Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the factors impacting successful Iranian women entrepreneurs. The factors include: self‐efficacy, risk taking, negative stereotypes, and societal culture and traditions. Design/methodology/approach The paper utilizes interviews conducted with a sample of successful Iranian women entrepreneurs and examines the challenges they had to overcome, as well as their success factors. Findings Challenges caused by the negative stereotypes and traditions of Iranian society are barriers successful Iranian women entrepreneurs had to overcome. The possession of personal internal factors such as high levels of self‐efficacy and risk taking positively impacted these women's success. Research limitation/implications The interviews were not conducted by the authors and were published in Farsi, so there may be interpretation and/or translation issues. However, there are few empirical studies on Iranian women entrepreneurs, and this research is one of the first that contributes to a better understanding of this important group of entrepreneurs. Further empirical research is needed to advance knowledge of Iranian women entrepreneurs. Originality/value The paper contributes to the scarce knowledge about Iranian women entrepreneurship, by introducing readers to this unique subgroup of entrepreneurs. It represents a starting point to an important area of research.
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