Good morning, Broadsheet readers! A hotline prevents violence against women by reaching out to men, Rent the Runway seeks a valuation of $1.5 billion in its IPO, and Stacey Abrams and Lara Hodgson learned some big lessons from small business failure. Have a great Wednesday.
Today’s guest essay comes to us from Stacey Abrams and Lara Hodgson, coauthors of the forthcoming book Level Up: Rise Above the Hidden Forces Holding Your Business Back.
– Small business, big lessons. The moment our business fell apart, we could hardly grasp it was true. Like a cruel joke, the wheels began to come off the very day we scored our most important win. It was a glorious morning in the fall of 2010 when we got word that a global retailer wanted to buy 1,500 units—20 times our typical order—of the product we had invented to help busy parents feed their babies. Our patented spill-proof water bottles for little ones were already selling out in small boutiques, but now they would be distributed by a big-time grocery chain. The deal would take Nourish, our scrappy little company, to the next level.
As business partners, with varying degrees of risk tolerance, we often jokingly refer to each other as “Yes” and “But.” Lara plays the eternal optimist. She’s a cheerleader at heart, with a sharp eye for business and a head for innovation, who sees the possibilities in every opportunity. Stacey, on the other hand, serves as the resident realist of our partnership, a cautious contrarian who is a stickler for thoughtful deliberation before we make any big moves.
But after her initial elation, despair had set in. Outwardly excited, Lara entered the office ready to high five Stacey, but the celebration never materialized.
We knew we couldn’t manage the net 30-day terms, granting the customer 30 days to pay us after we ship the 1,500 bottles, unless we had the cash needed. Over the next few months, we scrambled. In the end, we had to face the painful truth: We just didn’t have the cash to pay our vendors to make the product and deliver in the required timeframe.
Our emotions spiraled from triumph to angst to grief. By May of 2011, the two of us would make the heart-wrenching decision to let the opportunity go and with it, Nourish, the company we had built from scratch.
As much as the failure stung, it would prove to be our greatest lesson. We realized we had actually grown our company out of business.
Perhaps the most important thing we discovered in our 15 years together is that some of the hurdles we came up against were far larger and more powerful than the two of us. We alone could not overcome the structures that dictate access to capital and commerce.
We want to help everyone better understand the often invisible and unexpected forces that hold back many small firms from unleashing their power to fulfill their potential.
Read the full book excerpt here.
The Broadsheet, Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women, is coauthored by Kristen Bellstrom, Emma Hinchliffe, and Claire Zillman. Today’s edition was curated by Emma Hinchliffe.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Admiral first. Assistant secretary for health Rachel Levine was sworn in as admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps yesterday. That makes her the country's first openly transgender four-star officer. The new admiral says her appointment is "not just symbolic." Axios
- Next chapter. Two years after revenge porn led Katie Hill to drop out of Congress, the former representative is sharing her next chapter. Hill is pregnant, expecting her first child with partner Alex Thomas. The former congresswoman says this is a "miracle baby" because she was told she would likely be unable to conceive without IVF because of her endometriosis. "I need to find a way of kind of moving forward with my life, having this baby," she says. Vanity Fair
- Rental costs. Rent the Runway, led by CEO Jennifer Hyman, is targeting a valuation of $1.5 billion in its upcoming IPO. The clothing rental service was last valued around $1 billion—and that was before the pandemic took a hit to its business. WSJ
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Kyndryl, the independent managed infrastructure services business to spin out from IBM, hired EY's Kris Lovejoy as the leader of its security and resiliency global practice. Pods Moving and Storage named Susan Jacobs CMO.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Think small. During her appearance at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit last week, Small Business Association administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman said the agency is streamlining and using new technologies to operate at the scale required by the pandemic. Its portfolio grew from $40 billion to $1 trillion over the past year, largely thanks to the Paycheck Protection Program. Fortune
- Hotline to stay cool. A new hotline in Colombia takes calls from men struggling with jealousy, anger, and toxic masculinity. The project, called the "Calm Line," is an effort to combat violence against women—by teaching men to process their emotions in a healthy way. New York Times
- Working women. In four years, the participation of women in Saudi Arabia's labor force has doubled to 33%. Women are entering the workforce alongside a parallel trend: declining unemployment. Financial Times
ON MY RADAR
I thought a wearable breast pump would solve my problems Slate
[Humor] Paternity leave is only for the weak! Washington Post
Martha Stewart is planning to sell her viral 'thirst trap' selfie as an NFT Insider
PARTING WORDS
"That's what everyone that I've played with has always dreamt of."
- Justine Wong-Orantes, a U.S. Olympic volleyball player, on the launch of the first U.S. women's pro volleyball league
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