Happy International Women's Day! Today is the day we celebrate the cultural, political, and socio-economical achievements of women around the world. In the spirit of this celebration, we've asked four women entrepreneurs about their own Eureka moments before starting their own respective companies. We find these stories to be inspiring, so we hope you can feel inspired too!
Love, MDLR.
Lauren Wilson
Founder of Dora-Maar
I never really dreamt that I would start my own business! I vividly remember the moment I had the idea for Dora Maar. It was a Sunday evening, I was scrolling on Instagram to fight the Sunday scaries, when I came across a stylist that was selling her closet on her Instagram stories. What was so amazing was that she styled the whole look on herself, and showed the story behind the pieces she was selling. It provided this level of curation and trust that was missing from the pre-owned luxury shopping experience. After that 'Aha' moment, I wanted to create a platform that married this idea of storytelling and provenance to pre-owned luxury fashion.
Elaine Kim
Founder of Trehaus
Trehaus, like the other businesses I have started, was born out of a huge need I saw in my own life, a problem I felt I could solve, and a desire to make the lives of others better.
I was working as a doctor in palliative care when I had my oldest child, and there were days that I would leave for work before baby woke up, and come home after he went to sleep, and I would miss out spending time with him the entire day. Our children grow up so quickly and I didn’t want to miss out on the precious first years of their lives, and I realised I was not alone. We started Trehaus to make true work-life integration a modern reality for working parents like myself, by bringing together a co-working space and creche, allowing parents to work while their children are nurtured in the same space.
Trehaus School also began because I wanted the best possible preschool education for my own children, because I wanted my own kids to love school and learning and grow up to be little Changemakers who will succeed and thrive in the very different world of the future. My co-founder Elizabeth (who is a decades-long educator) and I are both deeply passionate about early education, and as parents of 6 young children between the 2 of us, have seen how early education has not changed in decades, while the world is changing all around us. We believe it needs to change to focus on instilling skills that would prepare our children for the future, to focus not only on knowledge-based learning but to also focus on nurturing empathy, grit, curiosity, creativity, adaptability, teamwork, communication skills and love for learning. We decided to create the change we wanted to see , by creating a preschool that brought children up how we wanted our own children to be taught.
Being able to raise a whole generation of changemakers, who care for others, are nurtured with the right values and character, and are equipped with skills to navigate and thrive in an uncertain future so they can effective create positive impact in society, will be the most impactful legacy I can leave!
Nadja Tohir
Founder of Nadja's Gourmet
As a kid, I loved watching my mother cook all things from tomato soup, steak dinners to her special baked potatoes. Her in the kitchen meant that she wasn’t working that day so it was a treat for all 4 of my siblings. However as she became busier, I started to venture into the kitchen myself. Those included attempts to recreate carbonara - the real kind, sans cream -, hotel-style breakfast omelette that had a scrambled interior and a silky exterior. My kitchen experiments, however, also had their share of bad days: flat and oily fortune cookies, and cupcakes that ended up tasting like sweet egg puddings. Those failed attempts at the kitchen couldn’t deter the feeling of immense satisfaction I felt over the countless meals that brought joy to people’s day.
Fast forward to age 9 I mastered the recipe for my chocolate fudge brownies. It had the perfect crackly top with a fudgy center and melting pockets of chocolate throughout. My sister sang praises saying it was the best she’s had, and soon others would too. In 2007, Nadja’s Gourmet’s first menu was established. I started our home delivery service along with dishes that were mostly inspired by my mother’s, her baked potatoes recreated it as our now staple menu - The Potato Gratin. The true test also came as my first private dining gig at age 10. The business grew from then on, I am very grateful to have graced hundreds of dinner tables with my food through the catering and private dining services I offer today. Looking back, it’s funny how the 6-year old’s past time forged the path for what's to come.
Samantha Wijaya
Co-Founder of Rosé All Day Cosmetics