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The Tory Burch Foundation collaborated with the U.S. Department of Commerce to further the foundation’s mission of giving women entrepreneurs access to capital, education, and community.
On Monday, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo visited Birch’s New York headquarters to discuss the partnership. Her more than 100 attendees included Foundation Fellows, business leaders, government and nonprofit partners, and the media. Among those in attendance was Lauren Bush Lauren, CEO and co-founder of Feed Project. Reshma Saujani, founder of Moms First US and Girls Who Code. Dee Poku, founder of Wie Suite and Black Women Raise, and Brett Heyman, founder and creative director of Edie Parker.
The conversation, moderated by Tiffany Duf, the foundation’s new president, discussed everything from the hurdles women entrepreneurs face to the capital and resources available to help them export their products. There is a wide range of things that can be provided.
Tiffany Duf, Tory Burch, Gina Raimondo.
Provided by Noah Griffel and Tory Burch
Each year, Tory Burch selects 50 women entrepreneurs to participate in a year-long program designed to help them grow their businesses through workshops, coaching sessions, networking and fundraising. Tory Burch has over 300 of her fellows. Her Fellows program has provided her $1.9 million in grants to help 280 women grow their businesses. Prior to the conversation, Ellie Kasner of Kasner Ironwork, Taylor Shaw of Black Women Animate, and Shalini Samtani of Open the Joy (all Tory Burch Fellows) spoke about their He talked about his experiences.
Asked why they decided to join together, Birch, who is the brand’s executive chairman and chief creative officer, said that when he first met Raimondo last October, he wasn’t sure what they could do together. He explained that they both agreed that they understood the purpose. The power of collaboration. Birch learned about the wealth of resources the Department of Commerce has and how it could be combined with a network of women who didn’t necessarily know about those resources, and realized that “that could be transformative.” I noticed.
Raimondo said she has been a longtime fan of Birch. She said, “Every time I meet a wonderful woman, [I think] “How do we work together?” How can we support you? ” Raimondo said. She told an audience of entrepreneurs: “Helping each other creates change.”
Raimondo said that before entering public life, he was in business, providing financing to small businesses in the medical industry. (He then served as Governor of Rhode Island from 2015 until 2021.)
“For me, I feel that every startup needs a few things: It needs customers and it needs to protect its IP. [intellectual property] And you need access to capital. The Ministry of Commerce will assist you. We run the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office,” she said. She said that since meeting with Burch and his team, she has started offering webinars on protecting IP.
Furthermore, “It can also contribute to export promotion. We will help you export. You can double or triple your income. It is difficult to judge whether you are a small business or not.” It also said it could provide access to capital and do “all the work around that.”
The Department of Commerce, in partnership with the Tory Burch Foundation’s network of more than 1.8 million women, will host a series of public workshops to increase access to critical government resources and provide free public education, advice and networking. We further support our communities through opportunities and tools to navigate. Her DOC resources for small businesses and information for women entrepreneurs to take advantage of the federal government’s wide range of capabilities.
When asked about the three biggest hurdles women entrepreneurs face, Birch said, “Women need three things: capital, education, and community.” She said women have a harder time accessing capital than men. 50 percent of entrepreneurs are women, and less than 2 percent of venture capital firms are funded by women. She partnered with Bank of America and has reached $100 million in low-interest loans, she said. They committed $3.2 million in grants to women of color. They have another program that gives their peers her $1 million interest-free loan and they would like to expand this. “Women are a great investment. They pay back their loans at 98 percent interest,” Birch said.
“When women succeed, the economy succeeds. Unless we dispel that understanding, we will never make progress. I’m also talking about final progress. When it comes to human progress. Forget it and make progress for the bottom line,” Birch said.
The foundation provides free education on its website, which benefits about 650,000 people a year, she said. She said men are much better at networking than women. “The greatest gift we can give is each other. Many businesses are going through many of the same challenges. Whether it’s through word of mouth or helping them buy or sell their products, support each other. It’s an incredible thing to receive,” she said.
Raimondo had this advice for female entrepreneurs: “First of all, ladies, don’t be afraid to say you want to have wealth.” Being independent and successful is “a good thing, so go for it,” she said.
“We want a very successful, highly profitable business,” Raimondo said. She said they are working on a national entrepreneurship strategy and that President Joe Biden has formed a task force that Raimondo will chair. She focuses on women entrepreneurs and works hard to expand her focus beyond the big city hubs. They’re running a technology hub program and they’re putting $500,000 into it. “Communities in the United States that are not New York, San Francisco, Boston, but have centers of innovation. … We just want to leverage all entrepreneurs, wherever they are, and enable them to succeed,” she said. .
From the beginning, Birch said he wanted to build a company with purpose at its heart.
Twenty years ago, when she went to explain her business plan to investors, “the concept of purpose and business was unheard of. I got a big laugh from the room,” Birch said. She says, “I’ve always been interested in the concept that ‘doing good is good for business.'”
In conclusion, Dufu asked, if you could wave a magic wand and do one thing to move women entrepreneurs forward, what would it be?
“There are so many things,” Raimondo said. “First of all, having more women running countries would help the world. If you look around the world, what’s happening in Russia, China, the Middle East? They’re all run by men.…The biggest I think we’ll see more women in leadership positions at institutions, the largest banks, and at the national level. Make money, go fast, don’t go down. [your] Follow the standards, but have some humanity in doing it,” she said.
Birch said bias is part of everything. “If we could take a magic wand and remove the prejudice against women, that would be a good start. The fact that we are [still] Today it is ridiculous to talk about capital and salaries. Women’s rights should be a given, not a benefit. ”
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