Meet the Revolutionaries

Starting a Revolution features business advice from some of the most progressive female founders in the world:

Dame Stephanie (Steve) Shirley founded and built one of the biggest software companies in the world in the 1960s. She originally employed only female programmers, who worked from home, and pioneered the idea of handing over ownership of her company to her employees.

Vivienne Ming, a theoretical neuroscientist based in San Francisco, is at the forefront of AI and machine learning. She is a serial entrepreneur and has turned down executive jobs at many of the world’s most well-known tech companies to pursue her own quest for purpose.

Catherine Mahugu, software developer and serial entrepreneur, has enabled hundreds of craftswomen in Kenya to sell their products to international brands such as Nordstrom and Esprit, completely disrupting the traditional export supply chain.

Joana Breidenbach, serial entrepreneur and anthropologist, is piloting the idea of self-management within her own company, transferring her role as CEO to her entire team.

Ida Tin is a pioneer in technology for women’s health – in fact she coined the term ‘femtech’. When she closed her most recent funding round, she became Germany's most highly funded female entrepreneur, but she still refuses to play the game by the rules.

 

Jennifer Brandel founded a movement in the USA, alongside her business, that has seriously shaken up theAmerican startup scene. The movement now has thousands of members across the world and all of them agree: the system is broken. Let’s fix it.

 

Anna Yona bootstrapped her way to running a profitable company within a couple of years of founding. She rejected VCs, runs an entirely remote team of over 100 people and boasts a transparent and ethical supply chain.