11 Female Founders You Should Know

We love entrepreneurs of all backgrounds and walks of life, but there is a special place in our hearts for female entrepreneurs. After all, women own 4 out of every 10 businesses in the U.S. and when they are on a mission to make a significant positive impact in the life of others, you either get on board or get out of their way.

For International Women's Day and in partnership with the Oklahoma City Thunder, we want to highlight Female Founders in the Midwest who's hustle and determination inspire us.

Allison Conti, Watkins-Conti Products

After having an 11lb baby, Allison developed an issue with incontinence. With over 498 million women worldwide affected by this issue, she knew that she had to do something about it. She secured $1.8M in seed funding, designed, patented, engineered and manufactured a solution for urine leakage that is now going through the FDA approval process.

Ally Myers, Suma

Ally has a huge heart and wants to help moms with children with a serious illness, trauma or special needs find job opportunities to help supplement their household income while still providing the flexibility they need to care for their family. She's developed a community and platform that will connect non-profits and businesses with an on-demand workforce, talent she often refers to as "The Forgotten Workforce."

Amy Siegfried, Last Night's Game

Amy and her brother Scott were inspired to create Last Night's Game when searching for a publication that broke down sports in an easy to understand way but couldn't find anything. Through their short, funny and statistic-free podcast and email publication, they are empowering the sports curious to make connections with clients, coworkers, and family.

Ashley Fogle, Ride OKC

After going on several guided bike tours while traveling on vacation, Ashley and her husband Ryan realized it was a great way to explore the lay of the land. Upon returning home to Oklahoma City, a place with such a unique history, they wondered why a bike tour wasn't offered. Ryan the architect, quickly drew up some plans, Ashley the CPA crunched the numbers and Ride OKC was born.

Carrie Spoonemore, From Seed to Spoon

Eating healthy can be expensive and depending on where you live it can be hard to access fresh and affordable produce. After converting their backyard from urban lawn to a food farm, Carrie and her husband Dale developed an app to teach others how to grow their own food . The app was recently featured by Thrive Global as one of the most life-changing apps of 2018.

Genevieve Quick, Rabble On

As an event planner herself, Genevieve knows the frustration of planning and managing vendors for parties and corporate events. She and her co-founders launched RabbleOn to change the ways parties are planned. Through her platform, Genevieve is making it easier than ever to search, review, book and enjoy vendors and services through one single marketplace. To make things even sweeter, she donates a portion of the proceeds to the Birthday Party Project which brings joy to homeless children through the magic of birthdays.

Harmony Tamaalevea, Literacy Lounge

Through her ongoing fight against lupus, Harmony found reading as a means to a healthier and more conscious lifestyle. The problem is, it's hard to find a wide selection of books with black authors in traditional marketplaces. Along with her fiancé, Dorion, she founded Literacy Lounge, a subscription box highlighting black authors and providing a simple approach to enhancing reading experiences.

Laura Fleet, Send A Ride

Laura wants to ensure patients never miss their therapy, dialysis, cancer treatments, cardiovascular care, preventive care and any other medical appointment due to a lack of access to transportation. SendaRide exists to provide customized, concierge medical transportation. Her proprietary technology empowers hospitals, providers, health plans, independent living centers and family members with the on-demand booking and transportation scheduling.

Sam Walker, Green Tree Project

Sam fostered and adopted five beautiful children. After one of her toddlers pointed out how wasteful the Christmas Tree industry is, relating his own experience of moving from home to home before his adoption to discarding trees, Sam realized how often family traditions and celebrations didn't align with their values to nurture, love and sustain. She is bringing a cultural movement towards minimalism, mindfulness and intentional parenting into the realm of family traditions, home and office decor.

Stephanie Conduff, Leche Lounge

Stephanie saw first-hand the need for breast-pumping space at work and in law-school. She felt pumping in the bathroom stalls and closets discouraged mothers from providing breast milk to their growing children. So she invented a solution for CEO's and governments to easily comply with the law while watching the bottom line. Now Stephanie is on a mission to bring awareness and solutions, encouraging mothers to pump after returning to work through Leche Lounge.

Tiffany Clark, Juice Power

After serving the geophysical industry for more than 10 years with multiple customizable solutions, Tiffany and her brother Shawn, saw the need to provide a more efficient, less toxic battery solution to the industry and the average consumer. They launched Juice Power, a battery based company that specializes in renewable portable power and energy storage. Juice Power offers a standard product line of battery generators and solar panels, but realizing that not all power needs are created equal, they've built custom power solutions to power every lifestyle.

Are you a female founder or do you know other female founders we should be following? Share with us so we can invite them to join our EllaStarts Female Founder Group. Happy International Women's Day!