Earlier this month, I headed out east to the Hamptons with Female Founders Fund. The venture capital firm founded by Anu Duggal hosts a gathering each summer for the founders in its portfolio and others who make up the female founder universe. I was there to moderate a panel about what really happens after a founder sells their company. The moment when they look at their bank account and see a few more zeroes than usual, their biggest lifestyle changes since, how securing an exit changed their relationships with their friends and family—the real stuff. Sadly, the conversation was off the record so I can’t share too much more. But one theme translated to the rest of these three days in Montauk: the rise of the second-time founder.
On my panel were Gwen Whiting and Michelle Cordeiro Grant. Both sold companies, Whiting the cleaning brand the Laundress to Unilever (which didn’t go as she expected—my story on that saga is here). Cordeiro Grant sold the lingerie brand Lively to Wacoal for more than $85 million. And both are now building new brands, Whiting the cleaning club the Fill and Cordeiro Grant the energy drink Gorgie.
They’re hardly the only ones. Other second- or even third-time founders among this cohort include Mariah Chase (sold the plus-size brand Eloquii to Walmart; is now building the retail tech startup Ekyam.ai); Bobbi Brown (who of course went from her namesake brand to Jones Road Beauty, as I wrote about last week); retail and tech vet Julie Bornstein (sold The Yes to Pinterest; is now building fashion tech platform Daydream); and Audrey Gelman, who has moved on from the Wing to her hospitality business the Six Bells. Female Founders Fund itself is now on its fourth fund, with a total of $140 million in capital under management; Chase was the first founder that Duggal invested in twice.
