“We have a hip-hop dance class every Wednesday night here,” says Hanifa Ambadar, the company’s CEO.

The idea of creating a community-based website first came from Hanifa when she was living in the US. Back then, writing about fashion and beauty was merely a hobby for her. However, she saw that the online world was rapidly growing in that country, and thought Indonesia would soon be hit by the same trend. 

She decided to create an official online beauty hub and asked Afi Assegaf to join in 2007 as co-founder and beauty director. Novita Imelda was one of the early members who later joined the team in 2011 as an investor and also serves as operational director of the company.

When it was first launched, femaledaily.com reported on all manner of female-related content, from fashion to makeup. Today, the website focuses only on beauty and attracts around 7.5 million page views per month, of which 99.99 percent of people are independent, tech savvy women sharing their experiences with other members of the XX-chromosome community.

After more than a decade from its inception, the trio saw how some of their members, who were once young women, have now become a working mother, and they felt the need to have a specialized platform for all the working moms out there to share stories about parenting, balancing life and me-time -- and so mommiesdaily.com was launched.

“The web is not only for the moms who have a 9-to-5 job; it’s for women who do positive things like owning your own business or working from home. We want to empower women,” says Novita. 

They themselves have become the poster girl for independent women who juggle their time between taking care of family and dealing with the tough business world. In a way, they inspire today’s young girls to dream big and be independent in a society where gender inequality still very much exists.

“To become a CEO, you need to have a clear vision and mission and know how to communicate that to the rest of the team,” says Affi.

They confessed that women occupying top business positions could also be very competitive and judgmental toward each other.

“I mean, there aren’t many women who are at the top management level so let’s just help each other, don’t see other females as competition,” explains Hanafi.

The three women are still enjoying growing the Female Daily Network; the company recently got funded by Ideosource, Sinar Mas Digital Ventures and Convergence Ventures. In the near future, the web will launch a new review platform for beauty services such as salons, spas and beauty clinics. 

There’s no point asking what the company’s long-term plan is because they have never really put too much stress on it, and the digital world is constantly changing anyway. Their only wish is to ensure that the website remains relevant to Indonesian women for the next 10 years.

__________

One piece of advice you would like to give to aspiring females out there...  

Hanifa Ambadar: “Let’s leave other women [out of the competition] as we climb our way to success.”

Affi Assegaf: “You have to start now, there’s no better time to start a business than now.”

Novita Imelda: “Don’t limit yourself, problems may present themselves along the way but there’s always a solution to every situation.”

Check out the trio's success story here. (kes)

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