By Parker Woltz  on Mon 6 Feb - 0 Comments
Categories: Entrepreneurship, Inspiring Women, Perspectives

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Hello, everyone!  I am very excited to introduce The Story Exchange (TSE), an amazing resource to connect women in business with inspiring female role models from around the world.  TSE has created a dynamic repository of stories from successful female entrepreneurs, and is looking for more stories from the entrepreneurial women of HBS to help celebrate all of your achievements!  Read on to learn more about this exciting initative, and please contribute to this growing source of inspiration for women in business everywhere.

Young Entrepreneurial Women: We Need You
By Victoria Wang, Co-Founder of The Story Exchange

This April we are devoting the month to presenting the stories of young women who aspire to start a business or already have taken the plunge.  We're inspired by the number of young women who want to start a business and have the passion to make the world a better place. 

For The Story Exchange's Young Entrepreneur Month, we will feature stories on our blog of young women who have successfully launched businesses and ask them to share the lessons they've learned through their experience.

We also want to hear from the women at Harvard. Send us an email and let us know what's motivating you to start a business? And if you've already started one, submit your story to our website (http://thestoryexchange.org/category/yse/). We'll be having a series of online events, so follow us on Twitter (THESTORYXCHANGE) and Facebook (THESTORYEXCHANGE) to stay in touch. 

One of the things I’ve heard from women everywhere – from a student at Harvard Business School to an employee at a bio-tech company in Hong Kong – is that women need more female role models. And after climbing the ranks of the financial world, it’s something I personally know all too well. Throughout my career, I often wished there were more women for me to share experiences with on issues both business and work/life related.

Although things have improved since I first started, in part due to the ability to share information more easily, there is still a serious shortage of stories that women can watch to see successful women entrepreneurs in action.   If you turn on the television or browse the web, you might find a few clips here and there, but no one is telling the real stories about the real women—we're not talking about the Kim Kardashians of this world—who are starting businesses.

That’s why we started The Story Exchange: to bring the stories of successful women entrepreneurs who can be role models to other women, wherever they are. It’s all about women inspiring women through short, broadcast quality videos that are available to anyone on the web.

I want to share the videos of two of our entrepreneurs, with very different stories, who are wonderful role models for the young women who will create our future, start businesses and work to restore our economy in a fair and just way.

One is Melissa Mowbray-D’Arbela, who used the experience she gained as a lawyer and an investment banker on Wall Street to help her start a cutting-edge biotech firm. "I wanted to be able to run a company that was based on ethical and business elements - the way that you treat your employees, the way that you do your corporate governance - the way that you treat your shareholders, and how you treat the environment." The bio-mask she developed was used in the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Japan and since September is now available in Walgreens.

Watch Melissa's story

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyzgOCpGHko&feature=youtu.be

Another is Pat Law, who gave up a high profile job at the advertising, marketing and PR firm Olgivy and Mather because she needed money to help pay for her father’s cancer treatment. And she thought she could earn more on her own. Although it’s been tough, she has landed some high-flying contracts, including managing social media for Singapore’s recently elected president. She’s done it by following her passion while recognizing her strengths and limitations: "I knew my weaknesses and I think that helped me a lot. I knew, if you leave the bookkeeping to me, I would have gone to jail half a year ago," Pat says.

Watch Pat's story

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ4QlkEH8YM&feature=youtu.be

We are fortunate when we meet those rare people who inspire and motivate us, expand our world and encourage us to do things we may not think possible. I hope Melissa and Pat's stories inspire you, as they did me.

Join us in April for Young Entrepreneur Month at The Story Exchange! 

We would love to have the women of Harvard Business School join us. Share your passion and your vision. Whether you want to start the next internet phenomena a social enterprise or a traditional brick and mortar company, tell us about it and why you think it will work. 

To get us started ahead of April, we hope you will join in now by:

- Telling us why you want to start your own business. What motivates you? Send your response to karin@thestoryexchange.org-

- Submitting your business story here: http://thestoryexchange.org/category/yse/

– Following us on Twitter (THESTORYXCHANGE) and Facebook (THESTORYEXCHANGE).


About Victoria Wang

Victoria Wang is the co-founder of The Story Exchange. Wang is a former banker and marketing consultant with more than three decades of experience in the financial world. As she rose through the ranks of corporate America, she saw very few role models or even other women to talk to at senior levels. By the time she left, she wanted to find ways to mentor younger women and to encourage them down the path to economic independence.