My startup Twenty One Toys turned 5 years old this summer, and I feel weird about it. I knew when we turned 5 that it was a big deal. Statistics show that 50% of all new businesses fail within the first 5 years. Just ‘not dying’ is a HUGE achievement…

These are photographs of me at various events that I’ve spoken at. None of these outfits are mine. The pants are my sister’s, the shirts my roommates’, and the dresses are my old friend and roommate’s, Akua’s. She’s famous now, so it’s fine. There are a lot of secrets when…

Originally published on Yonge Street Media “Just two weeks ago, Ilana Ben-Ari, founder and CEO of Twenty One Toys spent the weekend with four other female CEOs, in the woods, negotiating for her portion of half a million dollars. Ben-Ari emerged as one of the five winners of the SheEO…

Six months ago I was one of five winners of the SheEO Radical Generosity Fund. You can read “What fighting in the woods for $500,000 taught me about supporting female entrepreneurship” to get the whole story, but the shorter version is that 500 women took a gamble on me and…