A woman with a purpose can create great success. NAWBO SFBA co-sponsored an event at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club recently because they were featuring three successful women business owners. Sharing our stories of success inspire and raise us all up. The owners of Eventbrite, ModCloth and One King’s Lane told their stories on starting a business, what they envisioned at that time and where they are now.
At present, all three businesses are enormously successful and how they got there is quite similar. None of them started out to create a multi-million dollar business. That was not the reason nor the goal. They each had something they needed and didn’t see that it existed. From there, they thought if it was something they needed that was probably true of others.
For Julie of Eventbrite, she just wanted to create an easy inexpensive or even free way for everyday folks to create events and be able to invite people. For Susan of ModCloth, she wanted clothes that she liked and didn’t see it in stores around her so decided to create her own online store to see if others were interested. Alison of One King’s Lane wanted to make home decorating fun and inexpensive.
Each of these women started simple then grew their technologies and offerings as demand grew. They also found someone to partner with knowing that two heads are always better than one besides women love to collaborate. Julie and Susan partnered with their husbands and Alison with a good friend. The result was an enormous success.
Other key elements that I drew from their presentation were they loved what they were creating, had fun doing it and did not have to be the smartest person on their team. Each one of them spoke about starting simply, growing and changing their offerings as demand grew. Demand grew faster than any of them expected so bringing on great talent to support their efforts became essential. You have to love working with people, sharing ideas, trying new things and collaborating. Julie said, “You have to do what you say.”
These three women inspired everyone in the room of 500 men and women. They showed how women create differently than men and for different reasons. They showed their ability to grow big companies and at the same time create families and have personal lives. Thank you Susan, Julie and Alison.
Kay