Inc. Names Mission MightyMe Co-Founder, Catherine Mitchell Jaxon, to Its 2026 Female Founders 500 List
Inc.’s annual Female Founders list celebrates the nation’s most innovative women entrepreneurs, who collectively generated approximately $12.3 billion in 2025
ATLANTA, GA / March 10, 2026 — Mission MightyMe is proud to announce that Co-Founder and Co-CEO Catherine Mitchell Jaxon has been named to Inc.’s 2026 Female Founders 500, an annual list honoring the most dynamic women business leaders in the United States. The honor recognizes founders whose bold ideas, resilience, and execution are shaping the future of their industries.
The 2026 Female Founders honorees collectively generated approximately $12.3 billion in 2025 revenue and $12.2 billion in funding to date, underscoring the economic impact of women-led businesses across sectors.
Each year, Inc. editors evaluate applications through a rigorous, multi-round selection process. Founders are assessed on both quantitative performance metrics, including revenue growth, funding, sales, and audience size, as well as qualitative factors such as innovation, social impact, and brand momentum. The final list represents entrepreneurs who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and measurable progress over the past year. Previous honorees have included such game-changing leaders as Billie Jean King, Sallie Krawcheck, Serena Williams, and Emma Grede — all of whom have transformed their industries and broken barriers along the way.
“I’m honored to receive this recognition from Inc. and humbled to be in the company of such inspiring leaders,” said Catherine Mitchell Jaxon, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Mission MightyMe, the children's food brand on a mission to end the food allergy epidemic. “This recognition reflects the dedication of my co-founders and our incredible team, who work every day to help children lead healthier, happier lives. I’m lucky to share this journey with my husband and co-founder JJ, who has worked tirelessly building this company from the ground up with me. And I’m deeply grateful for our co-founder Dr. Gideon Lack’s decades-long research and work, which transformed how we think about food allergy prevention and made our mission possible. This honor is a powerful reminder of what’s possible when science, innovation, mission - and a great team - come together.”
Honoree selection is also honed through the evaluation of the program’s advisory board, which includes Patty Arvielo, co-founder and CEO of New American Funding; Tiffany Dufu, president of the Tory Burch Foundation; Joy Mangano, co-founder and CEO of CleanBoss; Michelle Cordeiro Grant, founder and CEO of GORGIE; Sheila Lirio Marcelo, co-founder and CEO of Ohai.ai and founder of Care.com; and Melissa Mash, co-founder and CEO of Dagne Dover.
After her own family’s experience with food allergies, Jaxon is passionate about helping other families prevent them. Catherine and JJ Jaxon’s oldest daughter is allergic to most nuts after they followed the old guidelines to avoid them in infancy. They were determined to follow the new research and recommendations for early introduction when their son was born, but the baby aisle was allergen-free. So they teamed up with Dr. Gideon Lack whose groundbreaking research (LEAP Study) changed feeding guidelines around the globe. Together, they formulated Nutty Puffs, the exact problem-solving product they were looking for, and addressed a huge gap in the market. A recent study found that the mission is working, with peanut allergies down 43% since Dr. Lack’s research changed feeding guidelines to recommend early allergen introduction.
Jaxon has led Mission MightyMe to continued success with strategic expansion, hiring, and increased brand awareness. Before launching in retail in fall 2024, Mission MightyMe, which launched its first product in 2020, saw four years of strong, direct-to-consumer, e-commerce sales growth that had more than doubled each year. The brand is known for its first-to-market products, which are game-changing for busy families and make it easy to introduce nuts early—and keep them in the diet consistently.
Additional honors reflect the impact of this work: Co-Founder Dr. Gideon Lack was recently named one of the TIME100 World’s Most Influential Leaders in Health. And last year alone, Mission MightyMe was voted a 2025 "Best Baby & Kids Snack" by Good Housekeeping, a "Best Baby Food Company for Transparency" on Heavy Metals by Consumer Reports, and "Organic Baby Food Product of the Year" by Baby Innovation Awards.
Mission MightyMe has another huge year of growth ahead. The brand is gearing up for an exclusive product debut later this month at Target, signaling an entirely new category launch for the company. The brand is also preparing to launch in Walmart nationwide in April after winning a “golden ticket” at the retailer’s 2025 Open Call competition, which will put the brand on shelf at more than 3,000 retail stores in all 50 states, including Target and Sprouts Farmers Markets, while also reaching customers in more than 180 countries through its international distribution partnership with iHerb.
Jaxon has also led Mission MightyMe’s ingredients transparency efforts, doubling down on a commitment to safety and rigorous product testing from the very beginning. All MightyMe products have been awarded the Clean Label Project Purity Award, which tests for more than 200 different contaminants including heavy metals and toxins.
"Each year, we are increasingly amazed by the extraordinary leaders on our Inc. Female Founders 500 list,” says Bonny Ghosh, editorial director at Inc. “The honorees on this year’s list include innovators in AI, beauty and wellness trendsetters winning devoted fans, and nonprofit leaders making a real impact in their communities. Together, they’re showing all of us what trailblazing female leadership looks like.”
Several honorees will be featured in Inc. magazine’s Spring print issue, on newsstands March 17, 2026. To see the complete list of honorees, please visit: https://www.inc.com/female-founders/2026.
About Inc.
Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.
About Mission MightyMe
Mission MightyMe is the children's food brand on a mission to end the food allergy epidemic with science-backed snacks that make it simple to follow the latest pediatric recommendations for early and regular nut consumption to prevent future allergies. The company was founded by parents and social impact entrepreneurs Catherine and J.J. Jaxon, Todd Slotkin and world-renowned pediatrician Dr. Gideon Lack, whose groundbreaking research, The Learning Early About Peanut Allergy Study (LEAP), found that most peanut allergies can be prevented by regularly consuming peanut foods, starting in infancy – a discovery that changed feeding guidelines around the world accordingly. The Atlanta-based, mission-driven brand gives back by supporting food allergy prevention research and education. For more information, visit missionmightyme.com.
