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It’s no secret that female entrepreneurs receive less funding than their male counterparts–females only secured 2% of VC funding in 2021. The reality, however, is even more pronounced for women of color.
But according to ComplYant founder Shiloh Johnson, there is a way to change this reality we are living in, you have to be undeniable. “If I focus on the business, and I build something that works and it's making money, you can't deny that green is the universal color,” Johnson said at dot.LA’s "Meeting the Moment: Why the Time is Now for Women Founders" panel.
With over 15 years of corporate tax experience, Johnson shifted her practice in 2019 and created a tax-compliance software company. To date, she has raised $13 million.
Johnson was joined on stage by Greycroft co-founder and managing partner Dana Settle, Merit founder Katherine Power and Annenberg Foundation Executive Director Cinny Kennard. Their discussion was centered around discrepancies in the funding gap and how we can create an equitable startup ecosystem for women.
“To Shiloh’s point, as long as we keep showing results and keep making money,” Power said, “that's all that matters. I truthfully never thought about being a woman when I was building my companies. I just thought about being good.”
But, for Power, being good is an understatement.
As the woman behind luxury beauty brand Merit, skincare line Versed and wine company Avaline, Power has proven time and again that she’s got what it takes to compete with anybody.
With several companies under her belt, one person that took notice of Power’s entrepreneurial strengths was Settle, who admitted that she’s tried to fund every single thing that Power has created.
Some of Settle’s notable exits include Bumble (IPO), Maker Studios (acquired by Disney), Pulse (acquired by LinkedIn) and The RealReal (IPO).
While women in decision-making roles only make up about 12.4% of venture capital firms, Settle is optimistic that will change so long as women continue to spread that wealth from the top down.
“To keep that sort of flywheel effect going,” Settle addressed the crowd, “there should be a lot more of me, there should be a lot more of you that are actually funding businesses at that growth stage and believing that these companies can become 100-billion-dollar outcomes and real generational wealth is created across a broad base.”
Power said another reason why women are probably receiving a smaller percentage of the whole pie is that a lot of those companies don't make it to later-stage funding.
She added, “That's telling me that perhaps, they're becoming really profitable, and they don't need money, which could be the case or those businesses are not making it past a certain stage.”
Power said that’s why she and Settle are working on a fund together — so that they can help founders put a strategy around the long game and ensure that they reach commercial success faster.
The subject of collaboration led Kennard to ask Johnson what she thought the solution is to increase diversity within businesses.
“Controversial answer, but don't focus on it," Johnson responded. "I think that when diversity becomes the only song you're singing, you get quieter and quieter as the years go on.”
Instead, Johnson suggested businesses should focus on leveling the playing field for everyone, whether that’s women or minority founders, “so that we can exist in the same room and be seen as equals.”
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On this episode of the Behind Her Empire podcast, host Yasmin Nouri sat down with Amy Liu, the founder and CEO of Tower 28, an affordable, irritant-free beauty brand.
Before starting her own beauty brand, Liu worked as an executive for some of the biggest names in beauty: Smashbox, Kate Somerville and Josie Maran Cosmetics. Yet Liu, who has eczema, couldn’t use the products she had a hand in promoting.
The experience would inspire her to create an affordable beauty brand that is mindful of skin tones and textures, vegan and free of every known skin irritant.
A native Minnesotan, Liu is the child of immigrants. From a young age, she imagined herself following in her father’s footsteps by becoming an entrepreneur.
“My dad really loved what he did. But he felt all of it, you know, the highs and the lows,” she says, “So I think I have this background of seeing it, wanting it. … And then instead I think my answer was just to prepare for [risk].”
But when it was time to go to college, Liu felt lost.
“I had this idea of entrepreneurship,” she says, “That didn't really exist in a way that felt like it was achievable.”
Her cousin, a Harvard graduate, recommended majoring in consulting – but Liu knew her heart was not in it. Instead, she went to business school.
Yet it was only after working for other companies that she began to put her master’s degree in entrepreneurship into practice. By the time she founded Tower 28, she was 40, married, with three kids in private school and a mortgage.
“I think what really did happen was I got an opportunity, and… it felt like it would be crazy if I didn't chase it.”
Despite founding a clean beauty line that offers a wide range of skin tones, Liu would not consider herself a “makeup junkie.”
So, what motivated her to create a beauty brand that is vegan and free of every known skin irritant? The ability to see her product make others happy and confident.
“I think the thing I really love about makeup is makeup makes people happy. And it makes them feel more confident about themselves,” she says. “And I genuinely do believe that if you feel more confident, the way that you walk through the world is different. And your ability to do things and approach life is changed.”
Engagement and Production Intern Jojo Macaluso contributed to this post.
Hear more of the Behind Her Empire podcast. Subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radioor wherever you get your podcasts.
On this episode of Behind Her Empire, beauty brand marketing agency SHYFT Beauty Consulting founder Melissa Hibbért discusses how her lifelong love for beauty led her to ditch the corporate world and follow her passion.
Hibbért was born in Jamaica, “on the kitchen floor, literally, my mom and I. The good thing is she was a nurse so she knew what to do,” she said.
Her mother moved to the U.S. when Hibbért was four, aiming to save money so her family could follow her. The experience, Hibbért said, taught her to focus on making her own choices from a young age.
Though she was always interested in pretty things, Hibbért singled out a moment in her early teens, when her mother let her borrow a tube of red lipstick, in instigating her love for beauty.
“[It changed] how I felt about me and the color and how I just connected with the application of color and how that changes people's perception of me,” she said. “I also felt more bold—I felt more seen. I also felt more in control of my own look and identity.”
Hibbért balanced her passion for beauty and her family’s focus on education as she completed her cosmetology degree alongside her high school diploma, though she eventually chose to pursue higher education. But her foray into the corporate world didn’t distance her from her passion. Hibbért said one day her boss, having noticed her love for makeup, singled her out to work on a CoverGirl pitch despite her not being on that account.
After 14 years working for other people, Hibbért said she was ready to take a risk on herself. She took a sabbatical from work and visited her childhood home in Oregon, where she convinced her mom to let her do her makeup for a new Facebook profile photo. That experience led her to reevaluate where she was centering her passions and how she could best utilize her talent.
Hibbért said she made personal cutbacks as she re-focused her vision, with the goal of replacing her six-figure salary within a year. Her years in the corporate world helped her quickly build SHYFT Beauty Consulting, as Hibbért said her business acumen combined with her genuine love for beauty and helped her to approach the industry with a different mindset.
“I always wanted to be business first, not beauty first,” she said. “And that was my point of differentiation. I am a businesswoman who works in beauty.”
Hear more of the Behind Her Empire podcast. Subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radioor wherever you get your podcasts.
dot.LA editorial intern Kristin Snyder contributed to this post.
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