Female Founders: Mallory Gott of G+A On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Take a dang vacation. In my first year of entrepreneurship, I had to physically write on my to-do list, “Do not work today.” I was such a nutter butter that my brain could only acquiesce to time off if it was a task. At the time, I told myself that unless I didn’t work on a given day, I failed that day. It was extreme for sure, but I needed (and still need) time to live all aspects of life, not just work. I’ve spent a lot of time relinquishing the martyr complex I thought was essential to success. Next up? Leaving my computer at home on an upcoming vacation in 2 months!
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mallory Gott, Founder of G+A | An Experiential Design Firm.
Mal Gott is the owner and creative director of Las Vegas-based G+A | An Experiential Design Firm, creators of incredible event and brand experiences for bar, restaurant, and boutique hospitality clients since 2019. Since her firm’s inception, Mal’s business has grown over 100% per year annually, and her team has drawn on decades of event, marketing, branding, and space design expertise to define and design dream experiences for clients such as the Hofbrauhäus Las Vegas and Velveteen Rabbit. After nearly two decades conceptualizing global event and brand experiences for some of the most discerning audiences in Western Europe, North America, and Asia, Mal began creating and rejuvenating brand experiences for her clients, resurrecting events deemed unsavable, and breathing new life into spaces, places, and concepts that had long been discarded as past their sell-by date. Mal’s most recent accomplishment is for her and her partner’s win in the Great Las Vegas Coffee Shop Giveaway organized on by Dapper Companies. Their concept, Winnie & Ethel’s Downtown Diner won the million-dollar grand prize and will open in early 2023.
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?
I grew up in suburban Chicago, the oldest of four and daughter of two public school educators. At the ripe age of 8, I asked my mom to buy me a beret and told her I knew I needed it to go to Paris. Fast forward 10 years when I took my first trip overseas to — you guessed it, Paris! Fast forward a few more and I was working first abroad and then in the US as part of event design teams creating and producing experiences around the globe for brands and their consumers. In 2019, I launched G+A | An Experiential Design Firm where we focus on design brand experiences for independent bar and restaurant, luxury boutique hotel, and mixed-use development clients all centered around how they want experiences to feel for their customers and themselves.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
Well, there’s been a global pandemic, that was certainly an unexpected twist! But beyond that, the day that I pitched my first 6-figure project to an international restaurant brand head was particularly magical because I happened to be on vacation at a friend’s home overseas. I was talking to the head of this globally recognized brand while her 2-year-old was napping in the next room, and when I closed the deal via video call (this was pre-pandemic by the way), we celebrated with hamburgers and milkshakes. It was the most surreal experience, and I wouldn’t have changed a single moment of it!
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?
Not surprisingly, there are so many people to thank, but one that I always brag on is a dear friend of mine who did me the best service I never would have asked for when she lovingly told me the truth in ways that helped kick my butt into gear. As it turns out, I didn’t leap from full-time employment with a golden parachute tied to my back. I was unexpectedly let go from my job 10 days before Christmas. As in, I returned from Europe on a Monday evening flight, got up Tuesday and worked for 3 hours, logged into what I thought was my annual performance review conversation where I was anticipating a raise, and logged off 7 minutes later unemployed. As you might guess, the blues found me in pretty short order and after about a month I was talking with this friend bemoaning my perceived lack of prospects when she looked me square in the eyes and said, “Mal, you’re 35, single, unemployed, and have no mortgage, pets or family to provide for. There is no better time to launch your own business than right now.” I was stunned but not the least bit offended because I’d never considered those circumstances as an advantage. Once she helped to open my eyes, my first paying client showed up less than 30 days later and the business was officially born.
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?
Ourselves, at least that was the case for me. I believed I need investors, an in-depth business plan, extensive branding, marketing, and the like for a very long time, which simply wasn’t (and isn’t) true. A product is nothing more than a good or service that someone pays another someone for, and a company is the legal shell that houses that product. By that definition, anyone can sell a product and create a company in very little time at all. Instead, I incorrectly believed that a product had to be “the” product that everyone and their mother was clamoring after, and a company had to look like the stuff of business school textbooks to be effective. Neither of which is true. As soon as I examined what I knew how to do based solely on my individual experience, education, and interests (and that last part is key), and began offering to do those things for others, I had developed a rudimentary product. As soon as someone purchased my services and I opened an LLC online using free templates from reputable websites and friends who’d done the same before me, I founded a company. It’s as simple as that.
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?
Two of the best tactics I’ve used to date are both simple, cost nothing, and allow me to be the solution to the problem, overcoming my own fear of inadequacy. First, instead of selling to prospects, I began by calling friends or colleagues with a genuine interest in learning what they were doing and sharing what I was doing. Instead of asking whether they would be interested in my service, I asked whether they knew of anyone who might be, and then I followed up with those people and the people I originally called. I got to catch up with friends; there was no pressure on them or me to buy or close a sale; and it was an easy step I felt immediately comfortable with. Second, I focused on the easiest thing I could do to make any progress on days when there was no well of motivation to draw from. The only sure ways to fail are to give up or never start. Even miniscule progress on tough days was progress and that made (and still makes) a world of difference in staying the course.
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?
Because why shouldn’t they! There’s simply no reason why a woman shouldn’t found a business. Think you don’t have skills? Wrong! Think you don’t have time? Tell even one friend or close confidant what you’re endeavoring to do and ask for ideas about how to create more time. Watch what they come up with! Think you need money, a business degree, the next TikTok? No, no, and on everything that’s holy, definitely no! Start where you are. A free Gmail account, online templates for most basic business documents and your local library or SBA office can set you on your way. As for TikTok, I’m a believer that the world needs more of what women have to offer based on our perceptions and experience with the communities around us — not only more brain-zapping, dance-mania apps.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
It’s lonely at the top. Sure, there are things others may not understand, but everyone is familiar with stress, uncertainty, and trepidation. Don’t fall into the trap of chronic uniqueness. Seek out peers, of course, but take advantage of the wisdom of good people who surround you right now. Their experiences can be every bit as helpful and valuable. Plus, they want to see you succeed which means they are invested in helping you in any way they are able to — often with no strings attached.
It’s a grind and you have to hustle if you want to make it work. Yes, founding and nurturing a business requires a level of discipline and persistence, but the idea that it also requires lashing yourself to a wheel of entrepreneurial death, working 16 hours a day 7 days awake, or subsisting on energy drinks and coffee are just that — myths. If you love working long hours, do it. If you genuinely enjoy getting wired on caffeine and burning the midnight oil, good for you. If you’re content working 30 hours a week (or even 5 if you’re still at a full-time job) making demonstrable progress while also having a life, that doesn’t mean that you aren’t or will not be successful as you grow your business.
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?
I think a better question is why we as a community venerate the entrepreneur and measure ourselves against the yardstick of “what’s your side hustle or your self-made story?” Anyone could become a professional clown or a librarian or any number of things. If they chose not to, we (society I mean) don’t assess whether they had what it took to go into that profession but chickened out, yet somehow with entrepreneurship we do. If I tried to found a company in an area I abhorred, I would fail for sure. Similarly, if I tried to become a librarian, clown or any number of other job roles, I would likely also fail. I have nothing against clowns or librarians, those interest just aren’t a part of the fabric that makes up my interests in life. If you have an interest in something and the idea of trying your hand at it as an owner or founder piques your curiosity, go for it. If not, don’t. Be open to either path or some blend of both because there’s nothing inherently better or worse about working for others or yourself — even the most well-known founders (in the conventional sense) answer to shareholders, a board of directors, employees or customers. At the end of the day, we all work for someone, right!?
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- It can be fun. You don’t, and shouldn’t, have to struggle through every minute of every day to start and grow a successful business. Once I began to realize I could have fun at the earliest stages just by choosing to do so, things got a lot easier overall. Sometimes I still forget that, so thanks for the reminder!
- It’s going to change — a lot. I had one vision for my business when I began about four years ago. It’s evolved, and I imagine four years from now, it will look different than it does today, both in composition and focus. That’s alright, and it’s natural, so don’t beat yourself up when it happens!
- You don’t get ready until you’re done. Do the thing you’re confident you’re not ready for because of inexperience. You’ll be so prepared for the challenge after you succeed that you won’t remember why you were just sure you were going to fail.
- Get grocery delivery and a subscription to Instacart, and make friends with your dry cleaner and housekeeper. Stop telling yourself you can’t afford to give up tasks (literally or figuratively). Don’t overextend yourself, but it’s okay to pay $60/year to save yourself hours at the store or $100 a month, so your day off isn’t consumed with laundry or house cleaning (unless you love both). Rewrite the story about the value of investing in yourself, and don’t wait for a hundred commas in your bank account to do it.
- Take a dang vacation. In my first year of entrepreneurship, I had to physically write on my to-do list, “Do not work today.” I was such a nutter butter that my brain could only acquiesce to time off if it was a task. At the time, I told myself that unless I didn’t work on a given day, I failed that day. It was extreme for sure, but I needed (and still need) time to live all aspects of life, not just work. I’ve spent a lot of time relinquishing the martyr complex I thought was essential to success. Next up? Leaving my computer at home on an upcoming vacation in 2 months!
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I employ some amazing people and I do my best to make their experience positive and uplifting whenever I can. I strive to do the same for the clients and vendors we work with too. Why not be the people others are excited to speak — who’s name on a calendar invitation is a joy not a drag? At G+A, we also have both Client and Team WOW budget line items and they have funds budgeted to them just like utilities or office supplies. If I’m not committed to wowing the people who have entrusted me to help their businesses grow or who share their time and talent with my business as team members, what does that say about my priorities? “Show me your checkbook,” as one friend of mine says, “and I’ll show you what you care about.”
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 read an article in either Architectural Digest or Vogue within the past year about a once-great, now defunct mid-century luxury hotel in central Africa that had become a de facto refuge for people in and around that community. It would be my great joy to take properties like those, restore and adaptively reuse them, and employ people in those communities to run the re-developed spaces. I love the idea of infusing beauty into once great places that have fallen on hard times, imbuing them with unique attribute specific to their locations around the world and working with the communities rather than displacing them to create a virtuous rather than vicious cycle of renewal.
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 would like to sit down over a nice cup of coffee and dessert (specific, yes, but I love sweets) with Elaine Wynn to discuss how to fund and launch the program above. Elaine, I’ve got a slew of good places here and in New York whenever you’re free!
This was really meaningful! Thank you so much for your time.
Female Founders: Mallory Gott of G+A On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.