Beyond girlbosses and mumtrepreneurs
The cost of childcare, along with not having enough time with her children was what motivated entrepreneur Michele Wilson to ditch her career as a lawyer and start her own business.
The founder of Frankie Apothecary and co-founder of period underwear company AWWA (previously I am Eva) said the first thing she did when she started out in 2016 was take her children out of childcare.
Between selling Frankie Apothecary in June and launching the rebrand of I am Eva, she has been busy. Her children, Frankie and Eva, are at school now. It is a world of difference to the year when, working as a lawyer, she had to take every single annual leave day and sick day to care for a very ill child. ‘‘This resulted in me not having even one single day off to myself in a whole year,’’ Wilson said. It motivated her to start her own business.
Perhaps it is no surprise then, that a recently released study found 13.4 per cent of startup founders who graduated from New Zealand universities were female – the highest percentage of any country in the world.
Norway came in second at 12.6 per cent and third was the United States at 11.9 per cent.
The research undertaken by Tide, a business banking app, looked at the backgrounds of women who founded businesses and received at least US$1 million (NZ$1.6m) in funding. Data was sourced from open-source business information platform, Crunchbase.
Data from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment showed there were 156,400 self-employed women, compared with 253,700 men in 2017.
Both the country’s isolation and cost of living necessitated greater entrepreneurialism, Wilson said.
‘‘I spent a lot of time in Denmark in my travels. There is no need for women to start online businesses there. University is free, salaries are higher, and childcare is all paid for. Then, it is much easier to step into a well-paid job.
‘‘In New Zealand it is extremely difficult. Even when I was a lawyer, after paying for my house and childcare there was not much left over,’’ she said.
Sonya Williams and Brooke Roberts, two of seven co-founders of online investment platform Sharesies, said the company was founded to help them create a place where they could ‘‘live our best lives’’. Setting the business up in Wellington made it easier to achieve, Roberts said. ‘‘I have a 21-month-old and I am only ever 15 minutes away from her.’’
But starting Sharesies had been more about having an impact in the world, the pair said.
They have relished creating an environment that aligned with their own priorities.