Category: The 10 Most Empowering Businesswomen to watch out in 2022_Profiles

Grace De Alvaro discovered a need to disrupt the existing cosmetics solutions when sweating and getting soaked doing sports. Noticed her skin blotching and her makeup running down her face she investigated the options. She wanted makeup to be healthy while staying on through activities. The existing waterproof formulas often contain questionable ingredients and are difficult to remove. We tasked ourselves to reformulate making lighter, cleaner and easy to get off product free from toxic ingredients. Free diver and swim/yoga coach Ruth Osborn, often in remote places, takes off the mascara with simple coconut oil.

Sports HAI is currently in the process of creating new products that perform to the highest standards for those who sweat, discovering that it was gaining consumers who sweat for reasons other than sports. Sports HAI’s clients play a major role in the brand-building process, taking client feedback into consideration when creating formulas. We want to make effective products using healthy ingredients, that we use ourselves and our loved ones.

Journey of a Women Entrepreneur

Grace’s entrepreneurial journey hasn’t been without challenges, as any woman-led start-up, the statistics are that only 2.3 percent of venture capital goes to Women Founded Start-ups. When asked about her journey as a woman entrepreneur in a male-dominated world, she said, “I’ve been lucky to find investors with experience in the beauty space, who are not venture capitalists.”

As part of the market research for Sports HAI Grace De Alvaro has participated in a couple of Marathons, in New York and London, as well as multiple half Marathon’s and triathlon. Getting out of the comfort zone is part of the job. Starting a startup is not glamourous, it is high risk and full of challenges. keeping focused and finding ways to inspire people to come on board who are prepared to believe in the idea and work with no financial reward, at the start.

Effects of the Pandemic

We all know the effect of the ongoing pandemic on the industry. Coronavirus has changed the way beauty business used to work. Covid-19 gave the startup some time to re-strategize the brand and its offerings.

Specific

HAI’s line up of products have been designed to help athletes look and feel great about themselves, whether they are running a triathlon or sweating it out on a gym. The company’s launch of the Active Skincare range includes a tinted SPF 50 and a conditioning lip complex, have both won Independent Beauty Awards. The line-up is great for daily use, to keep face and hands protected from sun damage during those outdoor running sessions. Our products speak for themselves.

Imagine if you landed in New York from a small town in Oregon to study art and fashion design at Parsons School of Design/The New School and within two weeks were scouted to model by a photographer for Harper ’s BAZAAR magazine while standing on a street corner. Sounds fascinating! Right?

This is the story of Charis Michelsen, the Founder/CEO of Fashion Style Beauty Network.

Modeling led to acting in movies for Charis, and while on set, she was inspired by the wonderful work she saw created by make-up artists and stylists and decided to take classes to get her professional makeup artist’s certification for fun. She’s since worked as a national and international spokesperson and product educator for one of the world’s most prestigious cosmetic brands and a makeup artist for celebrities, music videos, and movies. During her tenure as a spokesperson for the cosmetic brand, the top question she was asked was, “How do I look my best?” Charis told us, “everyone wants to know how to go from looking plain, like a star without makeup, to a star on the red carpet. So, I set out to create a foolproof scientific system that could give each person this experience, as well as answers to tough beauty-related questions that didn’t have answers — and thank God I succeeded.”

From her discoveries, Charis created the world’s first Universal Beauty Standard System™ and some original make-up application techniques. After one of her dear friends pointed out that she must put her findings in a book to reach a greater audience, she did, and entitled it ‘Hollywood Beauty: The Art of Star Makeup.’ Charis wrote a second book for men and named it ‘Grooming for Men: From Dirty to Polished.’

Charis’s two books are self-illustrated and styled to be coffee table books. They’re viewable on her website, which is charismichelsen.com. They aren’t available for sale yet but will be soon.

Charis applied her Universal Beauty Standard System™ to fashion and cosmetic products and created an artificial intelligence (AI) personal stylist that connects an individual with their ideal clothing, accessories, and cosmetics and styles them. Charis’AI Stylist answers the question ‘what should I wear?’ for everyone, but without dictating personal style to anyone. She believes her AI Stylist will reduce returns for fashion and cosmetic vendors, which will help increase their profits.

Charis also developed a glossy half-hour documentary-style TV show she hosts entitled Fashion Style Beauty. The Fashion Style beauty TV show explores the exciting and entertaining world of fashion, beauty, and style and offers fashion and cosmetic happenings, history, information, education, and advice.

She’s also designed and patented a diamond-dot pattern that’s expressed in twenty colors. Her pattern contains a unique color technology that helps each color act as a neutral, so it’s more compatible with a range of outfits.

Charis added, “I would like to eventually launch a line of fashion and beauty products. The AI Stylist, along with other unique features, such as reliable, educational fashion, style, and beauty content, will be housed on an online platform, Fashion Style Beauty Network.”

Charis’s Fashion Style Beauty Network is an online shopping network, like Amazon, that allows vendors to sell fashion and cosmetic products to consumers, but thanks to Charis’ game-changing AI Stylist, vendors’ products will be directed to the consumers they’re most correct for. And users can shop for and purchase fashion and cosmetic items, similar to how one shops on eBay, that are ideal for them or their clients, if they’re a professional stylist, via their Stylist account on the Fashion Style Beauty Network platform.

Path Breaking Services

Fashion Style Beauty Network offers three distinctive features:

• Fashion, style, and beauty content, endowed with Charis’s expertise, to entertain and educate consumers on how to choose and use cosmetic and fashion products and services for best-individualized results.
• Curated information and news that could inspire the purchase of fashion and cosmetic products.
• Revolutionary self-service Artificial Intelligence (AI) personal shopper technology founded on a science-based Universal Beauty Standard System™, providing ideal, personalized product, service, and styling suggestions.

And the best part is, all these features offer real-time links that connect users to the Fashion Style Beauty Network platform’s other features, so users can conveniently purchase beauty and fashion products and services at peak interest times, which could profoundly enhance fashion and cosmetic vendors’ ability and frequency to reach their ideal target market and increase sales.

Improved Client Satisfaction

Fashion Style Beauty Network’s clients are multi-ethnic, all-gender consumers of beauty and fashion products and services between the ages of 18-75 who aspire to look and feel great.

According to Charis Michelsen, the Fashion Style Beauty Network online platform will provide its consumers with a one-of-a-kind experience and help them look and feel their best.

First Mover Advantage

With never-before-seen features that solve huge industry problems, like the AI Stylist, reliable educational content backed by the world’s first Universal Beauty Standard System™ and Charis’ books, which are world’s most comprehensive beauty resources, and having a founder with credible, expert-level fashion and beauty knowledge, Charis Michelsen is in a position to disrupt the industry .

According to Charis, no other company offers what Fashion Style Beauty Network offers. She added, “Like Martha Stewart, who’s the face of her successful brand related to the home, I’ll use my fashion and beauty expertise, spokesperson background and face, and Fashion Style Beauty Network platform’s unique offerings, to elevate Fashion Style Beauty Network.”

A Proud Entrepreneur

Charis has always been a firm supporter of women in business and has contributed to publications like H3R Magazine, a women’s business magazine. She’s very proud of women entrepreneurs and hopes to see more women supporting women.

Charis pointed out, “I don’t consider myself at any disadvantage in the business world because I’m a woman. As a woman, I single-handedly created an Artificial Intelligence [AI] Stylist, which a male entrepreneur I know of hired MIT to create, yet MIT failed at creating.”

When it comes to the challenge of being a leader, Charis believes a genuine leader, no matter the business, must encompass the ability to show gratitude, be a mentor, value others’ opinions, encourage others, and have open conversations.

Awards and Accolades

Charis, who’s ranked number five out of the world’s top makeup artists by Ranker, was awarded the title of one of the ‘Top 30 Most Inspiring Women To Look Out For In 2022” by Disruptors Magazine, a publication for the world’s most successful leaders, executives, and investors, named “One Of The Top 30 Personalities Disrupting The Fashion Industry In 2022” by the top business magazine the NY Journal, and deemed the new face of the beauty industry by Vigour Magazine. She’s also been nicknamed the “Martha Stewart of Makeup”, as both she and Martha Stewart use their expertise and face to represent their brands.

Future Roadmap

When asked about the future roadmap of Fashion Beauty Network, Charis Michelsen said, “I want my company to be the Amazon of personal shopping for fashion and cosmetic products.” Charis Michelsen believes her company will build fashion and cosmetic vendors’ businesses and help individuals find ideal cosmetic and fashion products. She added, “My AI Stylist’s personal styling feature, which can style an individual better than a celebrity stylist, will change lives for the better, by maximizing a customer ’s wardrobe and giving them more self-confidence through guaranteeing they always look their best.” In the next five years, she expects her company to thrive and be a catalyst for an upcoming change in the industry.

In this edition of Most Empowering Business Women to watch out, we would like to tell a story about life, struggle, and entrepreneurship. This is the story of Meena Krishnan who is the President and CEO of Inoventures, LLC. Her story stands to show how overcoming obstacles can leave a positive impact on the economy, community, and personal growth. Faced with the sudden tragedy of losing her entire family (she grew up with) in a car accident, Meena was stunned on her career path.

After many weeks of self-reflection, she realized change was the only constant, and facing it head-on was the only option. She decided to carry on the legacy of her departed family by impacting the community in a meaningful way .

This realization became the energy behind starting her own company, Inoventures with a drive to make an impact. Along with her two Master’s degrees in Econometrics and Systems Engineering with Ph.D. experience, she went back to Wharton Business School and equipped herself with the necessary tools to be an entrepreneur. Driven by a unique core value system, customer-centric focus, and employee-centric policies, Meena’s company Inoventures has seen a staggering growth of 3255% in 2014-2016.

The organization is completely employee-centric; all of its staff works from home and yet provides top-notch services resulting in mutual synergies. Allowing employees to strike a work-life balance while instilling innovation has enabled us to provide top-notch customer satisfaction.

Solving Clients’ Needs with Great Services

Inoventures together with its subsidiary SciMetrika LLC provides Public Health IT services to the Federal Government and commercial customers. As a HUBZone and Woman-Owned Small Business, Inoventures has supported every division of CDC in preventing Public Health issues such as COVID 19 prevention, Malaria, Ebola prevention and also providing diversified population Health to the 500 plus Indian Native Populations across the USA.

As part of innovative IT modernization efforts, certified by the Carnegie Mellon Institute at CMMI Level 3 and ISO 9001:2015, Inoventures has supported US Census Bureau with the Decennial efforts, FDIC, various divisions of EPA, National Institutes of Health to mention a few. Under Meena’s leadership, Inoventures has won several Industry Awards- 2021 Top Health IT company by Silicon India Magazine, 2020 Enterprising Women of the Year Award, 2018 HUBZone Owner of the Year by National Contractor Council, 2018 Women In Technology Leader, 2017 BRAVA Women CEO of the Year, 2017 Washington Business Journal’s Minority Business Leader of the Year.

Meena says, “Our customers are Federal Government and Commercial customers. We practice our core values in providing our day-to-day services.” The company’s core values include top-notch customer service, employee engagement, and innovation. Meena and her team at Inoventures make sure they engage with their employees to serve the customers in the best possible way. The organization always thinks of “what is our customer’s pain point?” because if it does not have a happy customer, it does not have an opportunity to serve. With employee engagement and the importance of innovation, they have created a self-fulfilling value system that perpetuates trust and faith from the customers.

Standing Out in a Competitive Market

“When we do our work with the core values mentioned above, our brand speaks for itself.” says Meena Krishnan. The company certainly shares its joy with the industry via traditional social media. However, the organization believes in being humble and authentic to its mission-critical customer base. Then its customers spread the word about the brand which is the most essential ingredient for sustaining brand value.

Tackling the Pandemic

Inoventures is doing its business in the Public Health domain, and it has been making a difference at the Indian Health Services in preventing COVID 19 among the 500 plus Tribal populations. The company just proposed a unique approach to contact tracing within those populations, adhering to the cultural sensitivities of the tribal communities. While it is always able to rapidly deploy cutting-edge technology, it can also scale back, as needed, if a tribal population requires a different approach. In some cases, Inoventures proposed appointing cultural ambassadors with whom the populations feel comfortable sharing information. As a result, there is a better dialogue between Inoventures and the populations, enabling faster data collection and analysis resulting in accurate solutions delivery. The methodologies are the same, but the mechanics are different, in terms of the delivery.

Suggestions for Young Entrepreneurs

When we requested Meena Krishnan for a piece of advice for all the upcoming entrepreneurs, she says, “When it comes to business, men and women face the same challenges. Being aware of these challenges and creating support systems wherever possible will be critical. No challenge is the same so recognizing our strengths and weaknesses will allow us to seek help when needed.” She also added, “As women, connecting with fellow women leaders will be a critical factor in helping each other so I recommend organizations like Women Impacting Public Policy and Women In Technology to consider as they have made a difference for women leaders.”

Future Roadmap

Moving forward, both Meena Krishnan and Inoventures is focused on expanding their Public Health and COVID-19 prevention solutions—such as improving existing contact tracing methods through advanced technologies. Furthermore, the company is actively collaborating with more modern technology partners, providing them both business opportunities and a window into the vast sphere of public health. These partnerships also lend to Inoventures’ commitment to continually upgrade on the technology front, as evidenced by the recently launched Health Cloud solution that runs on the AWS platform. Furthermore, the company offers its clients unique procurement methodologies, enabling customers to procure work more efficiently. Inoventures will be a Public Health IT leader making a huge impact on global and population health.

Meet Tamara Mosidze, the founder and CEO of Premier Care LLC, which is a fully bonded and insured, dedicated non-medical home care service provider licensed in Connecticut and New York.

With a dream and vision to make a better life for herself, her family, and others in need Tamara immigrated to America from the country of Georgia 23 years ago. Before embarking on her professional journey she used her knowledge in health care and began working with Greenwich physicians, caring for their patients for over 15 years. Work experience and instant rapport with physicians and other health care workers earned Tamara a stellar reputation as a caregiver extraordinaire and smart businesswoman.

In 2015, Tamara followed her passion and started Premier Care LLC, an award-winning, non-medical home care agency offering affordable care for seniors and individuals with chronic or acute conditions. Premier Care’s services are provided in homes, assisted leaving, and senior facilities. Premier Care operates on the belief with the right kind of assistance and support, individuals can remain safely in their own houses, where people feel the greatest sense of purpose and they are most comfortable and happy.

Premier Care LLC’s services include Companion and Homemaker, Personal Care, and Specialized Care Services.

Solving Client’s Requirements

As an organization, Premier Care serves high-profile clients. The clients are mostly seniors, others with disabilities, chronic and acute conditions. Tamara’s team does free assessment and evaluation to learn about the client’s needs, including their medical history, level of care, personality, and lifestyle. Premier Care creates uniquely designed care plans for each client and then the organization matches the right individual by his/her background, personality, and work experience. Tamara believes each client is unique and requires a special approach and attention to certain details for a successful outcome.

Premier Care’s caregivers are special people with special skills, they are educated, intelligent, honest, and kind. Tamara and her team handpick each employee, they have mastered their skills choosing the right people. Tamara is an advocate of her clients, the client is a priority, then she supports the employees, they are the ones who shine this company.

The Pandemic

During the pandemic most caregiving agencies experienced a decrease in demand for home visits, reflecting clients’ concern about infection, family members assuming care duties, and/or aides being unavailable for work. However, Premier Care was able to maintain a healthy and safe environment within the agency, taking all necessary actions to keep clients and caregivers safe. So, the agency switched home visits by zoom calls and other online services. Under Tamara’s leadership, the organization started developing more extensive infection prevention policies, procedures, and workforce training and sourcing personal protective equipment (PPE).

During the pandemic, Premier Care updated its approach to business, as many other companies have and most administrative work, appointments, and interviews were done online. The world became digital and Tamara alongside her team adopted a new lifestyle very quickly and safely. Life felt different, times were very challenging, clients felt isolated, as care giving company, Premier Care had to give a tremendous amount of support. Despite all of the challenges, Premier Care has maintained a good reputation, demand is still growing, need for home care services has also increased.

Entrepreneurship in a Male-Dominated Society 

Tamara says, “It’s ironic that most home care agency owners are males and have strong business and money-making skills. Some of them even come from wall street or banking backgrounds to do home health care business. Women are different than men and we have a different approach for this type of business.” She also adds, “We put our hearts and souls in what we do, we personalize our service., we hear peoples’ problems, we salve their problems and we take very good care of our employees.”

Although she believes, the Home Health Care field has the majority of female workers, who include nurses, social workers, case managers, and doctors.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, Tamara considers it as the core of the American Dream and there are several approaches to it including Sociological, Psychological, Political, etc. She feels entrepreneurship is a constant desire to make things better, ability to recognize opportunity, and create value. Each client gives Premier Care different ideas and requires a different approach, for Tamara and her team, it’s a learning curve and one rule doesn’t apply to all. Clients have different ethnicities and different cultures, it’s critically important to have the ability to understand the feelings and needs of others. Tamara feels she and her team needs to be good leaders and role models to their employees, that’s what makes them want to follow them. She feels, an entrepreneur is not a common person, they have creative, managerial, and imaginative skills and this kind of personality develops in a person who has a strong motivation for achievement.

Future Roadmap

Tamara says, “We are maintaining an excellent reputation and 5-star reviews for the past 6 years.” The agency creates a happy environment for its workers and clients as well, especially during these most unpredictable and complicated times. Premier Care LLC is a rising star amongst many other competitors. Tamara Mosidze is planning to expand her agency in new locations and expand services nationwide.

Suggestions for Young Female Entrepreneurs

Tamara Mosidze is an immigrant from another country, plus as a female, speaking with a foreign accent, many years worked very hard and became one of luckiest people and now, her story is a true success story. She says, “America is the country where all your dreams come true. Dream and dream again, have a passion, have a goal, be honest, stay positive, work hard and never give up, if I did it, you can do it.” Her story inspires others. She sees things differently than others. Tamara Mosidze adds, “When you get to this stage where you see your potential and capabilities, your mind opens wider, all your fears fade and you are in control benefiting yourself and others as well. Be open-minded and never mean, rude, insecure or jealous. Learn from your mistakes. Be happy for others and always give help. Generosusity is magic word, you must give whether it’s good emotion or a monatery thing. Concentrate on quality only and don’t let greed control you. Do what you are good at, what is your talent, what your heart tells you, and it will all happen naturally. Every person has some skills, they just have to use them and they will succeed.”