Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Sen. Dianne Feinstein had more medical complications than previously disclosed, Instacart’s ad business is growing, and Pattern founder and CEO Tracee Ellis Ross distinguishes herself from other celebrity founders. Have an amazing weekend!
– Seat at the table. Actress Tracee Ellis Ross isn’t your average celebrity backing a beauty brand.
“I’m a majority owner of my company,” Ross said of Pattern, her haircare company for the curly, coily, and tight-textured hair community, at Fortune’s MPW Next Gen conference on Wednesday. “[Other celebrities with brands] aren’t the founders of the company; often they join a company that exists. The mission [at Pattern] is born out of my experience. It’s born out of my own experiential knowledge.”
Ross started Pattern shortly after wrapping up her acting role on Girlfriends in 2008. She saw a gap in the haircare industry that left people with hair like hers underserved. While well-versed in the acting industry, she struggled to find her footing as an entrepreneur at first and was frequently told that she should find someone else to manage the company.
“I didn’t want to partner with an expert or a ‘professional’ because I felt—like so many—I had become my own best expert in my bathroom because the beauty industry was not catering to us,” said Ross, now Pattern’s founder and CEO.
Instead, she used her own funding to bring on a chemist who could help create the products she was envisioning. She forged retail partnerships with the samples they created and found business partners who could provide the operational expertise she was missing. Pattern hit the shelves in 2019.
Along the way, Ross met Mary Dillon, then Ulta Beauty CEO, now Footlocker CEO, and one of only three women to run two Fortune 500 companies. Ross said Dillon helped her understand how she could use her celebrity status to advance Pattern’s mission.
“I have to give a shout-out to Mary Dillon. She got to have a first front-row seat to me as a founder and a CEO, and she saw in me something that I didn’t know existed in terms of being a business person,” Ross told Broadsheet’s Emma Hinchliffe.
Ross recognizes that her reach as a celebrity has helped Pattern grow and gives her access to corporate leaders. That’s a privilege she tries to exploit for the good of other entrepreneurs.
“I know that I have access to sit at a table with a CEO in a way that perhaps another founder doesn’t. And when I do that, I make sure that those conversations are not only centered around Pattern,” she said. “They’re centered around creating and expanding the access for all of us.”
Kinsey Crowley (she/her)
kinsey.crowley@fortune.com
@kinseycrowley
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MORE FROM MPW NEXT GEN
- Taking responsibility. CEO of Ark Invest Cathie Wood says that she takes her responsibility providing investing recommendations very seriously. But she believes that Ark's research is the best in the business, and she shares the models and assumptions they use as a way of building investor confidence in her recommendations. Fortune
- Fighting for balance. Nicola Mendelsohn, head of Meta’s Global Business Group, has been a fierce defender of her work-life balance. She took pay cuts and turned down CEO roles in order to work a four-day workweek and remain a big part of her children's upbringing. She says that time away from work can still help a person evolve as a person, and therefore as a leader. Fortune
- A.I. at home. Maya Mikhailov, founder and CEO of SAVVI AI, said that generative A.I. has a big potential to help women who take on the majority of household and childcare work become more productive. Another panelist Avni Patel Thompson has started to put this in motion. Patel Thompson created Milo, an A.I. app designed to help parents manage the long list of to-dos that come with parenting. Fortune
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Trump town hall moderator Kaitlan Collins has been promoted to the host of the 9 p.m. hour at CNN. Hyun Lee-Miller has been promoted to chief media officer at Good Apple. KeyAnna Schmiedl is the new chief human experience officer at Workhuman. Kim Walsh is the new CEO at Practice Better.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Freelancing freedom. Women are making up a greater share of the already-growing number of independent workers. Women are taking advantage of the flexibility that freelancing offers. They are also more likely than men to cite avoiding toxic workplaces and to feel more satisfied with their work. Bloomberg
- Ad space. Instacart, led by CEO Fidji Simo, has grown its advertising business by nearly 30% between 2021 and 2022, bringing in $740 million. While this success could look good for investors as the company moves towards an IPO, some inside the company worry that too many in-app ads could turn off customers. The Information
- End of a legacy. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has returned to the Senate after experiencing more complications from shingles than was disclosed to the public. Some complications include symptoms of confusion, mood disorders, and lasting memory or language problems. She refuses to resign before the end of her term, but some close to her worry these last, difficult days are tainting her long legacy in office. New York Times
- MBA won't help. Even an MBA doesn't help women avoid the pay gap, according to new research from the Forté Foundation. Women with MBAs still trail behind men in terms of compensation, and the disparity is worse for women of color. Women also reported having fewer promotions and that they were more likely to be placed in HR and marketing divisions. Bloomberg
ON MY RADAR
The HR-ification of marriage Bustle
The only career advice you’ll ever need The Atlantic
Chrishell Stause is living her best queer life Them
She used to assist Hollywood’s A-list. Now she’s the boss Wall Street Journal
PARTING WORDS
"One thing I wouldn’t want this story to become is a complaint of being a woman in the industry. I don’t need this to be a women’s empowerment story. I wear my empowerment at all times. I don’t need to profess it."
—Singer Miley Cyrus on her British Vogue profile
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