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INC MAGAZINE
Inc’s 2022 Female Founders 100
Having earned a PhD in English at the University of California, Berkeley, Sophia Wang might have seemed an unlikely choice to co-found the biotech startup MycoWorks in 2013. The company had developed a proprietary, leather-like material called Fine Mycelium, made from the root structure of mushrooms. But co-founder and friend Philip Ross says Wang was precisely the storyteller he needed to help the venture make the leap from biotech to fashion. Indeed: MycoWorks’ Fine Mycelium has since become a coveted, sustainable fabric for brands such as Hermès and luxury hatmaker Nick Fouquet. And Wang, now chief of culture, says her liberal arts education influences how she nurtures the ever-expanding 175-person team. She’s behind the MycoWorks weekly speaker series, in which artists and scientists present their work; the company’s free counseling services for employees; and an internal newsletter.
“We want people to know one another’s names and faces–the everyday human touch points of being collaborators and teammates,” she says.
Read the full article by Hannah Wallace on Inc.