I’m Sophia, and I've dedicated my career to helping entrepreneurs build their dream businesses. I'm the founder of a $350M business, New York Times bestselling author, writer, and run a venture capital fund called Trust Fund. Every week, we'll send you the most interesting and useful news in business, marketing, productivity, and finance so you can know more, do more, and make more money.
After my “fall” in 2016, I watched an incredible cohort of female founders come up behind me. I thought there was something fundamentally wrong with me and that they had it all figured out.
They were my friends, but it was hard to watch them win. I secretly muted their Instagram accounts. Why was I the only piece of shit female founder? What did they possess that I didn’t? Was it my upbringing? Maybe the media was right.
These women took big swings, raised huge rounds, and were held up as examples for countless other women who for the first time saw that their aspirations might actually be within reach.
And then, one by one, they were canceled.
Our responsibility wasn’t just to pave the way for women, but to do it perfectly — and when we weren’t examples of whatever warped mutation the word Girlboss (which is now immortalized in the Merriam-Webster dictionary) had come to symbolize, we were “toxic.”
No one expects men to build a utopian workplace that cures institutional biases, but we were expected to do just that. This is all too complex for an X post, and I’m not making excuses for anyone.
Today, posts like this are out of character for me because, like them (as the non self-appointed consigliere for scorned Girlbosses, I know), we’ve all been told to keep gender out of the conversation.
The media’s glee surrounding the “fall of the Girlboss” has committed, at scale, more harm than any pretty, young, white (let’s call it what it is), often unrelateable female founder could ever do.
The phenomenon reminded a generation of women what we’d been told for eons: be nice and stay in your lane, or else.
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➤ Trademark wars are not a demure thing. Trademark stuff is complicated. Take it from me — I coined Girlboss, a term that ran away with itself, eventually finding itself on hideous Etsy mugs and baby onesies, with brands like Forever21 slapping it on shirts.
Because of its widespread use, it was challenging to trademark. Funny enough, however, it was recently solidified as a literal (literally!) part of the English language, now immortalized in the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Onto the demure thing: unsurprisingly, TikTok creator Jools Lebron, who started the viral "very demure, very mindful" trend, is battling to own the trademark – and brands are cashing in. For real: Wag, the dog walking app, sent me a push notification with the term the other day. I consulted my dogs, and they hated it too.
A word to all business owners, authors, and those who create the zeitgeist: file for your mark before it’s in use, or the moment it’s become popularized. If not, you could end up battling it out with bigger brands who can out-lawyer you until you run out of money and give up (yeah, that’s a thing). Want to know whether or not someone else is using or has intent to use your mark? Search for it in the USPTO Tess database here.
➤ Maybe you should become a CPA. Now I understand why it takes forever to get a response from my CPA: there’s a legit nationwide accountant shortage. For the ambitious (and creative) out there, this could spell opportunity. Few people (including me, admittedly) understand taxes. Starting a new business could be as simple as getting your license, building a cool website, and marketing to younger businesses with smart, educational content.
➤ Don’t hassle your employees on weekends. Managers in Australia can now get fined if they send non-urgent emails to workers after hours. I was once guilty of this and finally understood (and respected it) the first time one of my employees very clearly ignored my weekend emails.
Corpcore is a trending fashion choice on TikTok that involves modernizing and stylizing your classic office staples. Think: wide cuffs, collared shirts, pleated trousers, double breasted blazers and vests, pinstripes and wool and twill.
It’s an unexpected trend, in that fewer of us are actually going into offices and so many of us are starting to work for ourselves, whether that’s born from passion or necessity.
So yeah, we’re spending a lot less time in an actual office, which might be why we’re craving some of those styles. Corpcore is a nod to a previous life, one with structure and dress codes and water cooler gossip. But more fun – if you do need to head into the city for a quick meeting, corpcore is appropriate without being suffocating. You can easily go from a WeWork to happy hour.
If you’re intrigued, we made you a corpcore starter pack:
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I'm Sophia.
I built my first business to over $100M in revenue... in my 20s. It was hard. Today, I use what I learned to mentor and invest in a new generation of founders through my digital membership for entrepreneurs, Business Class, and my early-stage venture fund, Trust Fund.
I'm Melanie.
I'm the Head of Content and Community at Business Class. After ~a decade as a tech culture reporter, I started consulting for early-stage startups on all things content and community building. Now, I'm focused on making this newsletter your favorite weekly email.
I’m Sophia, and I've dedicated my career to helping entrepreneurs build their dream businesses. I'm the founder of a $350M business, New York Times bestselling author, writer, and run a venture capital fund called Trust Fund. Every week, we'll send you the most interesting and useful news in business, marketing, productivity, and finance so you can know more, do more, and make more money.
