How to Build Your Billion-Dollar Company

One turned down a job from a former United States Vice President to start her own company. Another sold her first startup for $100 million, then built one much bigger. A third bootstrapped her firm at only 25 years old. Today, these CEOs all lead high-profile technology companies rocketing toward a billion in revenue. And we got to hear how they did it during an extraordinary panel discussion at our UPWARD annual dinner in San Jose, California.

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of this topic. Women comprise a paltry 5.8% of all CEOs of the S&P 500 according to the data. Only 8% of startup technology companies are led by women in the United States; and in my research of Silicon Valley, that number drops to 3%.

This is why I founded UPWARD – so female executives could meet up, build up their networks, and use those connections to move up in their careers. And it’s working. We have nearly 4,000 members in eight chapters around the world and are launching five more chapters this year. These efforts are moving the leadership needle that much further for executive women.

And our panelists showed exactly what we’re capable of doing.

Success By Any Measure

When I looked across the stage at our speakers, I saw amazing success by any measure.

Julia Hartz is the CEO of Eventbrite, which lets people create, promote, and host events. When she co-founded the company with her husband in 2006, she turned down a chance to work with Al Gore on his Current TV channel – and traded a high-rise office in Hollywood’s Century City for a phone closet in a San Francisco warehouse. Fast forward to last year, Eventbrite powered 2.4 million events and booked $8 billion in ticket sales.

Brit Morin is the CEO of Brit + Co. She founded it at 25 after noticing that many millennial women didn’t feel creative. Somehow they had gone from telling stories and making things as young girls to having little confidence in doing those things as young women.

“I don’t know what happened,” she said. “I think it comes down to middle school – I blame everything on middle school – and when we were judged in art class.”

Today, her company has revenue in the high eight figures and reaches 125 million unique visitors every month, mostly women, teaching them everything from how to build a holographic clock to avoiding common tax mistakes. It also creates 100 pieces of content every day, making it a huge media enterprise.

Meanwhile, Mariam Naficy has helmed two successful startups. Her first, eve.com was the first online retailer of cosmetics and sold for $100 million. Yet she talks openly of what she considers the failures of not being able to take the company further. She plowed the lessons from that experience into Minted, which sells stationary; connects people with independent designers; and stocks a wide range of home, holiday, and party décor. The company now has revenue in the nine figures.

So how did this all come to pass?

Never Quit...No Matter What They Say

If there was one lesson the panel imparted it was this: bet on yourself, come what may.

“You’re going to get naysaid pretty much your entire life,” said Mariam, who was told by some investors that women wouldn’t buy cosmetics online, nor would people buy stationary from a Web site. “There’s just a right moment for the right idea. You just have to stick with the vision to see if you can crack the code and make it work.”

But if money is the oxygen of a business how do you keep it breathing? Turns out there are many avenues.

Julia raised a bridge round from friends and family in 2008 when things were tough and that bought her a year – by 2009 she was fielding multiple term sheets. Brit bootstrapped her company with personal savings and built steadily on that success. AngelList, cold-tweeting investors, and networking events like those of by UPWARD, can also work.

“If the system’s not working, go around the system,” Mariam advised.

Worry Less, Sleep More

You also need to stay out of your own way when leading a company – especially in the early days. It’s stressful, and the stress isn’t going away.

“It’s not that you have good days and bad days,” said Brit. “It’s that you have 18 good days and 18 bad days all in the same day; if you can’t handle the highs and lows you’re going to be an emotional wreck.”

Julia echoed that thought when talking about what she’d do differently. “I would take back all the sleep I lost worrying about competitors,” she said. “Whether it’s the competitive set in your industry or a competitor in your job you have to stay focused on what you bring to the table and get some sleep.”

“You become accustomed to being your own judge,” said Mariam.

 Still Needed: More Women Funders

We rounded out the discussion with an obvious question: given the success of these amazing founders, why aren’t there more women starting technology companies? Brit didn’t miss a beat.

“There aren’t enough female venture capitalists,” she said.

I couldn’t agree more. There’s also a far-too-prevalent view that women don’t actually want to start companies. Yet when I launched the Intel Capital Diversity Fund in 2015, which invests in women and minority-led technology companies, we received more than 600 business plans within a few months.

Once and for all, this is not a pipeline issue; it’s one of perception.

What makes me hopeful is not only the success of our panelists but the opportunities they’re creating for more women. For example, eighty percent of the executive leaders at Brit + Co are female, as is its board, and Eventbrite has a 63% female executive leadership team and a 50/50 gender split on its board.

And it’s just the start.

“We’re so not done on creating a diverse and inclusive environment, but I do feel like we have created a place where you can be who you want to be and where you can be an entire person and not just an employee,” said Julia.

To these three brilliant female entrepreneurs, I say, well done, ladies, well done. To all the women reading this, I say, who’s next?

Lisa Lambert is a SVP of National Grid Ventures and Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of National Grid. Lisa is also Founder/CEO and Chairman of UPWARD, www.upwardwomen.org, a global network of executive women.