Next up in our women in tech blog series is Jess Mah, an influential founder in fintech and venture building. Her story is one that is inspiring to many young women in tech and young entrepreneurs, especially considering Jess Mah is only 34 years old and a founder of several companies.
Women have not had great representation in the fintech sector as a whole, only making up about 30% of positions, and are also experiencing challenges with funding fintech startups. This is a big reason why we chose to highlight Jess Mah – to empower her story as well as encourage others to pursue their goals in fintech and the entire tech industry.
Jess Mah’s background
Jess Mah grew up wanting to become an entrepreneur just as her parents were, and in fact never desired any other type of career. She always wanted to run her own business, and did not let doubts get in the way of pursuing that dream. It was middle school when Mah began her first six-figure business and became experienced in programming.
In 2015, she decided to drop out of high school to go to Simon’s Rock Early College, then studied computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. Later, she would become the youngest woman to go through Y Combinator to successfully begin her fintech company inDinero.
Building her first startup: inDinero
InDinero is a fintech company that helps businesses manage their accounting and taxes. At first, Jess Mah experienced many challenges that came with beginning a business, and learned from a book she read called The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank. It taught her the importance of being prepared to put a lot of work into pivoting an idea from where it started.
In 2010, Mah launched inDinero with co-founder Andy Su, and despite obstacles at the start, she has grown it from zero to multi-million dollar revenues. The company now has over 100 full-time employees and Mah has been featured in the Forbes and Inc 30 Under 30 Lists due to this success.
Shifting to venture building with Mahway
Entrepreneurship can take a lot of effort and time, and Jess Mah experienced this with her startups. She decided to figure out a better way to be an entrepreneur without putting in 16 hours a day, leaving little room for life outside of her career. After shifting to a better work-life balance, Mah hoped to figure out how to help other entrepreneurs build better lifestyles for themselves, which led to the founding of Mahway.
Through learning about what resources help entrepreneurs become successful as well as more information about funding companies, she launched Mahway, a venture builder that creates innovative businesses. Mah leads the business with two other female entrepreneurs as they work to build businesses and find CEOs to help them grow. Mahway builds several companies each year, ensuring they have the proper resources to stay on their feet before shifting to new ideas.
Impact & recognition
Through Mahway, Jess Mah has been able to create several businesses including a biotech company called Astonishing Labs, which focuses on revolutionizing human health with groundbreaking science from Dr. Mike Levin’s lab at Tufts University. Her mission is to build these businesses to help both the entrepreneurs that will help run them as well as the people that these businesses cater to. Her work has also built a community of entrepreneurs and led her to build a female founders group made up of over 300 women.
Jess Mah is firm in rejecting the notion that you are not working hard enough if you are not facing difficult challenges, and this ideal has helped shape her growing venture building business. It is one that she strives to introduce to other entrepreneurs to help them build a fulfilling career. Mah has been featured on the cover of Inc. Magazine as well as the Fast Magazine Most Creative Business Leaders lists. She was also the youngest woman to join Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) and the youngest person to ever graduate from the Harvard Business School Presidents’ Program.
Sources:
Comments