Co-founders Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan
The photos are provided with the kind assistance of the boss
As companies see a record number of women leaving their jobs during the “Great Resignation”, Alphabet, a parent of Google, is investing money in an initiative that can help them stay.
Launched in 2019, Chief is a membership-based company for women executives that is designed to provide meetings with select peer groups, mentors and fireside chats with people like former First Lady Michelle Obama.
The startup has physical spaces in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago and, as of last month, another $ 100 million in cash from Alphabet CapitalG’s venture capital. The money will help the Chief open a club in San Francisco this summer, which will include a bar with special coffee, an open lounge, meeting rooms, private booths and a mother’s room.
“Technology is such a male-dominated industry, so I think it’s a great ability to take advantage of something that is a little more detached from that mold,” co-founder Carolyn Childers told CNBC in an interview. She said San Francisco was the company’s fastest-growing city, and “we’ve seen amazing members join from start-ups to big tech giants.”
The Covid-19 pandemic boosted business as women flocked to the Chief’s platform, which serves as a support system during times of loneliness. More than 12,000 senior executives have joined more than 8,500 companies, including HBO, American Express, Nike, Google, Goldman Sachs, NASA and Apple.
Annual membership starts at $ 5,800 for women at the vice president level and $ 7,900 for C-suite executives. About 70 percent of members are sponsored by their employers, Childers said. From this year, members can pay an additional fee to receive a pass for full access to the Chief’s Clubhouses, where they can receive clients, reserve meeting rooms and connect with other members.
Chief’s Club Bar in Los Angeles
The photos are provided with the kind assistance of the boss
“Lonely on top”
Childers and co-founder Lindsay Kaplan said Chief was born out of experience, as they both had senior roles in the companies and were struggling to find support. This is one of the main reasons why women do not stay in the technology industry, studies show.
Previously, Childers was a senior video president at Handy and Soap.com, where he worked as a general manager through the acquisition of the company by Amazon. Kaplan was vice president of communications and branding at Casper and did marketing for various startups.
“We managed teams and mentored others, but we no longer had the resources for ourselves,” Childers said. “You can get really lonely at the top, especially when you’re literally the only woman in a room full of men.”
Chief expanded nationally earlier this year. There are about 60,000 women on the waiting list, but Childers and Kaplan say they should be able to start screening candidates faster now that the company has more money to hire and build technology.
Chief plans to open a club in San Francisco. The company has member clubs only in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.
The photos are provided with the kind assistance of the boss
Laela Sturdy, a partner at CapitalG, said the company has an “amazing business model”, but has also taken advantage of the time, given the high tensions in the pandemic.
“I started hearing about Chief because I have a lot of friends who are senior women executives and CEOs in my portfolio who joined Chief and I was honestly impressed with the inertia of the brand and the organic love that the key members showed,” Sturdy said. “It’s very rare for members and users to talk about a life-changing platform.”
Childers says the company is already in a position to gain even more momentum in a post-pandemic world as people crave personal events.
“When it’s all digital, the biggest thing is democratized access,” Childers said. “You didn’t have to be in a certain place. For networks and communities, being able to meet in person physically is a huge advantage. “
In April, the platform included member-only chats with Ariel Gross Samuels, global leader of Meta’s environmental, social and corporate governance initiative, and former Netflix CMO Bozoma St. John. Topics range from workplace inclusion to work-life balance.
Childers said it is a particularly diverse community, with 35% of members identifying as BIPOC, or black indigenous and colored people.
Attribution of companies
The boss raises huge amounts of capital from leading venture capitalists, which means that investors expect the company to scale in a way that can justify a technological assessment. Other supporters include General Catalyst and GGV Capital.
The boss says the big way he plans to grow is to go directly to the companies. For example, he could potentially customize features and programs based on the needs of their executives, whether that means focusing on events or professional growth, Sturdy said.
Chief plans to open a club in San Francisco. The company has member clubs only in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.
The photos are provided with the kind assistance of the boss
“We really want to make a deep investment in building relationships with these companies so that sponsorship becomes meaningless for the company you work for,” Childers said. “There are many opportunities to think about where the Chief is, even beyond the United States.”
Sturdy plays a role in the expansion. She has seen 10 of her investments turn into companies worth $ 1 billion or more in the last year and has spent more than a decade at Google in various leadership roles. She said the Chief could serve as a valuable retention tool as companies consider ways to maintain their best results.
“The exciting thing about this extension is the vision of going to Google or Nike and saying, ‘Hey, there are already five, 10, 20 of your top executives who are key members, and here are all the ways we can expand to serve more than your population, “Sturdy said.
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