I have watched Girlboss on Netflix (the whole series), read Girlboss articles about when (not if) women will rule industries, and listened to none other than Gwyneth Paltrow being interviewed on Girlboss Radio. However, the woman at the forefront of it all was nothing as I’d imagined.
I first got to know Sophia Amoruso, standing in her kitchen making herbal tea together. I expected a brash, loud spoken woman as the media had portrayed who believed “my way or the highway”. I was mistaken. Sophia was curious, open minded and asked many questions. She was passionate about how to drive forward her already large and truly engaged community.
We spent hours, and several cups of tea, discussing the opportunities for Girlboss. I flew home that day truly inspired and called her that evening to say that Lightspeed would like to invest, as you can read about in today’s WSJ article.
“You don’t get what you don’t ask for… asking and asking again goes really far” — Sophia Amoruso
Sophia is a repeat entrepreneur who started what went on to be Nasty Gal at the young age of 23. She learnt a lot from driving the company to over $300m in annual revenue. She learnt a lot more from the bankruptcy of the company. As someone who believes that you learn more from those events that don’t work out than those that do, I believe Sophia is in a strong position.
Having authored the New York Times 18 week best seller book #GIRLBOSS, created the Podcast Girlboss Radio which now has half a million weekly downloads, launched a Netflix Girlboss series and even begun The Girlboss Foundation to give grants to young women entrepreneurs, there is little Sophia can not do.
She is now running a media business, which really plays to her strengths and allows her to leverage her strong network and influencer status. This can be seen through the organic growth of the community and audience of 5.6m from their website, newsletter, social media, podcasts and Girlboss rallies (both in person and digital). The Girlboss community is big and growing fast.
Topics on the Girlboss platform vary from work to wellness and from money to moisturizer. However, they are all ultimately focused on one main topic — female empowerment.
“Focus on less things and be great at those things” — Sophia Amoruso
Sophia has already built up a strong executive team with Alison Koplar Wyatt as President and CRO and Neha Gandhi as COO and Editor in Chief. Alison and Neha combined have over 25 years experience working with both brands and media companies.
I am excited to announce that Lightspeed will be leading the latest Girlboss financing and I will be taking a board seat in a company I strongly believe in.
Girlboss plays into much of the theses and vision that we believe. A new generation of content companies is being formed, which is more authentic to their target demographic, Millennials and Generation Z. Snapchat, Cheddar and Mic are increasingly creating video content for this audience and seeing great success. Girlboss has a similar strategy for their digital streams, with a female Millennial and Generation Z audience. This audience is one that stands for female entrepreneurship and female empowerment.
Investors look for businesses with strong network effects. I believe that brand can in itself be a core network effect. It is then community and content that give defensibility to the brand. Girlboss demonstrates all these characteristics. They have built up a community of millions of young women, who are helping one another and benefiting from the Girlboss content to give them the confidence to go in the direction of their dreams.
Sophia Amoruso is a force to be reckoned with and there are many more strong female founders launching businesses around community and already finding great success. These are the strong founders that are shaping our future and I would love to meet. They too are Girlbosses.
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