Akorbi is an inspiring success story. Our founder, Claudia Mirza, rose from extreme poverty in her native Colombia to become the owner of one of the largest translation companies in the world. Today’s blog from Akorbi celebrates similar inspirational stories of women who overcame the odds to own their own companies in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Pinnacle
Nina Vaca founded the IT workforce solutions company Pinnacle in 1996, just two years after graduating from Texas State University. She learned at an early age, as the third of five children and the daughter of an Ecuadorian immigrant, that with hard work you can achieve anything. Vaca started Pinnacle with just $300.
Today, the company is worth more than $2.1 billion and is a stalwart IT solutions company in a male-dominated field. The Women Presidents’ Organization named Pinnacle the fastest-growing women-owned business in the country.
Katydid
Katydid is a wholesale fashion design house in the heart of the Dallas Design District. Founded by Katy Messersmith in 2002, the business owner overcame long odds with a bit of inspiration.
During her childhood, their family’s home in rural Texas burned to the ground, her parents divorced, and she lived in poverty for many years. Then, in 2002, she was working as a volunteer in Ghana when her luggage was stolen. Rather than find clothes to wear, Katy partnered with local seamstresses to make new clothes. When she returned to the states, she wanted to sell fashionable yet affordable clothes for everyone.
Warrior Group
Warrior Group is another woman-owned company in a male-dominated industry. Gail Warrior spent most of her early days learning the ropes at petroleum giant Mobil Oil. While out in the field, Warrior, both a woman and a minority, realized that permanent modular construction was a rare commodity. Not only is modular construction affordable, but it’s also easily expandable to fit any need.
Warrior founded her construction management company in 1997. Today, it’s revenue is more than $150 million a year. Warrior’s success has led her to take a leadership role in a lifestyle brand company and her charity, Heart of a Warrior, that supports underserved children in the Dallas area.
Akorbi
Claudia Mirza, the founder of Akorbi, lived in poverty in Medellin, Colombia, during the roughest times of the city’s drug cartel wars. Complete strangers helped her family, and then an entrepreneur from Medellin inspired Claudia to get her business administration degree in America. Newly married and unemployed after the dot-com bust in 2002, Claudia was trying to find the best opportunity for her. She spoke to Gabriela Carballo, the Director of Economic Development for the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Carballo suggested that Claudia start a business rather than apply for employment.
Fate intervened one day shortly after that. To make ends meet, Claudia was helping her father at a horse race track in San Antonio. When the Spanish language interpreter failed to show up for an interpreting session, Claudia filled in. The track’s organizers hired Claudia on the spot. The rest is history, and Akorbi started soon after.
Talk to Akorbi for Translation and Interpretation Services
Akorbi is one of Dallas’s top translation companies. We work in over 170 languages, have international offices, and love our home in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Contact Akorbi or call 1-877-4-AKORBI for more information on how we can expand your business into global markets.