About a decade ago, world-famous actress Jessica Alba became an entrepreneur by co-founding her startup The Honest Company, which manufactures consumer products ranging from baby products to personal care and beauty items.
Like most great ideas in this world, the company was inspired by a need that wasn’t being filled. In 2008, when Alba was pregnant with her first daughter, Honor, she received new baby clothes during a baby shower thrown by her relatives and friends. While washing the items with a special baby detergent, her hands broke out in rashes and hives and she panicked, wondering what would happen to her baby.
Her fear and anxiety were stronger than that of most mothers because her own childhood was marked by illnesses that often landed her in the hospital. After researching the list of ingredients, she decided to promote eco-friendly products as a safer alternative to those that use synthetic chemicals.
As such, Alba went from working an 86-hour week as the star of series and movies to spending a similar amount of time at a desk, overseeing marketing and brand development.
Despite the critics who doubted she could turn it into something bigger, she did well. What started as an e-commerce subscription service for wipes and diapers turned into a business selling over 100 products made with clean, safe, and effective ingredients.
Within four years, The Honest Company reached unicorn status, and earlier this year went public, raising over $400 million in its IPO.
When she is not growing her business, Alba aims to promote women in business and establish an environment where women are not punished for having children.
“We enforced a maternity/paternity leave,” she once explained. “Four months for women and three months for men, and we will work with you if you want to take longer. Being flexible with people and allowing them to have families, they bring more to work.”
In any case, by being such a successful woman, Alba emboldens women entrepreneurs around the world and shows them that they can do everything a man can do.