The success stories of three groundbreaking women, who founded successful technological and digital businesses. Today, they call on other women to join a platform ample with business opportunities and utilize the business development network. Kiram Baloum, CEO of Jasmine: “They are the living proof that anything is possible, it’s time to move forward, enter new markets and start technology businesses.“
Jasmine aims to encourage women from all sectors to start technological businesses and furthermore, to use technological and digital tools to promote the businesses the own.
The startup founder of the “Izun” Program
One of those successful women is the startup founder Keren Hummel Alon, the first graduate of Jasmine’s “Izun” program – influential women directors. Hummel Alon is a startup entrepreneur who founded and runs WhoPaze, a payment platform for teenagers and the owner of a software house, specializing in innovation. Among other things, she also engages in digital marketing and currently employs about 9 employees.
“One of the reasons I came to the “Izun” program was to study the corporate world and today I am a board member myself,” she says, adding that the Izun program was a significant step for her, “the networking and business relationships that can be created and developed through the infrastructure that unites so many prominent strong and talented women in one place, made me watch, appreciate and say – this is where I want to see myself.”
About the virtual world women business owners have difficulty breaking into, she says: “Be there, operate online. In the digital world, even if you take just a few actions, you can see results very quickly. Proper and consistent presence on the network can make you a celebrity in your field and as such, people will want to choose you and work with you.”
Dr. Asmaa Ganayem: “The technological field is most suitable for women”
One of Jasmine’s pioneering and groundbreaking advocates, who turned her business into an international success is Dr. Asmaa, founder and CEO of INNDIGITAL, a social business dedicated to promoting digitation in the Arab society, with a focus on developing human capital and skills appropriate to the 21st century, especially among women and teens. “As a woman who has built her academic and employment track, with minimal resources, accompaniment, and support, who had experienced many challenges, I support Jasmine as an organization that can provide a supportive framework to help address special challenges for women based on its accumulated experience and additional resources,” says Ganayem.
The center provides courses and training in a wide range of digital skills from basic use to programming and development, web sites development, consulting and research in the areas such as society, education, and technology”, Beyond the practical barriers that stood in Ganayem’s way, she often encountered social barriers. “Being both a woman and an Arab in the tech field has been a combination of two tough discrimination circles and barriers within which stereotypes are not easy to change. What I find most interesting is that I could only identify them after having gone through them, but along the way, I have regarded them to be just natural challenges that must be tackled and resolved. I was so caught up in the “doing” that I didn’t notice their magnitude, and only in hindsight could I understand the power of the road I have been through”, she says. Even today, despite her success, there some cliques where the doors are still closed for her, but she is not, deterred:
The software house for the Internet world
Tamar Nadler, an MBA in Business Administration graduate, is the founder and owner of “2 Link”, a Software House for the Internet World, established to “realize digital dreams” for entities, organizations, and companies in Israel and providing customized software solutions for leading companies in the economy.
Nadler started her journey 20 years ago when she was one of the founders of the successful website Cupid, and from there she made her way into the digital world. “I originally set up a company for managing digital loyalty programs, but soon enough my customers started asking for additional products to the ones I provided, and I initiated a merger with a website building company,” says Nadler.
Like other groundbreaking women, Nadler also attests that this is still a very masculine field, but this does not deter her.
However, Nadler also encountered quite a few challenges and even business falls, chose to pay the price and move on: “I managed to rise back from those business falls, thanks to the understanding that one shouldn’t be afraid.
At one point, Nadler contacted the Jasmine organization, offering to help more women enter the tech world: “I was very committed to Jasmine’s activities and vision, and I wanted to accommodate women in developing digital tools to help business owners.”
Today, the three successful women of the technology world are a model for other women “They are living proof that technology and digital initiatives must not be feared, that there are women doing business in all sectors – and they are doing well!”, concludes Baloum.
“I urge women not to be afraid of setting up technology businesses. I urge women-business-owners in all areas to use digitization and technology, which are essential tools that open the door to the virtual global world, and promote innovation and business growth.”