Making Moves: Pop Stars in Politics, Networking Retreats, & Talk Show Trades
The first person on Mars? Most likely a woman.
Each Friday, we highlight five news stories that celebrate women and their impressive accomplishments. Read on for badass networking retreats, women in space, and a new female talk show host!
Ariana Grande is saying, “Thank U, next!” to unregistered voters. The pop sensation started the #ThankUNextGen initiative which allows fans to register to vote at her concerts during the Sweetener tour, as well as through texting.
Networking just went next-level. The company Baddies and Bosses recently announced a retreat for black millennial women in sunny Cancun, Mexico. The retreat will focus on building meaningful relationships in the workplace.
The saying goes that men are from Mars, but it looks like a woman will be there first. The head of NASA recently spilled on a podcast that they are working hard to make sure a female astronaut is the first to step foot on the neighboring planet.
Get ready to stay up late! YouTube star Lilly Singh will be taking over Carson Daly’s late-night NBC talk show, making her the only female late-night talk show host on a Big 4 network. You go girl!
Making moves and making money! The career pathing platform and startup Landit recently closed at $13 million in Series A funding. The company was co-founded by Lisa Skeet Tatum and Sheila Marcelo—two women of color—and works to increase the success of women in the workplace.
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5 Preventable Startup Culture Mistakes
Hustle hard, but don’t make these common mistakes.
Every founder knows that culture is crucial to a startup’s success — as Fred Wilson says, “If you want to be in business forever, you need to build a culture that sustains the business” — but there are a few common mistakes that startups make when creating their culture:
1. YOU THINK CULTURE JUST "HAPPENS."
Running a startup means your burn rate is always in the forefront of your mind, and as a result, everything takes a backseat to getting to MVP. Culture can be fixed later, right? The truth is that “culture” is just another way of saying “how we work here,” and by the time you get to your MVP, it will be deeply entrenched.
FiveStars’s founder Victor Ho never took the time to officially define the culture— he felt it was too “cheesy.” But as they grew from 40 to 80 employees, their culture got diluted and as people clashed over ways of getting work done. As quoted in Fast Company, Ho described it as “one of the hardest periods of the company.” Rather than waiting to define your culture, consciously shape your culture while you build your MVP. You don’t have to go on an expensive company retreat, or write an elaborate culture deck. It can be as simple as writing down five words that describe your culture and once a month, as a team, discussing whether they’re still appropriate.
2. YOU THINK HIRING MORE PEOPLE MEANS SUCCESS.
Celebrating is so important because success at a startup can be so rare in the first months. It’s comforting to be able to point something that’s a clear sign it’s all working. And as Buffer’s founder noted, “Team size is easy to understand. Sometimes it impressed people when I told them how big the company was, and I was proud to share it.” But the company brought on too many people, too fast, and was forced to lay off 11% of the company. Protect team morale by tracking more accurate measures of success, and find ways to celebrate small wins regularly.
3. YOU SPEND TOO MUCH ON PERKS.
Bribing employees is a common Silicon Valley practice — what else are meals by gourmet chefs, meditation classes, and laundry service but attempts to get more work out of employees? And those bribes don’t come cheap: shrinking VC funds forced Dropbox to cancel its free shuttle and and limit free meals a few years ago.
If you really want your team to do their best work, regardless of your compensation budget, give them meaningful work. Show them how their work is directly impacting the organization, and how the organization is making a difference in the world. In other words, give them purpose. Oh, and don’t worry — “purpose” doesn’t necessarily have to be a product or service that saves the world (though that’s a plus); it just means that you have a compelling vision and mission.
4. YOU OVERWORK PEOPLE IN PURSUIT OF THE PRODUCT.
Signing up for a startup is a commitment; long hours and outrageous goals are part of the bargain. But push too hard, and you’ll flare out. At Zynga, for instance, long hours, “aggressive” deadlines, and an obsession with performance metrics led to a talent drain, and even hampered its ability to acquire companies. To prevent burnout, hold regular check-ins with your team to help them manage workload and stress levels. And don’t forget to check-in with the founder: 30% of founders report being depressed, as opposed to only 7% of the general population.
Again, we’re not saying you won’t spend some long nights and weekends at this office, but don’t make it a cultural norm.
5. YOU DON'T FIRE JERKS BECAUSE THEY'RE SMART.
Hiring the best talent is highly competitive, but ignore the “no asshole” rule at your own peril. Despite their superior skill set, their personality will destroy your team culture, not to mention their productivity. In one of our engagements, we worked with an executive whose attitude turned the rest of the team against him. This led him to protect his own job by guarding his data more and more closely, leaving the startup completely in the dark when making crucial decisions.
The best way to avoid this problem is to carefully screen for jerks during the interview process, listening for self-centered answers and trash talking past employers. (As Raylan Givens of Justified noted, “If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you’re the asshole.”) But if one has slipped past your radar, talk to them and make it clear how you expect their behavior to change. If they don’t shape up, then it’s time to go your separate ways — the rest of the team will thank you.
Written by Paula Cizek, Director of Knowledge & Editorial at NOBL. NOBL is an organizational and team design consultancy that unleashes the creativity and capability of teams through new ways of working.
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Startup 101: How to Build Brand Trust from Scratch
Started from the bottom. Now... what?
I was inspired to talk about how to engage potential customers and build trust after a recent search on LinkedIn. I was searching for a sales funnel and email marketing specialist, and I came across several people who claimed to be consultants or specialists for hire. When I wanted to learn more, I couldn’t find anything about them online. No reviews, no website, and no information about why or how someone could hire them. This is an immediate red flag for me, but when I thought more about it, I realized that maybe people just don’t know how to engage potential customers and build trust.
As a personal branding expert, I often discuss why it’s important to cultivate a personal brand and optimize platforms like LinkedIn, so I was astounded that so many people who want to be hired as a consultant or expert don’t know how to create an online footprint. If you do not know how to maximize your online footprint, you are hurting your career and losing business. When you’re not a heritage brand, your online footprint is even more important when you’re trying to engage potential customers and build trust.
Optimize your LinkedIn profile
This is the first step of engaging potential customers. If you’re not on LinkedIn currently, create an account now. This is one of the most widely used platforms in career development, so underutilizing LinkedIn could be detrimental for your career. You’ll want to make sure your profile is fully optimized, but on top of that, make sure that your contact information is prominent, especially if you’re interested in getting hired for your services.
"If you don't know how to maximize your online footprint, you're hurting your career and losing business."
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Highlighting your expertise and how you can help others is also one of the most important aspects of engaging potential customers. Show examples of your work and your professional achievements to show potential customers exactly what you can do for them.
If you are offering professional services and are a registered business, create a company page on LinkedIn where people can learn more about your business and see that it is legitimate. Creating a company page on a trusted platform like LinkedIn helps build trust in your own brand.
Demonstrate a professional brand
If you’re offering professional services, you’ll want to demonstrate a professional brand that’s consistent across all channels. This means creating uniform content and being present on a company website, LinkedIn, Google, Yelp, and social media. The more channels and social platforms you utilize, the more reputable and trustworthy your brand becomes. If someone is unable to find a source of your work, including examples, contact information, and recognition, they’re unlikely to trust you as a brand and a professional. If you can’t establish trust among consumers, you won’t have a successful business.
Utilize referral marketing
Referrals, recommendations, and testimonials are a huge part of building online trust and maximizing your online footprint. When a trusted friend tells you about a business, you transfer that trust to the company. Use LinkedIn recommendations, Yelp reviews, and customer testimonials on your website to help build trust and highlight your achievements. If real customers can attest to your quality of work and what you have accomplished for them, you will be able to establish yourself as a reputable resource.
As a side note, building up your presence on sites like Yelp will immensely help you because consumers trust that you cannot buy good reviews on that platform. Yelp uses algorithms which test and verify the reviews before posting them, which creates another level of consumer trust. When you’re using a trusted platform, it can appear more legitimate than simply writing down a customer testimonial with no verification.
Cultivate a consistent personal brand across channels
Creating a cohesive personal brand is extremely important for developing your career, and using consistent branding across channels helps build your credibility. Think about it this way: If you search for a person or business and see multiple platforms and channels come up with the same information and visuals, you can assume that this brand has put in the time to create a consistent branding strategy. If you see different visuals, as well as inconsistent verbiage and service offerings across platforms, it’s harder to believe that the brand is professional and trustworthy.
________________
When considering how to optimize your online footprint, you want to focus on a few main factors:
- Providing resources such as contact information and examples of work
- Creating a consistent brand across channels
- Creating trust through reviews and testimonials to establish yourself as a reputable source of work
The more information about yourself as a business professional you can put out there, the more trusted you will become. Note that this is not personal information, but information about business like business contact information, business information, services offered, etc.
A native San Franciscan, Michele Lando is a Certified Professional Resume Writer and founder of writestylesonline.com. She has a passion for helping others present the best version of themselves, both on paper and in person, and works to polish individuals' application package and personal style. Aiming to help create a perfect personal branding package, Write Styles presents tips to enhance your resume, style, and boost your confidence.
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Highlighting Diversity in Atlanta's Startup World
Nicknamed Silicon Valley of the South.
Credit: Laura Dee Photography
When it comes to diversity and inclusion in the workplace, Atlanta is king (or in our case, queen.)
Today, more and more companies are looking to be at the forefront of diversity and are shifting their focus towards inclusion and representation in the workspace. (To that, we say what a beautiful time, to be alive.) And with Atlanta being the poster child for diversity and our next #CreateCultivate stop, we had to highlight some of the ways other companies can take notes from the state that’s leading the pack.
INTEGRATION AND BREAKING THE INVISIBLE LINES
As Atlanta continues to move away from a history of segregation, the same concept has been applied to work practices, landing two of the city’s biggest companies (Coca Cola and Southern Company) on the list of Black Enterprise’s Top 40 Best Companies for Diversity List last year.
And inventors are taking more risks in the city because of its potential. In 2014 firms invested about $500 million in Atlanta companies — the most in a decade.
DIVERSITY IN ATLANTA’S STARTUP CULTURE
More POC in Atlanta are looking to change the face of what the typical startup founder or entrepreneur looks like. More men and women of color are starting their own companies, especially in the tech sector, and not only that: Atlanta has been named #5 in the best cities for female founders with 44.3% number of female-owned firms in the city.
While only .2% of venture capital deals have gone to black female founders and black women-led startups raising only an average of $36k in outside funding, more WOC are getting out there to show they are the future of innovation.
Thanks to programs like The BIG Innovation Center, which is currently housing a four-month long accelerator program training black and Latina women from Atlanta how to launch their startup, how to acquire office space, and how to find mentors, we’re not too far from seeing more of “The Real Unicorns of Tech” in the startup world.
"We’re not too far from seeing more of 'The Real Unicorns of Tech' in the startup world."
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Atlanta still has a long way to go when it comes having more POC-- especially women-- as the faces of companies. However, this city is taking exemplary steps to ensure that not too far from now, when a female WOC is represented as the boss in a startup sitcom, it won’t be too farfetched.
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5 Incredibly Useful Tips from Top Startup Founders
"You want people who've watched boats burn."
photo by Irida Mete.
When Create & Cultivate founder Jaclyn Johnson took to the Shopstyle Stage on Saturday for the Startup 101 panel the first question on everyone's mind was, "Who makes that amazing chair?" (Bend Goods for the goods FYI.) The second, of course, was "What can I glean from these founders?"
From Ariel Kaye CEO founder of Parachute telling Cultivators "Being a founder is the best and worst thing ever, all the time," to Carly de Castro co-founder of Pressed Juicery joking, "I didn't know any entrepreneurs. I didn't know anything about business. And I thought well if I can learn to make juice, how hard can it be? It was really hard," there was so much note taking, nodding, and knowledge dropping. So we're recapping the best of the best to encourage and aid you with your entrepreneurial dreams.
YOU HAVE TO BE OBSESSED WITH YOUR COMPANY, OR IT WILL BURN YOU OUT.
Josh Zad, founder of Alfred Coffee told the audience, "Coffee is a timeless beverage. I opened the cafe and I became obsessed with it. I'm focussed 100% on food and beverage."
Gabby Etrog Cohen SVP of Brand Strategy at SoulCycle echoed this sentiment. "I'm not a founder," she told the crowd, "but I am SoulCycle's 5th corporate employee and helped grow the brand from four to 60 studios. We deliver service, we don't sell. It's of utmost importance for our riders to feel like family and to feel like from the moment they walk through our doors to the moment they leave they have someone who cares about them. It's why after six years I'm still so committed to the company."
"My soul," said Carly de Castro, "is part of this brand."
"My soul is part of this brand."
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KNOW YOUR BRAND AND STICK TO YOUR GUNS
If people aren't initially following or engaging, but you have a brand and a social strategy that you believe in, you can use that to carry you through until they do. Get your grid right but also stick to your vision.
"Coffee is infinitely sharable," said Josh Zad, "and the trending coffee shop phase took off at the same time as Instagram. But we had a strong social media strategy from day one. The same way we treated developing our menu and customer service strategy we had a focus on social media that we stuck to. When not that many people were following or engaging with us, we didn't get upset or change it all up. We stuck to the plan."
photo by Sarah Natasha.
CONTINUE TO ASK YOURSELF WHAT PROBLEM AM I SOLVING?
One of the most important questions you can ask yourself is "What problem am I solving?" It's a very simple question, but it's something that goes a long way. And if it's a problem that someone has already solved, ask yourself, "How am I doing it differently?"
There can be many solutions to one problem.
"We are a commodity product at the core of our business," said Ariel Kaye, "but there is also this movement around investing in yourself. One of my biggest ah-ha moments was that I didn't know where to go to buy these products and none of my friends knew where to go either. I had a brand background and I couldn't believe there weren't brands people were loving. You spend a third of your life in bed and yet none of these companies were asking me how I was sleeping at night or suggesting that I could do something differently to enhance my sleep."
"As a brand," Kaye added, "you should keep circling back to that core question."
ACCELERATORS ARE AN AMAZING RESOURCE FOR ENTREPRENEURS
Ivka Adam, founder of Iconery whose company was part of Amplify, one of the top accelerators in Los Angeles, talked about the difference between incubators and accelerators.
"Incubators" explained Adam, "give space and a little bit of money to a company with an idea to get it off the ground. An accelerator is one step beyond that. It's for a company with fully formed idea and most often you get somewhere between $50,000-$250,000 to take your idea to launch. After a year of forming the idea, we had a working prototype and our manufacturing figured out, and we were starting to sell, which is when we got accepted into Amplify. Three months later we were able to raise our seed round."
Ariel Kaye chimed in on the importance of accelerators as well, telling the audience, "I was also in an accelerator and I have to say when you are are a sole founder and you feel like you are an island of one, being with other founders who are in that grind with you is a lifesaver."
THE RIGHT PEOPLE MATTER
Key hires are part of the founder struggle. (Along with "founder depression," something Ivka Adam told the audience "is very real.")
Creating the right team takes time, patience, and sacrifice, but it will also make all the difference in your business. Gabby Cohen shared "We like to say, if you have the right people on the bus, it doesn't matter where the bus is going. You change direction every 90 days." Ariel Kaye said something similar, "With hires you don't always need people to reinvent the wheel. You want people who've watched boats burned."
Hiring practices: "You want people who've watched boats burned."
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"Spend the money on talent," said Josh Zad. "Do not lose that person that's maybe a little more expensive. It will payoff in the long run."
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This CEO Is Rebranding a 30-Year-Old Company
And based on her previous experience, she's going to kill it.
Joy Chen can transform a business, even in midst of economic downturn. She joined Yes to Inc., after 17 years at Clorox, quadrupling the business revenue and increasing the valuation of the company five times. During her role as CEO of Yes to, Inc. the natural beauty brand was recognized as one of the Top 100 fastest growing companies in the SF Bay Area.
Last year, after five years with the company, Chen left Yes to for H20+, a beauty brand that's been around since 1989. Chen is helping modernize the co. (it's now H20+ Beauty) grow its global presence, and remains ever-enthusiastic about the jump from startup to established brand.
We checked in with CEO to get her take on innovation and playing it safe.
Can you tell us a little bit about your background? You’ve worked with some major brands, you were a VP at Clorox, you’ve turned major companies around, but where did you get your start?
I worked on many brands when I was at Clorox – from cat litter to cleaning products to bleach. Through this time, I worked on many brands including brand turnarounds where the brand was in trouble and had to revitalize it for growth. I realized that I was most challenged and excited when I was fixing a business problem like that. That’s why when I left Clorox, I was looking for a brand that I could turnaround to profitable growth.
Was there a “grunt job” that you remember hating, but ended up taking away some major lessons that you’re now grateful for?
I had to take a sales role at Clorox, but my career was in Marketing and my goal was to be a general manager someday. I saw the sales role as a setback to my career path. It turned out to be the best role I have ever taken because it set me up to be a better CEO. It taught me how to sell my ideas and influence others to come along with my vision. I met one of my mentors, who was then my boss. He taught me how to be successful in a male-dominated corporate world.
Let’s chat about your current position as CEO of H20+. This is a brand that’s been around since 1989. How do you innovate and differentiate with a brand that’s almost 30?
Innovation and differentiation are the lifelines for building brands. It does not matter how old a brand is, there is always a way to innovate because consumer needs always change. I worked on Clorox Bleach when it was around 80 years old and I launched concentrated improved bleach which ended up changing the entire bleach category.
"Innovation and differentiation are the lifelines for building brands."
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At H2O+ Beauty, we took the DNA that made H2O+ successful 26 years ago, and brought it into our re-imagined brand to meet changing consumer needs. This resulted in a collection of simple yet effective products, which brings beauty back into the hands of the consumer. As part of the legacy of H2O+ Beauty, innovation will continue to be part of our ongoing plan in addressing consumers’ ever-changing needs.
What are you working against when you’re rebranding?
The challenge is how to retain our current loyal consumers while making changes in the rebranding to appeal to new consumers. We made the products better and more effective, and we also removed the no-good ingredients like phthalates, parabens, mineral oil. Additionally, we are also working to shift our distribution channels so they are consistent with the omni-channel shopper. For example, we are placing emphasis on establishing our website as our new flagship store and supporting it with other brick and mortar beauty retailers like Ulta.
When rebranding you have to take a creative approach. But what are some creative approaches you’ve taken with leadership?
We have studied and gotten inspiration from disruptive brands in categories outside of skincare and beauty to refine our rebranding. In addition to consumer feedback, we have incorporated feedback on our rebranding from industry experts including retailers, beauty editors, influencers, and agencies. We found these creative approaches have shaped the reimagined H2O+ Beauty brand.
What’s exciting about working with an older brand? vs. a brand like Yes to?
H2O+ Beauty has a strong heritage and many have heard of it. It also has proven to be successful in the marketplace with its innovative products, particularly its Oasis Hydrating Treatment, the first of its kind featuring hydrogel technology. When we share the news of our rebranding with industry experts it’s even more exciting as they are familiar with the success and history of the brand.
When is the right time to play it safe?
Never if you want progress. One of my favorite quotes is a great reminder: “Progress always involves risks. You cannot steal second base and keep your foot on first.”
On the flip side, you’ve talked about “punching above your weight class.” When is the right time to aim up?
Always. My mentor has told me that danger lies not in setting your aim too high and falling short but in setting your aim too low and achieving the mark. It’s always important for a leader to aim high and lead the team to achieve the goal.
"Danger lies in setting your aim too low and achieving the mark."
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What are some tenets of building a smart brand that will always be successful?
1) Be clear and consistent with what the brand stands for. 2) Respect your consumers as they are always right. 3) Strive for positive change that benefits the consumer, the team and the broader community.
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Why This Founder Says Wait Until You're 30 to Start Your Business
Life and business experience matter.
When she read “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell, Ivka Adam, founder and CEO of Iconery, immediately identified with the archetype of the Connector. Connectors make things happen through people. They galvanize people and act as catalysts for change.
So it makes sense that the idea for Iconery, a curated online selection of fine jewelry, was born from Adam’s idea of creating an ideal online business model, one where you “don’t have to hold inventory but have the vibrancy of a marketplace.” A business that connected a marketplace model with e-commerce.
“I knew I wanted to build a marketplace where I was supporting designers and their passions,” the founder says. “My passion is to support other people’s creativity, and give them access to manufacturing in a vertical that is very capital intensive.” For instance, the cost of gold, diamonds and other gems, as well as the labor cost in stone-setting, is very expensive. From funding to manufacturing access, Adam knows the fine jewelry market is a difficult passion to pursue.
She took no shortcuts on the road to Iconery, and believes that entrepreneurs should actually wait until they are in their thirties to launch a startup. She bootstrapped the company, used up her entire savings, and moved home to live with parents. “I was 35, living at home, single. It’s a really tough place to be, and founder depression is real.” But she adds, “When you have twelve years of experience behind you, it’s so much more compelling to investors, they trust you. And you’ve made enough life decisions that you know how to make decisions quickly.”
Adam has always been incredibly thoughtful and strategic about her career, learning early that the road to success is paved with good connections. Home-schooled until high school, she went to a “ton of summer camps, where I had to very quickly learn to make friends.” She credits this as one of the experiences that has informed her networking ability.
While in business school at USC, Adam worked at three different startups. One of those was Cash Warren’s (Create & Cultivate keynote Jessica Alba’s husband) startup, ibeatyou.com. She also knew that she wanted a product management internship at eBay, but at the time eBay was only recruiting from the top four business schools. “I had zero chance of getting an internship there,” she says, “Plus no one ever does product management internships.”
But that didn’t stop her. She leveraged her product management experience at ibeatyou.com, and then “networked the hell out of eBay.”
What does that mean? She might want to thank mom for those summer camp experiences.
At the time Adam knew no one at eBay, so she did some research and found out that there was one recruiter who was going to be at the National Black MBA Conference in Texas. Adam hopped on plane and headed to the conference just to meet that one recruiter and get on her radar. She also went through all of her connections on LinkedIn to find an in. Through all of her networks she was only connected to two people at eBay, but they both happened to be product managers. “So,” she says, “I scheduled a 30-minute coffee with each of them.” She flew up to San Francisco, on her own dime-- the cost of all three trips was about a thousand dollars-- just to have those coffees. But another one her beliefs is that, “You have spend money to make money.”
“I got on their radar, I showed them that I was gung-ho eBay — I was a longtime customer, I knew the ins and outs of the site, and I had read up on everything.” When the time came for internship offers to go out, one of those coffees resulted in an internship in product management. AKA: she did the impossible.
“You can’t expect an internship to come to you.” she says, “You have to go out and fight for it.”
"You can't expect an internship to come to you. You have to go out and fight for it."
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“I also believe,” she adds, “in putting all your eggs in one basket, instead of spreading yourself too thin.” She stays that if a company can see that you’re on fire to work there, it will feel real, authentic, and they’ll take you seriously.
Some of the best advice she ever got was during that eBay internship, where she was told “To set the goal to get to know two new people at the company every weekend.” That meant she was having lunches with VPs and coffees with a wide variety of people throughout summer of 2008. When offer time came in the summer of 2009, which she points out was “one of the worst financial climates to finish school,” only 5% of her graduating class received job offers. Adam got one of the top offers.
She credits the offer to building her network the prior summer. And by the time she was ready to leave eBay she had advanced from intern to Head of Mobile Marketing for North America, while simultaneously working as the Chief of Staff to the CMO.
“The big company experience is really important. It automatically gives you an incredible network. Because of my time at eBay,” she says, “I now know the CMO of Facebook. I know the CEO of One Kings Lane, and a ton of people at Pinterest and Google.” People she worked closely with at eBay are now leading teams and departments at other startups. She can ping them anytime. “It’s an automatic, built-in network.”
But even so, it wasn’t a straight shot to starting her own company. She moved to LA and was recruited by another startup, Modnique, which she joined as VP of Marketing and Mobile Development. In July 2014, a private equity firm bought the company's assets and laid-off all employees. When it happened, Adam was on a backpacking trip, trekking the John Muir trail in the Eastern Sierras. She was quite literally finding a different path without knowing it. “It was a bit of a shock to come off the trail to no job,” but it’s something she says is simply “the nature of business,” and has been an invaluable asset in starting Iconery.
She had the big company experience. She had the startup growth experience. “Between the eBay experience, which was a true marketplace, and Modnique, which was true e-commerce, I knew there were pros and cons to both business models.”
One of Iconery’s main strategies to lowering costs is using CAD design software to create a 3D model that is fed into the 3D printer, which in turn prints the model in wax, and that wax model is cast in metal. They’re using technology to reinvent an age-old industry, and the company is at the intersection of fashion, e-commerce, and the 3D printing technology.
Another strategy was making the deliberate decision to find a team of experts. She did a ton of research when building her team, cold emailing and reaching out through warmer introductions from past connections at eBay. The response was enthusiastic. The women she approached were excited about Iconery’s new take on the jewelry industry. Her team consists of an award-winning CAD designer, a woman who runs jewelry product development who has been in the jewelry industry for 40 years, and fashion industry veteran Andrea Linett, one of founders of Lucky magazine. “There are a lot of startups,” Adam says, “who think, let’s do this, we can be scrappy, let’s teach ourselves, and find young, cheap, talent. My team is a little more expensive than the average startup because we have incredible expertise.”
It’s the opposite of what we often hear: say yes and figure it out. It’s an approach that mirrors the kind Adam has taken with her entire career: strategic and thoughtful.
However, she always says it’s so important for startup founders to understand their limits when it comes to uncertainty. “If not knowing whether the company you work for is going to be around in another month freaks you the fuck out, you’re not a startup person. It’s sexy to be in a startup, but there’s tradeoff. Being at Modnique really tested me, and made me very comfortable in uncertainty.”
Startup Tip: Understand your limits when it comes it uncertainty.
The business model was so compelling, and airtight, she knew she had to go for it. “I was looking to poke holes in Iconery, looking for any opportunity to find area of risk, and I had two other job opportunities. But I knew what I was aiming for.”
“I had other options and I powerfully chose Iconery.”
Arianna Schioldager is Create & Cultivate's editorial director. You can find her on IG @ariannawrotethis and more about her on this site she never updates www.ariannawrotethis.com
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Never Make It Perfect: Laurel & Wolf CEO Breaks Down How to Launch
Leura Fine gave us 30 minutes. And we're giving you all her advice.
LAUREL & WOLF IS THE FUTURE OF DESIGN.
At least if Leura Fine, CEO and Founder of the interior design company that offers its services online only, has a say.
An innovator in the online design space, Laurel & Wolf has developed a platform and software to allow for easy communication between a client and a designer, from anywhere. The entire service takes place in the digital world, and has opened the industry of interior design to people who never thought they could afford such services.
We put 30 minutes on the clock with the busy entrepreneur to pick her brain on everything from bootstrapping your business to the future of tech.
IN THE BEGINNING YOU MAKE IT WORK & GET IT DONE, NO EXCUSES
In January 2014 Leura began concentrating full-time on Laurel & Wolf. The first version of the site was up that month.
"I was the algorithm" she says about the company's beta site, a very bare-bones version of what exists today. Instead of spending 100k on a website build out, she paid a local LA-based developer 5k to build out eight pages with no backend. "I started spreading the word through friends and friends of family, putting it out on social media, saying, 'Hey who is looking for interior design services that only cost 300 dollars?'"
She had about 1,500 people signup over the course of six weeks. The first iteration of Laurel & Wolf took users through a "style quiz,"-- that had no outcome. What Leura was testing was the public's interest. The BIG question: Would people be willing to pay for an interior design service online?
"It was many, many long nights, of me staying up, calculating and emailing people their style quiz results. If you had this many As and this many Bs, you were 'Contemporary Eclectic.' It was terrible to demo, but between the MVP and servicing actual paying clients, we validated that not only there was a demand for the market, but what it would be like to acquire customers."
By the time they were ready raise money the company (which was two people at that point) also had a good, working idea of what the basic functions of the platform needed to do.
[define it: Minimum Viable Product (MVP): In product development, the minimum viable product (MVP) is a product which has just enough features to gather validated learning about the product and its continued development.]
By June 2014, just six months later, they had launched the site.
WHEN RAISING MONEY, YOUR RESPONSIBILITY AS FOUNDER IS TO CONTROL THE PROCESS
The interior design world provides a service that typically 1 percent of the population can afford. People like venture capitalists and those with money to invest in the business. In the beginning, there was a little pushback-- angel investors who didn't understand the service, but what Leura had was proof: the basic function of what the service needed to provide. With that proof she had the confidence to control her fundraising. The goal of Laurel & Wolf's seed round was $500k. They hit $650k in a month and a half.
[define it: Seed Round: The initial capital used to start a business. Seed capital often comes from the company founders' personal assets or from friends and family. The amount of money is usually relatively small because the business is still in the idea or conceptual stage.]
"I received this advice early on and tell every founder I meet who is fundraising the same thing," Fine explains. "You as the founder, your job is to control the fundraising process."
"You as the founder, your job is to control the fundraising process."
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She was resolute, telling potential investors: "'This is the amount we’re raising, this is the day we’re closing, you’re either in or you’re out.'" And she got it done that way. "I couldn't continue to chase people in circles, it was crazy towns. I had to build a business."
In both Series A and Series B she took a similar approach. She was strategic and thoughtful, meeting with VCs when it made sense and getting to know them. When it came time to raise, it was go time. She took meetings, had term sheets by the end of those meetings, and then made decisions very quickly.
[define it: Series A: Series A is usually the first level of fundraising where VCs get involved. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchange for their investment. Usually in this round you will see the company's first valuation.]
Another part of controlling the process she says, is taking all of the multifaceted variables into account. "There are questions," she explains, "that you need to ask yourself when you talk about why you're raising money. Are you raising money to accelerate growth? Could you build this business without raising money? Do you know what your business model is? Do you know the metrics that you’re trying to hit?"
That's your job as founder: to have a business model and monetization strategy in place from day one.
Your job as founder is to have a business model and monetization strategy in place, from day one.
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TAKE A SERVICE ONLY AVAILABLE TO 1% AND DEMOCRATIZE IT
It's a simple, but brilliant idea-- take a service that only a small percentage of households can afford, and open it up to more people. More people=more work=more revenue.
"You’re talking about taking a small pool of people in the U.S. who could afford to hire interior designers. We’ve opened up the market to 30% of the U.S."
This represents enormous opportunity for growing a consumer base, while offering designers the ability to extend the arm of their business. It's simple supply and demand, where both parties benefit. People get spaces they loves; interior designers get to do the work they love.
"Design is more of a science than I think people realize," Fine says. "You don't have to be in a space to make it impactful. As long as you have good assets in place— whether that’s photos, video, and obviously dimensions, then you have the opportunity and ability to design just as well as if you were in person. And most importantly, make an impact in someone's life."
CHICKEN OR EGG? DOESN'T MATTER, JUST LAUNCH
"I’ve been meeting with a lot of female founders," Fine says, "and I’ve had the same conversation the last three meetings. They tell me they want to wait to launch until they feel that they’re ready."
There is however, no such thing as ready. Sometimes the founders don't want too many eyeballs on an unfinished product. Sometimes they are worried about letting down a customer or not being able to deliver.
But, Fine notes, "When you’re building a company from the ground-up there is always the chicken and the egg. You have to go for it. You have to put it out there and see what it does."
"When you’re building a company from the ground-up, you have to go for it. You have to put it out there and see what it does."
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In the beginning Laurel & Wolf was far from perfect, but that didn't matter. "The last thing you want to do as a tech company is go out and build the entire working product from A to Z," says Fine. "You really have no idea what it needs to do and what it's going to look like."
Adding, "There is no such thing as perfect."
THE FUTURE IS MAN & MACHINE, WORKING TOGETHER
"Our software," she says, "represents the best combination of humans and technology working together to really transform people’s lives. Our clients get to live a better way through the spaces that they spend time in."
At the end of the day, she realizes that all the product recommendation and algorithms can’t predict how someone will feel in their space. But that’s where the designer comes in.
“A designer,” says Fine, “really understands, beyond the aesthetics of the space, the aesthetics of the person."
Arianna Schioldager is Create & Cultivate's editorial director. You can find her on IG @ariannawrotethis and more about her at www.ariannawrotethis.com
Roundtable: 5 Career Women Talk 'Having It All'
Your mom fought for it. Now you're fighting against it.
March is women’s history month, and there are currently more female-owned businesses than ever before in the American workforce. "Having it all" was one of the first empowering messages that helped redefine the role of woman, but for some this cornucopia of to-dos and sea change in the workplace has complicated work-life balance.
Is it possible? Is it a myth? What is about gender roles that we can’t seem to stop talking about?
In anticipation of #CreateCultivateSXSW, we checked in with some of our panelists to find out what having it all means to the modern working woman, especially when “normal working hours can sometimes become all of the hours.”
LET'S START WITH THE BASICS. WHAT DOES 'HAVING IT ALL' MEAN TO YOU?
Silvie Snow-Thomas, Director of Strategy, Elle Communications : 'Having it all' suggests that we can get everything in both our personal and our professional lives that we think we want at the exact time we want it. What women have been striving for, for generations, is having the same range of opportunities to choose from as men – if a man stays late at the office for example, does he face the same pressure of getting home to his spouse or kids as he would if were a woman?
Julie Hays Geer, Director of Partnerships, Laurel & Wolf: In terms of what it's "supposed to mean," I see it, for a woman, as being able to have a career and family simultaneously.
Bianca Caampued, Co-Founder, Small Girls PR : 'Having it all' is being being happy with everything that you have going on in your life - both personally and professionally. When someone asks you how your day was, your answer is always, "Today was the best day ever."
Sarah Kunst, Founder, PRODAY: It means choosing a life you want to live on your own terms. I ignore other people's definitions of 'it all' and the timelines or "how it's supposed to look" that others might want me to adopt. 'Having it all' means being happy with my life and how I fill my time day to day. If I can do that, I'm winning.
HAS THE IDEA SHIFTED AS YOU'VE GOTTEN OLDER? FROM EARLY TWENTIES-NOW?
Gabby Etrog-Cohen, SVP PR & Brand Strategy SoulCycle: In my early twenties, 'having it all' was a great job, a sick handbag, good hair, a decent body and a boyfriend. It's funny, I don't think about having it all now.
Silvie: As I’ve gotten older, the balance I crave has shifted toward striving for a combination of great friendships, quality time with my partner, enlightening adventures and figuring out how to excel in my career. Oh, and sleep.
Julie: My view has shifted as I've gotten older, and my perspective now is to be able to have what makes you happy - whether that's a job and family, a freelance lifestyle, or the ability to travel frequently.
Silvie: I think an important distinction for all women is to separate the idea of 'having it all' from "having it all at the same time."
"Separate the idea of ‘having it all' from 'having it all at the same time.’"
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DO YOU THINK YOUR "ALL" IS SIMILAR OR DIFFERENT, TO SAY, YOUR MOTHER'S GENERATION? WHY?
Gabby: My mother worked two jobs-- she ran central intake at an inpatient mental institution and had a private psychotherapy practice at night, and was an incredible mother. So she was juggling just as many balls as I am BUT, when she was home, she was home. No emailing, no conference calls...there is a different sense of connectivity, of always-on-culture that exists today that never existed for our parents.
Silvie: My mother’s generation of women who came of age just before and after Title 9 and Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act, and they faced much more overt discrimination and blatant sexism than we younger women do.
Julie: The opportunities for women are greater now. Perhaps it's all relative, but with more opportunity there's more "all" to have. Which makes having it that much harder.
"With more opportunity there's more 'all' to have. Which makes having it that much harder."
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Bianca: I think that having it "all" used to involve starting and supporting a family, but you can have it all without that; it depends on what your priorities are in life.
Silvie: Another thing to consider: in our mothers’ generation, there were rarely female bosses. This new(er) paradigm has begun to change things, but I think we’re all still striving for more of this storied work-life balance, and as women we still are working to end discrimination, however subtle it may be, in hiring and advancement.
Gabby: I am definitely less present with my children, sadly, then my mother was with me and I have to try really hard to disconnect when I am home.
Sarah: My "all" is personal. It's not going to look the same as another woman's now or in the past or future. It shouldn't. When 'having it all' means "having all that someone else wants you to have," you're failing.
DO YOU EVER FEEL THE PRESSURE OF PERFORMING BOTH GENDER ROLES SIMULTANEOUSLY?
Silvie: Overall I think the societal pressure now imposed on women (and men) to work longer hours and be essentially on-call all of the time in professional jobs, while still ensuring the quality of work is exceptional, has made work life more stressful on women whether they work in a mixed gender environment or work in a female-run firm. The way of our world is for everyone, especially if you work in client services, to work harder and to ask for more.
Julie: I didn't come from a household of gender role norms, so this isn't a mindset I grew up within. My dad ironed, both parents were home on different nights to cook dinner for the kids. I started my career in a predominantly female industry with great female role models. I recognize the issues at hand for our society, but in my day to day life I luckily don't feel this pressure.
Bianca: By cultural definitions I guess the answer is yes, but I can be pretty androgynous in style and I think that translates to personality. I don't usually think about things falling into gender role categories - it's just a role. Societal constructs have labeled certain actions or personality traits as skewing male or female, but I'm just doing things that need to get done or based on my intuitive reaction.
Gabby: I don't really think about gender roles. I am constantly striving to be a good person. Not a good woman.
"I am constantly striving to be a good person. Not a good woman."
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ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE TIME-MACHO CONCEPT? HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT? WHAT DO YOU THINK NEEDS TO CHANGE IN THE AMERICAN WORKPLACE FOR WOMEN?
Silvie: I am. I believe the term was coined by Anne-Marie Slaughter, who went from an academic job at Princeton to the State Department as Under Secretary for Policy for Hillary Clinton. I agree with Slaughter that the intense competition to demonstrate one’s professional value by working longer hours, having more “face time,” doing more travel, etc. is wearing professional workers down physically and mentally just as stagnant wages and on-demand scheduling is harming lower income workers.
Sarah: Some women want to be a slave to their job and some men want way more free time. The problem is finding a job and work culture that fits what you want out of life and if you do choose to work the 80+ hour workweek, making sure that you're actually producing valuable work and not just amping up face time.
Gabby: I fall prey to that as well. But the truth is, it's OK to go home, take time for yourself and then go back to work, versus staying at the office until midnight without a break. As a mother, I have learned to be incredibly resourceful with my time. I make every single minute count. I just don't have the luxury to waste time. So if I am getting a manicure, I am on a conference call at the same time.
Bianca: Boundaries are extremely important and time in the workplace isn't everything. Time in life, however, is everything. All we really have is time, and it's precious and should be protected, not racked up as a currency for worth in the workplace.
"Time is precious and should be protected, not racked up as a currency for worth in the workplace."
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Sarah: We need room for much more broad roles in society and work than "men love working and women want time off to see their families." We need to allow everyone to be their real selves at work and have the roles and flexibility that allow for more than one kind of job or worker.
Silvie: I think a lot of my friends in the same age bracket have been working like this since we were in our early 20s. In the U.S. the number of salaried workers clocking 50 or more house per week has grown steadily since the 1970s when 9-5, 40-hour work weeks were the norm.
Bianca: I don't believe that putting in more time or all-nighters in the workplace means more value.
Silvie: The technology we have today allows for a great flexibility, but the flip side of that is "normal working hours" can sometimes become all of the hours. Here’s one thing I’ve learned slash have been forced to understand: sleep is crucial to clear thinking, and to keeping your passion and energy levels high.
Bianca: The most important thing is trying to manage time so you're not putting in all of those additional hours at work, yet are still maintaining productivity, while allowing space for your personal needs.
IS WORK-LIFE BALANCE A REALITY OR MYTH IN OUR ON-DEMANDS WORK ECONOMY?
Julie: I like to think of it more as needing to have a separation between the two vs. a balance.
Silvie: I wonder often, is there a way we can change the mindset in this fast-paced economy and always-connected life to concentrate first and foremost on people’s long-term health and to ensure continued creativity? Can we measure productivity and product quality differently to ensure continued success but also to ensure peace of mind?
Julie: When you spend 5 out of 7 days each week at a job, that's not balance.
Bianca: I often say it doesn't exist, from my own personal experience, but there is a part of me that has hope it is real.
Julie: Striving to not always bring your work home with you, or taking time to shut down and live your life without checking your email on the weekends, that separation can be a reality.
Gabby: There is no such thing as work-life balance. At least, I don't think so. There is integration. Some days I bring my kids to work. Some days I have conference calls from home. Some days I am failing as a mom, some days I am failing at work and some days I am failing at everything! But, then there are those days when you think, damn, I can actually do this.
Sarah: For those not in poverty, work-life balance is more about the choices we make and relentlessly pursuing the life and lifestyle we want. Balance doesn't mean a 9-5 job for most of us, it means having the space to be human.
"Balance doesn't mean a 9-5 job for most of us, it means having the space to be human."
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Arianna Schioldager is Create & Cultivate's editorial director. You can find her on IG @ariannawrotethis and more about her at www.ariannawrotethis.com