opinion
Texas Women Out Here Building Empires While Tech Bros Argue About Bitcoin
Forbes just dropped its list of the wealthiest self-made women in America, and Texas is showing off—because apparently, women here can do more than just make brisket.

By Chad Evans
Published June 20, 2025 at 11:00am

In a shocking turn of events, Forbes has released its annual list of the wealthiest self-made women in America, and—hold onto your crypto wallets, bros—some of them are from Texas. That’s right, the land of barbecue, big trucks, and Elon Musk’s latest rocket test site is also home to women who, against all odds, managed to accumulate wealth without inheriting it from a distant uncle who struck oil in the '80s.
Leading the pack is Thai Lee, an Austin-based CEO worth a casual $6.1 billion. That’s right, billion—with a B. For context, that’s roughly the GDP of a small island nation, or the amount of money Elon Musk spends on Twitter rebrands in a single quarter. Lee runs SHI International, an IT infrastructure company that, according to Forbes, is one of the largest woman-owned businesses in the U.S. Clearly, she missed the memo that tech is a boys’ club.
Then there’s Robyn Jones, who—get this—raised six children before deciding, You know what? I’m bored. Let me just start a billion-dollar insurance company real quick. Now, her husband no longer has to drive trucks, which is great, because nothing says marital bliss like not spending 300 days a year in a semi.
SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell also made the list, proving that even in Elon’s orbit, some people manage to be successful without tweeting memes at 3 a.m. Shotwell, who joined SpaceX as employee #11, is now worth $1.2 billion. That’s enough to buy a one-way ticket to Mars—assuming Musk ever gets around to launching civilians instead of just Teslas into space.
Meanwhile, Kendra Scott turned her spare bedroom jewelry operation into a $900 million empire, because apparently, all you need to become a billionaire these days is a glue gun and an Etsy account. And let’s not forget Merrilee Kick, the former schoolteacher who looked at her paycheck and thought, You know what pays better than educating future generations? Booze in a ball. Now, her BuzzBallz empire is worth $400 million. Take that, standardized testing.
But the real tragedy here? Beyoncé—Queen Bey herself—wasn’t included in the Texas roundup because Forbes lists her as a New Yorker. That’s right, the woman who brought us Lemonade and the phrase “Texas bama” has been geographically disowned. If that’s not a crime against the Lone Star State, I don’t know what is.
So, to all the self-made women of Texas: Keep hustling, keep building empires, and most importantly, keep proving that you don’t need a trust fund or a viral tweet to make it big. Just maybe avoid telling Elon. He might try to buy your company next.
Mic drop.