Karen Robinovitz & Sara Schiller
Stirring Up Hope in Unexpected Places
KEEPING IT TOGETHER
Co-founders of the Sloomoo Institute
TWO things helped Karen Robinovitz, 52 (near right), and Sara Schiller, 53, overcome the most devastating periods in their lives: friends and slime.
In 2015, a series of strokes left Schiller's husband disabled and made her the sole caretaker of their two daughters, one of whom has special needs and requires assistance with daily activities like eating and getting dressed. A year later, Robinovitz's husband of 14 years passed away at 51; and, in short order, her cousin was killed in the Parkland high school shooting. “I didn't know a human could carry that much pain and grief,” she says. “I did not think I would recover.”
A glimmer of hope peeked through when a friend's 10-year-old daughter introduced her to slime. “It was the first afternoon in over a year that I smiled,” says Robinovitz, who subsequently showed the goo to Schiller. Together, the co-founders dreamed up the Sloomooverse, a macrocosm of colorful characters—not unlike Pokémon or the Smurfs. “We let our imaginations run free,” says Schiller. They launched the brand in 2019.
Today, the New York City-based Sloomoo Institute, named to reinforce academic aspects behind slime-making, operates four interactive, year-round slime experiences in New York, Houston, Chicago, and Atlanta. Soon, Sloomoo expects to open an experience in Los Angeles, where guests can engage in sensory play, interact with characters with AR integrations, and learn with STEM educational activities. Tickets, priced from $29 to $48 depending on time and location, make up about 80 percent of the business; Sloomoo also sells slime and slime merch online and off, which helped it book $30 million in revenue last year.
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Still, the money is only part of why they keep going. “When we experienced that joy from slime, we thought, ‘We have to bring this to everyone,’” Robinovitz says. “This business saved my life. It's enabled me to see the pain I went through was part of my journey.”—Rebecca Deczynski
8 FIND NEW SOLUTIONS
“We opened a big store in South Beach, and it was a disaster. I was like, ‘We've got to survive.’ I started selling empanadas at festivals. We sold in a day what we'd sell in a week at the store.”
Pilar Guzman Zavala, co-founder and CEO of Miami-based fastcasual food company Half Moon Empanadas
9 PRACTICE ACCEPTANCE
“I had breast cancer about 10 years ago. It taught me a very freeing lesson: I can't control everything. Now, in tough times, I don't sweat it. I just put my head down, do the work, and believe everything's going to be OK.”
Lillian Marsh, cofounder of Denverand Los Angeles-based creative agency TinyWins
10 ESTABLISH YOUR PRIORITIES
“Four days after our grand-opening party, my mom was told she had Stage IV glioblastoma—a brain tumor. That put things in perspective in terms of what is important. That helped me build Piermont, because it was no longer about chasing unicorns. It was about chasing sustainability.”
Wendy Cai-Lee, founder and CEO of New York City-based digital-only bank Piermont Bank
11 ASK FOR HELP
“You need to find a team that can help you: I have strong enough leadership at this point that when I took four months of maternity leave, I didn't turn on my computer. I was able to trust them to run the business.”
Katlin Smith, founder and CEO of Chicagobased food brand Simple Mills
12 PAY IT FORWARD
“I was born and raised in Vietnam. I moved to the States about 15 years ago. I saw firsthand how the ability to communicate fluently in English opens up a lot of doors for people. That pushed me to figure out what I could do to help the hundreds of millions of people who face the same challenge.”
Vu Van, co-founder and CEO of Los Gatos, California-based language-learning platform ELSA
TO MEET 2024'S MOST DYNAMIC WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS, GO TO INC.COM/FEMALEFOUNDERS.
Learn the accolades and achievements that led to each honoree's landing a spot on this year's Female Founders list.
BREAKING THROUGH THE NOISE
Allison Ellsworth
Finding a New Way to Bubble Up
Co-founder of Poppi
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Ellsworth, 37, doesn't know how to create a dud social media post. And at Poppi, her Austin-based
