Ann Buivid used to be bothered at corporate meetings by the “great quacking noise” of people talking too much, yet saying too little. She hid her pregnancy for five months because she worried she might be passed over for a promotion if her boss found out.
These days, the 53-year-old veteran of General Foods, Black & Decker, and Remington Products has no one looking over her shoulder. In 2002, Buivid left her post as president of Remington’s personal care division. A year later she co-founded Artemis Woman, a $4 million, five-employee home spa products company, with former colleague Lisa Kable.
Buivid is hardly the first woman to bail out of Corporate America. But an elite group of corporate achievers is leaving for another reason: These women want to do it their way. That means starting their own company and running it according to how they think a company should operate.
BusinessWeek SmallBiz tracked down 18 of these high-powered women to discover why they traded the relative security of a big company for a startup, and to find out what their experiences can teach other entrepreneurs.
It comes as no surprise that such high achievers have lofty ambitions for their new ventures. Almost every woman on the list expects hers to be a high-growth enterprise, and most are well on their way. Of the ten companies that have posted revenues for at least two years, eight had double-digit sales growth last year.
Photo by Artemis Woman.
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