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April 9, 2010

Interview Tidbit: Angie Davis of Byrd&Belle















On this exciting book journey we have the pleasure of interviewing nearly 100 women who are running interesting, inspiring, and innovative companies. While we of course will be including lots of details in the book and discussing the interviews over the next year, in the meantime we wanted to share a few tidbits from each amazing interview!


Last winter, Adelaide, like many others, fell in love with the grey felt ipod/iphone sleeves. Ever since she’s been intrigued with Angie DavisByrd&Belle store. We were thrilled to learn more about this entrepreneur.


Here are a few things that stuck out:


Amy- I learned just how central autonomy is to Angie’s feelings of happiness and success. That autonomy ranges from having creative control of her products and designs to creating her own schedule and routine – Angie loves never having to set an alarm clock!

Adelaide- Angie’s story really highlighted for me how important the role of experimentation and trying new things is. It has played a critical role in the evolution of her business ( a la the runaway success – a felt laptop sleeve). But at the same time she is responsible for creating collections and that requires careful curation and restraint. A great creative and artistic paradox and challenge!


Thank you, Angie!


- Adelaide & Amy

April 8, 2010

Wife, Redefined





(image courtesy of cute & custom eBay store)













Well, once again, Lisa Belkin has written an incredibly intelligent and eloquent piece that articulates the philosophy of wifehood perfectly. In last week's New York Times Magazine Belkin's story is inspired by her mother's decision not to remarry but instead to be in a committed partnership.

She cites a few statistics (including "working wives in the US bring in 45 percent of total family earnings, and 22 percent of women ages 30 - 44 make 22 percent more than their husbands") that seem obvious to me, probably because of all of the women I come in contact with every day through In Good Company, but that I know many people will find surprising.

What resonated most about her article was the idea that women who returned to the workforce in the late 70's "wanted a wife" to do the "scut work", the type that was work traditionally managed by a wife - e.g. cooking and cleaning.

But as I read this, I thought about how similar it is to running a business - think keeping house.

In our business, my partner Adelaide Lancaster and I often half-jokingly refer to our partnership as a marriage. In the case of our marriage, we have a wife in one another. We have worked very hard to structure our business and our respective roles in ways that allow us to spend the majority of the time doing what we enjoy and naturally do best.

On the whole, those roles maintain opposite aspects of the business but together that division helps us "keep house" and build our business. In our case, we have respect and admiration for the role the other plays and certainly appreciate the hard work involved in the other's contribution.

However there are large components of each of our roles that seem like scut work to the other. It is work that either of us could do but wouldn't enjoy if we had to do it with any consistency. So according to Lisa Belkin's article, in that way, we really do have a "wife" in each other.

Maybe it's time to celebrate the role of the "business wife".

posted by Amy Abrams

April 7, 2010

Interview Tidbit: Rebecca Kousky of Nest


















On this exciting book journey we have the pleasure of interviewing nearly 100 women who are running interesting, inspiring, and innovative companies. While we of course will be including lots of details in the book and discussing the interviews over the next year, in the meantime we wanted to share a few tidbits from each amazing interview!


We have long been fans of
Nest, and it was great to have the chance to talk more with founder Rebecca Kousky, learn about the behind-the-scenes story, and hear where the company is going!

Here we just a couple things that stood out.


Amy – I was impressed with Rebecca’s ability to recognize how diversity in her work day and variety in the type of work she is involved with is critical for her as an entrepreneur. She identified that early on and then built a business around that need.


Adelaide – I was really taken with her story of how she created a new model of micro-lending. Rebecca applied the lens and principles of direct service social work (looking at things from the perspective of the individual) to world poverty, and innovated the micro-lending model to make it less oppressive for the women she helps. Her model has also continued to grow. She began with just one aspect (lending) and has continued to incorporate more and more systemic solutions (training for the women artisans).


Thank you, Rebecca!


- Adelaide & Amy

April 6, 2010

Are women business owners really second-class entrepreneurs?

Read an excerpt from my new Huffington Post article:

...

In short, I am being asked: "how can we get female entrepreneurs to start those blockbuster businesses that are so often started by men?"

And I get very frustrated, because in my mind this is the wrong conversation.

These questions are problematic because they reinforce the strong dichotomy that exists in the mind of the general public between businesses that are fast-growing, capital-rich, and highly-visible (and undeniably mostly male) and businesses that grow more organically, remain closely held, have greater longevity, have less capital, and stay smaller.

The first group gets deemed the legitimate "real" entrepreneurs, while the latter group, especially if they are run by women, gets passed off as "lifestyle" or "lipstick" entrepreneurs. While in reality businesses in the latter group are run by both men and women, I've yet to see a man's business pejoratively referred to as a "lifestyle" business.

...Read More


Do you think women are cast as second-class entrepreneurs?

As an woman entrepreneur, have you ever felt like you were a legitimate or "real" entrepreneur? When & why?

Personally, when I first started out it took me a little while to warm to the word entrepreneur, even though I would talk about the process of starting my own business. I did a lot f research and read things geared towards entrepreneurs, but I didn't feel reflected in the literature.

However as the business became more involved, and complex, and strategic it was hard to identify as anything but an entrepreneur. I was also very encouraged by finding the right peers and resources. A very important book for me was Bo Burlingham's Small Giants, which profiles great companies that have other goals besides size. It was examples and stories like these that made me feel more comfortable taking up this new identity.

I really understand what it is like to wrestle with the title, but each time I hear the qualifiers lifestyle or lipstick, I cling to entrepreneur even more tightly!

I'd love to hear your experience.

-Adelaide Lancaster

Input Needed: When did you start thinking of yourself as an entrepreneur?









(image courtesy of jenskelley)







As you know we are thrilled about our new book deal!

And oh joy - the interviewing, writing & research has begun!
A big part of our book will be including stories, experiences, anecdotes & tips from women entrepreneurs and all of you!

We will be posing weekly questions to help us with our writing and brainstorming. Sometimes we will be soliciting a tip and other times a reflection on your own experience.


Thanks to all of you who shared their thoughts on what has been surprising about entrepreneurship, how you work best, what you love most about entrepreneurship,
and the adventures of getting off track.


Next up, we'd like to know:

When did you start thinking of yourself as an entrepreneur? Why?

If not an entrepreneur, what did you consider yourself when you started?

How do you feel about the word entrepreneur? Does it describe your experience?

Do you feel that others consider you an entrepreneur too?

We’d prefer if you reply in the comments because it makes the conversation richer and I think you’ll see that you’re not the only one with the same insights or challenges! If you’d feel more comfortable sending me an email, you can do that too. Adelaide@

April 5, 2010

BottleRocket: Part 1, the back story







Tom Geniesse, owner of
BottleRocket, began his career in the entertainment world, which he believes is at heart an entrepreneurial experience and process. With each new project you are always starting from scratch and your task is to bring an idea to fruition. To do so you not only have a compelling idea, you have to execute by strategically enlisting lots of key people, finding seed money, building a platform, generating buzz and support, and cultivating a following.

So during the dotcom boom it was fairly comfortable to move from the entertainment industry into a fast-growing tech startup.
Tom’s first business was founded with partners and was essentially an online portal that made it possible to access high-quality educational information and lectures anywhere. The virtual educational platform was intended to help connect the woman in Wichita with the professor at Harvard. The business was eventually acquired but not before it grew to employ several hundred people.

Through this venture Tom rode the dotcom wave and learned a lot about entrepreneurship and startups.
Fundamentally, Tom believes that an entrepreneur’s value is to solve problems.

And it wasn’t long before he spotted a problem that he wanted to solve. As a burgeoning wine drinker, Tom found it really difficult to interact with wine clerks and stores in an effort to learn more about his purchases. He was really trying to teach himself about the wine world and kept getting frustrated that merchants really didn’t make the process any easier.

Each bad experience left him questioning how things could be better set up. How could these stores make it easier for folks like him to learn and make more informed purchases?


Tom knew that it is easy to critique existing options but that it is much harder to create something that actually does a better job.


So right from the beginning, he really challenged himself. Instead of just creating an alternative that he would like better, he wanted to know if he could figure out a model that would fundamentally change the wine shopping experience.

And thus the research and brainstorming and collaborations began…!
(more about BottleRocket and Tom’s story to come in April’s inFOCUS series).


Experience BottleRocket firsthand and meet the man behind the business at our April 21st talk, taksing, and tour.

Workshop with “Social Media Guru” Shama Kabani at IGC! May 25th












We are so excited to be hosting
Shama Kabani for a special IGC event on May 25th.

Shama has just released a new book called “
The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz and Increase Revenue”, which helps readers access all the benefits of social media without the stress.

Shama has been recently featured in over 20 press outlets including
Entrepreneur, Fast Company, and Business Week. She is on the cover of Online Strategies Magazine.

The workshop (which is for intermediate and advanced social media users) will cover:

- Why the traditional marketing rules cannot be strictly applied to social media marketing.
- How to find and create strategic joint venture (JV) relationships using social media.

- The 3 components needed to ACT (attract, convert, transform) new clients online and how to apply those concepts and tools to your business.

In addition to recent updates and applications for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, Shama will address the marketing pros/cons of new applications and tactics e.g. GoogleBuzz, Plancast,
Foursquare, new website tools, video blogs as well as offer insight on the future of social media, websites and online marketing in general.

This event is open to the public but there are very limited tickets.


WHEN: May 25, 2-4pm
WHERE: IGC, 16 West 23rd Street, 4th Floor

COST: $35 without book/$49 with book

REGISTER

Sign up now to reserve your spot!

April 4, 2010

Interview Tidbit: Ellen Diamant of SkipHop













On this exciting book journey we have the pleasure of interviewing nearly 100 women who are running interesting, inspiring, and innovative companies. While we of course will be including lots of details in the book and discussing the interviews over the next year, in the meantime we wanted to share a few tidbits from each amazing interview!

It was great to have the chance to meet up with Ellen Diamant of Skip Hop, a brand we both love and know quite well.

Here’s a couple things we learned:

Amy – It is amazing how timing plays a huge role in the success of some companies. Skip Hop introduced highly-styled and functional products that made new parents still feel like themselves at a time when the modern baby movement was just getting off the ground.

Adelaide – I just can’t believe how much of an impact Skip Hop has had! Aside from how much they have physically accomplished in the last 7 years, they have really redefined the baby product space by setting new design standards and creating for the masses.

Thank you, Ellen!

- Adelaide & Amy

April 2, 2010

Interview Tidbit: Cyndee Sugra of Studio7Media











On this exciting book journey we have the pleasure of interviewing nearly 100 women who are running interesting, inspiring, and innovative companies. While we of course will be including lots of details in the book and discussing the interviews over the next year, in the meantime we wanted to share a few tidbits from each amazing interview!

We had the chance to speak with (literal) rockstar Cyndee Sugra of Studio7Media who is based in LA. It was so nice to meet her over the phone and we can’t wait to connect in person.

Here’s what stuck with us:

Adelaide – I was amazed by how unassumingly Cyndee talks about her really impressive business, experiences, and the decisions that she has made. Despite being incredibly innovative, pioneering, and a big risk taker she is tremendously humble. It’s no wonder so many people trust her and her instincts!

Amy – I think that it is remarkable that an experiment (trying out software development vs. web marketing) was the defining moment from her company. While Cyndee didn’t consider the result of the project to be a runaway hit, the act of experimenting ended up taking the business in a new extremely successful direction AND that they had a benchmark/standard for the quality of work they would produce in the future.

Thank you, Cyndee!

- Adelaide & Amy

April 1, 2010

Introducing BottleRocket: Our April inFOCUS business














We are so excited to kick off April with a new inFOCUS business - BottleRocket, a wine shop just south of us in the Flatiron district.

BottleRocket is the brainchild of owner Tom Geniesse who has been an entrepreneur several times over.
Like many businesses, BottleRocket was born out of frustration with the existing options.

Several years ago Tom decided to learn about wine and was shocked that wine stores were engineered in such an uneducational, unfriendly, and intimidating way!


For those you have visited BottleRocket you will know that the store is shockingly approachable, friendly, and chock full of personality. From the innovative "themed" kiosks, to the take-home educational bottle notes, to Otis the yellow lab store mascot, this wine store is nothing like the traditional experience.

What's so cool about BottleRocket is to see how all these experimental elements have really come together to fundamentally change the way in which people experience and interact with wine.


We have long loved BottleRocket and are thrilled to get more of an "inside peek" at the business over the next month. We will get to learn more about its roots, future, owner, and ingenious system.

There are lots of customer service, marketing, and value proposition lessons to be learned here!


We are, of course, also excited about our April event with Tom - a talk, tour, and wine tasting at BottleRocket on April 21st!


It is a fantastic way to celebrate spring, learn and mingle with fellow IGCers! Because of the tasting experience, attendance will be limited, so please reserve your space.