If perseverance were a medical condition, entrepreneurship might be its most extreme manifestation.
Yes, the rewards are alluring, and the recognition, wealth and impact on society that success brings can mask the staggering toll it takes to make it.
The costs are very real, however. Just consider for a moment the reality of building a company from scratch: sleepless nights spent planning and building, endless streams of pitches to rightfully skeptical investors, the elusive quest to find first clients, and navigating a relentless cycle of uncertainty.
It’s a gauntlet most would rather avoid, particularly if they knew in advance what they were signing up for.
But what about those who not only embrace this path but choose to do the impossible while they are at it?
Those who disrupt markets so entrenched they seem immovable, or so deeply saturated that any single entrepreneur’s signal is lost in the sea of noise?
That’s exactly what Mia Funt of ByHeart, Eynat Guez of Papaya Global, and Arianna Ajtar of Mars the Label decided to do.
Their journeys, from rethinking infant formula to revolutionizing global payroll and launching a fashion label from scratch, offer a masterclass in courage, creativity, and sheer grit. Instead of standing on the sidelines, they dove headfirst into blue oceans, carving out space in markets that hadn’t seen meaningful change in decades.
For aspiring entrepreneurs and those simply curious about the alchemy of innovation, their stories provide lessons worth dissecting.
What does it take to thrive against the odds?
Let’s find out.
Mia Funt and ByHeart: Innovating in One of the Most Regulated Spaces Possible
When Mia Funt became a parent, she encountered a glaring market gap all US parents are painfully aware of: the lack of accessible infant formula.
The choices were few, the transparency was lacking, and the trust consumers had in existing brands often felt misplaced.
But what startled her most was discovering that this wasn’t for lack of demand; it was because incumbent entrenchment had made innovation in this category almost non-existent. “We couldn’t believe that something as critical as infant formula hadn’t seen meaningful innovation in decades,” she recalls. “And it wasn’t because parents weren’t interested in finding a better-quality formula—parents, myself included, were actively searching high and low for options that they could feel great about feeding their babies. The root of this industry and innovation stagnation was the towering regulatory and operational barriers that made it nearly impossible to enter this space.”
Mia, along with her co-founder and brother, Ron Belldegrun, set out to do what many deemed impossible: build a company that could produce infant formula from the ground up, with transparency and trust at its core.
In fact, breaking into the market was so difficult that no company had done it in the 15 years before ByHeart had its start, and it took five years for Mia to get the first batch out to consumers thanks to the complexities inherent in the business, FDA approvals and other challenges that await would-be entrants.
“There’s no playbook for this,” Mia explains. “Every step felt like breaking new ground. You need a team that’s not just skilled but committed to pioneering something that simply hasn’t been done before.”
The stakes in infant nutrition couldn’t be higher, as Mia knew intimately herself as a mother.
Families are trusting a company with their children’s health, often during the most vulnerable stages of life.
For Mia, this responsibility was both a weight and a motivator. “We wanted to raise the bar for what families should expect from this industry,” Mia says. “Every decision we made came back to this idea: how do we do what’s best for babies, which entailed investing heavily in research and clinical trials that other brands that simply marketed what others produced didn’t need to take on.”
ByHeart’s journey is a lesson in perseverance, vision and the power of founders working to fix something they’ve found broken.
For would-be entrepreneurs, the company’s story serves as a powerful reminder that even the most challenging markets can be entered into, and even the most entrenched incumbents can be disrupted. However, accomplishing all of this requires not just a vision for what could be, but the grit to tackle the barriers in the way.
“We had to build everything from scratch,” Mia reflects. “But when you believe in what you’re doing, the impossible just becomes part of the job”.
Few would dare to enter an industry this tightly regulated, where the barriers to entry are as steep as the stakes themselves. Yet, ByHeart has become a model for what’s possible when a mission-driven team is unwilling to compromise.
Eynat Guez and Papaya Global: Navigating Payroll’s Untapped PotentialThe entrepreneurial drive to tackle the impossible isn’t confined to regulated industries like infant nutrition.
It also extends to less glamorous but equally critical domains, like global payroll. While Mia Funt sought to revolutionize how families feed their infants, Eynat Guez, founder of Papaya Global, set her sights on fixing one of the most fragmented and overlooked systems in business operations.
Her journey, like Funt’s, began with a recognition of a glaring problem, and a determination to solve it.
For Eynat, the journey to founding Papaya Global began with a fundamental realization: the systems for managing payroll and payments in multinational companies were broken.
Her military background and subsequent work in global HR exposed her to the wealth of inefficiencies of these systems: outdated platforms, compliance nightmares, and the sheer complexity of paying employees across borders.
“Paying employees is fundamental to operating a business,” says Guez. “Not being able to do so compliantly, accurately, and on time, is far more than an inconvenience. It’s detrimental to growth and success.”
But solving this problem would prove to be no small feat.
Payroll may not have the allure of high-tech consumer products, but the intricacies involved are staggering, as Eynat and the team would soon discover.
From navigating local regulations in hundreds of jurisdictions to building a platform capable of scaling across industries, the challenges were as relentless as the team.
“The first three years were incredibly rough,” Eynat admits. “We had to learn the full scope of the problem we were solving, and it was bigger and far more complex than we thought. At times it felt like we had entered into a living nightmare.”
What drove the team forward was Guez’s belief in the potential of streamlining payroll and payments.
As Papaya expanded, it became clear that payroll data was a goldmine waiting to be tapped.
“Payroll is about paying employees, but instead of being the largest expense, it can become a great asset,” Guez explains. “Once we got started, we realized that our platform offers organizations unprecedented visibility and transparency into their global workforce. This insight could serve them in building strategies and making more educated decisions.”
Building a global platform like Papaya might be a technology play at heart, but on the customer side, it’s a game of trust.
Guez emphasizes the importance of credibility in a space where compliance is non-negotiable. “Our clients are entrusting us with their most critical function, paying their people. That kind of responsibility demands accuracy, transparency, and constant innovation,” she says.
Today, Papaya Global employs nearly 1,000 people and serves companies in over 160 countries, but Guez is quick to point out that the work is far from over. “Compliance, data safety, fraud detection, and privacy are ongoing challenges, but they are also opportunities. Our mission is not to keep up with those challenges, but to stay ahead of them.”
For entrepreneurs, Papaya’s journey highlights the importance of finding opportunity in complexity. “If you’re solving a problem that’s hard to explain, that’s a good sign you’re onto something big,” she reflects. “The hard part is what makes it worth doing”.
Arianna Ajtar and Mars the Label: Redefining Fashion from the Ground UpWhile Eynat Guez found an opportunity in clearing out the thicket that hid a better way to do global payroll, Arianna Ajtar’s entrepreneurial spark ignited in a far more personal space: her own wardrobe.
Her journey, though less steeped in complexity, was no less ambitious.
What began as a frustration with fashion’s one-size-fits-all approach evolved into a bold venture that challenged the norms of an industry saturated with sameness. What’s even bolder is how it all got its start.
Arianna Ajtar didn’t set out to create a fashion empire. At just 19, she was frustrated by the lack of clothing that matched her personal style and budget. So, she decided to make her own.
“I didn’t have a background in fashion design, I just knew what I wanted to wear, and I figured there had to be others out there like me,” she recalls.
What started as a personal project in her parents’ garage quickly gained traction, and Mars the Label was born.
Arianna’s early years in business were marked by trial and error, like any entrepreneurs are.
From sourcing materials to designing pieces and handling logistics, she wore every hat herself. “I was juggling so much at once,” she admits. “Looking back, I see how much time I wasted trying to do it all instead of building a team around me”.
Her plan was to carve out a unique niche in the fashion industry by going for high-quality, attainable pieces that stand apart from both fast fashion and luxury brands.
Here, Arianna’s understanding of her audience was key. “I wasn’t designing for a trend; I was designing for a mindset,” she explains. “Mars is about confidence and individuality. It’s for women who want to stand out without breaking the bank”.
As the brand grew, so did her vision for what Mars could become, but as usual, growth hasn’t come without its challenges.
Scaling her brand meant stepping into an industry dominated by established players with far greater resources.
But she didn’t see this as a disadvantage. “Being small gave us agility,” she explains. “We could pivot quickly, listen to our customers, and build something authentic”.
For Arianna, the success of Mars the Label comes down to authenticity and purpose. “People can tell when a brand is genuine,” she reflects. “If you stay true to your vision and connect with your audience, you can build something that lasts”.
The journeys of Mia Funt, Eynat Guez, and Arianna Ajtar are as diverse as they are inspiring, but they share a common thread: the willingness to confront the impossible in pursuit of building what’s missing from the market.
These entrepreneurs weren’t content with simply identifying gaps in the market, they committed to filling them, no matter how daunting the challenge.
Their stories remind us that entrepreneurship isn’t a path charted out from day one. It’s a journey where resilience, authenticity and a deep understanding of the problem you’re solving are the keys to breaking through.
For the next generation of entrepreneurs, these founders offer a blueprint not just for success, but for redefining what’s possible. As Mia Funt aptly puts it, “The impossible isn’t a barrier, it’s a starting point”