Companies to Watch: Female Founders Driving Innovation in NYC's Tech Ecosystem

While female founders undoubtedly still face challenges, the tech ecosystem has made some recent progress:

Female founders secured $38.8 billion in funding in 2024, a 27% rise from the year before, but across 13.1% fewer deals.

This marks one of the highest annual funding totals ever for female-led startups.

More female-founded companies achieved unicorn status in 2024 than in the year before — with 13 new female-founded unicorns.

The median time for a female-founded company to reach unicorn status fell to 4.2 years (from 6.8 years in 2023).

New York had 465 deals for female-founded companies in 2024, second only to the Bay Area, and since 2008, New York female-founded companies have raised $46.4 billion across 6,423 deals.

In honor of Women’s History Month, we spoke with seven female founders from five startups who are innovating to improve construction payroll systems, maternity care, family management, consumer sales, and targeted marketing solutions.

For this edition of our Companies to Watch series, meet:

Anna Berger & Cara Kessler (founders of Trayd)
Mei-Lin Ng (founder of Hearth)
Adrianne Nickerson & Elaine Purcell (founders of Oula)
Kat Garcia (founder of Ground)
Sabeen Khan (founder of Khoobi).

Trayd

“There is no better place to be building and selling construction software — this is the capital of the built world and construction is happening on every corner.”

What does your company do? What problem is it working to solve?
Trayd is a construction payroll and compliance software designed for specialty contractors. This all-in-one back office platform is purpose-built for the trades, eliminating manual workflows and creating more efficiencies from the office to the field.

A question we like to ask every founder – why New York?
There is no better place to be building and selling construction software — this is the capital of the built world and construction is happening on every corner. Not to mention, the New York work culture and constant momentum also helps fuel the startup grind.

Anna, this is the second company you’ve founded. What learnings did you take with you from your first founding experience?
The importance of having a technical CTO on the founding team. To build such a complicated platform, it was essential to have an engineering mind crafting the product alongside me. From day one, we laid the foundation for what we know Trayd will become — the dominating player in construction payroll.

What surprised you most about getting Trayd off the ground?
I had to do a lot of convincing! From early investors to early team members, the idea of construction payroll and why such a nuanced platform should exist, was not easily understood. Trayd solves very specific pain points for a very specific audience and I had to convey that to people who had never touched construction payroll in their lives. At the same time, it was incredibly easy to sell to Trayd customers right away, which gave me the conviction that this platform needed to exist.

You mention that you’re “passionate about bringing tech innovation to an old school industry.” How has that process — getting the construction industry to use tech solutions — gone so far?
Adoption of Trayd has been better than expected and that’s because trade contractors are ready for the change. Before today, they’ve been forced to use software that’s not built for them and they have felt the pain in their day-to-day operations and their bottom line. Trayd works in tandem with their existing workflows and as a result, is adopted into their back office operations seamlessly.

How has the experience been founding a company with a lifelong friend?
There is nothing better! Cara and I have no overlapping skills so we really stay in our own lanes. In that kind of set up, you have to deeply trust that your partner is blocking and tackling everything accordingly. When you know someone for 20+ years, that trust is built-in.

As founders, what are your self-care routines to recharge while still being heads down building a company?
Consistency in routine is key! Regular workouts, eating clean foods, hitting a sauna/cold plunge as much as possible. Sleep also can’t be overlooked. Despite the long working hours, it’s important to give your body time to unwind and recharge.

Time for some New York-themed rapid fire questions – where’s your favorite place to grab a slice of pizza in New York?
We order pizza from L'industrie at least once a month - it’s a team favorite.

Where’s your favorite coffee shop in New York?
Ground Support in SoHo is our go-to coffee shop. It’s really close to our office and in addition to great coffee, they have amazing sandwiches and salads. It’s an easy option for people who want to get quality food, quickly.

Do you have a favorite spot to escape the noise of the city?
Cara loves a good bike ride to escape the chaos and I try to get to Central Park as much as possible. A morning or afternoon walk through the park is a time well spent.

What’s one piece of advice – that you’ve shared or was shared with you – on building a startup in New York City?
If you are going to live in New York City, use it to your advantage. Construction specifically is a very small community and everyone talks. It’s crucial to build a network! Go to those networking events and self-promote as much as you can — especially in New York, you never know who you’ll meet. It could be your next customer.

Hearth

“New York is all about momentum. If you’re building here, lean into the pace of the city — network aggressively, iterate quickly, and take advantage of the incredible talent and energy around you.”

What does your company do? What problem is it working to solve?
Hearth is a tech company modernizing family management. Hearth Display is a centralized touchscreen that makes family organization an easier, shared responsibility for everyone in your home. With our personalized planning and management tools it makes it simple for kids to build routines and develop independence while also helping equalize the mental load.

We’re working to make the burden of the mental load (which so often falls upon women) visible by democratizing the labor that goes into running a household. We’re committed to becoming your family’s source of truth and bringing to life the first-ever family operating system for all stages of family life.

A question we like to ask every founder – why New York?
New York is home to so many busy, dynamic families — parents juggling careers, kids, and city life. The fast pace and varying perspectives here have been invaluable in shaping both our company and our product.

What inspired you to create a digital solution for family organization, and how does it address the mental load traditionally borne by primary caregivers?
As moms, we experienced firsthand how the weight of household management often falls on the primary caregiver. We wanted to change that by creating a system that not only lightens the mental load but also makes it easier for the whole family to participate. We knew it had to be more effective than the whiteboards we grew up with — something that was highly visible and easy for everyone to use.

With features like calendar syncing and shared to-dos, Hearth Display ensures that everyone can see what’s coming up and what needs to get done — so the responsibility is shared, not just managed by one person. By making family organization more collaborative, we’re helping to create more balance, less stress, and a home that runs more smoothly for everyone.

Hearth integrates features like shared calendars and routine builders. How did you determine which functionalities were essential for modern families?

Hearth started in 2020, when families were knee-deep in navigating the uncertainty of the pandemic and when family organization became more overwhelming than ever — virtual school, family pods etc. We spent most of 2020 and 2021 deep in R&D, interviewing over 3,000 families to understand their existing management systems, their biggest pain points, and what they truly needed.

From those conversations, it became clear that modern families required a centralized, highly visible, and easy-to-use solution — something better than the outdated whiteboards and fragmented apps they were relying on. Armed with this insight, we secured our first institutional funding in early 2022 and immediately began product development. Since then, we’ve been heads down building a solution that families love, and it’s resonated!

What was the inspiration behind the name “Hearth”?
The name is inspired by the idea of home as a central gathering place—a space where families come together, communicate, and support one another. Traditionally, the hearth was the heart of the home, where people cooked, warmed up, and connected.

We wanted our product to embody that same ethos and be a central hub for family life, where organization isn’t just about logistics but about creating balance but is about reducing stress, and making daily life smoother.

Hearth Display combines hardware and software. What challenges did you encounter in developing this integrated system?
We knew that a fully integrated hardware-software experience was critical to holistically serving the family's needs, but development certainly wasn’t without its unique set of challenges. The biggest hurdle was bridging the two — ensuring seamless connectivity, real-time updates, and a frictionless user experience. It required deep collaboration between engineers, designers, and supply chain partners to bring everything together in an effortless way for the user.

As a founder, what are your self-care routines to recharge while still being heads down building a company?
Building a company is an all-consuming process, so I’ve had to be intentional about self-care. One of my non-negotiables is carving out time for an outdoor walk with my dog. While most of my days are spent in meetings, I also try to time block to create space for strategic thinking. Lastly, spending time with family and friends, even in small ways, keeps me grounded and reminds me why I started this journey in the first place.

Time for some New York-themed rapid fire questions – where’s your favorite place to grab a slice of pizza in New York?
Speedy Romeo’s is one of my favorites, specifically because of the pickled chilis they bring you at the table!

Where’s your favorite coffee shop in New York?
Burrow in Dumbo is right by our office. It’s a small business that sells the best pastries!

Do you have a favorite spot to escape the noise of the city?
I love Prospect Park! It’s such a fun spot to meet up with friends or just take a walk on a sunny day.

What’s one piece of advice – that you’ve shared or was shared with you – on building a startup in New York City?
New York is all about momentum. If you’re building here, lean into the pace of the city — network aggressively, iterate quickly, and take advantage of the incredible talent and energy around you. Also, never underestimate the power of in-person connections; some of the best opportunities happen through serendipitous conversations.

Oula

“New York City is one of the greatest places to build your network — especially among female founders. As a startup founder you naturally have a ton of blind spots — it’s critical to cultivate and leverage this network for advice and feedback as you iterate and grow your business.”

What does your company do? What problem is it working to solve?
Oula delivers better maternity care, offering comprehensive support before, during, and after pregnancy. Our midwives and OBGYNs listen, respect your preferences, and make decisions with you - leading to better outcomes for both you and your baby. We now offer gynecological care as well, extending our services across a wider span of reproductive years.

A question we like to ask every founder – why New York?
New York was the obvious place to start — not only due to size and scale with 125,000 births / year, but also because we found a number of indicators that maternity care could be greatly improved. When we started there was a dearth of midwifery/hospital birth options; c-section rates were higher than national averages, and when we interviewed new parents there was a common thread of feeling like cogs in a wheel. In spite of all the challenges and costs associated with starting a company in New York, the opportunity and potential impact felt too large to ignore.

How does Oula maintain its personalized care approach while scaling its operations to serve a larger community?
Oula has grown to be the largest employer of midwives in New York City, and one of the largest collaborative care practices (i.e., OBGYN/Midwives) in the country. To deliver the best and highest quality patient experience at scale, it really comes down to two simple principles: goals and roles.

We’ve found that we need to consistently articulate and return to our goals — our values and mission. We focus team messages and trainings on principles over rules — for example, the patient is always at the center of decision making. Secondly, we need to make sure every Oula employee knows their role in meeting this mission and feel empowered in their daily work to do so.

When/how did you become passionate about improving the maternity care industry?
When we started this company we were like many women in their 30s — starting to plan for kids and trying to figure out how to balance that with the rest of our busy lives. We expected pregnancy to be this exciting and hopeful time, and yet we kept hearing women describe how isolating it felt and how unprepared they were for childbirth and postpartum.

After having spent time rebuilding the care experience in oncology and end of life care, it seemed obvious to us that there had to be a better way to bring life into this world. After months of research and conversations, we realized the answer required rebuilding maternity care from the ground up. Women needed a collaborative, multi-faceted care team that actually listened to what was important to them and they needed support that focused on their wellbeing as much as their babies. We are two of the early “guinea pigs’ of this model — we’re both proud moms of four Oula babies.

What was the inspiration behind the name “Oula”?
Our name Oula pays homage to the role of a Doula — a support people to pregnant and laboring people. The concept of having additional companions during birth, such as doulas, has existed since prehistoric times, as has relying on “a village”. We envisioned Oula to be that village — a team of caregivers helping shepherd women and others across the pregnancy and postpartum journey.

Oula bridges the gap between traditional OBGYN care and midwifery. What challenges did you face in integrating these two models, and how did you overcome them?
In spite of the data associating midwifery and elevated outcomes, only 12% of births in the United States are covered by midwives. This is due to both economic challenges and societal gaps in understanding about the benefits of midwifery care. In New York City, for example, only a handful of hospitals employed or allowed midwives to deliver babies when we started Oula.

To bridge the gap, it ultimately comes down to the people you hire and those who you partner with - for example, Mount Sinai, where we deliver, has been supportive of our model of care since our inception. We have a fantastic team of OBGYNs and midwives who understand the super powers one another brings to care delivery.

As a founder, what are your self-care routines to recharge while still being heads down building a company?
As two moms of young children, self-care often takes a back seat, but we’re both trying to incorporate consistent exercise, namely running, into our schedules — even if it’s simply racing our 3 year olds on scooters and bikes.

Time for some New York-themed rapid fire questions – where’s your favorite place to grab a slice of pizza in New York?
Dellarocca’s in Brooklyn Heights — its caddy corner to the first Oula clinic so a great place for patients and our staff.

Where’s your favorite coffee shop in New York?
Butler in Dumbo!

Do you have a favorite spot to escape the noise of the city?
Bathhouse in Flatiron - it’s a great place to decompress with friends or alone and only a subway stop away.

What’s one piece of advice – that you’ve shared or was shared with you – on building a startup in New York City?
New York City is one of the greatest places to build your network — especially among female founders. As a startup founder you naturally have a ton of blind spots — it’s critical to cultivate and leverage this network for advice and feedback as you iterate and grow your business.

Ground

“New York is the heartbeat of business. The energy, diversity, and density of businesses makes it the perfect place to build an AI company that powers consumer businesses.”

What does your company do? What problem is it working to solve?
Ground AI is an AI-powered revenue engine that uncovers untapped opportunities, helping consumer companies drive incremental sales effortlessly.

A question we like to ask every founder – why New York?
New York is the heartbeat of business. The energy, diversity, and density of businesses makes it the perfect place to build an AI company that powers consumer businesses. Plus, I love the city’s relentless pace — it keeps me sharp and reminds me that anything is possible.

How does Ground use AI to generate and grow revenue for businesses?
Ground’s AI seamlessly connects to business systems, learning customer behaviors in real-time to predict first-time purchases, subscriptions, and repeat sales. By analyzing customer, product, and browsing data, it optimizes every touchpoint — personalizing product recommendations, customizing site experiences, and refining messaging to drive 20% more incremental top line sales.

When/how did you become passionate about the “AI revenue driving technology” sector?
I’ve always been fascinated by how technology can influence human decision-making. Seeing how AI could bridge the gap between intent and conversion in business was very much about combining creativity and logic.

What was the inspiration behind the name “Ground”?
Our mission is to help businesses unlock their full potential — a pursuit that demands bold moves and relentless innovation. True growth isn’t linear; it’s a journey of breakthroughs and setbacks. Ground is more than a name — it’s a reminder to stay grounded in what matters while reaching for what’s possible.

Aside from Ground’s AI tools, what are some other AI tools that you can’t live without?
ChatGPT is more than brainstorming — I don’t know what I would do without it, ha! I use it to help me get through pretty much any task. Midjourney for creative inspiration, and Perplexity AI for deep research. These tools help me move fast and stay ahead.

As a founder, what are your self-care routines to recharge while still being heads down building a company?
Night-time workouts, non-negotiable Sunday resets, and long walks without my phone. I love going to Church and then going to Ole & Steen Cafe for a little lunch. Also, I keep my circle tight — spending time with people who energize me keeps me grounded.

Time for some New York-themed rapid fire questions – where’s your favorite place to grab a slice of pizza in New York?
Fini Pizza in Williamsburg.

Where’s your favorite coffee shop in New York?
Hungry Ghost in Williamsburg or Black Fox by Wall Street!

Do you have a favorite spot to escape the noise of the city?
There’s a beautiful spot by Battery Park overlooking the water, illuminated by lanterns. From there, you can watch boats gently docking at the port, creating a serene and picturesque view.

What’s one piece of advice – that you’ve shared or was shared with you – on building a startup in New York City?
Focus is everything. In NYC’s fast-paced, high-energy environment, there’s endless noise and distraction. Always ask yourself: What’s the ROI on this? What’s working, what’s not, and why? Cut through the clutter, double down on impact, and put the blinders on.

Khoobi

GO TO WEBSITE

Sabeen Khan

“There are no shortcuts in the white-glove, manual stage of building a business. You have to convince people, one at a time, that your product could change their life.”

What does your company do? What problem is it working to solve?
Khoobi is a platform that helps create loyal communities through targeted marketing and retention. Primarily, we aim to help salons better market toward and retain customers.

A question we like to ask every founder – why New York?
I grew up in Westchester, NY and was always obsessed with being in NYC whenever I could. After four years in the Midwest I knew New York City was where I wanted to be. It has a unique energy that is never ending. Furthermore, as I have gotten to know the startup ecosystem there has such a diversity of incredible founders and thought leaders.

You worked on Wall Street before starting Khoobi. What was the moment that made you realize you wanted to shift gears and build a company dedicated to improving self-care?
My time on Wall Street was brutal. I developed intense physical anxiety, chest pains, shortness of breath, a racing heart even when sitting still. I took bathroom breaks just to cry, fixed my makeup, and walked back out like nothing happened. My body was screaming for relief. Self-care became my survival. After a week of office junk food? Lymphatic drainage. Tense shoulders? Massages. No time to wash my hair? Blowout. Yet, so many treat self-care as an afterthought, something to “earn” after burnout. I wanted to change that. To make self-care feel natural, accessible, and rewarding before hitting rock bottom.

Khoobi emphasizes supporting small, women-, and minority-owned businesses. Can you share a success story of someone who’s grown because of Khoobi?
Khoobi is in its early stages, but we’re already seeing momentum connecting people with small, women-, and minority-owned businesses. Our v0 search engine attracted 3,000+ users in days, driving revenue for businesses. Last holiday season, we hosted a pilot event with 50 attendees, boosting brand awareness for Venus Room, ClearFit Beauty, and Yentl Nicole Hair. Clients are excited about Khoobi, and we’re now focused on expanding our practitioner network and gathering beauty routine data to ensure personalized matches. Our goal? To make self-care seamless, rewarding, and community-driven and the early response proves there’s a real need for it.

What was the inspiration behind the name “Khoobi”?
The name Khoobi comes from Hindi/Urdu, meaning quality, beauty, and bounty: a reflection of what we want to bring to both beauty lovers and the businesses we support.

The idea was to highlight high-quality, often-overlooked businesses, especially those that are women- and minority-owned. So many incredible salons and spas exist beyond the usual big-name spots, and Khoobi is about making sure they get the recognition (and clients) they deserve.

There’s also a personal touch, my last name Khan and the word Khoobi share a similar root. It felt like the perfect blend of personal and purpose-driven, tying together the essence of self-care, community, and quality in one name.

As a founder, what are your self-care routines to recharge while still being heads down building a company?
As a founder, self-care isn’t just something I squeeze into my schedule, it’s part of my job! Since Khoobi is all about making beauty and wellness more rewarding, I do double-duty by testing out the very services we feature. Whether it’s a facial, a new nail spot, or a deep-tissue massage, I’m not just indulging, I’m researching.

That said, my go-to self-care routines are about efficiency and impact—things that help me feel good without taking me away from building Khoobi for too long. I swear by:

Blowouts & Brows – A fresh blowout or brow touch-up instantly makes me feel more put-together, even when I’m running on five hours of sleep.
Strength Training – Lifting clears my head like nothing else. It’s the one time I’m fully offline and focused on something that makes me feel stronger, physically and mentally.
Skincare as a Ritual – Testing new facials and products is part of the job, but my personal non-negotiable is a solid skincare routine. It’s a small act of consistency in the chaos of startup life. I love Rhode products!
Walks & Podcast Breaks – Sometimes, stepping away and listening to a good founder podcast (or my positive affirmations playlist! ) helps reset my brain before diving back in.

Time for some New York-themed rapid fire questions – where’s your favorite place to grab a slice of pizza in New York?
Village Square Pizza has the perfect Honey and Ricotta slice. I am obsessed with it and its the best after a night out with friends.

Where’s your favorite coffee shop in New York?
Trying to avoid coffee—a good way to save money. But I’m taking recommendations! I will have the occasional cup of chai at home with my parents. Perks of living at home!

Do you have a favorite spot to escape the noise of the city?
This may sound redundant…but honestly, the beauty salon. I recently got a brow transformation with Nicole at Marina NYC, and I love to yap and decompress with her. It was the epitome of escapism.

What’s one piece of advice – that you’ve shared or was shared with you – on building a startup in New York City?

There are no shortcuts in the white-glove, manual stage of building a business. You have to convince people, one at a time, that your product could change their life. Walk around, talk to people, and put in the work.

News