Oct 12, 2018Turns Out Designing a Toy That Teaches Failure is Really HardMy 3 year journey designing the world’s first Failure Toy — Mirvish Village — Markham House photo via Anna Vanderbrand Designing Failure This is a photograph from September 2015, of me and my design intern at the time, Jenny. Jenny’s great, incredibly talented, and during her 4 month internship with my company, Twenty One Toys, I had her work with me on our…Startup9 min readStartup9 min read
Jan 2, 2018My startup turned 5, and I feel weird.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…Female Entrepreneurs4 min readFemale Entrepreneurs4 min read
Dec 13, 2016These aren’t my pants — and other ways I’m bootstrapping my way to the top.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…Startup9 min readStartup9 min read
Nov 22, 2016What fighting in the woods for $500,000 taught me about supporting female entrepreneurship.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…Entrepreneurship7 min readEntrepreneurship7 min read
Nov 22, 2016Six months ago 500 women radically changed my business, and put one more crack in the glass ceilingSix 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…Entrepreneurship7 min readEntrepreneurship7 min read
