Ari Horie: A day in the life of a CEO who is inspiring female founders

What currently keeps you busy? Hiring and building my team in order to reach the next stage of my startup.

Ari Horie is the CEO and founder of Women’s Startup Lab, with a vision for increasing women’s contributions to the growth of business, economic and entrepreneurial success. Ari is a rare find as a native Japanese woman recognized as a prominent female leader in tech. She has been named one of Silicon Valley Business Journal’s “Women of Influence in Silicon Valley” in 2015, one of CNN’s 10 Visionary Women of 2014, and “40 over 40” Women to Watch in 2015.  Ari Horie is an active keynote speaker at leading tech conferences such as SXSW Las Vegas 2014, NES Japan, and SXSWedu in Austin in 2016.

Women’s Startup Lab is a non-traditional accelerator in the hub of Silicon Valley with a mission of empowering female led startups to succeed through strong leadership, an influential network, and innovation. Fueled by the Japanese idea of Hito – acknowledging and coming together to promote success from help provided by all – the value offered by WSLab is resonating within the startup ecosystem and the global business community.

WSLab and Ari have been featured in Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Silicon Valley Business Journal, Fast Company, Marie Claire “20 Women Changing the Ratio,” and Success Magazine.

Today I woke up at 3 am. The first thing I did was check Asana and send emails.

I started working at 8am, making sure that everything was in order for our accelerator program.

My biggest challenge was to leave behind my Japanese roots when I was 17-years-old in order to give myself a chance to express who I am.

I celebrated having hundreds of graduates who share my vision and mission every day.

What I love most about my work is working with amazing people. I am so glad that I get to laugh so much today.

I wish I had more time to be part of my program and express my gratitude to all the fantastic people who help me.

Something that surprised me: how many people wanted to support me, my startup, and the mission. I am so grateful.

I am inspired by building a company that makes an impact in the lives of others.

I am passionate about creating something new, making an impact, improving women’s lives.

A dream I am currently focused on fulfilling is to create a company that could make an impact and grow without my daily involvement.

I can’t live without my iPhone.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to inspiring female founders in order to enable them to find the power they have inside them.