From MOMtrepreneurs to One of the First Female Tech Company CEOs

Mother’s Day weekend Angelina Musik-Comp celebrates 24 years of helping women and moms succeed in business through MOMtrepreneurs she founded in 1990 and June 1st 15 years since becoming one of the first seven of  ten female CEO’s of a web technology company, IntelligentNetware.com, and longest reigning at a single company as well, whereas others have moved on to serve other companies. 

{1} Carol Bartz, CEO Autodesk (1992-2006); {2} Judith Lenore Estrin, CEO of Network Computing Devices (1993-1995); {3} Dr. Jo Mei Chang, CEO Vitria Technology Inc. (1994-2003); {4} Margaret Cushing Whitman, CEO of Ebay (1998-2008); {5} Ellen Hancock, CEO of Exodus Communications (1998-2001); {6} Diane Greene, CEO of VMWare (1998-2008), {7} Angelina Musik, CEO of Intelligent Netware (June 1, 1999 to present); {8} Carly Fiorina, CEO of Hewlett-Packard (July 1999-2005); {9} Anne Mulcahy, CEO of Xerox (2001-2009), and {10} Mitchell Baker, CEO Mozilla Foundation / Corporation (2005-2008). 

Leading by example, in 2003, Musik took the talents and resources behind her media, marketing and web technology company, co-owned with Daniel Comp, to infuse MOMtrepreneurs which created a following over a million women within a year.

In 2004 Musik became the first woman awarded twice by the U.S. Small Business Administration and in 2010 a Texas Women’s Hall of Fame Nominee recognized by Texas Governor Rick Perry for increasing the success rate of entrepreneurs.

“MOMtrepreneurs started on the playgrounds in San Antonio where I informally coached moms on how to monetize their talents, dream bigger and put actions plans behind those dreams vs. just talking about it.”

Musik’s first venture, as a mother of a three and five year old was a private registered home day care she called Angelina's House.  She designed a standard and a system to serve only a few children for a certain period of time and pay.

“It was important for me to define the type of children and environment mine were going to be raised in. I chose to maintain a level of integrity in my home and business.”

Musik accepted parents who valued investing in the education and personal development of their own children which gave her the freedom to teach the children she cared for alongside hers. From weekly field trips to healthy menus to teaching personal development and etiquette. Together this translated into more positive behavioral outcomes for the parents of children in their own home.

As Musik’s own two children started school Angelina’s House went from full time to only after school which freed her up to launch Heavenly Help, a private concierge home organizing and cleaning, and life coaching service.

“I love facilitating makeovers in people’s lives. Providing clarity where there is confusion, order where there is chaos and insight through what I've learned from the trials and errors in my own life. I learned that one of my greatest strengths was helping people reduce their rate of mistakes, heartaches, time and money wasted by working directly on what had a higher probability of a successful outcome.”

When Musik retired Angelina’s House she went full time with Heavenly Help enabling her to fund her first Christian Pop Album, ‘Give You Rest’. After retiring from being a church worship leader she started a band, an artistic outlet and effective coping tool while struggling through a difficult marriage.

In 1999, after thirteen years of marriage, Musik and her two kids left the unhealthy home environment through funds she generated from Heavenly Help and moved from Texas to WA State to reboot in safety.

“I used entrepreneurship to fund my moving into a better life, which was scary.  Being an entrepreneur gave me the flexibility to raise my kids creatively around my marital chaos and financially empowered me to eventually leave.  Over time I funded the ability for me to exercise my choice to leave, and no longer be stuck!”

June 1, 1999, Musik rolled into a new life in WA State and adopted a new role as one of the youngest and first female CEO’s of a web technology company at 33 years old while in hiding from her eventual ex. 

While Musik and her children hid in safety, with the help of Pierce County’s YWCA in Tacoma, WA, she picked up teaching herself programming where she had left off in high school with the help of her now husband, back then, Daniel Comp, co-founder of IntelligentNetware.com.

“My computer science teacher, Mr. James, saw talent in me I didn't. Coding is similar to how I live my life by trial and error, by iterations. It’s what I've been practiced at since I was a child who eventually emigrated from Germany to the U.S. as a very awkward teenager who had to figure out a way to fit in. Now, I get paid to create iterations in people’s lives and companies for a greater outcome.”

As a newly enterprising couple, Musik and Comp built a tech company based on customer empowerment, not webmaster bondage. They were among the first and few to build database driven websites enabling clients to login and change their content on the fly through the internet, which was unheard of in 1999.

Back then, Microsoft Frontpage was the popular program web designers used to create one page at a time for their clients whereas Musik would create a website that would auto generate a new page within seconds by the client while automatically adding that page name to the navigation bar with the click of a button. The page was ready for content insertion with 5 seconds or less. 

As a woman and a CEO in web technology, in the early 2000s, Musik had no context around the challenge of people believing in their capabilities. What they shared uniquely in the marketplace is that they could spend more time mentoring their clients in business than programming their websites.

“I was treated as if I was selling snake oil when I shared that we could build a company’s website in less than a week, really in a day, when web companies where taking weeks and months. It was ‘not normal’.  I think I accidentally made business owners feel stupid for not knowing that they didn't have to pay per page, which could take hours or days to build, versus seconds to create. It just really sounded crazy to them.”

Crazy or not, this exceptional manner of creating web technology tools that empower their clients from architecture, design, build and delivery to internet marketing returns is still there. Clients on the front pages of Google organically for years is still ‘normal’ and they still benefit from ongoing business coaching, personal development. They also have the option to request for web technology investment support if they want to increase their market share even bigger.

"At the end of the day, my greatest achievements are being a mom to my two adult children Scotiana and Christian. That I have paved a better road for them to walked on to succeed personally and professionally, beyond our personal adventures that we've grown through. That every moment of hardship woven into our lives along the way has strengthened our spirits, minds and our commitments to help others. "

Angelina and her two children, Scotiana and Christian. She says, "At the end of the day, my greatest achievements are being a mom to my two adult children Scotiana and Christian. That I have paved a better road for them to walked on to succeed personally and professionally, beyond our personal adventures that we've grown through. That every moment of hardship woven into our lives along the way has strengthened our spirits, minds and our commitments to help others.

Timeline

■ 2016 Launch of Wellness by Choice Magazine - Seattle 
■ 2016 Initiation of Wellbar
■ 2016 Initiation of Bosch Organics
■ 2015 Re-launch and branding of Beautiful Intelligence to Safe Plastic Surgeons 
■ 2015 Launch of Concierge Medical Society 
■ 2014 Launching Wellness by Choice - Learn, Live, Eat & Play.
■ 2013 Launched 'Stop the Botch' Campaign for victims of plastic surgery.
■ 2013 San Antonio Women's Hall of Fame Nominee 
■ 2012 Beautiful Intelligence Program for Women 
■ 2012 International Women's SEO & SERPs Award 
■ 2011 Gracie Awards Nomination by The Alliance for Women in Media (AWM) 
■ 2010 Texas Women’s Hall of Fame Nominee [Governors Commission for Women] 
■ 2010 Letter of Recognition from Governor Rick Perry for Texas Women’s Hall of Fame Nomination 
■ 2010 Business Journal ‘Women in Business Award’ Nomination
 ■ 2009 Letter of Recognition from U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison for establishing, empowering and recognizing women through The Red Dress Society. 
■ 2009 The Red Dress Society’s ‘Philanthropic’ Angel Award as recognition from its own awarded women recipients that year. 
■ 2009 Founded the Red Dress Society Angel Awards program to recognize, aware, mentor and marketing women behind social causes and social entrepreneurs.
■ 2009 SAMY's Award Nomination [Internet & Digital Media Production Category] thru the American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT), local chapter San Antonio Media Alliance [SAMA]. AWRT is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. Originally conceived as the women's division of the National Association of Broadcasters. 
■ 2008 Recognized by TANF for the designing the first Welfare Entrepreneurial Achievement Program [WEAP] – the convergence of economic development and psychology. A solution to empower women off welfare, reduce the teen pregnancy rate, increase high school graduates, reduce domestic violence, create jobs and strengthen families emotionally and financially. 
■ 2006 NAWBO Entrepreneurial ‘Innovator’ Award Nomination, San Antonio The National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) propels women entrepreneurs into economic, social and political spheres of power. 
■ 2005 NAWBO Entrepreneurial ‘Innovator’ Award Nomination, San Antonio. The National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) propels women entrepreneurs into economic, social and political spheres of power. 
■ 2005 Essence Magazine’s ‘Women Who Change the World’ Nomination
■ 2004 NBC's Donald Trump's Apprentice Season III Semi-Finalist 'Street Smarts vs.Book Smarts'
■ 2004 U.S. Small Business Administration, Sixth District (Five States) ‘Women in Business Champion of the Year’ Award Recipient.
■ 2004 U.S. Small Business Administration, San Antonio’s ‘Women in Business Champion of the Year’ Award Recipient
■ 2004 NAWBO Entrepreneurial ‘Rising Star’ Award Nomination, San Antonio. The National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) propels women entrepreneurs into economic, social and political spheres of power. 
■ 2004 Letter of Recognition from Governor Rick Perry for empowering Small Business Success in Women through MOMtrepreneurs, LLC using the combined power of media, mentoring, digital marketing and web technology. 
■ 2004 San Antonio Business Journal ‘Top 40 Entrepreneurs under 40’ Nomination
■ 2003 International Athena Award Nominee - ATHENA International is a non-profit organization that seeks to support, develop and honor women leaders. The program inspires women to reach their full potential and strives to create balance in leadership worldwide. 
■ 2000-2003 Edge Learning Institute - Design Leadership Training and Online HR Sustaining Program used by Starbucks, Jack in the Box, Panera Bread, etc... 
■ 2000 Raytheon - Web Based Training Program for the Navy 
■ 1999 UPS Tracking System Design 
■ 1990 Founded MOMtrepreneurs - Women in Business Organization that mentors, trains, support and funds women and mom entrepreneurs