Inc. magazine - Inc.Oct 2018

“People send us pictures of the crazy blankets and sweaters they’re knitting,” sighs Faustine Badrichani. This isn’t some weird Tinder story, we swear: Badrichani’s three-year-old startup, Wooln, contracts with grandmas—and only grandmas—to hand-knit the company’s hats, blankets, and snoods.

Wooln currently works with nine nanas. Its fagship beanies retail for

$145. Grandmas get paid

30 percent of the wholesale price (which is generally half of what consumers pay). Besides being available online, Wooln wares are for sale in fve retail shops; Badrichani and co-founder Margaux Rousseau expect that number will double this winter.

The two have a simple test for grandmothers who deluge them with photos of knitwear: “We give them one item to make,” says Badrichani.

“You know if it’s going to work.” Sometimes, it works better than she’d imagine. Annie Ganter (above), grandma of fve who’s “older than 60 but younger than 90,” knits for Wooln and also dabbles in biz dev: She struck a deal with Cutchogue, New York, shop Phoebe & Belle to carry Wooln’s wares. That’s good for business, but perhaps that’s secondary to something even bigger, Ganter suggests: making “a grandmother feel important and happy.”

—JEMIMA MCEVOY

The Wing in New York City—whose founder made our Female Founders 100
list (see page 60)—the Coven in Minneapolis: Women-only co-working
spaces are spreading. They’re intended to give opportunities to network
and build businesses, without fear of gender-based discrimination,
distraction, or harassment. We hashed out the issues such spaces raise with
two founders who know them well. —ZOË HENRY

●

That’s true.

But often, women’s spaces
don’t include others: trans-
masculine and gender
nonbinary founders, for
example.

●

Many entrepreneurs
would fnd $35 per
month inaccessible too.

Women-only groups
could support lower-
income populations—one
idea is to have wealthier
members sponsor other
groups.

●

Networks matter. I know
many people who are
making drastically different
numbers because they
have access to mentorship
from peers.

●

As a transmasculine
entrepreneur, I know that
the Wing and Heymama
aren’t spaces I would
venture into.

ADVANTAGE j MASE. The drawbacks to such women-only spaces extend to the legal realm. The
New York City Commission on Human Rights has launched an investigation into the Wing over
whether it violates a local law prohibiting gender-based discrimination against potential customers. F R O
ML
E
F
T:
PATRI
CK
L
EG
E
R(
2);
E
RIK
M
ELVIN
●

Peace of mind.

You don’t have to think
about discrimination, so
you can focus on your
company.

●

Some of these clubs
are unreasonable for
most people. We have
made the choice to charge
only $35 per month.

Our funds are tight, but it’s worth it.

●

Not necessarily.

But through groups
like Heymama, we’re
hoping to give more
women access to funding
and mentorship so we can
get to that point.

●

It’s hard to say. But if they
let it slide and let one man
in, then it could be fve
people, and all of a sudden
it changes the nature of
what they promised.

What are
the benefts
of these
women-only
spaces?
Do women-
only spaces help
businesses’
bottom lines?
Many of these
spaces charge
hundreds of
dollars per
month. Is that
exclusionary?
Is an
all-female
workplace like
the Wing
discriminatory?
DISCUSS
What All-Female Spaces
Mean for Founders
KNIT ONE,
PURL TWO,
BIZ DEV
THREE
“I race cars, extreme ski, skydive . . . If it generates adrenaline,
all the stress goes away.” —A (very intense) female founder, responding to
“How do you manage stress and anxiety?” on Inc.and FastCompany ’s Women’s survey.
J MASE III j