Jennie McGinn set up Opsh, a high-street shopping web site to rival ASOS, with two of her sisters back in 2014. Today she's made a list of the top 100 female entrepreneurs in Europe, according to German web site The Hundert. She's also the only Irish woman to feature. The company was borne out of the siblings' frustration with having to individually check retail web sites like River Island to see who was selling "black boots" or "asymmetrical striped shirts". On Opsh, you can type in "silver skirt", see every store that's selling one, and pay for the one you like there and then.
The sisters Grace, Sarah and Jennie range in ages from 25 to 32, and operate out of an office on Leeson Street. They've managed to bag investment from the son-in-law of Philip Green. He's the head of Topshop and Miss Selfridge. They say their meetings with international retailing big shots have been... interesting!
"You seem like lovely girls."
"This seems like a lovely little business that might earn you a nice little salary."
"Fashion? I wouldn't know a thing about that, I'll get my wife / daughter / babysitter to look at it."
Jennie suspects the questions they've been asked in the past wouldn't be put to young enterprising men in the same situation. Things like "are you tired?" and "are you planning to have a baby soon?".
l-r Grace, Sarah, Jennie.
It's not always overtly aggressive; sometimes the questions can be well-meaning. It is an anomaly to get three females, who happen to be family members and work in fashion presenting a tech product - so sometimes you might get nervous reactions. But there is a lingering unconscious bias that is the biggest threat to women getting ahead in business."
Not that any of that has deterred the sisters. They've managed to grow sales every month, attracting new retailers to sign up like Boohoo. Asos, watch your back!
@OPSH
