Wonder women
These go-getters are building empires in NYC and beyond
THERE are countless hidden figures in and around New York City, changing the landscape for female business leaders. In honor of Women’s History Month, here’s a look at four of them — and their best career advice.
Hospitality maven
Erika London, 36, doesn’t let two kids and another on the way slow her down in the city that never sleeps. In fact, the CEO and cofounder of NYC-based hospitality group Simple Venue views her “restaurants or new businesses as another baby.”
London began her hospitality career at a bar during her freshman year at NYU. She instantly became enchanted with “the entrepreneurial magic of conceptualizing an idea and then having the power to make it come to life.”
Over the past two decades, London has owned and operated beloved NYC nightlife spots like SideBAR and Hudson Terrace and produced events and festivals. Now, she’s a partner at Simple Venue, the parent company of the world’s first hotel room-turned-restaurant concept, Sushi Suite, and vegan omakase concept, Omakaseed, among other ventures.
“We take underutilized real estate spaces and curate them with unique food and beverage concepts,” said London of the company, which has eight locations in the tristate area, with more in the pipeline, and 130 employees.
In a male-dominated industry, most of her corporate team are women. She’s also excited to launch Trust Bae, a new endeavor that empowers female chefs.
Top tip: “Be honest with yourself while identifying your personal strengths and weaknesses. Oftentimes, the biggest obstacle women face is themselves,” said London.
Easing pain
Elizabeth Burstein, 34, of Hartsdale, NY, as the CEO and cofounder of Neura Health, a virtual neurology clinic, was inspired to create the series A-funded startup in light of her own chronic pain.
During the pandemic, Burstein sat on a sixmonth waitlist to see a neurologist for peripheral neuropathy, elucidating for her the difficulties of specialist access and care quality for those with chronic neurological conditions. Founded in 2020, Neura Health now serves chronic headache and migraine patients in the tristate area.
“While over 70 million Americans suffer from headache disorders such as migraine, there are only about 21,000 neurologists and 700 headache specialists in the US,” said Burstein, noting that patients typically experience the same monthslong wait she did before seeing a doc.
Neura, meanwhile, connects patients to a board-certified neurologist within 48 hours and lets patients track their symptoms and receive personalized care plans. “The integrated tracker is moving care from reactive to proactive, meaning that the patient’s care team immediately reaches out if headaches [aren’t improving],” said Burstein, a Stanford alum who fittingly majored in computer science and philosophy.
Burstein’s day might involve anything from coffee with a hospital executive to lunch with her employees on the roof of their company’s Manhattan office building. “One of my favorite aspects of the startup founder and CEO role is that I am learning and growing across so many different aspects of the business,” she said.
Top tip: At Stanford, Burstein struggled over deciding her future career path. “Without a clear sense of my ‘why’ I spent time in internships and jobs that didn’t bring me the sense of purpose and joy that I now have,” she said. “Take the time to find this for yourself. What problems do you genuinely care about solving in the world? This will help fuel you through many challenges and push you to do your best work.”
Managing microbes
Like Burstein, Priyanka Jain, 28, a fellow Stanford grad, was motivated by her own health ailments to effect positive change.
“After experiencing my own mysterious health problems, I started doing my own research,” said the Manhattan CEO and cofounder of Evvy, established in 2020. “I found out that women weren’t required to be in clinical research in the US until 1993 and that we are diagnosed on average four years later than men for over 700 diseases.”
Using her experience at building algorithms both at Stanford and at an AI startup, Jain now works “to close the gender health gap by discovering and leveraging overlooked female biomarkers, starting with the vaginal microbiome.”
As Jain explained, vaginal discomfort is a leading reason women seek healthcare advice, and more than 90% of these cases can be attributed to imbalances in the vaginal microbiome. “Research has uncovered groundbreaking links [to] infertility, STIs, preterm birth, gynecologic cancers and more,” she said. Accordingly, Evvy unveiled the first at-home vaginal microbiome test.
Jain logs her hours working with Evvy’s internal teams, external partners, investors and advisors; iterating on algorithms; optimizing supply chain logistics and more.
Top tip: “Make yourself easy to help,” she said. Another gem? “Reach out with specific requests like ‘Hey, I’d love to be in touch with X person in your network, and I’ve included a ready-to-forward email below.’ That way, others can help you with a single button click,” said Jain.