Female Founders: Suhay Gonzalez Of Seis Cosmetics On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
You cannot be shy; you must be prepared to always represent your company. Sometimes, the audience is more interested in the founder’s story. Embrace it, be confident and enjoy the journey.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Suhay Gonzalez.
Suhay Gonzalez had a passion for numbers at an early age. She pursued an education in Accounting, Finance and Business Law. She has led a team of financial individuals for years. However, as an independent Latina, she always had a passion for makeup. Suhay’s mother grew up believing makeup enhances natural beauty; wearing makeup was common in the family. When Suhay’s mother loss her battle to a brain tumor, Suhay decided to honor her mother by creating beauty out of sadness and launching Seis Cosmetics.
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?
Growing up in the Bronx, I would always hear you can do anything you want, but I recall my grandmother advising me to pursue something I loved but to make sure it was something I was good at. I decided to pursue my degree in accounting because I loved mathematics and everyone needs an accountant at one point or another. I eventually ventured into auditing, finance, and business law. I remember accidentally enrolling into intellectual properties as an elective and thinking this is interesting. So, when the idea of creating my business came to me, I was confident I had the necessary foundation. My mission was to create something beautiful; something my mother would be proud of. I already had the support from my older sister and close friends, but it wasn’t until a dear friend literally tattooed my company’s name, Seis, that I felt unstoppable. I worked diligently on product development, packaging, website, legality, and all the other elements of becoming an entrepreneur. For about a year, I would drive listening to YouTube and podcasts to virtually learn as much as I could. My mission was and still is to bring awareness toward brain health while contributing towards brain tumor research. While some asked why do this when I have a solid career as a CFO, I strongly believe that we all should pursue our purpose in life. Making women feel gorgeous, confident, and empowered while donating a portion of all profit toward finding a cure is important to me, it’s how I honor my mother.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
The most interesting story since leading Seis Cosmetics has been the amount of support I’ve received, but most importantly, the amount of people that have shared their story and experience with brain tumors. I’m honestly surprised that brain scans are not a requirement similar to precautions taken with breast, prostate and colon cancer.
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?
(Smiling) I recall renting a studio in New York, hiring a photographer, getting the models and makeup artist scheduled, ordering breakfast … and the photoshoot is in session. My adrenaline is going, and I completely forgot to write down what shades each model was wearing. It was my first time coordinating everything and although everything worked out amazing, I learned my lesson to write the shades and products used. The group of people I worked with were amazing, so I have no regrets just lessons learned.
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?
You are correct, and I’ve been blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful people. My sister, Daelloy, my friends, Tlynn, Gliny, Heidi, Raquel, Ovidio, Tomeka have been beyond helpful. Even my former supervisor, Albert, was so supportive, I recall going to him and sharing the news when I obtained my cruelty free certification. He would joke about not forgetting him when I make it big, and all I could do was laugh because I could never. Another person I am grateful for is Brian from Juarbe Photos. We’ve been friends for about a decade, and when he learned about Seis Cosmetics, he did several photo shoots for a fraction of the cost. He also lost his sister to brain tumor. The words THANK YOU do not come close to capturing my sentiments for these people.
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?
I am happy about the progress; the numbers are significant and trending in the right direction. There are a lot of talented women with ideas, drive and capability to create amazing things but there aren’t a lot of opportunities. In my opinion and experience, we need more education on what resources are available. I’m sure there are women that come up with ideas but don’t know what the next necessary steps are, especially if business is not your area of expertise. Mentorships on creating business plans, funding, marketing, supply chain management, customer services, advertising but most importantly networking. There’s so much under the entrepreneur umbrella and it can become overwhelming, especially if you’re raising a family too. With the right resources, a woman-founded company can thrive and be successful to ensure the company is not only woman-founded but continues to be woman-led years to come.
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?
We all can help overcome some of these obstacles and challenges by supporting women-founded companies and woman-owned small businesses. I think the government and some institutions can develop free certifications or degrees in certain areas to assist women founded companies. Internships can be tremendous help to a new brand in numerous ways. Profitable companies can also mentor new women founders and provide networking opportunities. Women need more opportunities and the funding to truly showcase our abilities.
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?
Being a woman is a phenomenal thing. We are talented individuals. Women can always identify and come up with great ideas to fix a multitude of problems. Women are known for shopping and have great intuition of what may work but also of what women want. I believe with the right resources and opportunities, women are building empires. We bring life into this world. We can most certainly build and run companies. The future is women!
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
The myth that women are emotional creatures and cannot make sound decisions, therefore, do not make good founders is far from accurate. Women’s ability to understand emotions and behavioral patterns is beneficial as a founder.
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?
To be a successful founder, you have to have a good idea, vision, grit, dedication, communication, leadership and analytical skills, and the ability to adjust the demands. As a founder you must be well rounded and focused on the task at hand to ensure proper execution while being able to monitor the trends.
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.)
1. Be prepared to spend a substantial number of long hours building your brand. Being an entrepreneur requires dedication, discipline, hard work and self-motivation.
2. Invest in a good quality camera and equipment. Content is everything, especially with the demand of social media.
3. Be clear on your mission and do not get discouraged when things don’t go as planned. Adjust and remain focused on your goal. For example, I wanted to launch for National Lipstick Day, and I had to push back the date because my website wasn’t ready; but it ended up working out because every makeup company had lipsticks on sale.
4. You don’t need a business degree, but you need to have a good understanding, plan and system in place to track expenditures and understand contractual agreements.
5. You cannot be shy; you must be prepared to always represent your company. Sometimes, the audience is more interested in the founder’s story. Embrace it, be confident and enjoy the journey.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I am making the world a better place because I am bringing awareness toward brain cancer. Launching a beauty brand that offers vegan, gluten free, paraben free and products made with organic ingredients. Offering products for people of all ages and ethnicity to ensure inclusivity. We need more women of diverse background leading and inspiring our future leaders.
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 we need more companies willing to work with businesses in the startup stage. Most advertising and marketing agencies require long term contracts. There are definitely some opportunities there especially as new business are growing.
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.
I would love to meet Sara Blakely because she founded her company and did it her way. She has achieved success by breaking barriers and making huge impact to the industry. I would also appreciate an opportunity to meet Lori Greiner, I’ve been watching her on shark tank for years and admire her journey and respect her expertise. It’s very motivating to see women doing amazing things and leading companies. It would be ideal to meet and hear their challenges and recommendations as women in business.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Suhay Gonzalez Of Seis Cosmetics 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.