WOMXN UP 👩🏾💼 ⭐ 💻
CWBS Vol. 5
Happy Monday, CWBS!
I hope that you’re all staying healthy, happy, and engaged. This edition of The Scope will be focused on female founders and womxn who have changed the game in various sectors of the business world – from founding innovative fitness platforms such as Classpass to transforming the cosmetics industry at Glossier, womxn are undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with in regards to innovation, change, and of course, business. Happy reading!
- Sophia Naqvi, Membership Engagement Chair of CWBS 2020-2021
A TESLA SURPRISE: Tesla’s shares are ready to greatly increase on 07/23 after posting a surprising Q2 profit, and after announcing a new factory in Austin, Texas. This surprising development defied Wall Street estimates of Tesla’s Q2 performance and comes just after a 280% stock rally for the year to date of the company. Learn more.
STOCKS, STOCKS, STOCKS: Stocks futures remained largely unchanged on Wednesday 07/22 with investors focusing more on the US’ rapidly escalating COVID-19 crisis and unemployment epidemic; Wall Street, however, seemed to largely shrug off concerns over US-China tensions. Optimism over the $2 billion Pfizer vaccine deal with the US government led to gains in the 30-stock Dow. Learn more.
STILL #INCHARGE?: Prominent international fashion brand Diane Von Furstenburg (DVF) has been able to hide its losses for years behind the extraordinary persona of its founder; however, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the struggles of the high-fashion house, with the British and French operations of the company filing for the “European equivalent” of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. This signals a new trend in the US/European casualwear space: COVID-19 is accelerating the demise of reputationally strong, yet financially weak companies. Learn more.
ROSE SHAFA of ROSESHAFA.COM
“If you feel fear, that means you should definitely do it because it means you care and it's gonna make a difference.” - Rose Shafa
Armed with a degree in finance, Rose is a former Wall Street trader turned personal finance guru. She is passionate about spreading financial literacy and teaching people how to pick investments based on facts, not emotions. With her knack for explaining complicated financial topics into easy-to-understand steps, her YouTube channel "Investing With Rose" has garnered millions of views.
What inspired you to start investing with Rose?
I think it was about three years ago – I just had this passion for talking about money and investing, and I also realized how intimidating it could be for women to try to think that they could make some progress in a very male-dominated field. So when I moved to Denver, I decided to start a local meet-up called “Wealthy Women”: I would just invite people to come to learn about little topics here and there about investing; It grew to five hundred plus numbers over a year, and I could see that what I had shown was important.
[The women] especially valued that it was an all-women group. After a year, I realized, if people in Denver are getting so much value, I think there are probably a lot of women all over the world who need this stuff. So I started a YouTube channel to expand my reach and I just called it Investing with Rose. From the YouTube channel, I created an online course. It really started with me knowing that there was a need and that I could do something about it, and then just started a meetup; I grew it from something small to something big.
What are some standard investing practices or tips you think all women should know?
So, first of all, it's to get educated, because I think that's the key. I know some women might start investing because their friend tells them to do this or that, but I really think if you're not informed, no matter how much money you have, you'll never actually be financially independent.
The second part really is to make a decision. I think I see a lot of people stuck in analysis paralysis. After you do all the research, it can be a little overwhelming to make a decision. There are so many brokerage platforms, people, and news articles telling you different things, but it's important to just think of it and move forward. At some point, you've got all the research you can add.
If there's a strategy that you understand and believe in, you've got to move forward – actually pull the trigger. Even beyond analysis paralysis, I think to recognize the fear [that comes with making an investment decision]; It's okay to have that fear if you're used to having your money in the bank and not seeing it fluctuate with the market. It might feel secure to keep your money in a bank, and in comparison, it might feel like putting your money into investments is very risky. But keeping money in the bank is also very risky too. So I think it's also understanding that investing is a must.
For some more practical tips, definitely recognize that there are a couple of ways to get started investing. There are very active types of investing, like buying real estate properties and renovating and renting it out, there's also picking stocks, then there are those [modes of investing] that require more skill and time.
But the easiest way for anyone to get started is with just passive investing, so investing in index funds. I usually push beginners to start there because at least that gets them started, and there's not as much of a learning curve to get good at that as there are as compared to more active types of investing. Once you get the ball rolling on that, you can get fancier and start learning about how to research individual companies, etc.
OK, and what challenges did you face in starting Investing with Rose?
There were probably two major challenges. The first is in starting the meet-up and the channel, I faced a lot of resistance because a big theme about women and investing seems to be confidence; there definitely aren't a lot of women talking about investing. So I thought, well, “who am I to start a YouTube channel?” Just getting over the resistance or fear of putting myself out there and presenting myself as someone who can help others was a big hurdle. I think everyone will have some initial fear if they want to start something that really matters to them, but now that I'm on the other side of that fear, it’s not a problem. I've been doing this for a while and I've seen how much value people get from my work, so now I know that that fear isn't real.
If you feel fear that means you should definitely do it, because it means you care and it's gonna make a difference.
The second challenge was not having people – in the beginning, you don't have the numbers to show for it, and the progress is very slow. There were fifteen people at my first meet-up; it was a pretty good turnout. But all the meetings were small and then it grew; there were a handful of people and then it started being a room full of people. Same with the YouTube channel for the first year – I only had a couple hundred views, if not less, on all my videos, but each video took 10 to 20 hours before of work. I'm a lot faster now, but 10 to 20 hours of work, putting videos out weekly, and getting very, very few views – essentially crickets – [is disheartening]. But I just kept up the faith that I was doing something worthwhile and I should stick with it.
Name some books you’ve read recently that you would recommend to the CWBS community.
I have so many books that I’d recommend!
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Unshakeable by Tony Robbins
Quit Like a Millionaire by Bryce Leung and Kristy Shen
Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg
Who is a woman leader that you look up to?
Oprah Winfrey – I think it's amazing how she really came up during a time when it was even harder for women, let alone black women, to succeed in, again, a male-dominated media industry. She had a very hard background, but no excuses. She had a dream. I think I think that resonates with me because that's what I am doing right now, or what I’m on the path for doing. She's such a badass, such a role model of possibility, and I'm so grateful to her for that.
Read Rose’s full interview on The Scope Website.
Internships
Banking/Finance
Consulting
Tech
Startups
Venture Capital
Female Founders
A female-founded company is a company or organization that has at least one female founder. Today, 18% of all startups have at least one female founder.
Since 1972, women have gone from owning 4.6% to 40% of all businesses, coming to a total of over 12.3 million women-owned companies in the United States.
Major Female-Founded Companies: Glossier, Daily Harvest, 23andMe, Lola, Classpass, Mejuri, and Ellevest.
Definitions and information from Inc.com.
