Good morning, Broadsheet readers, and welcome back from what I hope was a restful Labor Day weekend. Things are still pretty quiet as people get back to work, but read on to hear from Jessica Alba about what it is like to be a celebrity raising money from venture capitalists.
EVERYONE'S TALKING
• Angela Merkel stands firm on Russia. The German Chancellor said on Monday that Europe will not allow Russia to "attack" Ukraine. “It’s become ever clearer that, from the beginning, this hasn’t been about a conflict within Ukraine, but a conflict between Russia and Ukraine,” said Merkel. She added that Germany is prepared to take any economic actions necessary to prevent future conflict in Ukraine. Bloomberg
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
• Chelsea Clinton says goodbye to NBC. After a little under three years working as a special correspondent for the network, Clinton says she is leaving. The soon-to-be mother's $600,000 a year salary reportedly earned her $26,724 per minute she appeared on NBC. She says she will be continue her work with the Clinton Foundation through and after her pregnancy. People
• A-list actresses targeted in Apple iCloud hack. Jennifer Lawrence, Selena Gomez and Kirsten Dunst are among 100 celebrities alleged to have explicit photos leaked online over the weekend. Hackers accessed the images through Apple's cloud-based storage network and now the tech giant and the FBI are investigating the hack. Time
• British businesswoman close to making history. Rona Fairhead, a non-executive director of HSBC and PepsiCo, is about to become the first female chairperson of BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. “I am under no illusions about the significance and the enormity of the job but I am excited to have the chance to lead the BBC through the coming years," she says. Telegraph
• Serena Williams battles on. The No. 1 seed and defending U.S. Open champion progressed to the quarterfinals after beating Kaia Kanepi in a 6-3, 6-3 victory. Serena will advance to the next round without her sister, Venus, who lost in a third-set tiebreaker to Sara Errani on Friday. Time
• Spanx maker Sara Blakely talks failure. The youngest self-made billionaire spoke with Makers about the countless times she was told no before striking it rich with her undergarment line. Makers
BROADVIEW
Jessica Alba on fundraising while famous
Actress Jessica Alba co-founded The Honest Company in 2011 to make eco-friendly baby and home products. Three years later, the company just announced $70 million in new funding at nearly a $1 billion valuation, and is looking toward an initial public offering. Alba, one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs in 2012, spoke with me about Honest Co. and what it's like to raise money from venture capitalists as a celebrity.
Edited excerpts:
What goal did you set out to accomplish when you co-founded the company?
I really found a problem that needed to be addressed and no one was out there doing it, but it makes so much sense. It makes sense to have safe, healthy non-toxic products. All my friends were at an age where they were thinking about starting a family and a lot of them had a difficult time getting pregnant. There are a lot of hormone disruptors in cleaning products and things that are off-putting to your hormones. Then it was like this ripple effect of people not wanting to be sick and wanting inexpensive products that looked good and worked well.
How do you think your role at the company would potentially change after a IPO?
I am still quite hands-on and I still micro-manage probably a little too much. The details are what set us apart and me being meticulous about the details matters. It makes us feel different to everyone else out there. As long as I am the customer, I am going to be involved in marketing, packaging and design. I don’t see my role changing a whole lot, but I guess I won’t be packing boxes anymore. In the beginning, we were packing our own boxes and doing initial product tests by throwing them around in a parking lot to see if they would break. Now we have people to do those things properly. (Laughs)
Do you think your celebrity status helped you or hurt you when you went out to raise funds for Honest Company?
When I go into rooms and talk to venture capitalists, I approach it really as a mom and as a consumer. I have a decent amount of knowledge on ingredients and toxic chemicals. I can dive deep on it and I have the day-to-day of having two kids. We are a lifestyle brand that is catering to customers like me. I am the millennial mom. It makes sense when I am in the room talking about the brand and the product. A lot of [VCs] are men and have wives and they say, “My wife does the exactly the same thing.” They can all relate to the needs and desires and what was out there and having a brand that really spoke to me as a modern woman.
Click over to Fortune.com to read my full interview with Alba.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
• Sizing up tech companies by employee diversity. From Apple to Google, Fortune ranked 14 tech companies by ethnic and gender diversity. Assigning points based on five different diversity categories, we discovered LinkedIn is the most diverse tech company whereas Microsoft is the least. Fortune
• U.S. women tennis players stronger than men. While America is home to 12% of the world's top female tennis talent, just 5% of top male players are from the U.S. FiveThirtyEight
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QUOTE
If you are going to fail, fail fast and move on. Learn from your failures and move on. There are several failures that we had along the way. We learned through our mistakes. Luckily, there hasn’t been anything that we haven’t been able to learn and move and grow from.Jessica Alba on the best career advice she ever got