OKAY.
I love a good business model.
Economies of scale, low operating costs, recurring revenue... You get the point.
I’m saying this.
Because women bend. We play small. And Chief is BIG. (It’s like YPO, but for women). And we have Carolyn Childers to thank for that.
Okay.
What is YPO (Young President’s Organization)? And who is Carolyn Childers?
YPO is a place to network, and it’s incredibly competitive to join. You need to be rich enough and white enough and male enough. One rich guy meets another rich guy. Thus increasing his access to deal flow, opps, and knowledge.
Here’s the thing -
I LOVE ASYMMETRY.
Access is causal to success. SO YEAH.
Chief’s just building the reality that men already live. If you wanna be successful, you better hang out with successful people. More asymmetry for more women.
✊✊✊
(BTW. There’s nothing “wrong” with this demographic. It’s just that most rich people are also white and male. And being rich is compounding).
The year is 2019.
And Carolyn starts Chief (a vetted community of senior level women), alongside co-founder Lindsay Kaplan.
They wanna raise money (for a physical space)!!! But nobody wants to invest.
It’s not like venture capitalists hate women or don’t believe in them.
It’s just hard to measure product market fit for a service that doesn’t actually exist yet. How do you get from member one to member two?
The value of Chief’s service is directly tied to the value of Chief’s members. (Better members, better service). Network effects, BABY.
Okay.
Thousands of women join Chief’s waitlist after closing its seed round.
The year is 2020.
And Chief learns to pivot. It’s a heck of a lot easier to raise money after getting proof of concept (aka the waitlist).
Before COVID, the team launches slow. (Start in New York. Give members a physical space. Beta test the core groups. Etc etc).
That’s because -
Culture is created, not given.
Then COVID happens. And the team launches fast. Engagement goes up. And everything goes virtual.
Core groups have ten members and meet once a month. Chief also has a speaker series, hiring board, and LinkedIn like product to match women outside of core.
BTW. Most executive coaches cost 30K for a 6 month period. Chief is “cheap.” (Between 6K and 8K per year). And most members are sponsored by their companies.
Okay.
They don’t like you.
They don’t want you. They don’t need you. That’s what starting a business feels like.
And the biggest “they” is the one who lives inside your head.
Carolyn and Lindsay faced a lot of low lows. Remember - Nobody wanted to invest!!!
It made them think… Do women already have a space to talk? To find great mentors? To network?
People are our greatest asset.
And Chief unlocks potential. Members have met cofounders through Chief, raised money, and made best friends. The proof is in the pudding, BABY. It’s only a matter of time before a unicorn comes out of Chief.
BTW. Carolyn and Lindsay met at a really sh*tty networking event. (Carolyn had jumped from investment banking to the corporate world to startups. With every step of her career, she sacrificed money for something more aligned to her passions. Lindsay started at Casper as its VP of Marketing. She had all this new stuff going on - owning a budget, being a mom, making complicated decisions. But she never had a mentor).
Chief has found that most problems are people problems.
Most women (like Lindsay) go through really similar things.
They’re moms. They’re wives. They’re business women.
And they need a place to talk. To ideate. To assemble.
So take one from Carolyn Childers. And TALK.
And that’s the skinny.