Unicorns are not just magical creatures. In the startup industry, companies valued at $1 billion or more have been called “unicorns” — a term coined by venture capitalist Aileen Lee in 2013, to demonstrate the statistical rarity of billion-dollar ventures.

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It goes without saying that it is difficult to unlock this kind of achievement. According to Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm, the chances of achieving unicorn status is about 1 in 5 million.

In addition, the typical venture capitalist meets with 1,000 new companies a year and only funds two of them. For every 10,000 startups that get funding, only one becomes a unicorn, according to the US-based firm.

In 2017, out of the 84 unicorns in the US, only two have women CEOs and out of all startups, only 2.4% have female CEOs. This is reflective of the situation in more established multinational firms where only 4.6% of Fortune 500 companies are led by women.

In the continuing study of CrunchBase and TechCrunch on female startup founders, they have discovered that from 2009 to 2012, the percent of venture-funded companies with women founders increased by nearly 8%. However, the percentage of women-founded, venture-backed companies has also stagnated at around 17% from 2012 to 2017.

This makes women-led unicorn startups a rarity but not a complete impossibility. Startups are usually associated with small offices, remote teams, virtual assistants, and a lot of hard work. Women are already having a difficult time breaking glass ceilings in traditional companies but putting in the hours for a startup? It takes double the time and effort. Despite these factors, several ambitious women have overcome the odds to make a difference in the business technology industry. Here are some of them.

 

Melanie Perkins

Startup: Canva

Valuation: $2.5 billion

At a young age of 19, Melanie Perkins dropped out of college to start her own business in her mother’s living room. Little did she know, it was the birth of Canva, an online platform that makes it easy for everyone including non creatives to craft professional looking digital design works. Fast forward to today, Melanie Perkins’ startup is valued at an amazing USD 2.5B, boasting over 10 million active users across 179 countries.

‘When we got our first $100 cheque, it was the most exciting moment ever, knowing people were prepared to pay for what we had built,’ – Melanie Perkins

 

Amy Pressman

Startup: Medallia

Valuation: $1.2 billion

Amy Pressman has always loved selling. After an impressive education at Harvard and Stanford, Pressman worked for Goldman Sachs.

Despite her privileged upbringing, Pressman also volunteered for the Peace Corps in Honduras. This experience opened her eyes to the positive impact that businesses can have on the community. This also inspired her to establish a startup that helps companies capture customer feedback.

In 2001, she co-founded Medallia, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that helps businesses understand their customers in real time and delivers insights and action across their organization. With Medallia, Pressman hoped that it can empower organizations and their employees by incorporating customer insights into daily decisions.

 

Sarah Leary

Startup: Nextdoor

Valuation: $1.1 billion

Having grown up in a small town in Massachusetts, Sarah Leary was used to a community where everyone lends a helping hand to the neighbors.

This inspired her to create Nextdoor, a private social network where neighbors can connect. With Nextdoor, one can post jobs or look for local jobs, such as babysitting. The platform can also be used to announce meetings and organize neighborhood watches.

Leary co-founded the company with Nirav Tolia, David Wiesen and Prakash Janakiraman in 2010 and ever since, it has spread to 160,000 neighborhoods across the US, UK, and the Netherlands.

 

Liu Nan

Startup: Mia

Valuation: $1 billion

When Liu Nan became a mother, she found it difficult to find products and services to trust. She began researching products online and sharing her findings afterwards to fellow Chinese mothers. She eventually became an opinion leader and her advocacy to promote safe and trusted products for babies led her to create a shopping platform, Mia.

Mia was founded in 2014 and because of Nan’s influence, it soon became the go-to e-commerce site and app of mothers who are looking for quality baby goods. It has since expanded to sell other kinds of household products that Nan herself approves.

 

Kathryn Petralia

Startup: Kabbage

Valuation: $1 billion

Kathryn Petralia worked in the technology payments and e-commerce industry for more than 20 years before she co-founded Kabbage with Marc Gorlin and Rob Frohwein in 2009.

Kabbage is an online financial company that provides funding to small businesses via an automated lending platform. It has since provided more than $600 million to their members.

 

Melissa Yang

Startup: Tujia

Valuation $1 billion

A graduate of Tsinghua University with a degree in automation, Melissa Yang studied computer science in the US. In 2006, she founded Escapia, a startup that provided vacation rental. It was bought by HomeAway, the rival of AirBnB, for $10 million in 2010.

Yang worked for sometime in Microsoft before starting another venture, Tujia, which is China’s AirBnB. The firm has now over 430,000 rental listings in China and it is about to expand overseas.

With her experience in successful business ventures, Yang is now looking for promising startups that she can back, together with investment firm, IDG Capital.

 

Julia Hartz

Startup: Eventbrite

Valuation: $1 billion

Julia Hartz was just a regular employee of MTV in the early 2000s. Her work in the company made her rethink the process of getting tickets for events. In 2006, together with her husband, they founded Eventbrite, a platform that processes electronic tickets.

At first, she focused on the marketing and management of the startup before taking over as CEO in 2016.

Eventbrite currently has more than 500 employees. In 2017, it processed around 200 million tickets in 180 countries.

 

Miranda Qu

Startup: XiaoHongShu (Little Red Book)

Valuation: $1 billion

A shopping fanatic, Miranda Qu founded Little Red Book, a Chinese shopping app and online community that allows users to give tips on shopping overseas.

The app has many features and it also allows users to purchase foreign goods and luxury items.

 

Michelle Zatlyn

Startup: Cloudflare

Company valuation: $1 billion

Cloudflare may be a household name among tech companies now but back in 2009, it was a startup that has just been established by Canadian entrepreneur Michelle Zatlyn.

Zatlyn migrated to the US to study Chemistry and after that, an MBA at the Harvard Business School. After which, she worked for technology companies such as Google, Toshiba, and other startups.

The web performance and internet security company now provides their service to a lot of big companies both in the US and abroad.

Of course, these women founders have succeeded with the help of their team and fellow women who have cheered them on in every step of the way. This is one of the advocacies of Connected Women, which connects female technopreneurs with quality remote staff.

The support of virtual assistants and remote teams proves to be a strategic step towards growth and success. This is exemplified by these women startup founders who beat the odds and made tech magic by transforming their ideas and hard work into unicorns.