Yahoo Finance How one millennial woman built a start-up out of her bedroom
When Amani Al-Khatahtbeh launched Muslimgirl.com out of her high school bedroom when she was 17, she didn’t think of herself as an entrepreneur. The site originated as a blogging platform for millenial Muslim women to connect and defy post-9/11 stereotypes and portrayals of their peer group. Al-Khatahtbeh says that as the website grew, “people started attributing these titles to it like a start-up, and calling me an entrepreneur, and it started becoming a role that I played for the benefit of my community.”
Since Muslimgirl’s humble beginnings in 2009 (it was purchased for $7 as a domain name and operated by a small team of teenage bloggers), the site and its associated social media platforms have attracted millions of unique readers and followers, and the staff now consists of hundreds of writers based all over the world. Al-Khatahtbeh, now 26, attributes the success of her “tech start-up” to the millennial spirit of carving out your own path.
“We’re just founding our own things every which way and we’re kind of taking the world into our own hands and creating a world that we wish we had when we were younger. And as millennials we have more access to technology and resources to do that than any other generation before us,” she says.
Al-Khatahtbeh’s journey wasn’t without difficulty. When she decided to focus on her start-up full time, she describes the experience as sheer survival. “I barely had any money to my name just for myself to make it through, let alone to actually make a start-up happen from nothing. And the challenge definitely became one of the most trying times of my life. But going through that also made me aware of the sheer power of women when we find ourselves in those situations,” she says.
An initial funding round included backing by the Malala Fund, which helped get the company off the ground in 2016. Al-Khatahtbeh also landed a spot on the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and in 2018 she’s navigated her company through its second seed round of funding, notably receiving a substantial boost from Gary Vaynerchuk of Vayner Media.
She says she embraces being in the boardrooms, but it took her awhile getting comfortable in that space. “For me, I think that a huge struggle personally has been overcoming the imposter syndrome and really owning that space and knowing that we deserve to be there, we earned our way there and we make that space better by being present,” she says.
Al-Katahtbeh advises others who are starting their own businesses to keep on grinding: “Save as much as you possibly can, you know, literally grind it… That’s a skill that not only is necessary for building up a company, but is also a tremendous skill and tool to have in your arsenal as a woman to be financially empowered in your personal life as well.”
Do you or a millennial you know run a start-up? Share your stories with us at moneyquestions@yahoo.com
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This story was originally published on November 12, 2018.
