship surged ahead in 2024—driven by female founders, fueled by GenAI, and increasingly built on full-time ambition rather than part-time hustle. According to Gusto's 2025 New Business Formation Report, nearly half of new businesses (49%) were founded by women last year—a 69% increase from 2019 and the highest in the report's five-year history. These gains reflect a broader transformation: AAPI, Black and Latinx entrepreneurs are also increasing their footprint, with startup rates up 17%, 67% and 25%, respectively, since 2019. The top motivators for starting a business? Autonomy, flexibility and financial security. A full 65% said they wanted to be their own boss, while over half cited the ability to set their own schedule or build long-term wealth. For many female founders, that autonomy is more than aspirational—it's a strategic necessity. Entrepreneurship offers control over their time, ideas and outcomes in ways that traditional workplaces often don't. It creates space to integrate work and caregiving without compromise, while also reclaiming ownership in environments where credit, visibility and promotion can be disproportionately distributed. 'You don't have to fight for recognition when you're building something that's yours,' said one founder featured in Gusto's report. This alignment of personal agency and professional growth is particularly compelling for women navigating inflexible corporate cultures or stalled advancement. It's also why many are building businesses designed not just to succeed, but to sustain the life they want. This cultural shift is mirrored at the highest levels of U.S. tech. Lucy Guo, a Chinese American entrepreneur, recently surpassed Taylor Swift to become the world's youngest self-made female billionaire. As the former cofounder of Scale AI and now the founder of Passes, she is one of just six self-made female billionaires under 40—and the only one to make the bulk of her fortune from a company she left. After exiting Scale in 2018, Guo retained an estimated 5% stake, now worth nearly $1.2 billion. Her latest startup, Passes, continues to push the frontier of the creator economy. She also launched Backend Capital, a small venture firm that backs early-stage startups. Other AI-driven female founders are also shaping the landscape: Their stories reflect a growing reality: Women aren't just adopting AI—they're building it. Several American women of color are also leading transformational work across the AI ecosystem: The rise of AI-focused and community-first startup ecosystems is accelerating this shift. Networks like Supermomos, founded by Edwina Yeo, which blends in-person community events with a professional network for founders, engineers and investors, have seen a significant uptick in female founder participation—especially in AI. By hosting events such as the 'Female Founders & Funders Fireside Chat and Mixer,' Supermomos provides platforms for women in tech to connect, share insights and foster collaborations. Supermomos Event 'We're seeing some encouraging shifts in our community: 41% of early-stage founders who joined us in 2024 were women, up from 26% in 2022, and now many of those founders are graduating to venture-backed status--28% of venture-backed startups joining us in 2025 are women-led, compared to 15% in 2022. We're hoping to accelerate this trend in our own small way through the Supermomos Female Founders and Funders series with Perkins Coie, where we bring together early-stage founders learning from female founders who've scaled as well as female VCs. When the pipeline flows both ways with new founders starting and successful founders teaching, that's how we can build generational change in entrepreneurship,' said Yeo. Similarly, AI Furnace, a founder-led community focused on early technical AI startups, reports that women now make up more than a third of their active founder base, up from just 10% in 2022. The community, co-founded by Angela Mascarenas and Hamza Zaveri, has rapidly grown to more than 15,000 members across six cities and four countries, emphasizing inclusivity and founder support outside traditional tech hubs. This trend parallels insights from my previous reporting on female founders who are demanding more than token inclusion—they want funding, transparency and real traction. Dreamers & Doers 10 Year Anniversary Brunch in Tribeca. Dreamers & Doers is a national, curated community for female founders that just celebrated its tenth anniversary last year. Recently, it's seen a growing influx of AI-powered startups—a shift that makes its visibility-first approach even more urgent. Because even as women build the future, they can't reshape the narrative if they're kept out of view. Another standout community leading this new paradigm is JADEVA, a women-led business and leadership collective redefining how feminine power builds, scales, and sustains. Blending entrepreneurship with spiritual alignment, JADEVA offers a high-impact alternative to traditional startup culture. With thriving chapters in major cities and a rapidly expanding global presence, it is creating sacred, strategic spaces where women grow wealth, visibility, and legacy—without diluting their values or compromising their feminine leadership. At its core, JADEVA is a higher self sisterhood, activating a global movement of women building businesses from embodiment, intuition, and unshakable alignment. Jadeva Women Love Money event in Los Angeles. Hosted by DFL, Gaingels and Stefans Law Group, This ... More event was more than just a conversation about money—it was about stepping into financial empowerment with clarity, confidence, and community. 'I was too spiritual for business circles and too ambitious for sacred ones. So we built JADEVA, for women who refuse to choose between power and depth.' — Olivia Steele, Co-Founder of JADEVA While community and visibility are critical, capital still matters. A new generation of inclusive accelerators and venture funds are stepping in to fill the funding gap with real checks—not just mentorship. Firms like Slauson & Co. and Gold House Ventures are backing underrepresented founders with $100K to $500K investments, helping them scale beyond pitch stages. These programs combine capital with coaching and network access, enabling founders to move from overlooked to investable. South Park Commons (SPC), founded by Ruchi Sanghvi, is a San Francisco-based accelerator and community for technical founders exploring what to build next. More than just an early-stage fund, SPC offers a space for experimentation, often backing founders pre-idea and staying involved through seed rounds. The organization has a strong track record of backing women, immigrants, and technically ambitious nontraditional founders. Its founding team and many of its members are women or BIPOC, creating a community that reflects the future of inclusive innovation. Founders are increasingly turning to generative AI not just for experimentation, but as a core part of their operational playbook. According to Gusto, 47% of new businesses used GenAI in 2024, more than double the 21% adoption rate in 2023—and usage is even higher among Gen Z-led startups. Rather than relying on large teams or expensive outsourced services, many early-stage founders are using GenAI to get more done with less. Customer acquisition is by far the most common GenAI use case, with 71% of GenAI users applying it to marketing tasks and 37% using it to streamline their sales process. Others are automating everything from legal document generation to content creation to financial modeling. Female founders are adapting to the macroeconomic environment. They are addressing local job challenges and using GenAI to improve productivity and manage costs. These shifts point to business models focusing on stability and long-term growth rather than cashing in on short-term fads. This wave of AI-driven efficiency isn't about cutting corners—it's about unlocking leverage. With limited capital, smaller founding teams and fewer institutional advantages, today's entrepreneurs are using GenAI as a way to build faster, test smarter and stretch every dollar further. As startups adapt to tighter capital environments, AI's most promising companies are trending younger and leaner—founders are skewing earlier in their careers and headcount is shrinking, reflecting a new era of capital discipline and operational focus (source). Entrepreneurship is also creating jobs. More than two-thirds (69%) of new firms hired at least one worker or contractor last year, and 57% of those plan to expand their headcount in 2025—despite a broader slowdown in hiring across the economy. Importantly, the barrier to entry is shrinking. Among female founders who used startup capital, 38% needed $10,000 or less, and 53% funded their companies through personal savings.
