Inspiration can come from any direction. But how do you take that new concept and make it a reality? In advance of the Inc. Women’s Summit, I’m meeting up with some of my favorite entrepreneurs to talk about what empowers them on a daily basis. You have all created businesses from out-of-the-box thinking. What made you veer left when everybody else was going right? Bobbi. When I moved to New York, it was the ‘80s. And everyone was doing the over made up contour look. I know it’s back. I still don’t like contour. So I would make up the models to make them look like they weren’t wearing makeup. And that was my calling card. But there was no makeup available that allowed you to do that. I met a chemist one day at a shoot and I said I can’t find a lipstick that didn’t smell, wasn’t greasy, and I wanted to match lips. Then I realized, “Wow. This is something.” For me, entrepreneurship, it wasn’t something that I aspired to. I always wanted to be an inventor. If I can be the perfect balance between Beyoncé and Bill Nye the Science Guy every single day… Now we’re installing our technologies around different countries in emerging markets. Turning everything from floors and roads to baby strollers into energy-generating solutions. You guys both touched on this idea of identifying problems that existed in your life and looking at ways that you could shape an industry, rather than looking at the industry itself. I started a fashion technology company with my co-founder. We had no fashion or technology experience. We knew what it meant to buy a dress for $1,000, wear it once, and then be photographed on social media. And feel like you could never wear it again. So we were like, “Well, that doesn’t make sense.” Renting dresses made sense. If you thought too far down the road, it could be easy to find all the why not’s versus the how can you make this happen. I want to hear Angela’s story talking about how you are helping young entrepreneurs. So I started NewME, which is an accelerator for minorities in 2011. We focus only on the technology industry, which at the time, it was a young, technical, white guys’ club. I did not really start NewME as a business. It was a problem that I wanted to solve. And I thought it was going to be like a one-time project. What do you see is standing in between these women and the dollars that you know they need to succeed? When I work with men, they are not scared to ask for money even if what they’re working on is mediocre. But women can have something phenomenal but it’s like we hold ourselves back. So a lot of the work that I do in particular with women is confidence building, is getting them comfortable with asking for the money. Priya, I want to talk about the impact you are having on actual people: helping them create wealth in the way that they've never even thought of before. Historically, financial planning has been reserved for the wealthy. And when I was working on Wall Street, my clients were old and rich. And all of my friends at the same time were wondering where do we go for the answers. There’s this completely underserved kind of ignored demographic that we call Henrys, high earners not rich yet. I so often hear young women say, “I just want to be paid what I’m worth.” I don’t even know what that means. And I very rarely hear young women say, “I want to make a lot of money.” Right? It’s as if we all sort of internalize this idea that the budget’s not there. Research show that men are four times more likely than women to ask. So at Stash Wealth, salary negotiations come up. Set it as a goal though and it has to be a very concrete goal. Like I want to buy a $250,000 house in three years so I want to get a raise and let’s back into what you need to do today to be on track. The flipside that millennials have to be very careful of is entitlement. For example, one kid said, “I feel like I really need to make x.” I’m like, “Oh, that’s interesting. For this job, if you do all of this research, this is the highest you could get paid.” And he’s like, “Yeah, I didn’t really think about what the job was. I just kind of thought New York.” What are you saying to me? I don’t think women talk about comp and salaries in the same way men do. Women I advise, some of the most valuable help I give them is actually talking in a real way about what you should be making. But getting the data out there— that’s hard especially amongst women because they’re fewer women who are in leadership roles. I find younger women are much more transparent with their salary. For them it’s not TMI, it’s cocktail talk. And I think that that lifting the veil —is going to get us closer to equality.
–I think that’s really important. In “The Big Life,” I have an entire chapter devoted to the side hustle secret to success. How do you know when it’s time to make your side hustle your main hustle? I fully believe in the side hustle and in fact, when I worked in finance, because I was not passionate about finance, I would spend whatever time I had doing college essay editing, which I kind of made all the business around. But ultimately went to business school and co-founded Rent the Runway in business school. So I was kind of side hustling it. I was taking classes but I’m a pretty risk averse entrepreneur so the whole way, I had a timeline of milestones we had to meet. And I think it was helpful for me and my co-founder, kept us honest. Ultimately one of those milestones was raising money. And for me, raising money was another way of checking myself on. Was this a good concept that VC’s would put their name behind? So I very much believe that parallel processing, kind of always having a little bit of a safety net, and just being honest with yourself if something’s not working. And forcing that brutal honesty, it’s hard. You need to be able to sell something or it’s not a business. Don’t quit your job. Don’t do anything until you figure that out. And then even after you figure that out, you got to do a deeper dive into the customer and try to find more customers like the ones who gave you a dollar. When I’m talking to young women, they will ask me, “How do you get ahead in a male-dominated industry if you’re a woman?” The advice I always give is to forget you’re a woman, right? You are a person with a good idea. Just say it. That was exactly the advice that I gave myself was just to remember that you’re there like any other employee and to speak up when you have a great idea. I did get called in once. My boss told me that my attitude with my colleagues was abrasive. And I wasn’t sure if it was because I was a female. I’ve been in rooms with investors who are supposed to be investing in women and people of color and have the investor say, “So who’s the tech lead on this?” I’m like, “It’s me.” “Well, who came up with this?” I’m like, “Ask me a question first and see if I don’t have the answer.” And then all of a sudden they’re just like, “So did your father help you…” “Did my father, what?” I actually disagree that you should forget that you’re a woman. Every single day I get up being like, “Jessica, you are a black woman. You’re going to have to do three times as much to get half as far.” Is anyone besides me been called difficult? Oh yeah. I love it though. Me too. It’s a compliment. When I was younger, I didn’t like it. Maybe I should not say stuff back as much. But the older I got, I’m like I kind of like that about me. We all know that we can’t just be like one of the boys that—but the good news is that we have our special perspective. You embrace the difference, right? I don’t think a man could have started Rent the Runway. There’s this old idea that women are in competition with each other. That there’s backstabbing. That there’s only room at the table for one woman. But I’ve been so inspired by how millennial women have replaced competition with collaboration. Being someone who has been in the industry for a long time, when I was first starting my company especially with other makeup artists, you would never give any advice. Never would they ever tell you —because everyone was a—right.
—I was about to say. Everyone was in competition. And now as I’m reinventing myself and need some different things, they’re here. Call this person. Do this. This is where you get this. It’s an amazing change. It is. This year I turned 60 and I started a new lifestyle brand. There’s more and more opportunity. And there’s a million things you’re going to end up doing. On your own terms. On your own terms. Be the entrepreneur of your life.
