Female Founders: Elizabeth Menegon of Hands 2 Paws On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Educate yourself. I am not an app developer, nor did I know anything about launching an app. I had to learn quickly and keep my eyes open throughout the entire process. I learned how things are built, revised, and produced. I found myself coming up with ideas that the app developer didn’t have. If your open to learning, you’ll be surprised at how quickly you become an asset.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Elizabeth Menegon.
Elizabeth Menegon spent her career in the hotel industry until covid struck NYC in March 2020. Determined to make the best out of a difficult situation, and while struggling to find products to cure her dry skin, she launched her all-natural, small batch skincare company, SugarSkinn. Always having had a love for dogs, Elizabeth created a product for dog’s paws called Pawsome Paw Balm that not only helped cure dry, cracked puppy paws, but gave back to animal shelters in her area through a portion of proceeds. This project sparked a passion for another entrepreneurial journey and prompted Elizabeth to find a way to help dogs in a more meaningful way. Through many conversations and much research, Elizabeth uncovered one of the biggest issues that lead to dogs being surrendered to shelters — mismatched owners and dogs. Hands2Paws was born in 2021 and has quickly grown to be loved by breeders, animal shelters and dog lovers of all kinds.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers want to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I’ve always had a love for animals, especially dogs. A couple of years ago, I noticed an alarming trend of people purchasing dogs for apartments that were not a fit for small space living. Unfortunately, consumers don’t realize some dogs are not conducive to your lifestyle and living situation. On one particular day, I saw three people in my building with the same breed of dog that is not conducive to apartment living, and I asked myself, “isn’t there an app that helps people get the right dog”? After digging into this topic further, I learned that a lot of dogs are turned over to shelters because they were not a fit for the owner’s lifestyle. I learned that a lot of this information was only available for a fee and that didn’t seem right. I knew I had to create a free resource for people to be able to make informed decisions when welcoming a pet into their family.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
I was recently recording as a guest with a UK-based podcast and speaking at length about the app. When closing, the host asked if the app was available in the UK and it was not.
That afternoon I got in touch with the app developer, and a plan was but into motion to expand app availability into the UK and Canada. If not for that UK podcast, I wouldn’t have had the idea to expand the app to other markets.
I tell this simple story because I think sometimes as entrepreneurs, we wait for these “big moments” to happen in our journey when typically, the small moments are greater than we realize. Looking for interesting opportunities and bits of information in every conversation is important.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Fairly recently, I was discussing the app with a neighbor in my building. I was wearing a Hands2Paws T-shirt, and she asked what the company did. I explained that it was an app that matched humans with the right breed of dog for their lifestyle. I started to share an example that a Jack Russel was a terrible choice for apartment living because they are high energy pack animals that have a propensity to be in motion.
I noticed a man coming into the building walking a dog. He was walking a Jack Russel, and guess who it belonged to? She was quite polite and did not challenge me on my stance against this breed living in small spaces. I think perhaps she already knew.
The lesson learned here is not to share too much about a specific breed because the person may just have one. Oops. It was a great reminder that while I am extremely passionate about this topic, not everyone has this information yet and it’s important to be understanding of that. That’s why I created Hands 2 Paws!
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person you are grateful to who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My mother is the most inspirational person in my life. My mom was a typical 60s housewife without a college education and provided a wonderful childhood for myself and my brother. When my father came home from work, dinner was always on the table, the house was always clean, and my mom did everything for everyone. She was always thinking of others and still is that way. No matter what time of day it is, I can call my mom, and she’ll have insight, kind words or an opinion that sets me straight. Even though she isn’t a businessperson, it’s her insight on how and why people behave the way they do that has had the most impact on the decisions I make for my business. I think it’s an important reminder that you don’t have to formally be an expert at something to provide great value. She also told me that if everything went belly up, I could come and live with her. How sweet is that?
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
First, I think females do not innately possess an aggressive, divide and conquer disposition. We are more nurturing and softer in our approach to communication. I believe this is actually a strength in business, but it is unfortunately mistaken as a weaken to many in the business world. Second, I also think that many women are raising children alone and can’t take such risks when there is no other income to fall back on.
These are obviously two major disadvantages for women; however, I don’t think the situation is as grim is it may sound. Although 20% of funded companies have women founders according to the world economic forum, 49% of startup companies in 2021 were founded by women. I think that increase is largely due to the pandemic. People were forced to slow down, causing women to become reflective and take a chance on a business. Out of that 49%, I would bet the most of these women come from a dual income situation. We still need to find a way to help single income females pursue entrepreneurial business ventures.
I think in some ways we need to redefine what it means to be a successful entrepreneur. Many female-founded businesses are smaller, home-based companies that focus on consulting and retail services. This sector is overlooked because we focus on the successful multimillion dollar companies founded by women, which is much harder to break into and be successful. Take Whitney Wolfe, founder of Bumble, for example. She was the VP of marketing with Tinder and branched out to start her own dating platform. This is much harder to achieve when women are working full-time, and a full-time mom, commuting to the office, and managing all the other day-to-day things that women tend to juggle. For many women, making a decent income from home with flexible hours is the definition of success and that needs to be celebrated.
Society is tough on women who want to have a career and be a mom. Women are made to feel that if they choose both, one of these commitments will fall short. This stigma perpetuates the idea that you won’t be as successful if you are both a mom and businesswoman.
And lastly I think there are amazing ideas that women have but they just don’t have the funding or the resources to figure out where to get the funding. It’s a daunting and overwhelming task to secure funding therefore women don’t pursue the opportunity. Education and access to information is the key here. We have to invite women into these conversations and open the door to potential opportunities. Not everyone has the resources to go on shark tank and pitch their idea.
There will always be a disparity in the workforce unless we can overcome these obstacles.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
Strong women are not bitches nor are kind women pushovers. That is a huge misconception in the business world and if we change our mindset around this, we can help level the playing field. Wasting energy on judging how a women “should” be acting instead of seeing her company, idea or vision for what it is and making decisions based on the viability and potential of that alone would eliminate many hurdles for women.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
I don’t believe that I can say that they should. That’s like asking why more women should become mothers. It’s a personal choice that no one can make for you and you shouldn’t make if it’s not something that you deeply want.
With that said, I think there are many reasons to pursue it if it’s something you want. For many, it’s about financial freedom, feeling like you’re making a difference in the world, or even proving to yourself that you can do something out of your comfort zone. For me, it’s an incredible feeling to create businesses out of my passions. Not everyone wants to achieve these successes by starting a business, so in the end it’s all about drive and what’s important each and every one of us.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
Many people see founders once their business have been established and look at it as the ideal lifestyle. People don’t tend to see the 14 hours workdays, the number of times you’re told “no”, the sleepless nights, or the resources invested into an idea that may or may not be successful. Sure, there’s often more flexibility than a corporate 9–5, but the reality is that it also comes with more responsibility, no paid vacation days, no maternity leave, and for many, no one to rely on and pick up the slack when you need a break. For many, the pros far outweigh the cons, but I think it’s important to dispel the myth that every founder has this idyllic lifestyle every single day.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
I don’t think being a founder is for everyone. To be a founder is to take a risk. You may not know when your next paycheck will arrive. Not everyone wants the responsibility of being responsible for other people, which when you run a business with employees, you inevitably take on.
Many skills, whether you’re a founder or an employee at a large company, can be learned. But I do think as a founder, you must be empathetic, a critical thinker and have high emotional intelligence. Some people struggle with these things, and, as a result, they cannot manage individuals or make decisions in the best interest of the company.
When owning your own business, you also have to be logical and reasonable with both your decision making and your employees. Unfortunately, many organizations are run by selfish individuals and the result is miserable employees. This can be true with both founder and managers who work for larger companies.
Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Don’t get disappointed in people. When you start a business, you often look to friends, relatives, acquaintances, and former colleagues for support. You have to mentally be prepared that they won’t all help you.
- Don’t view a mistake as the end of the world. Mistakes are only mistakes. Be humble enough to acknowledge it, learn from it and move forward.
- Stop trying to tell everyone the importance of your product. I have received some crazy email and comments with people sharing their opinions on purebred dogs, the number of homeless dogs and adopting dogs. Everyone will not be your biggest fan. If someone isn’t willing to have a constructive conversation and is instead just looking for an argument, don’t engage. I can tell right away if someone is looking to be confrontational or have an interesting conversation.
- Educate yourself. I am not an app developer, nor did I know anything about launching an app. I had to learn quickly and keep my eyes open throughout the entire process. I learned how things are built, revised, and produced. I found myself coming up with ideas that the app developer didn’t have. If your open to learning, you’ll be surprised at how quickly you become an asset.
- It doesn’t happen overnight. Or the next night, or the night after that, or 300 nights after that. That’s been the hardest part for me — the waiting and questioning if I’m doing the right thing. I think this is normal and it’s always for a fleeting second. Don’t dwell on it and let is become a problem that festers.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I have a few things to share here, so let’s start with what’s in the works right now. My success allowed me to start a grassroots T-shirt company with quirky, dog themed T-shirts. I’ve recently set out to find on a final year college student interested in clothing, social media, online sales and business development to ultimately hand over the business to upon their graduation. Kind of like Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory, I need to find a Charlie and let them have this business.
Next, I am working to use the success of the Hands 2 Paws app to set up a veterinarian team to partner with other countries like Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. This program would act as a spay and neuter program to address the overpopulation and unfortunate cruelty to animals taking place across the world. We would provide the guidance to help clinics start their own rescues/shelters and manage their overpopulation rather than rescue groups in the US bringing these animals here to be adopted. Our own resources are stretched thin, so bringing in more animals becomes burdensome and ultimately, the animals suffer.
Lastly, I would like to create a nationwide Animal Rescue Associate Organization. This organization will help nonprofit 501C organizations and privately run rescues with deeply discounted supplies and resources, also providing health insurance plans for the rescuers. Many individuals are funding rescues from their own pockets and rely on donations, ultimately living without health insurance to pursue this endeavor. I think creating a cohesive plan with a platform for collaboration will enable these groups to work together more seamlessly.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I think successful people should create business opportunities at a grass roots level. Most philanthropic endeavors result with your name in stone on the side of the building. I would like to see individuals seek out and develop talent, giving someone an opportunity that otherwise they would never have. In some instances, we’re not talking millions of dollars to help someone. Often, we’re just talking about mentioning their product or offering expert mentorship and advice. Successful people need to share their access. Everyone knows someone who knows someone that can make all the difference in the world.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Whitney Wolfe, founder of Bumble. She has ingenuity and understanding of her audience, and I would like to understand the early stages and steps she took to grew Bumble. A dating app is similar to an app that matches you with the right breed of dog in many ways, so getting insight into her success and mistakes she made along the way would be invaluable.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Elizabeth Menegon of Hands 2 Paws On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.