Women Founders Building a New Kind of Industry

This International Women’s Day, LBB asked women founders of agencies, production companies, and post houses, for their insights into the world of work – specifically, how they’re reshaping it. How have they built the change they want to see in the industry, and what can we learn from them?

These aren’t just women who have built more equitable workplaces for their employees – these are women running pioneering businesses that bring success to their clients. Businesses like Appetite Creative, which transforms static packaging into interactive digital experiences; like Hopeful Monsters, which works with top global brands while offering flexible working, equal pay, and equal parental leave; and like Left Field Labs, which has achieved its strongest revenue growth in 17 years as well as gender parity across its executive team. 

They’re women who have endured exclusion, clients who’d only address their male business partners, and rigid work structures that are hostile to their responsibilities in life (women, for example, still shoulder the overwhelming majority of caregiving burdens.) And rather than backing down, they’ve carved out their better spaces for themselves, despite the scepticism they’ve faced along the way.

There is plenty to learn from these formidable women. If you’re interested in becoming a better leader, colleague, ally – pause and have a read.

Flexible Work Works for Everyone

Traditional workplace structures have long been rigid, and often at odds with the realities of modern life. Women founders are leading the charge in creating business models that prioritise results over time spent at a desk.

Lauren Sweeney, founder and CEO at Dotted Line Agency, has found that switching the focus from hours to impact supports women and working parents who need balance without sacrificing ambition. This inclusive approach has led to a team that’s more than 50% women, and that operates with greater ownership, creativity, and autonomy. Clients are better off too – as Lauren explains, “when people feel valued and empowered, they bring their best work to the table.”

Benefitting employees and clients alike, flexibility in its many forms is central to a number of women founders’ approach to business. Brittany Fero of PB& has incorporated a network of permalancers to allow her agency to scale quickly, and offered them the flexibility to balance work and life, unlimited vacation, and a hybrid geographic structure. Jenny Stanley of Appetite Creative has built a 100% remote and flexible digital agency, granting team members the freedom to “live fully while delivering exceptional results.” And they do continue to deliver exceptional results: Appetite Creative boasts a 90% client retention rate. 

Nadine Ghossoub, whose Dubai agency Science & Sunshine offered remote work options long before it became widely accepted, waved goodbye to rigid structures after experiencing their negative effects as a working mother. “As I advanced in my career, got married, and had children, I realised the immense challenge of balancing both worlds – especially in an industry that offered little support or empathy for working mothers.” 

Now, it’s important to Nadine that her workers are empowered to put their families first and take flexible opportunities when necessary without a side of guilt. “I never worried about employees taking advantage of this flexibility; instead, I trusted that they would be more productive and fulfilled when given the autonomy to manage both work and life.”

That trust is fundamental. Across multiple women founders interviewed, their faith in their employees to do their jobs in a way that works both for them and the company stood out. Brittany says she “value[s] people as [her] most precious resource,” and as a result, is empathetic to the full spectrum of their lives. The problems come when higher ups don’t trust workers to “live fully while delivering exceptional results,” as Jenny puts it… So hire people you trust.

Control Stifles Creativity, Collaboration Lets It Thrive

For employees to be trusted with flexibility, leaders have to be able to cede some of their control. Rita Steimane of Latvian animation studio, Panic, states that “leadership isn’t about control – it’s about understanding people”; Ellen Utrecht of production company MikeTeevee, champions a values-led, ‘no ego’ culture; and Veronica Diaferia and Sara Eolin of production company Tinygiant, prioritise mentorship over “outdated hierarchies.” 

Founding Leland in a “boy’s club” of a music industry, Abi Leland built the change she wanted to see in what was to become one of the most esteemed commercial music companies by throwing out those hierarchies in favour of a collaborative approach that lifts everyone up, diversifies the business, and keeps creativity flowing. It’s what LaRue Anderson from post facility, Apache Digital, views as the antidote to the “old-school competitive mindset.” 

“I focus on building strong, supportive teams where everyone’s voice matters,” says LaRue. “I’ve seen firsthand how this kind of environment leads to better ideas, stronger execution, and a culture people actually want to be part of.” And when great ideas are shared, credit should flow to the right people – a lesson Kelly Bayett, co-founder of production company Love Song, learned early on when she saw women treated as mere support systems for “rockstar men.”

Inevitably, tensions will arise at times when people collaborate creatively; Rita believes the key is to create a space where perspectives can clash productively, “where feedback isn’t about ego, but about making the work better. Passion – not pressure – drives the best ideas.”

A workplace culture free of top-down pressure is not just kinder; it’s more effective. For Kelly, a ‘feminine’ approach to leadership is about setting the tone through example rather than intimidation, favouring “long-term success over short-term dominance,” while Sarah Mehler from digital studio Left Field Labs, argues that emotional intelligence is the key unlocking sustainable growth. 

Early on in her creative technology career, Sarah noticed that an industry that champions change was stifling its potential by prizing swift action over thoughtful consideration, and immediate outcomes over sustainable growth. “Rather than conform,” says Sarah, “I integrated my authentic feminine qualities (empathy, intuition, relationship-building) with traditionally masculine strengths (systems thinking, execution, scaling), to create something more innovative than either approach could accomplish alone.” 

Implementing tangible changes, Sarah integrated creative teams, expanded leadership competencies to embrace emotional intelligence, and built systems that actively seek diverse perspectives. “The results? Our strongest revenue growth in 17 years and 50/50 gender parity across our executive team.”

Homogeneity Is Boring 

“If you have ever been the lone woman in a room or on set, as I have, you can see a shift when there’s greater representation. Diverse groups of people create better work,” says Lauren Schwartz at Kaboom Productions.

Having learnt from times when they’ve been excluded, women founders like Mindy Goldberg of production company Epoch, and Katie Barclay of Australian agency Hopeful Monsters are emphatic about the business case for all types of diversity.

Hope Harris, who founded production company TillSow, explains, “Integral to our approach is curating teams that are reflective of the audiences we are trying to reach. This allows us to gather more truthful insights, have sincere considerations, and naturally have sharper instincts. In the end, we want to take big swings and make the work stronger. When you have the right people to give you different perspectives, the work connects effortlessly.”

It all comes down to what entertains your audience, and a variety of work created from diverse perspectives is inherently more entertaining. “Conforming to stereotypes is uninspiring,” says Snapper Films founder Helen Hadfield. “Women can direct cars, not just children, in the same way that men can do sanitary towel ads. There are no rules, just habits to be broken and challenged.”

The Menopause Taboo

While women face biases at every stage of life – Abi recalls how her expertise was often overshadowed by her identities when she was young, when she was pregnant, and now as a “middle-aged mum” – Kim Griffin of Fresh Film highlights one demographic in particular than often gets forgotten: “We actively challenge ageism, particularly the industry’s tendency to overlook older women.”

Max Brady of Irish production company, Bodacious, in fact wrote her master’s thesis on the societal and medical dismissal of menopausal women. Max believes that the industry is losing experienced talent because women aren’t really educated about what to expect when menopause hits, and the world of production isn’t set up to be supportive.  

“It wasn’t until I heard a radio chat show a few years ago that I joined the dots of the fatigue, joint pain, brain fog and just not feeling like I was capable anymore, and realised that I wasn’t going bonkers or an old hag. My body was depleted of hormones – the engine oil.”

To retain this valuable talent, greater education, understanding, and openness around the menopause taboo is a start. “The more open I have been about that, the more women have opened up to me,” says Max. “There are hundreds of us out there who may be thinking of getting out, or have already left the industry. It’s a shame because as this industry remains in flux, we need to retain our talent. We need as an industry to have knowledge of this time in the lives of so many women.”

Be Gutsy Together

“Progress in our industry doesn’t need to take an eternity,” says Katie. 

One of the common threads throughout all the women spoken to for this article is an unstoppable sense of drive, or, as Mindy puts it, being “gutsy”. Both Lauren at Dotted Line Agency and Veronica and Sara at Tinygiant advise aspiring leaders not to wait for permission to create meaningful change – make it happen right now.

Brenda Kolb of creative production studio TigerLily champions such an approach: “I’ve learned that you don't have to follow the blueprint – you can build something better with a strong vision and determination. For women looking to create meaningful change, my advice is to trust yourself, advocate for others, and never accept ‘that’s just how it’s done’ as an answer.”

Advocating for one another is key. The women who want to help you succeed will be your “comfort, advisors, and strength in the hard times,” says Jenny. Pavla Burgetova Callegari of production service company Compass Rose can speak to the power of this: “When I launched my company in the US, I joined women-led organisations and saw first-hand how powerful it is when women genuinely champion and support each other. Learning from female leaders who had already paved the way reinforced my belief in the power of mentorship and community.”

What’s Womanhood Got to Do With It?

The women founders who took part in this article have come up with new, more equitable ways of working, without compromising on business results. But does their womanhood have anything to do with it?

Being at the receiving end of some of the industry’s deepest rooted problems is probably why they know which ones to solve. They’re learning from their past experiences and “creating the culture [they] want to spend time in,” as Helen describes it.

Asked if her experiences as a woman have informed her approach to business, Max from Bodacious had this to say: “Very much so. My reading for my MA in gender and equality studies brought me back to my core feminism – and that has helped to inform me as to who I am, and that informs the business. A feminist approach is one that espouses equity, inclusion and understanding. It pushes for transformative change that is sustainable and sees the intersectionality of discrimination, bias and inequality. We can affect change by what we film and show a more inclusive, equal society. Advertising can create major societal change.  

“Something that perhaps the world could use a little of right now.”