Female Founders: Sabrina Noorani of
ClearForMe On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
No one has it all figured out. I recently talked to a mentor of mine who just hit Unicorn status. I figured they would feel like they’re on top of the world but even being at different places, we connected on the fact that we don’t have it all figured out but that doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a given for everyone, so let go of the idea that you need to know it all.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sabrina Noorani.
A former NYSE trader, Sabrina founded ClearForMe, a Ingredient Cloud-Based SaaS solution, after developing a debilitating skin allergy. Feeling frustrated that she couldn’t understand the ingredient labels, she knew there must be others out there that feel the same. With this powerful tool, she hopes to encourage clear beauty education and change how products with ingredient labels are presented to consumers today.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like 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 was born and raised in Tanzania, moved to Miami with my family when I was 8 years old and then left the nest when I was 17 to build my life in NYC. After business school at NYU, I became an options floor trader on the NYSE and later moved to build a new team at Citadel, a hedge fund. During my time there, my skin around my lips started to tighten, puff up, and peel so much, I began to get staph infections every other week. From this acute skin problem I launched a quest to understand what ingredients were causing these reactions. I quickly learned how overwhelming it is to navigate products’ ingredient lists. It was far too complex and confusing for me as a data analyst, much less for the average consumer. ClearForMe is my answer to clearing up ingredient confusion for the beauty industry and thirst for confident, personalized product choices.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
There are so many but this one, I’m choosing to share because it’s also the most meaningful. I was sensing that I might just win my first deal but I hadn’t built the product yet. I called my advisor in a bit of a panic. He told me to reach out to an intern he had worked with who was super smart and back at business school, his name was Ali. Ali was not only smart, but incredibly kind. He could sense that I was in over my head and he said, I will help you get this contract over the finish line. For 6 weeks, we went from being complete strangers to working side by side every day. After my final pitch, I learned I closed the deal and before even saying anything, Ali told me he would work with me to get it to launch. This is all while he was in his last year at business school, studying for finals, and going on job interviews. After we launched, ahead of our delivery date, we both took a breath and recognized what was happening between us is working and the rest is history.
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?
I have this saying I learned — when you make mistakes, your brain grows. So, needless to say, I’m cool with Team Mistakes. It happens, and as long as you are growing and not repeating them, then you’re learning. When I was first starting I was actively talking to two potential partners at the same time. I built a personalized business case for each and I accidentally swapped them when I emailed them to the two potential partners. I was embarrassed and felt like it was the end of the world but I owned up to it immediately, admitted to my mistake, and corrected it with the right document. Both partners shrugged it off, and moved on. The lesson here is to take immediate accountability when things go wrong. It’s always appreciated and respected even if it means you lose the business.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
The night before a big RFPmy team and I were working on was due, I happened to be in LA for a workshop I was attending and was staying with my best friend. A request for proposal is basically a pitch that I was submitting to win business. There were hundreds of questions to answer and it was my first time doing it. That night, another mutual friend happened to be in town for a meeting and was also staying with us. I kind of hijacked the whole night and instead of everyone catching up, everyone at the home rolled up their sleeves and got into the trenches with me to help. It was an all-night thing, and friends who could have easily gone to bed stayed up with me to support as I needed. It ended up being one of the most memorable sales processes I’ve ever been a part of and winning that business felt so sweet because so much love and support went into that. That contract kicked ClearForMe into high gear and we haven’t looked back since. I will always appreciate my ride or die friends and how they stood up with me even though they each had a million other important things to take care of.
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?
The bias investors hold. A study by DocSend last year showed VC funds spend 18% more time on all male founder teams than female founder teams, which resulted in men raising 70% more than females in 2020. This was up from 50% in 2019. The playing field is rigged before one can even start. You can’t win a game if you can’t get on the field.
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?
As individuals it’s important we identify the bias and keep it top of mind. Hoping something is not there, won’t make it go away. Admitting means we can address the problem.
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?
An old axiom comes to mind, “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.” But teach a woman to fish, and everyone eats for a lifetime. Women are bad a**, plain and simple.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
That success happens overnight, that it will be only hard until you get your first customer or first check. It’s all a journey, and once you solve one problem, another one pops up, but that’s the beauty of it. That’s when you expand, grow, and have real opportunities for scale. Embrace the bumpiness.
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?
Not everyone wants to be a founder and that’s ok. The specific trait that increases likelihood is willingness to fail. The better you fail, learn and iterate than build for perfection, which doesn’t exist.
Ok super. 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.)
No one has it all figured out. I recently talked to a mentor of mine who just hit Unicorn status. I figured they would feel like they’re on top of the world but even being at different places, we connected on the fact that we don’t have it all figured out but that doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a given for everyone, so let go of the idea that you need to know it all.
Share your problems (don’t hide them). Without fail, everytime I share what my roadblocks and current problems are, even if it’s to a stranger, something shifts and answers come. Maybe not in a linear way, but the answers I didn’t even think I was looking for fall into my lap when I share.
Build habits to nurture your confidence. I end my day listing 3 positive things I did that day, why they are positive, their impact and next steps. It helps me close my day with a positive focus which builds my confidence.
Be curious. Instead of saying no, ‘I don’t like that’ or writing someone off, lead with curiosity, learn, and ask questions. It’s easy to say no, but then you miss out on sparking creativity and nurturing collaboration.
Lift others up. Invest in your teams’ development and success. It’s the most gratifying part of being a leader. Filling up their buckets, fills yours up the same plus more.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I leverage my success in many different ways. One of the ways that meant the most to me last year was for the BIPOC community, one that I belong to. The BIPOC community makes up 80% of the population yet, resources don’t nearly match that representation. We launched a campaign last year, offering BIPOC founders 80% off of our services so they, too, can offer unique experiences rooted in education to their customers. Personally, I also believe in paying it forward. When I meet other founders, mentees, and students, I’m an open book and share resources, knowledge, and my network contacts, when it’s helpful.
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.
If I could inspire a movement it would be to create an environment where all kids learn that they are each heroes on their own journey. If we can model to each child that they are capable, emotional, and creative beings who benefit from mistakes, failure, and disappointment, the sky’s the limit. I want kids to feel safe expressing and feeling their emotions so they can experience the world self aware and self accepting. Imagine a generation taught this during their development years as opposed to in their 30s or 40s?
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.
Serena Williams. She was labeled by others as not the chosen one or the most skilled, and shattered that by a millionfold. The barriers she breaks not only in tennis but as an outspoken representative of women, moms, entrepreneurs — I want to learn more about her story and the levers she uses to show up strong, authentic, and empathetic.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this
Female Founders: Sabrina Noorani of
ClearForMe On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.