About 18 months ago, I made the colossal mistake of asking our lead analyst, Carla Thompson, “What do you really want to do?” I meant, within the company, of course, but Carla has never been one to limit the scope of either question or answer. She came back to me a couple weeks later with her answer: I want to start a business.
Having observed startups as an analyst for Guidewire Group and a key part of my DEMO team, Carla saw an unmet need. Women founders and business owners need a community. They need and want a place to talk, mentor, and be mentored. They want to focus on business, not women in business, and too often women-centric communities devolve into yet another venue for work-life-balance, husbands-and-diapers, may-male-boss-hates-me bitch sessions. Carla had a vision of something better, something more valuable. She created Sharp Skirts.
Like every startup, Sharp Skirts put a stake in the ground when it launched last year. And like every startup, Sharp Skirts has evolved. The company has made the turn to become a new media brand to serve women business builders tired of poor representation in media and events. Carla talks about that evolution better than I ever good. Read her post here.
What I have always loved about Carla – and by extension, Sharp Skirts – is that she has a point of view. She’s also persistent as hell, and she’s managed to be doggedly persistent without sacrificing her point of view. Her never-surrender attitude has led to the relaunch today of Sharp Skirts. Still, there is “no pink, no platitudes.” And the goal is unchanged: to “make our numbers count as an emerging force in business.”
The new direction, an online and offline media property, has tremendous potential. And while I will likely never asked Carla “what do you really want to do” again, I don’t need to. She’s going to build this company, be the original Sharp Skirt, and make me wish that I had worked for her.
Congratulations, Carla, on the restart, and best of luck to you and all the Sharp Skirts in your community.
