October 4, 2020 by Amanda Rondez

Women own approximately 39 percent of businesses in the United States and that number is rising, according to Score.org. Additionally, women of color own nearly half of all women-operated businesses, according to the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council.

Why are women-owned businesses imperative to the economy? Women are twice as likely to launch businesses within the healthcare industry compared to men and nearly twice as likely within the education sector. Meanwhile, men are more likely to start businesses in manufacturing and construction. 

Entrepreneurial women make up essential parts of the U.S. economy, as they foster innovation and never back down in the face of adversity. Entrepreneurs are people who recognize a problem in the world and take action to fix it. Harvard Business School defines entrepreneurship as “the pursuit of opportunity beyond resources controlled.”

Cal Poly offers an entrepreneurship concentration and minor but is also home to the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE). The CIE is a resource center for student entrepreneurs and hosts various entrepreneurial events and competitions throughout the year. 

With the guidance of university entrepreneurship programs, the following three young women have been able to sharpen their business skills and jumpstart their careers at a young age and are trailblazers of innovation within their respective fields:

Alexandra Joelson

Alexandra Joelson is a business administration junior founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Intego Sports as well as a board member of the Cal Poly Entrepreneurs Club. 

Joelson placed first in the CIE’s Elevator Pitch Competition and was awarded $1,000 during fall 2019. This acted as a catalyst for the launch of Intego Sports.

Intego Sports’ mission is to revolutionize the footwear industry by designing an affordable soccer cleat that is three times more durable than the average cleat. The team hopes to take the product to market within the next year and even has a waitlist on IntegoSports.com. 

Through her experience playing soccer for 15 years, Joelson knew that cleats were not as durable as they should be for their price. The precursor idea for Intego Sports was conceived in an entrepreneurship class Joelson took in high school.

“I was asked, ‘Are you actually gonna make this a real company or are you just gonna take this money and leave?’ I decided I might as well continue to pursue this,” Joelson said. “Then I joined Startup Marathon which is where I met my team and ended up winning that as well. After that, we decided we might actually have something here, let’s move forward with it.”

Startup Marathon is an annual 54-hour event hosted by the CIE, typically held in November, where students have the opportunity to pitch a business idea, form a team, create a plan and pitch the idea to a panel of judges at the end of the weekend for monetary prizes.

Joelson and her team have worked tirelessly prototyping, researching, testing and promoting their product ever since while simultaneously keeping up with the rigor of college life. During a typical week, before the coronavirus pandemic, the Intego Sports team would have meetings in the Hatchery, an on-campus CIE workspace, between classes and reconvene in the evening to continue working on the company — sometimes until 5 a.m. 

“It’s great to find a team that’s passionate about what they’re doing and is willing to work hard instead of having fun doing other things in college,” Joelson said. “We’re having a good time since we’ve all gained such a strong relationship and we’ve learned to make our ‘fun time’ working on the company together.” 

As CEO, Joelson carries the responsibility of managing her team, building the Intego Sports brand and promoting the product. This includes a plethora of tasks from arranging meetings with her team, advisors and investors to creating pitch decks, responding to emails and handling finances.

She plans to be in entrepreneurship “for the rest of [her] life” as she enjoys the journey and challenges that come with it.

Jessica Beth Corr

Jessica Beth Corr is an architecture senior at Cal Poly who discovered her interest in entrepreneurship through Startup Marathon weekend.

She ended up joining a team, Ethic Marketplace, whose mission surrounded conscious consumerism and other core values she resonated with. The idea was pitched by fellow Cal Poly student and future co-founder, Garrett Perkins. The pitch appealed to Corr because she had often seen excess material thrown away as a result of architecture projects.

Following Startup Marathon weekend, Corr began her journey as co-founder and Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Ethic Marketplace, an e-commerce platform that allows people to shop for products that are sustainable and manufactured through ethical practices. She was hesitant to participate at first but ultimately decided to attend the event.

 “It’s a very iconic image of a studio to be this cluttered mess with just garbage and projects and materials scattered everywhere and I was feeling guilty that I was contributing to that — that’s not with my values,” Corr said. “Hearing about this product that could make it so much easier for people like me to feel like we’re making a difference in what we buy, that’s really what drove me to helping develop and launch the business.”

She and the newly-formed Ethic Marketplace team continued to work on the company into the school year. As the summer approached, she faced the decision to either pursue an architecture internship or stay with the team and apply to the CIE’s Hothouse Accelerator, a 12-week program filled with resources and guidance for startups as well as $10,000. She followed her passion for the company and chose the latter.

“We got into the program which was super exciting and that was really when I got to actually get my ‘Mini MBA’ and learn a lot about business, project management and product development,” Corr said. “It was an incredible experience and I met a lot of great mentors and friends.”

Corr continued to work with Ethic Marketplace into the following school year, balancing her roles in the company with coursework. During this period, she would sometimes be on sales calls while riding the bus to campus for a long day of class in the architecture studio.

Even after she has reduced her involvement with Ethic Marketplace, Corr continues to apply and foster her entrepreneurial skills that she developed through her work with the startup. This past summer, she worked on three projects, including creating a website, participating in eBridge Alliance and being a program coordinator for a high school environmental leadership class.

“I think, most importantly, it’s about finding mentors and other great ambitious people who can help you figure out what to do next,” Corr recommended to others exploring career ideas.

Jamika Martin

Jamika Martin is the founder and CEO of ROSEN Skincare, a Central Coast-based company that takes a cleaner and more empathetic approach to acne care. ROSEN aims not only to create clean, natural products, but also to shift messaging in the skincare industry by emphasizing that acne is normal.

Martin started making her own skincare products with clean ingredients while studying as a business economics student at UCLA. She created products using DIY formulas found through the Internet to treat her acne-prone skin.

At first, she “wasn’t ever thinking about selling them or anything like that.” She thought of her skincare products as one of her side hobbies, not about pursuing them as a business. Martin didn’t go into college with entrepreneurship in mind, and saw herself working in a corporate role instead. 

Martin was inspired by a conversation with her cousin to launch her own skincare company, ROSEN, and dove into entrepreneurship. 

Martin took the first steps in building her brand halfway through her senior year. She stacked classes and managed her time well in order to keep up with her coursework while continuing to develop ROSEN.

She graduated in June of 2017 and started working on ROSEN full time. That summer, she applied and was accepted to UCLA’s summer accelerator program.

“It was really great to gain connections and mentorships,” Martin said. “There are still so many opportunities that I have now that just trace back to somebody I met somehow during that program.”

Surrounding herself with other student entrepreneurs in the program uplifted Martin as a new business owner.

“You don’t realize how many people around you are trying to start their own things and so it’s pretty cool once you start getting into that environment because it really feels more achievable,” she said. “I feel like that’s also a big thing if you wanna start something, start surrounding yourself with people who are working on it and it’s gonna feel so much less daunting to you”

Martin learned various marketing, investing, scaling and differentiation strategies as well as other entrepreneurial skills through both the accelerator program and her business classes that helped her grow ROSEN Skincare. The brand has become well-established and trusted since 2017, with glowing reviews of their products. 

Through all of the success ROSEN has seen, Martin finds the greatest fulfillment in skincare success stories. She is an advocate for student entrepreneurship and encourages students who have a business idea to explore that path during college. 

“I had zero connections. I had zero experience in college. But, if you have an idea and you’re down to just learn, get people’s perspective and take their feedback honestly.” Martin said. “I really think people can build anything.”