Millionaire Women Lead in their Industries

One sells interactive software to turn kids on to learning in school. The other cleans up and disposes of hazardous waste.

I’m talking about two women entrepreneurs who are making it in widely different businesses with similar approaches.

Cynthia Kaye, founder and CEO of Logical Choice Technologies in Lawrenceville, and Danielle Waske, founder and president of DNT Environmental Services in Atlanta, own two of the fastest-growing women-led firms in America, according to a new list from the small business unit of American Express and the nonprofit Women’s Presidents Organization.

I sat down with them together to see if their shared experiences could help others.

First, a little background. Kaye, 46, started Logical Choice in 1994 after she got tired of her 2-year-old “drooling and throwing Cheerios at me.” With a background selling PCs and Macs to schools, Kaye set up an educational tech firm.

“I set up in the basement with two folding tables and my Mac computer,” she said. From $1 million in revenue the first year, Kaye’s business now does $97 million in annual sales with 230 employees.

Waske, 39, had worked for another environmental cleanup firm before it grew too large to compete as a small business for military contracts.

“The military has lots of contaminated sites,” Waske said. “I heard opportunity knocking.”

She started DNT in 2005 and has built it to $10 million in revenue with 20 to 30 employees, depending on the workload.

Before starting up, both Waske and Kaye had a strong working knowledge of their respective industries – something they viewed as indispensable.

Where did they get the initial capital – a key problem for many would-be entrepreneurs, whether female or male? FIND OUT....

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Female Entrepreneurs in Atlanta

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