Sadly, the odds of launching a successful venture are low. But the female founders featured at Marie Claire's 2022 Power Trip Summit defied those odds to become highly successful, and on November 15, Julia Boorstin, author and CNBC senior media and tech reporter, spoke with panelists Tracy DiNunzio (Founder, Tradesy), Michelle Cordeiro Grant (Founder, Lively) (opens in new tab), and Jacqueline Johnson (Founder, Create & Cultivate) (opens in new tab), and each leader shared their They detailed the unique origins of their companies and how they ultimately came to the decision to sell.

The path to success was different for each woman; for Johnson, who founded and sold her first company, No Subject, at age 28 (nbd), becoming a business owner was not something she planned to do. After running her first business and "making a lot of mistakes," Johnson turned to Google for answers. 'I realized that there was nothing online that looked, felt, or spoke like me, a young female millennial founder,' she said. "So I decided to start Create & Cultivate as a complete side project to my existing business. And it really took on a life of its own. After selling his first company, Johnson decided to repeat the process. She explained, "When I went into Create & Cultivate, I knew I was building that company with the intention of selling it, so I took very specific steps to build a company that could be sold."

Johnson decided to self-finance both businesses. Ultimately, however, there were several reasons to bootstrap rather than fundraise, she said. First, Create & Cultivate was already very successful and did not need funding. Johnson liked being able to move quickly and make decisions on her own. Ninety-eight percent of venture capitalists are not the kind of people we would advertise to or understand our company.

Meanwhile, Michelle Cordeiro Grant, founder of the lingerie brand Lively, started her business after window shopping on Fifth Avenue in New York City. As the only Indian family in the small Pennsylvania town where she grew up, "the brand was a way for me to assimilate and connect with the people around me." After her success as director of Victoria's Secret, Grant noticed that the women leaders she worked with were making major compromises in their lives. She said, "These women weren't doing well in their personal and family relationships, but they were doing well in their work. Eventually Grant became frustrated that these women were running the company but not owning it, and he grew tired of the fact that his opinions made little difference. 'Wait, why am I trying to convince this giant mother ship? Then came Lively. When I came to New York, I said, 'I want to create a brand that really inspires a sense of passion, purpose, and confidence for women like me and others like me'"

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To raise funds, Grant decided to contact suppliers directly rather than venture capitalists. When deciding on an investor, Grant said: "I just wanted to surround myself with people who could really help me to fundamentally drive this business forward." An important lesson she learned from the fundraising process is that "as women, we don't know what to ask for." 'Looking back, no one told me that I had these options, these questions, these things to think about.'

Tracey DiNunzio's story appears to be quite different. DiNunzio attended art school and spent most of her twenties pursuing a career as a painter. Her final art school project eventually became the premise for Tracey. 'Wouldn't it be cool if we could take advantage of this new technology [mobile technology] and have everyone use their cell phones and feel like we have a million sisters and always have something to wear? That way we can stop buying and getting rid of so much stuff, and we can be sustainable, cyclical, communal, and help women connect and get things done better."

Realizing that the idea of an online closet could be a business opportunity, DiNunzio started her own business by sleeping on her couch and renting out rooms on Airbnb. She taught herself many aspects of the business, from coding to marketing to customer service. And 13 years ago, she started her own business. I started my own business 13 years ago," she says. After several years of self-funding, DiNunzio realized that her brand needed a lot of capital to expand rapidly, so she set out on her venture. She says: "$145 million, that's 145 million times a heart attack. And it was always uphill. It was never easy," she says. Along the way, DiNunzio connected with investors who "made life difficult," but she also met supportive investors who later became her mentors. She says, "It's not all horror stories. And if you're in a category that has the potential to do things like world domination, raising capital makes a lot of sense and can really drive rocket ship growth."

Since launching the business, all three women have decided to exit the company and move on to the next big thing. DiNunzio sold Tradesy to Vestiaire Collective and now runs the company's North American division. Grant is now pursuing wellness and Web 3 ventures, but it took some convincing to allow the Lively acquisition. Fundamentally, I had to take the ego out of the equation. [Lively] will live on beyond me," she explained. Johnson sold Create & Cultivate after the pandemic, with the company in good shape. The acquisition was "the right decision," she said, because it was a specialized product that needed capital to grow. Johnson then set up a venture fund. I think a lot of people don't realize," Johnson explained, "that it takes a lot of very key people to sell a company, in addition to being a full-time job, a full-time job.

"And I wanted to be able to provide both funding and mentoring to the women and help other women grow, sell, and build their businesses."