Mentors

Carolyn Kepcher sat with Seeds for Success finalist Dana Rubinstein, co-founder of Dapple, and her partner Tamar, to discuss the steps they should take to market and distribute their products. Carolyn’s advice to the women was that it’s critical to have a solid handle on their budget: what money they have now, what money they expect to come in, what money they expect to pay out, and only then can they can determine their additional unbudgeted costs, such as for marketing and distribution, which are currently on their mind.

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The following is a conversation with Liz Smith, Mary Wells and Joni Evans I moderated on wowOwow.com that originally appeared in April 2008.

JONI: This conversation is about mentoring and about who have been our mentors, or who we are mentoring and what great advice there is that we’ve received or ever gotten or want to give out. (Find out here what advice we do give young women.)

LIZ: I was mentored by all the great men I’ve worked for – about six famous, fabulous men, in my youth. And they all helped and encouraged me and were great to me. I was a dumb, green kid and they kind of liked my nerve. But I evolved from working as a lowly assistant to being an actual writer and producer. And in television I’d get these impossible tasks to produce a show from someplace where you couldn’t even get a signal out, or to book a VIP guest. And one day I found out that I was enjoying going back to these important bosses at times, saying to them, “We can’t do it.” And I realized I was actually taking pleasure from telling them that what they wanted was impossible. As soon as I got onto that, onto myself, I didn’t need more mentoring. I realized I needed to start thinking like a boss; I had to become the boss. Read More »

There were more than 5,500 applicants. Their stories, inspiring. Their business ideas, full of promise. To narrow it down to three Seeds for Success finalists was a task not to be envied.

But the task is completed. The three women entrepreneur finalists have been chosen and announced by Yahoo! Small Business and fwm.

And so, congratulations and introductions are in order! Meet:

Abby Port, founder and CEO of Red Koala Canvas Co., an online purveyor of customizable canvas-based art for everything from home décor to shoes, totes and luggage;

Dana Rubinstein, co-founder of Dapple, a company which produces baby-safe and earth-friendly detergents, cleaners and sanitizers; and

Karla Duncan, founder and president of Head2Toe, a company which designs and develops toys and educational materials specifically for special needs children.
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