Female Founders: Caroline Petersen of Gallery Design Studio On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Follow the path of least resistance. This one might seem counterintuitive for charge-ahead leaders, but here’s an example: for a long time I was chasing “hard to get” clients. However, I found that when the other side wants to work with you, you will actually have a better working relationship. I learned that I prefer to spend my time with folks that actually want to work with us.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Caroline Petersen.
After a decade of experience in marketing and communication design, Caroline’s passion is helping B2B businesses impart their offers to customers and employees. Originally from the UK, Caroline spent the early part of her career working in Europe. Once she crossed the pond, she built a design firm, Gallery Design Studio, from the ground up by walking through (and sometimes nudging open) as many doors as she could. Her strong problem-solving skills and eye for design, help clients transmit complex information clearly, concisely, and in a visually engaging way. Relentlessly curious, she’s inspired by experimentation and always looking for better ways to serve her clients. Caroline knows from experience that pursuing your passion is the best ticket to a career you love — although it’s not the fastest and certainly not the easiest.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
While originally from the UK, I started my career in Madrid, Spain as a marketing intern in real estate development. I later joined the insurance industry, working in Madrid, Zurich and New York.
After a few years, I decided to pursue my passion for creative work so I started an online catering shop in Basel, Switzerland and launched a digital magazine on all things dessert. A few years later I accepted an offer to work at Time Inc. UK London for one of their food publications.
At that point, I decided to dive deeper into graphic design since I love editorial design, so I attended the Shillington School of Graphic Design in New York. After my training, I was offered a position at a large editorial company here in New York. But as life is full of surprises, the offer fell through. The truth is I failed to get my dream job with that company, and then I failed a few more times. That’s when I decided to go solo.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
Honestly, so many stories happen every day it’s hard to keep track! I’d say the story of the journey is incredible. Every client, team member, partner, brings a unique perspective and their own skill sets which creates are really cool work. I’m very lucky to experience this.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Early when I started my business I was working on getting our first “enterprise” clients. After endless hours of reaching out and hearing “no”, and drowning in prospects’ names and emails, I finally had someone interested in our services. So we hopped on an intro call. I was so excited to speak with Jim! And I was sure to thank Jim for his time, and let Jim know how great I thought his company was. At the end of the call, the prospect thanked me then told me his name was David. Despite that, he decided to work with us and is still a client till this day!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My family, friends, business mentors and, of course, the Gallery Design Studio team. I wouldn’t be here without them. I’d say my mum, however, played a critical role in helping me get off the ground and believed in me when the path was not so clear.
My mum was the one who suggested I go back to school to specialize in graphic design. She later encouraged me to go solo saying I had “what it takes”. Sometimes having someone else believe in you is the best kind of inspiration.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
I think it’s a domino effect. Especially in the industries that our studio serves, predominantly B2B tech companies, we work with a lot of “STEM” folks, who trend predominantly male, so I think it takes time and incredible effort for women to get their foot in the door.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
Self worth. Nobody will value you if you don’t value yourself first.
Personally I find a lot of changes come from within. We cannot change the past, but now we live in a time where we can pursue our dreams and embrace a bigger purpose. I wouldn’t wait for “someone” to fix the disparities, but rather act and be the change.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
Since many women are socialized to be emotionally intelligent and attuned to others, we make great founders and leaders because a lot of us truly empathize and care about our teams, our clients and our communities. It’s harder to train compassion into an adult, and many of us have a strength there that society often tries to tell us is a weakness.
It’s beyond time to diversify the playing field. When you have a lived experience that differs from the industry mainstream, whether that’s impacted by gender, race, class or another intersection, you have different ideas. When you combine lots of people with lots of different lived experiences, you get a wealth of ideas, a powerful force for innovation and creativity. Simply put, more diversity often makes for better output.
We have a responsibility to be an inspiration not only for the next generation of women, but also for women in other parts of the world who are not so fortunate and don’t have as many possibilities. I am honored and humbled that businesses like mine create more space for more women in the workforce, today and in the future.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
I think we’ve all heard: “You can’t have it all.” Someone once said this to my face, actually. But typically it’s only said to women. They mean to say that women can’t run a successful business, cultivate a strong sense of self and nurture a family. I’d say this is a myth. I believe you can achieve anything you set your mind to. It’s important to recognize you will need to find help to manage work and family demands, but a scarcity mindset also makes me feel backed into a corner. I’d rather believe I can have it all, as long as I’m not afraid to ask for help and adjust my expectations when life gets in the way.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
No, I don’t think so — but being a founder isn’t about gender, it’s about personality type. You need to have a mission that is larger than the day-to-day troubles, so you stay motivated and driven. You need to feel comfortable being uncomfortable. Get ready for tough conversations and discomfort to be a part of your everyday life, whether it’s negotiating with clients, corralling team members or struggling with financial unpredictability. And for a lot of us, you need to feel comfortable with “not being able to switch off”. When you’re a founder, you’re almost always working, even when you’re not. It’s part of that personality type I mentioned — it’s how our brains are wired. But as long as you feel fulfilled and sustained by your work and commitment, even when you’re overwhelmed and exhausted, then you’ll know being a founder is for you.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Don’t assume: Make sure you communicate what it is you want. Otherwise, you will find yourself frustrated. For example, when working on a client project he kept saying “make it pop” without providing any context. But once he shared other visuals of the style he liked, we were able to move in the right direction. Communication is always a two-way street, sometimes you have to ask for what you need.
- Follow the path of least resistance. This one might seem counterintuitive for charge-ahead leaders, but here’s an example: for a long time I was chasing “hard to get” clients. However, I found that when the other side wants to work with you, you will actually have a better working relationship. I learned that I prefer to spend my time with folks that actually want to work with us.
- Speak up: If you feel something is not right, say so. One example from my team: Our business is mainly about communication expectations, but we often have clients request intricate projects in unrealistic timelines. When that happens we have to speak up and not stay silent (and miserable). Good chances are the other side is not even aware they are being unreasonable.
- Be authentic: Don’t try to pretend to be someone else, be comfortable in your own skin. For example: When I first started the business I was very focused on what other studios and agencies were doing, which just gave me anxiety about “all the things I don’t know” or “all the things we are not offering”. In time I realized it’s okay if you are not great at everything, as long as you specialize in what you are really good at.
- Provide clear direction: Put yourself in other people’s shoes, a client, employee or peer — understand where they are coming from. Once when I was frustrated that the team wasn’t following a specific workflow for our client onboarding processes, it turned out I didn’t provide clear direction and training on how to do this. Clear direction saves time and frustration on all sides.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Proud to be helping innovative tech businesses in the B2B space succeed and grow. Our clients are making a difference in the world leveraging technology for the greater good. Some sectors in which our clients are moving the needle:
Health tech companies making insurance more accessible
Industrial automation companies that help manufactures produce more efficiently with reduced waste
Fintech companies that help democratize access to financing
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I would love to improve the American Dream with immigration reform for foreign-born entrepreneurs in the US.
The impact of these foreign-lead business direct, indirect and diffused investment, innovation and employment is huge and contributes greatly to the US Economy.
NVCA President and CEO Bobby Franklin noted immigrant-founded businesses have always been impactful, including recent innovators like Moderna and Pfizer. However, he warned that one result of convoluted immigration policies has been that the “U.S. share of global venture capital investment has shrunk from 84% to 51% in just 17 years.”
Instead of being 100% focused on building great companies, immigrant founders who are on visas spend more time worrying about a long laundry list of immigration requirements. Since there isn’t a clear path for permanent residency, our immigration status jeopardizes the longer-term success of the livelihood of these founders, their families and the companies they run. COVID-19 has amplified this problem, with harder renewals and travel restrictions.
I admire the work of e2visareform.org and VC firms like Unshackled Ventures, who support immigrant-run businesses.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I’d love to meet Sara Blakely, Founder of Spanx. I admire her personality and energy. I also love the fact that she is extremely successful but still keeps her sense of humor. I definitely think that would be a fun breakfast 🙂
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Caroline Petersen of Gallery Design Studio On The Five Things You Need To Thrive… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.