Penelope Shihab is the woman behind Monojo, a Jordanian biotechnology research firm founded in 2005, Skinue, an American skincare line launched in 2014 that makes products from camel’s milk, and MyRoyale, a digital marketing platform she launched in 2016. In all endeavors, the serial entrepreneur values excellence. For Skinue, for instance, not any camels’ milk will do, she told us when we last featured her, so she sources milk from Camelicious, a royal farm in Dubai.
Shihab says her older two ventures have enjoyed many milestones, but she is especially proud to have secured investors as well as several product patents for Monojo and Skinue. Looking ahead, she has sales goals that she is focused on meeting — and hopefully exceeding — over the next 3 years. And further down the road, she wants to pursue either an initial public offering of stock, establish new partnerships or seek acquisition by larger corporations, though she would want to stay involved with her ventures in a non-executive capacity.
Regardless of where she takes her companies, Shihab says launching and building them has made her a stronger and more confident person. Her achievements have also given her the rare opportunity to stand out as an accomplished woman business owner in her homeland of Jordan, she says. “Entrepreneurship allowed me to be a role model for my family and for my community.”