LOS ANGELES — Anna Lee, co-founder of the sexual wellness company Lioness, has landed one of the coveted spots on Forbes' famed "30 Under 30" list.
Placing in its Consumer Technology sector for 2020, Lee's contribution as the engineering lead on Lioness' flagship smart vibrator earned her the prestigious ranking as one of this year's honorees.
According to the Forbes bio, Lee "was fed-up with the fact that female sexuality has for so long been a taboo topic with little resources allocated toward it."
After leaving her job with Amazon's Concept Engineering team, she joined forces with co-founder and CEO Liz Klinger to create Lioness, a vibrator that uses biofeedback to allow women to track and see visual representations of their arousal and orgasms. "In less than two years," it reads, "the company has gathered the largest data set of female physiology during arousal and orgasm and is expected to do over $1 million in revenue in 2020."
In a related article, Forbes staff writer, Alexandra Wilson, describes the process of narrowing down the more than 15,000 nominees to reach the "600 revolutionaries in 20 industries changing the course—and the face—of business and society." Judges for the Consumer Technology selection included Jeremy Liew (Lightspeed Ventures), Anjali Sud (Vimeo), Hans Tung (GGV Capital) and Nick Weaver (Eero).
"The young, creative and bold minds on this year’s '30 Under 30' list are proof-positive that the future will be new, exciting and profoundly different," writes Wilson. "These entrepreneurs are teaching viruses to fight cancer, developing technology to help astronauts breathe on Mars and creating strings of hit songs that fuel our daily playlists."
Notably, Lee represents the only sexual wellness company in her category.
"I’m so honored to be a part of 2020’s Forbes '30 Under 30' and more importantly, to have Lioness recognized as a part of the broader consumer technology industry," she shared.
The accolade comes after a recent incident Lioness faced at a femtech event sponsored by Samsung, at which a rep reportedly denounced the Lioness vibe as irrelevant to women's health, before asking Klinger to remove her display and leave.
"We’ve been told countless 'no’s' in our startup journey of creating Lioness due to the societal taboo of sex and pleasure. However, this is an inspiring snapshot of the societal shift in recognizing that sexual wellness is wellness!"
To view the full list, click here.
For more from Lioness, visit them online.
