Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Inc. Magazine recognized five Utah women on its "2025 Female Founders 500" list.
- Jenny Groberg, Shea McGee, Jenny Ahlstrom, Allyse Jackson and Tai Christensen were highlighted for industry innovations.
SALT LAKE CITY — Five working Utah women were recognized for making significant impacts in their respective industries.
Inc. Magazine's "Female Founders 500" highlights influential women entrepreneurs who made measurable accomplishments in the previous year. Companies apply to be considered, and applications are judged by various metrics, including sales and revenue growth, industry innovations and social impact, before selection is made.
Jenny Groberg, founder and CEO of BookSmarts Accounting and Bookkeeping Services, was featured on the list as a leader in financial services. BookSmarts is an all-female accounting firm in Kaysville. Groberg was highlighted by Inc. for growing her business' revenue by 26% and supporting women by offering internships, scholarships and donations to charitable causes.
Groberg founded BookSmarts in 2008 as a mother of a 2-year-old and a 6-month-old, as she was looking for work she could do from home while her husband attended medical school. Now, she is passionate about employing women who prioritize a healthy work-life balance.
"I think that goes to show that my team is really amazing," said Groberg. "I'm tapping into this workforce that might otherwise not be working — (a) really highly educated group of women, and they want to be moms. I have one woman who doesn't have any kids, but she needs extra money. And they do really phenomenal accounting work, so to be recognized on a national level is huge. It's a huge flex for all of them."
The list also names Shea McGee, co-founder and chief creative officer of interior design firm Studio McGee; and Tai Christensen, co-founder and president of affordable housing program Arrive Home, in the trailblazer category, which recognize female founders in male-dominated fields.
McGee — who cohosts the Netflix series "Dream Home Makeover" with her husband — was recognized for expanding her business by building a successful home furnishings brand with brands like Target and Kohler, and in celebration of Studio McGee's 10th anniversary. Christensen was acknowledged for her success in developing an alternative way to measure creditworthiness in homebuyers who have a limited credit history, giving individuals from marginalized communities a path to homeownership.
Jenny Ahlstrom, founder and CEO of HealthTree Foundation, was highlighted among Utah female founders for "channeling her own experience with cancer into an AI-powered, patient-centric, cancer-research powerhouse," according to Inc.
Allyse Jackson, founder and CEO of the popular freezer meal business Beehive Meals, was also recognized on the list as a "brand architect" for expanding her business from five to 12 states in 2024. She was also listed among the 2024 Inc. 5,000 honorees — a list recognizing the fastest-growing businesses in the country — and ranked 399 out of 5,000 for the business' 1,103% growth over three years.
I want to tell women, 'Yeah, there's a chance. You have to go for it, have more confidence, and just fake it until you make it and show up.
–Jenny Groberg, BookSmarts Accounting and Bookkeeping Services
This year's Female Founder list was published near the five-year anniversary of the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percentage of women in the workforce fell to 56.2% in 2020, the lowest rate of women working since 1987 and nearly double the unemployment rate in 2019. Since recovering from the pandemic, Wells Fargo's 2024 report on the impact of women-owned businesses says women-owned businesses have been on the rise.
"Now, 14 million women-owned businesses represent 39.1% of all U.S. businesses. Their ranks increased by 13.6% from 2019 — the year before the pandemic — to 2023, the year the pandemic officially ended. In the past year, 2022 to 2023, their ranks increased by 5.9%," according to the report.
But for Groberg, the success she has seen goes deeper than business.
In 2018, she suffered an accident in her home that resulted in a traumatic brain injury. Her injury affected her ability to regulate her body temperature and feel sensations in her arms and legs. It also gave her problems with vision, severe headaches and nausea. Despite professional opinions from neurologists that her condition would likely stop improving around three years after her accident, Groberg said she refused to give up.
The next year, she found a specialist who makes eyeglasses for people with injuries similar to hers, which she described as a major turning point. As she continues to recover while building her business and supporting her employees, Groberg explains that being recognized as a female founder marks a profound moment in her career.
It "means something so powerful, on a personal standpoint, because it means that there's a chance and that I have overcome my biggest setback in my life," she said.
"But what it means to me professionally is that my team is incredible, and we are supporting and driving business and profits, and we are ... doing something right. I think I want to tell women, 'Yeah, there's a chance. You have to go for it, have more confidence, and just fake it until you make it and show up.'"
