In 2013, Julia Beardwood was named one of Ernst Young’s Entrepreneurial Winning Women, an award identifying a select group of high-potential women entrepreneurs whose businesses show real potential to grow. Best of all, it’s more than just an award, it’s an invite to a program that helps you grow your business and network with other influential female entrepreneurs.
“The experience has been personally transformational for me, just getting to meet and speak with some of these women,” Julia says. Some of them you work with, some of them have become friends and some are a constant source of inspiration. When I joined this group, I felt like I found my tribe.”
Between this tribe of winning women and her company, Beardwood & Co., Julia is to exposed to a lot of remarkable women in the world of packaging, design and more. Here are six of her favorite female-owned businesses and brands.
Aden + Anais
Aden + Anais is a muslin baby brand company who has expanded beyond the blanket. What I love about Aden + Anais is exemplified by its founder Raegan Moya-Jones, who cares deeply about babies and what’s best for them, but she also cares so much about parents and moms and what they like as well. Part of the reason the brand has been so successful is the functional need of wrapping the babies in tight swaddles so they’ll sleep well. But it’s also a designer brand that has a lot of fashion and design appeal for moms that still want to feel trendy and with it.
S’well Bottle
Sarah Kauss nailed fashion by turning water into a fashion accessory with S’well Bottle. A very exciting company and I think it’s such a well-differentiated brand by how they keep on innovating with new ideas and shapes.
It Cosmetics
It Cosmetics was founded by Jamie Kern Lima. She sold her company to L’oreal 15 months ago for $1.2 billion and she’s pretty amazing. Jamie invented products alongside a team of plastic surgeons to get really beautiful coverage on any skin and under any light. Then she went on QVC with her perfect makeup, took it off on camera to show how bad her skin was, and put it all back on again – the phones were ringing off the hook. It makes you feel like a superstar and the innovative technology is empowering, helping women embrace what they don’t love about themselves.
Under Canvas
Sarah Dusek founded a company called Under Canvas. It’s a glamping brand that’s building African-style luxury canvas tents outside of America’s nationals parks. It’s super cool and fun, plus it brings an element of luxury to camping that hasn’t really been seen in this country before.
Gravitas New York
Lisa Sun is the owner ofGravitas New York, a clothing brand with a mission to catalyze confidence. Lisa has an inspiring personal story, including being told in her first performance review at McKinsey that she came across as young, overly enthusiastic, and that she needed to acquire some gravitas. We called it a Bravery Breakfast because everyone wants to be brave, but knowing how to be brave isn’t taught in school.
Tomboy X
I absolutely loveTomboy X and they’re run by an amazing lesbian couple, Fran & Naomi. Their brand objective is to be the opposite of Victoria Secret. They’re all about being comfortable in your underwear. They have a great tagline, “it’s not for everybody, but it is for anybody.” So it’s super inclusive and fun.
