Main co-founders Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan
Photos courtesy of Chief
As companies see a record number of women stepping down from their jobs in the “Great Retirement,” Google’s parent company Alphabet is pouring money into an initiative that could help them stay.
Founded in 2019, Chief is a membership-based company for women leaders designed to offer meetings with curated groups of peers, mentoring and fireside chats with the likes of former First Lady Michelle Obama.
The start-up has physical premises in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago and, as of last month, received a fresh $100 million in cash from Alphabet venture arm CapitalG. The money will help Chief open a clubhouse in San Francisco this summer that will feature a specialty coffee bar, an open lounge area, meeting rooms, private phone booths and a room for moms.
“Tech is such a male-dominated industry, so I think it’s a great opportunity to tap into something that deviates a bit more from that mold,” Chief co-founder Carolyn Childers said in an interview with CNBC. She said San Francisco is the company’s fastest-growing city, and “we’ve seen amazing members join from early-stage startups to the big tech giants.”
The Covid-19 pandemic boosted business as women flocked to Chief’s platform, which served as a support system in times of loneliness. More than 12,000 executives from over 8,500 companies including HBO, American Express, Nike, Google, Goldman Sachs, NASA and Apple have signed up.
Annual membership starts at $5,800 for women at the vice presidential level and $7,900 for C-suite executives. About 70% of members are sponsored by their employers, Childers said. Beginning this year, for an additional fee, members can receive an all-access pass to Chief’s clubhouses, where they can receive clients, reserve meeting rooms, and connect with other members.
The Chiefs clubhouse bar in Los Angeles
Photos courtesy of Chief
“Lonely at the Top”
Childers and co-founder Lindsay Kaplan said Chief was born from experience as they both held senior corporate positions and struggled to find support. Studies have shown that this is one of the main reasons women workers do not stay in the technology sector.
Childers was formerly senior vice president at Handy and Soap.com, where she served as general manager during the company’s acquisition by Amazon. Kaplan was Vice President of Communications and Brand at Casper and has worked in marketing for various startups.
“We managed teams and mentored others, but we didn’t have the resources for ourselves,” Childers said. “It can get very lonely upstairs, especially when you’re literally the only woman in a room full of men.”
Chief expanded nationwide earlier this year. There are about 60,000 women on the waiting list, but Childers and Kaplan say they should be able to screen applicants more quickly now that the company has more money to hire people and scale out the technology.
Chief plans to open a clubhouse in San Francisco. The company has members-only clubs in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.
Photos courtesy of Chief
Laela Sturdy, a partner at CapitalG, said the company has an “incredible business model” but has also benefited from timing given the many strains from the pandemic.
“I started hearing about Chief because I have many girlfriends who are senior women and executives in my portfolio who come to Chief, and I was honestly impressed with the brand dynamics and the organic love the Chief members showed ‘ said Study. “It’s very rare that members and users talk about a platform that changes their lives.”
According to Childers, the company is now poised to gain even more momentum in a post-pandemic world as people crave in-person events.
“When everything went fully digital, the biggest thing was democratized access,” Childers said. “You didn’t have to be in a specific place. For networks and communities, the ability to meet face-to-face is a huge benefit.”
In April, the platform offered members-only fireside chats with Arielle Gross Samuels, the global head of Meta’s environmental, social and corporate governance initiative, and former Netflix CMO Bozoma Saint John. The topics range from inclusion in the workplace to work-life balance.
Childers said it’s a particularly diverse community, with 35% of members identifying as BIPOC, or Indigenous black and people of color.
Take it to company
Chief raises significant amounts of capital from top venture capitalists, which means investors expect the company to scale in a way that can justify a technology valuation. Other backers include General Catalyst and GGV Capital.
Chief says a big way to grow is to go straight to companies. For example, functions and programs could potentially be customized to meet the needs of their women leaders, whether that means a focus on events or professional growth, Sturdy said.
Chief plans to open a clubhouse in San Francisco. The company has members-only clubs in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.
Photos courtesy of Chief
“We really want to invest a lot in building relationships with these companies so that sponsorship becomes second nature to a company that you’re an employee at,” Childers said. “There are many opportunities to think about where Chief is, even outside of the US.”
Sturdy plays a role in the expansion. She has seen 10 of her investments transform into companies valued at $1 billion or more over the past year, and she has spent more than a decade at Google in a variety of leadership roles. She said Chief can serve as a valuable retention tool as companies consider how to retain their top performers.
“What’s exciting about this expansion is the vision of going to Google or Nike and saying, ‘Hey, there’s already five, 10, 20 of your senior executives who are Chief members, and here are all the ways we’re expanding to serve more of your population,'” Sturdy said.
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