Undergraduate Blog / Defining Your Babson

Investor Insights Learned at the #GirlBoss Rally

Post by Jillian Klinvex ’18

Sophia Amoruso, the founder of Nasty Gal and author of #GirlBoss, hosted the first GirlBoss Rally in LA in March 2017. The GirlBoss Rally brought together 50 accomplished speakers and 500 ambitious, young women. The speakers ranged from Tyler Haney, the founder of Outdoor Voices, to Emily Weiss, the founder of Glossier, to Kevin Systrom, the founder and CEO of Instagram. The speakers spoke on everything from intentional living to how to run a multimillion dollar fashion brand. My favorite panel and the reason I applied to the conference was to hear from three extremely successful investors: Susan Lyne of BBG Venture, Sarah Christensen of the Raptor Group, and Sarah Kunst, the founder and CEO of Proday. Here are a few key takeaways I learned during this panel:

  • Founders first – When raising money from investors, the investors are investing in the founder first and their idea second. This sentiment was resounded through each investor present. The common characteristics the investors want to see in a founder is passion, tenaciousness, competitiveness, strong expertise, and sensibility.
  • Big idea, small steps – When investors invest in a new idea, they are looking for a successful exit to get a return on their money. When pitching to investors, founders have to be able to sell the million or billion-dollar dream, but still be able to detail the granular steps that will be taken to achieve that dream.
  • Investors are human too – If a founder is lucky enough to receive an investment, he or she should capitalize on the wealth of resources and expertise their investor can offer. Each investor on the panel discussed how they wished their founders would reach out for more help. Investors truly care about each of their founders. It is in their best interest to supply their founders with the necessary tools and connections to allow their business to thrive. Investors take extraordinary risks on founders and want to help them succeed at all costs.

Thank you to the Undergraduate Professional Accelerator Fund for this amazing opportunity!