SheVentures

New York is the backdrop of Daniella Stromberg's tale, pushing her toward peace in a chaotic world. She saw beauty in the streets, admired the elegance of prostitutes and transvestites, seen through the eyes of a young girl through the window shades of her mother's Greenwich Village studio apartment. Stromberg sought out her own luxurious bubble in a city of grit.

From working with the one percent to opening her own holistic day spa in the heart of Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood, Stromberg's travels and her study of kinesiology inspired her vision for her spa business. The holistic luxury spa, D'Mai Urban Spa, is Stromberg and her patrons' escape from the hectic rush of the city.

Stromberg was recently honored by the Brooklyn Borough President as a leading businesswoman, notably one who gives back to diverse and under-served Brooklyn communities. Learn how she and her wife built the business in part by hand, why she used her own apartment as collateral on her small business loans, and so much more on this episode of SheVentures.

Imagine losing a 9-year-old daughter to cancer, facing a divorce, and dealing with mounting financial struggles. Jen Thoden's world was gray — and in need of a transformation.

A chance upload of an ebook for window dressing helped Thoden identify a gap in the market. Novices wanted instructions on how to create window dressings. She delved into her first successful ebook entrepreneurial venture from her garage while raising three children.

One day after her divorce, Thoden caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror. The death of her daughter, the end of her marriage, and the unyielding demands of her business and growing children took their toll on Thoden both physically and mentally.

Thoden knew she needed to pivot to survive, so she turned to color. Her business, YourColorStyle helps thousands of women (and men!) identify what colors work best for them, accounting for their personality and other personal details. Every month Thoden helps her customers regain their confidence through the way they dress and accessorize.

Knowing firsthand what teachers are up against, Shayna Pond is taking her knowledge of teaching and applying it to helping educators in the classroom. She started with a side tutoring business, which was an unintentional pilot for the two nationwide businesses she runs today, Model Teaching and Action Potential Learning.

In this episode of SheVentures, Pond delves into many issues entrepreneurs face when they scale in their niche. Today, her businesses help with professional development for teachers, administrators, school districts, and tutors. Pond tells SheVentures just how she made it all happen. If you are an educator or are learning how to scale your business, this episode is for you.

Kate Walling knew entrepreneurship was in her blood. At 24, she cooked up a digital recipe startup long before Nailed It became a family pastime. Then 2008 happened. Enough said.

Originally from the deep South, Walling moved to rainy Seattle to build a boutique consulting agency, Scrappy Face. The company thrived, but her personal life got complicated as she faced divorce. And did we mention the rain?

Walling had her "screw it" moment and left both her business and Seattle to experience Silicon Valley.

Her latest venture, Traction Hero, is an agency solving high-growth companies' marketing challenges. Listen to the twists and turns of Walling's life and how she came out on top in this episode of SheVentures.

Find out how Reesy Floyd-Thompson handled the stigma and financial challenges that came with her husband's prison sentence.

Today, she helps other prison spouses acclimate, provides tips on how to survive financial hardship, and reveals her top marketing tips for free.

Find out how she balanced her life while building a superstar marketing career on this episode of SheVentures.

Growing up in Nigeria's male-dominated society was tough for a feminist with a strong ambition to further herself and her education, but Dr. Lola Adeyemi never stopped. She came to the U.S. to study public health at John Hopkins University and sustainability and environmental management at Harvard University. Now she seeks to revolutionize the health-care industry in her home country with Magna Carta Health, a company she founded to focus on preventive care.

She found that changing people's behavior is challenging. While it makes sense to see a doctor before one gets sick, it's often left to an urgent, last-minute decision. This makes it more likely to have an outcome that is both adverse and expensive. Adeyemi works with individuals and companies to change this. Adeyemi also values community and mentorship. As a result, she founded Mentoring Her, a platform that links female professionals with other women they can learn from. Find out how she has navigated the Nigerian government to establish her company and help others with preventive health — as well as why female mentorship is essential — on this episode of SheVentures.

Imagine commanding 83 soldiers and $35 million of intelligence equipment, vehicles, and weapons dispersed over six locations in a war zone — that's the experience Valerie Lavin stores in her professional arsenal. A retired Army sergeant who spent 21 years in the military, Lavin is drawing on her background and skills for her new venture Luminary Global, and is eager to share her tips and tricks.

Luminary Global provides emergency medical service, fire, law enforcement, and military personnel as well as private citizens, with the equipment and supplies they need to save lives at home and abroad. Listen as Lavin describes the military and her business, and how the two overlap significantly, on this episode of SheVentures.

Deepti Sharma, named on the esteemed Forbes' 30 under 30 list, embodies "the pivot," whether through volunteer work or her own startup. Community is her passion.

She served on the board of directors for the Business Center for New Americans, a microlender that creates a pathway to self-sufficiency for immigrants, refugees, and women.

Today, as founder and CEO of corporate catering concierge service FoodtoEat in NYC, Sharma continues to empower immigrant women and minorities specifically, providing a platform as food service providers. The marketing mind behind #IMadeYourFood puts a human face behind any catering event she hosts.

Sharma is a mother of two boys and also one of 17 mentors at WE NYC (Women Entrepreneurs NYC), an initiative dedicated to helping women start and grow their businesses. Find out how Sharma does all this, and so much more, on this episode of SheVentures.

Imagine being diagnosed with a crippling digestive disorder in your early 20s, and as a result, identifying a gap in the market: healthy food made and delivered to busy professionals years before the food-delivery craze caught on. Bonnie Coberly created a recipe for success in the D.C. area out of her desire to help herself and others.

Fast forward three years, and Coberly was stunned to discover that her co-founder embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars, leaving her in debt and in an even worse mental state. She met the challenge, repaid the debt, and eventually sold the business, allowing her to start anew as a coach for entrepreneurs who struggle with burnout, self-care, exhaustion, and a myriad of other issues.

On this episode of SheVentures, listen as Coberly discusses her story, her pivot, and the stark reality of depression in entrepreneurship with actionable tips on how to start healing.

A med-school dropout turned entrepreneur, author, angel investor, and venture capitalist, Renata George is doing her damnedest to pave the way for women in the VC industry. Born in Poland, George spent most of her life in Russia and studied in the U.K. She launched a media business in the former USSR and had a successful exit, making it possible for her to become an angel investor and venture capitalist herself.

On a "short trip" to the U.S. in 2012, George woke to a Twitter message informing her she had been named on Forbes' list of female angel investors to watch. She's been here ever since.

On this episode of SheVentures, George breaks down the stats in her uber data-driven approach and reveals the mistakes female entrepreneurs are making when raising capital.