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When thinking about SaaS leaders and founders of SaaS companies, what names come to mind? Forbes's list of the 100 Most Innovative Leaders , ranges from Jeff Bezos to Marc Benioff, which no doubt are incredibly successful, innovative men. In fact, this list was full of them. To be exact, there were 99 men on that list and one, single, woman, Barbara Rentler, CEO of Ross coming in at number 75. The article wasn't titled "The 100 Most Innovative Male Leaders"" nor was it supposed to be solely focused onfemale-led or female-founded companies either. It was supposed to highlight innovative leaders, and yep, Forbes made a whoopsies – that they quickly acknowledged with a follow-up article:
If this isn’t an example of a systematic problem, then I don’t know what is. Now, Forbes explained that they used a mathematical methodology to come up with that list. So let’s use some data and math to highlight why this is simply a poignant, illustrative example of a much broader systematic problem.
Looking at the data, to no surprise the leaders of some of America’s oldest corporations like McDonald’s or Nike made the list. However, the large percentage of those innovative leaders were founders of the new generation of corporate America – the big tech companies . From Netflix, to Microsoft and Facebook – they were all listed. They’re the “unicorns” tech companies, the ones that made it beyond a $1B valuation and according to statistics, an accomplishment that only 1.07% of startups can proudly claim – it’s really, really hard.
So the next question is, well, tech companies are “modern” and “progressive” in their cultures compared to more traditional corporate america, right? Why aren’t we seeing more representation and diversity there? Do women and other minorities not start unicorn companies?
Nope. It’s a question of opportunity. Why?
Let’s take a look.
The road to Unicorn status for most tech companies involves a 5-10 year long challenging process which includes building a world-problem-solving technology from scratch, assembling a world-class team, iterating 1 million times on your messaging until you get it right, and creating as much brand awareness as possible to find a repeatable way of selling to customers who love your company and your product to reach $50-100M in recurring revenue. But more importantly, it almost always requires financial backing from the start.
In fact, almost every Unicorn on that list was backed by large Venture Capital firms that took a financial bet on them early on, while they were still operating at a loss. Most of these companies were funding expensive research and development, hoping to make a gazillion dollars down the road. Unfortunately, women receive just 2% of venture funding.
Assuming equal probability of Unicorn status in men or women-led companies at a 1.07% probability rate, it takes 100 women-led companies to guarantee ONE Unicorn. Meanwhile, given their current monetary slice of the funding pie, 4,900 other male-led companies would have had their shot at it in the process, too.
In fact, there weren’t even enough funded companies in 2019, only 2,904 companies to be exact, to statistically guarantee that a women-led company makes it to Unicorn status in the next 5-10 years from that batch.
That’s maths folks. That’s the systematic issue here.
Unfortunately, similar to the broader racism issue highlighted across America, I can’t explain it. It’s definitely not a question of performance, since companies with diverse leadership have 10% higher EBIT Margin than those with below-average diversity in their leadership. It also can’t be because women-led startups, in a study of 350 startups, delivered higher revenue — more than 2 times as much per dollar invested that those founded by men.
So what is the issue? I still don’t have an answer. But I do believe it's our responsibility as leaders and future leaders to start taking proactive steps within our organizations and beyond, to increase the odds of seeing maybe one more woman on that list in the coming years.
Female Founded SaaS Companies and Enterprise Companies
To support that effort, we’ve compiled a list below of women-led enterprise software companies in SaaS. This way, the next time you’re evaluating two technology options with equal benefits, consider adding a checkbox to your RFP to check for diverse leadership. Of course, that should not be THE criteria to determine your selection, but adding a point for it brings awareness and encourages your leaders and everyone in your organization to proactively remember the importance of this.
CATEGORY: Sales Enablement
Spekit
Founders: Melanie Fellay and Zari Zahra
Company Description:
Spekit is the modern AI-powered enablement platform that unifies content management, enablement, and automation to help revenue teams move faster and close deals quicker. Spekit combines intelligent content management with AI Sidekick, the only just-in-time sales assistant™ that leverages signals from CRM, call intelligence, and communication tools to deliver personalized guidance, content, and recommendations directly to reps. Located in Denver, CO, the company was founded in 2018 by Melanie Fellay and Zari Zahra.
CATEGORY: Learning & Development
Guild Education
Founder(s): Rachel Romer and Brittany Stich
Company Description: Guild is a workforce education platform that partners with Fortune 1000 employers to fund upskilling and degree programs for employees. Located in Denver, CO, the company was founded in 2015.
Skilljar
Founder(s): Sandi Lin and Jason Stewart
Company Description:
Skilljar is an LMS company that provides tools and resources for companies to onboard and retain customers. Located in Seattle, WA, the company was founded in 2013 by Sandi Lin and Jason Stewart.
Landit
Founder(s): Lisa Skeete Tatum
Company Description:
Landit is a digital platform that is designed to enable and engage women in the workplace. Located in New York, NY, the company was founded in 2014 by Lisa Skeete Tatum.
CATEGORY: Financial
BlackLine
Founder(s): Therese Tucker
Company Description:
BlackLine is an enterprise financial software company that provides a solution for the entire financial close process. Located in Woodland Hills, CA, BlackLine was founded in 2001 by Therese Tucker who heads up the company as the current CEO.
Hearsay Systems
Founder(s):Clara Shih
Company Description:
Hearsay Systems allows financial advisors to connect compliantly through email, text, social media, web, etc with clients. Located in San Francisco, CA, the company was founded in 2009 by current CEO Clara Shih
Cledara
Founder(s): Cristina Vila
Company Description:
Cledara allows businesses to manage all of the subscriptions they have in one place. Located in London, the company was founded in 2018 by Cristina Vila.
CATEGORY: Health
HealthMatch
Founder(s): Manuri Gunawardena
Company Description:
HealthMatch was founded in 2017, after Manuri witnessed first-hand the challenges of patients looking to gain access to clinical trials. She became resolute in finding a solution for connecting patients to clinical trials. HealthMatch is about empowering patients to not only understand their treatment options, but gain access. Every person deserves this and by reaching the largest audience as a global community, we all benefit from fast-tracked new medicines.
CATEGORY: Marketing
CallTrackingMetrics
Founder(s): Laure Fisher and Todd Fisher
Company Description:
Call Tracking Metrics is a SaaS company that allows businesses to track their tools and analytics across platforms. Located in Severna Park, MD, the company was founded in 2011 by Laure and Todd Fisher.
Allocadia
Founder(s): Kristine Steuart and Katherine Berry
Company Description:
Allocadia is a marketing solution that helps marketing professionals focus their budget and time to maximise their efforts and impacts for their organizations. Located in Vancouver, BC, the company was founded in 2010 by twin sisters Kristine Steuart and Katherine Berry.
Branch.io
Founder(s): Mada Seghete
Company Description:
Branch bridges the gap between web and applications and allows developers to build links between the two. It provides marketers better insight into campaign analytics and metrics. Located in Redwood, CA, the company was founded in 2014 by Mada Seghete.
CATEGORY: Recruiting
Power to Fly
Founder(s): Milena Berry and Katharine Zaleski
Company Description:
Power to fly places women in tech in remote positions. It allows businesses to find incredible remote talent to add to their team. Located in New York, NY, the company was founded in 2014 by Milena Berry and Katharine Zaleski.
Blendoor
Founder(s): Stephanie Lampkin
Company Description:
Blendoor was created to help companies find, recruit and hire diverse talent. Located in San Francisco, CA, the company was founded in 2015 by Stephanie Lampkin.
CATEGORY: Event Management
Eventbrite
Founder(s): Julia Hartz, Renaud Visage and Kevin Hartz
Company Description:
Eventbrite is an event organization platform that easily allows businesses and organizations to coordinate events on their online platform. Located in San Francisco, CA, the company was founded in 2006 by Julia Hartz, Renaud Visage and Kevin Hartz. Julia Hartz is the current CEO.
CATEGORY: Communication
Front
Founder(s): Mathilde Collin and Laurent Perrin
Company Description:
Front allows businesses to streamline their communication both internally and externally and avoid the problems that often pop up on other messaging and communication platforms. Located in San Francisco and Paris, the company was founded in 2013 by Mathilde Collin and Laurent Perrin.
CATEGORY: Security & Compliance
Vanta
Founder(s): Christina Cacioppo
Company Description: Vanta is an automated trust management platform that streamlines security monitoring and compliance certifications like SOC 2. Located in San Francisco, CA, the company was founded in 2018.
Cloudflare
Founder(s): Michelle Zatlyn, Matthew Prince, Lee Holloway
Company Description: Cloudflare provides cloud security, performance, and edge networking services used by enterprises worldwide. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, the company was founded in 2009.
CATEGORY: Design
Canva
Founder(s): Melanie Perkins, Clifford Obrecht and Cameron Adams
Company Description:
Canva is an online platform that allows users to easily create graphic design level graphics, images, etc. Located in Sydney Australia, the company was founded in 2012 by Melanie Perkins, Clifford Obrecht and Cameron Adams.
CATEGORY: Developer Tools & DevOps
LaunchDarkly
Founder(s): Edith Harbaugh and John Kodumal
Company Description: LaunchDarkly is a feature management platform that helps engineering teams ship faster and reduce risk with feature flags and progressive delivery. Headquartered in Oakland, CA, the company was founded in 2014.
Confluent
Founder(s): Neha Narkhede, Jay Kreps, Jun Rao
Company Description: Confluent offers a data streaming platform built on Apache Kafka for real-time event processing at enterprise scale. Headquartered in Mountain View, CA, the company was founded in 2014.
CATEGORY: Other
Deployed
Founder(s): Emma Rees and Kayleigh Kuptz
Company Description:
Deployed is a digital scoping tool that provides guidance through the SoW (statement of work) process. Located in London, the company was founded in 2018 by Emma Rees and Kayleigh Kuptz.
Arista
CEO: Jayshree Ullal
Company Description:
Arista is a computer networking company specializing in cognitive cloud networking. It’s platform is an “extensible operating system” that provides networking solutions for large data driven corporations or data centers. Located in Santa Clara, CA, the company was founded in 2004 and is currently led by current CEO Jayshree Ullal.
PagerDuty
CEO: Jennifer Tejada
Company Description:
PagerDuty is a SaaS incident response platform that helps companies provide an uninterrupted experience for their customers and end users. Located in San Francisco, CA, the company was founded in 2009 and is currently led by CEO Jennifer Tejada.
CATEGORY: HR & Workforce
Papaya Global
Founder(s): Eynat Guez, Ofer Herman, Ruben Drong
Company Description: Papaya Global is a global payroll and workforce management platform that unifies payments and compliance across countries. Headquartered in New York, NY with origins in Tel Aviv, the company was founded in 2016.
CATEGORY: Commerce & Logistics
Shippo
Founder(s): Laura Behrens Wu, Simon Kreuz, Max Diez
Company Description: Shippo provides multi-carrier shipping APIs and a web app for label creation, tracking, and discounted rates for ecommerce brands. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, the company was founded in 2013.
CATEGORY: Marketing
Mutiny
Founder(s): Jaleh Rezaei and Nikhil Mathew
Company Description: Mutiny is a no-code website personalization platform that converts top-of-funnel traffic into pipeline with AI-driven experiences. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, the company was founded in 2018.
CATEGORY: Recruiting
Lever
Founder(s): Sarah Nahm, Nate Smith, Randal Truong, Brian Noguchi
Company Description: Lever is an applicant tracking and talent relationship management platform used by high-growth companies. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, the company was founded in 2012.
The Muse
Founder(s): Kathryn Minshew, Alexandra Cavoulacos, Melissa McCreery
Company Description: The Muse is a career platform and job marketplace featuring company profiles, coaching, and hiring solutions. Headquartered in New York, NY, the company was founded in 2011.
CATEGORY: Health
Modern Health
Founder(s): Alyson Friedensohn (Watson)
Company Description: Modern Health offers an employer-sponsored mental health platform combining therapy, coaching, and digital programs. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, the company was founded in 2017.
Insitro
Founder(s): Daphne Koller
Company Description: Insitro is an AI-driven drug discovery company that builds predictive models and data platforms for biopharma R&D. Headquartered in South San Francisco, CA, the company was founded in 2018. (
CATEGORY: Analytics
Alteryx
Founder(s): Olivia Duane Adams, Dean Stoecker, Ned Harding
Company Description: Alteryx provides analytics and data science software for prep, blend, and advanced analytics. Headquartered in Irvine, CA, the company was founded in 1997.
CATEGORY: Procurement & Supplier Data
TealBook
Founder(s): Stephany Lapierre
Company Description: TealBook is a supplier data platform that enriches and centralizes vendor information to accelerate sourcing and procurement. Headquartered in Toronto, ON, the company was founded in 2014.
CATEGORY: Sales Acceleration
Chili Piper
Founder(s): Alina Vandenberghe and Nicolas Vandenberghe
Company Description: Chili Piper is a buyer enablement and scheduling platform that routes, books, and qualifies meetings to speed pipeline. Headquartered in New York, NY, the company was founded in 2016.
Closing
Progress is real, but the math has not moved fast enough. When only a small fraction of funding reaches women, too many potential unicorns never get the chance to run.
If you want a more equitable, innovative ecosystem, make it operational. Add a “female-founded” checkbox to every software evaluation, require at least one female-led option in each category, and track awarded spend quarterly. Then tell the stories. The next generation is watching, and the companies on this page are proof that when opportunity meets talent, outcomes follow.
