Girlboss founder and CEO Sophia Amoruso on transforming her life story into a media company for aspiring women in business
If you haven’t heard of Girlboss, you might be living under a rock. Founder and CEO Sophia Amoruso rose to fame as the creator of Nasty Gal, an eBay store that made an estimated $100 million in sales. She has had a whirlwind decade, moving from fashion into the feminist movement.
We sat down with Sophia to find out more about how she built an empire centered on women’s empowerment. Here is what we learned:
1. Sophia is glad she didn’t make hundreds of millions of dollars from Nasty Gal.
The story of Nasty Gal was famously depicted in her 2014 memoir #GIRLBOSS and the 2017 Netflix series Girlboss. Unfortunately, Sophia wound up selling Nasty Gal for $20 million during bankruptcy. Now a few years into her second venture, she took the glass-half-full approach.
“Thank God I didn’t make hundreds of millions of dollars because I think I might be weird,” Sophia said, noting that people with too much money can be weird. “My values are different because it didn’t work out, and I’m really happy about that.”
2. Sophia didn’t mean to start a media company.
Back in 2014, newly-minted author Sophia would take a few hours out of her busy week at Nasty Gal to host a podcast called Girlboss Radio. But she didn’t originally intend for Girlboss to become a media company. “I just had a podcast and a book,” Sophia said. “But by nature of the book being a kind of media, it also became a Netflix series. So it continued to naturally progress as what looked more like media.”
A new conference called the Girlboss Rally sealed the deal. Sophia invited everyone in her rolodex. “All the women who had spoken on Girlboss Radio to come speak, and they all came and spoke, and the founders of all of these amazing businesses,” Sophia said. “And Sallie Krawcheck, and Rachel Shechtman from STORY, who sold her company to Macy’s. Just like incredible women across so many industries, and 500 women attended.” With sponsors like American Express, Squarespace, and Netflix, she was off to a promising start.
3. Girlboss is for a girl who is on her way.
With millions of followers under her wing, Sophia wants Girlboss to be for women and girls with humble backgrounds, like herself. “I’m a community college dropout from Sacramento who started an eBay store,” Sophia said. “So I did something that anybody can do, the way I started my business. And there’s so many more tools at our disposal to start those businesses now. And the women who had written business books at the time, it was 2014, had a pedigree and a career that most of us couldn’t relate to. And so Girlboss is very much for a girl who’s on her way. She may not be an executive yet. She’s not a total rookie, but there’s no place for her to congregate, for her to meet one another. Nobody’s facilitating that. She’s not going to drop 10 grand on an executive conference, and she’s also not invited.”
Since our interview, Girlboss has launched a new community platform to usher in a “professional network for a new era.” You can sign up here.
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To learn more about Girlboss, listen to our interview with Sophia Amoruso embedded below, and available on Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn or wherever you get your podcasts.
