Female Founders: Natasha Pearl Hansen On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Know what type of company you are building and do it correctly out of the gate. I jumped to starting my company as an LLC, and had to convert to Delaware C-Corp within a year in order to internally structure properly. It’s much more cost-effective to do this right from the start. Use attorneys! It’s worth it.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Natasha Pearl Hansen.

Natasha Pearl Hansen is a comedian, creator, podcast host, and entrepreneur who began her multi-faceted entertainment career at Second City Chicago in 2007, moving to Los Angeles a few years later. She quickly began touring as a stand-up comedian, acting, writing, producing and directing for stage and film, eventually leading her to start a production company and creating multiple comedy series with wins in film festivals and with major networks. When her wedding was canceled in 2019, she decided to use the venue anyways and self-produce her first comedy special “I Was Supposed To Get Married Today” which came out on Amazon Prime this year, also leading her to become the CEO + Founder of MyBreakUpRegistry.com a crowdfunding and registry platform for people going through breakups.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

Thank you for having me! I actually left pre-med in college to pursue comedy, so I knew when getting into an entertainment career that I was going to have to be really business minded to create the life I wanted. When I first started touring as a comedian, I didn’t love certain aspects of the road life — cheap hotels, going to small cities in the middle of nowhere, and lacking enough breadth of or solid material to not bomb on stage. I worked hard to build material and a personal brand so I could tour where and how I wanted to, and I learned every aspect of the business side of entertainment that I could. About five years ago I had started to build up enough of a name, written enough jokes, and had enough knowledge of creating partnerships that I was able to start curating my own tours. That’s when I really started falling in love with my career, by taking control of it. I started to pursue brand deals and work with startups and apps, and I found a really cool niche between entertainment, branding and tech. That’s where I started planting a seed in myself that I’d be a startup founder one day.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

I think everyone in a leader role deals with impostor syndrome, and even though I trusted myself as a leader in entertainment, I didn’t know if others would trust me as a founder. So, I decided that I’d have to be authentic throughout the process and the right people would find me. I submitted to pitch my company over zoom to a VC fund that invests in women founders, and I essentially ran the pitch like I would for a TV show — made it fun, interesting, and engaging. I was totally myself. After the pitch they said they only reach out to maybe 1% of pitches for followup, so don’t try and get in contact. I got a call a week later that they were interested in investing. It turns out people do really want to invest in YOU, not just your ideas! We are still in talks on next steps and working to find another investor or two to match them, but that was an extremely encouraging experience.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Ooh I made a few… initially when I was planning out my design palette for the site, I hired a branding and design person off of Instagram. This person I had followed for years and they were incredible with their own brand, but the designs I got back for my site were so far off of my vision I didn’t know what to do. I called the woman and we had a candid conversation about it and I was just honest about how I felt, and that I didn’t think our aesthetic lined up. She handled it so well and refunded my large deposit, and we simply agreed that maybe this wasn’t the right project for us to collaborate on, but we’d find a better way to work together in the future. You’ll make mistakes, but if you’re at least honest about them with the people involved, you can always find a way to shift and correct. I ended up finding the perfect designer shortly after!

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I’m inspired by a lot of founders, especially women in entertainment and entrepreneurship I’ve met and befriended through the years. The two people who stick out here are my friends Carly and Matt. Carly and I grew up together and she became a powerhouse with Amazon by being the force that she is. She’s helping a new startup scale now, and we bounce stories and trials off of each other all the time. She was one of the first to encourage me with this business when it was just in its infancy as an idea. My other friend Matt offered my so many resources as I journeyed into becoming a founder, even giving my his assistant for a few hours to handle tasks I couldn’t get to. I trust my friends and their brains, and I love just chatting over the phone about founder whoas whenever we get the chance — we always help each other come up with our own solutions to our problems, which is fun.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

The designation of a company as being female founded is a double-edged sword. On one hand, you have those that are willing to back and support female-driven ventures, and on the other hand you have those that see that designation and perceive it within the stigma of it being backed solely because there’s a woman founder. Women want to be considered CEO’s and founders, not “female CEO’s and founders.” I’ve dealt with this my entire comedy career as well, and as much as we appreciate being notable as a woman, we want to just be considered notable, period. Fear of how we are being perceived and distinguished tends to be a big factor in wanting to take that leap into founding a company or not.

Also, the designation of a company as being female founded can make it seem like the company ONLY serves women, when many women-founded companies aim to serve a broader scope of the population. I built my company to help anyone and everyone, regardless of how they identify, and I want to be provided opportunities by anyone that understands my vision and trusts me with it.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

I’m a huge fan of sites like iFundWomen, where I donate back to a lot of women-founded companies on a regular basis, but this all comes down to letting women know to take their own action whether or not they think they have support. There is so much money out there, and an internet full of resources, but it takes hunting and work to put those resources in your own hands and funnel them into your own company. The more we can open up conversations about what women need to fuel their life and their business endeavors, the more we talk about salaries and funding options, the more we can discover. We can’t be afraid to share our resources with each other. It only harms the greater whole.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

Women leaders I admire tend to lead in a fierce yet vulnerable way. I look up to so many women founders and leaders, and I feel like women are very willing to listen to their audience and build in a way that caters to them. Women tend to pave the way for other women, so the more of us who become founders and CEO’s, the more opportunity we can continue to create for those on their way up.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

That you need a co-founder! Ooh this is a tough myth… and you don’t need anyone to believe in your vision as much as you, because if you believe in it the most, then you alone can give it the most. Nobody should fear starting a company on their own. I have worked on combatting this myth since MyBreakUpRegistry.com was simply an idea, and I will continue to work to show other founders that they can launch alone and take their time to bootstrap, build right, and find the right team over time.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

Definitely not everyone is cut out to be a founder, but I think people naturally weed themselves out of roles like these if it’s not the right fit. Fifteen years in entertainment prepared me and gave me all the tools I needed to handle building a corporation: rejection, inquisition and comparison are rampant in Hollywood as well as the startup world, and I’ve taught myself that every “no” is inching me closer to a “yes,” and to celebrate all the little wins along the way. Even getting a response you don’t want is still a response, and responses are a good thing. Founders have to be capable of listening, yet knowing the vision and building toward it. Founders have to be able to pivot and redirect when needed. Founders have to be willing to lose everything to create their dream, but also know deep down they won’t have to, because they’ll find a way. If you’re able to live outside of your comfort zone, take risks, and have large pockets of financial uncertainty, great! Go be a visionary. But not everyone is leading the charge and there’s tremendous value in being a person that carries the work forward toward the end goal. Founders can’t create and scale without people who can facilitate the vision, and facilitators keep the machine oiled and running. It’s all a functioning unit, and whatever your place is in that unit, it is valued and necessary.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Know what type of company you are building and do it correctly out of the gate. I jumped to starting my company as an LLC, and had to convert to Delaware C-Corp within a year in order to internally structure properly. It’s much more cost-effective to do this right from the start. Use attorneys! It’s worth it.
2. If you’re hiring any sort of designer or developer, you can craft a tier-style payment plan based on milestones of product delivery. Designers and developers are willing to work with you, and they also want to make sure you’re happy and that their time is worth the end result. Check-ins along with a broken down payment structure really helped me build at a steady yet realistic pace while also getting constant updates.
3. Don’t read too many stories from other founders while you’re in build phase. As much as other people’s journeys can be inspiring, no journey is the same, and it’s good to keep your focus on doing things your way rather than trying to emulate someone else’s success.
4. Be honest with your friends, family, audience — anyone who will listen — about what you need and where you’re at. I built my company in public and am continuing to, and if people think everything’s going smoothly for you, there’s so many offerings for help you’ll miss. As I opened up about roadblocks and setbacks throughout my build, I was floored by the types of responses I received, be it connections or discounts or free photo shoots. People can’t help you if you don’t tell them what you need!
5. It’s OK to build at a steady pace. Nothing needs to be the biggest and the best right away. Bootstrap, get scrappy, and find ways to make it work. It’s better to build right and with integrity than to get in over your head. If my company would have blown up the second I launched, I wouldn’t have been prepared. Now I am. Don’t be afraid to pace, nobody will (or should) judge you for it.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I mean, I’m trying! I think all founders want to build something remarkable, and create opportunities for others, but it takes time and is a constant work in progress. My biggest through-line in my entertainment career (comedy, hosting my podcast, writing) and in my company is being open about perceived failures and understanding how those things actually built to your success. I love owning a rough moment in my life and moving forward from it, and my art and entrepreneurship reflects that. I hope to keep inspiring people to shine through their setbacks, let them be a learning experience, and move the F forward.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

That’s exactly what I’m trying to do with MyBreakUpRegistry.com — inspire a generation of people who are willing to be open and vulnerable about what they need after a breakup. We all go through them yet we aren’t supposed to talk about them. We are just supposed to be OK, and we aren’t. These moments in our lives are the most painful on so many levels. I’m reminding people they can lean into their community, take care of themselves properly, and get the help they need to heal and come out stronger on the other side, eventually.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I am really focusing on partnering with brands in the mental health, wellness, experiences, dating and travel spaces with my company in 2022. I have a giant note in my company’s CRM of people I admire who would be excellent brand partners for MyBreakUpRegistry.com. Barbara Corcoran is my number one. Her success was fueled by a breakup, and I have watched her on Shark Tank since the series began. Danielle Pergament, the Editor in Chief at GOOP would be incredible to meet — GOOP readers are aligned with my company’s target market and I would love to pick her brain. Justin McLeod the founder of Hinge — I would love my site to partner with a brand like theirs, a dating app “designed to be deleted” and help people find love again after a breakup. Jonathan Beskin is the founder of Single Swag, which is a subscription brand I’d love to partner with and feature on my site. Some other outliers are mission-driven bad a** women like Jessica Alba, Selena Gomez and Zoe Barry. And can I exit this list without mentioning Oprah?

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.