As more women are attending and graduating college than men, one could only assume that the same be said for women-led companies. However, this is not the case and shockingly only 17 percent of startups have a female founder. Even less, only 3 percent of all venture capital is going to female-led companies.
This has not gone unnoticed by women in the industry and there’s a growing movement to make business more female-friendly. Haley Hoffman Smith, a recent graduate of Brown University and self-proclaimed “serial-entrepreneur,” is doing her part by empowering other women through the intersection of women’s empowerment, nonprofits, and entrepreneurship.
“There’s nothing more important to me than helping women to bring their own big ideas to life because I saw how it radically changed my life, and helped me construct my own narrative about my place in the world,” Smith, 21, told Red Alert Politics.
“I became enraptured with the movie ‘Miss Representation’ when I was 16 years old, about how women are presented in the media. Ever since then, I’ve felt a deep seated desire to help women realize their worth.”
Hailing from Denver, Colo., Smith graduated this spring with a degree in Gender & Sexuality Studies with a Focus in Business and Entrepreneurship from Brown University. She has been studying how women develop their sense of self-agency in entrepreneurship and venture capital, and she’s already started the entrepreneurial journey herself.
During her time at Brown, Smith served as a PEIR, or Peer-Entrepreneur-in-Residence, at the Nelson Center of Entrepreneurship. As a PEIR, Smith advised fellow students on how to go through the startup process, and get their feet wet in the world of entrepreneurialism.
Smith grew up admiring female authors such as Elizabeth Gilbert, who wrote “Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia.” She’s since become an author herself, releasing her second book, “Her Big Idea,” in June.
The “Big” in her book title is an anagram. B represents Blue Ocean Strategy, a term originally coined in a 2005 book to mean untapped market space, rather than bloodsport with competitors in a “red ocean.” I stands for Intelligent – a thorough understanding of market research and target demos. G stands for Grand and original ideas.
Smith also has a “Her Big Idea Fund” that awards grants to women who apply and meet the standards of the BIG anagram. The fund will receive half of the book’s proceeds. She cites her intense passion of female empowerment and ownership of business skills that drove her through the whole writing process.
Due to her deep study of the issue throughout her college career, her journey as an author was simply taking that research and extensive interviews and transferring her notes to ink, figuratively.
“A lot of it was writing for my own sake; writing the things that I was learning, the conversations I was having, so it was kind of a labor of love,” she explained.
The blueprint for the grant came straight with the book.
“I wanted to support the big ideas I was encouraging readers to come up with,” Smith said. “I really think that women should be able to own their ideas, to be able to make money off of them, to sell them, get patents on things.”
However, the HBI Fund is only one layer of her philanthropic experience.
“I started my nonprofit Lit Without Limits when I was 18, and found that I created my self concept by creating a company that could actually make change in the world,” Smith explained.
Lit (for Literature) Without Limits puts books of female empowerment in the hands of less fortunate young women around the world. While Lit Without Limits is currently on hold, after Smith’s responsibilities grew with her transfer to Brown from the University of Colorado-Boulder, the nonprofit delivered roughly 300 books such as “I Am Malala” to seven chapters, including in Pakistan and the Philippines.
Now, Smith is focused on Her Big Idea and the Next Gen Summit, where she serves as director of community. The Next Gen Summit is three-day conference in New York City “by and for young entrepreneurs.” The conference welcomes hundreds of young, like-minded individuals from around the globe. In 2017, more than 700 attendees interacted with dozens of investors backed by $4.2 billion in capital. Forbes calls it a “can’t miss” conference.
When asked about her role, Smith downplayed her importance, saying, “I mostly just help to know everyone in the community, so when someone says, ‘Hey I need a digital marketing strategist’, I can give them the names of several options.” Of course, Smith does much more to create a culture of empowerment among a group of fiercely driven young professionals.
In a world where “feminism” has become a politically charged topic, Smith’s brand of feminism seeks to directly reach out and empower women, no matter their background or stance.
“Any social movement should be supportive of all different types of experiences,” Smith stressed, stating that it’s important not to impose your own belief system and own life experiences on others. One huge difference she credits between her and “mainstream” feminism is an embrace of policies that go against the typical zeitgeist of the last few years.
“Capitalism comes into play a lot, and obviously I’m an advocate […] because it’s entrepreneurship.”
Smith has lots of advice for women looking to make a BIG difference, but she told Red Alert Politics about three main takeaways. First, she says to pursue an idea you love on a grand scale, because “the bigger the idea, the less risk.”
Second is Smith’s “birthday party” ideology applied to customers in the business’s branding. “Imagine what they would LOVE to receive, such as how Glossier (skin care company) brands their packages.”
Finally, Smith stresses the idea of personal growth. Don’t feel like you have to be married to your first idea.
“Enjoy the ride […] be open to the flow of life and know that setbacks and pivots will occur”, Smith emphasized. “[Failure] is not a reflection on [your] personal worth.”
