Turkey's women entrepreneurs. The 100 largest companies founded by women by turnover...

Famale Founders Club is coming

It may sound "sexist" to prepare such lists, to create a Club of women. However, we are still at the beginning of the road in Turkey, as in the rest of the world. For this reason, it is still very important to share the success stories of women entrepreneurs and bosses and underline the differences they make...

We took this into consideration when preparing the Women Founders 100 list. It is only possible to see in these lists that there are women in Turkey who have founded companies with billion turnover and who have made millions of TL in a few years.

In the continuation of this list, we will include research titled Female Founders Speak, as Fast Company USA does. In this research, we will question women entrepreneurs about their "founding processes", "finding funding", "equality issues" and "future plans".

At the Female Founders Club, we also have a few events planned, including a ceremony to present awards and plaques to those who made the 100 list. We will shape these according to your suggestions.

How was this list prepared?

The Women Founders 100 list is the first research published in this field in Turkey. One of the main reasons for its failure is the inability to collect "data".

→ The excitement created by Fast Company Turkey and the experience of the team encouraged participation in such a difficult research. Hundreds of women entrepreneurs (including some who did not make the list), to whom we owe a debt of gratitude, shared their data.

→ Some entrepreneurs' data was available in open sources. We made use of them, and data for a few entrepreneurs' companies were published as estimates with the support of sources in the sector.

→ We could have published the turnover figures as full figures instead of ranges, but we preferred ranges to keep our word and not to put entrepreneurs who have agreements with various institutions such as angel investors in a difficult situation. Our aim at the time was to draw attention to the size.

We also mentioned it in the → Internet 100 list. A few important companies did not share. There may also be a few companies that we could not reach. However, we believe that the business world, which welcomed our Internet 100 list with "How can it be so accurate?", will show the same interest in this list.

How Did the First Black African American Billionaire Make a Difference?

A very new series has started on Netflix: "Self Made" (which can be translated as "Made from Scratch"): "The Inspiring Life Story of Madame C. J. Walker", which tells the life story of the first black female billionaire in the US. I am writing it in case it inspires the 100 women on these pages. First of all, make sure you watch it. For those who haven't seen it, I would like to share her extraordinary story under a few headings:

→ The first "self billionaire" woman entrepreneur was Sarah Breedlove, who lived between 1867 and 1919...

→ Everyone knew her as "Madame Walker". She was an entrepreneur who made her fortune in cosmetics and was a big hit in her time... She later invested in the arts, charity and social causes and became known for her charity work.

→ "Don't sit around waiting for opportunities to come your way. You seize it" strategy.

→ He didn't get any help from anyone while building his business. When her coconut cream for her own hair became a success, she thought about how she could bring this formula to other black women.

→ She named her successful product "Madame Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower" and her treatment method "Walker's System". Then she started selling it door-to-door. In those years, she gave importance to branding.

→ He developed innovative products and systems for cosmetics and hair care. In the 1900s, he invented the "hot comb" for making hair.

→ As his business grew, he pursued another important strategy. He organized black women across the country as a sales force. In a sense, he turned his customers into salespeople.

→ He followed a strategy of giving back what he earned. He became known as a good philanthropist, donating a significant portion of his fortune when he died.OVER 4.5 BILLION TL

Tülin Akın ranks 55th on this list.