Sheena Jongeneel of Stylette: Why We Need More Women Founders & Here Is What We Are Doing To Make That Happen
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Too much can be too much. As women, we tend to share a lot, and be overly honest. I wish someone had told me that I don’t need to share all the details. People, especially investors, don’t want to hear about the down moments, the doubts, the hesitations — they want to hear about the pivots, the strategies, the solutions, the successes. As a founder, you have to sort through the ugly moments yourself and move forward. Investors want to fund confident founders.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sheena Jongeneel.
With three successful business ventures on her resume, Sheena Jongeneel is still as driven as ever. After working in the health/wellness industry for over twenty years and then returning to school to get her MBA, Sheena devised her latest project and launched Stylette as an avant-garde fashion shopping destination. She has received a variety of funding and awards for Stylette, including help from various business accelerators like the Fearless Fund, and the Tory Burch Foundation.
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’ve always been a business owner. I knew from a young age that I wanted to create companies, rather than work for someone else. I became an entrepreneur in my early twenties, which was the beginning of more than two decades in the health and wellness industry. Eventually a series of life events, including a divorce and the passing of my mother, helped me realize that it was time for a change, so I decided to go to graduate school and strategize what I would do next.
The inspiration for Stylette was born out of the frustrations I felt at this point in my life with the available clothes shopping opportunities for my young daughter. As a single mom, trying to balance work, graduate school, and family life left me with very little time for anything else, especially keeping up with new fashions, my daughter’s ever-changing tastes, and her growth spurts. I used Stylette for all of my MBA projects, started fundraising while still in school, and even got a small check to launch the brand. This was the catalyst for launching Stylette, and my daughter was the inspiration behind the brand.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
It’s been a whirlwind these past couple years since launching in late 2019. I essentially started this company right before the pandemic. That in itself, presented a mountain of challenges. Can you imagine launching a rental platform with special occasion outfits at a time when no one is leaving the house? It’s been one interesting story after another as I worked through every unforeseen obstacle that I came up against. I’ve had countless growth opportunities, but my favorite story is how I ended up on the Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch show.
After attending a women’s Venture Summit in California, I reached out to Kim Perrel, a judge on the show, to whom I had previously pitched Stylette. Her book was in the gift bag from the event — so I took it as a sign, and an opportunity — and just sent off a quick email. A few hours later, I got a reply from the Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch team asking if I could be in Florida at 7AM the next morning to be on the show. Needless to say, I grabbed my carry-on bag, which I hadn’t even unpacked yet, and caught the red-eye to Florida. I drank way too much coffee on the flight, practiced my pitch all the way across the country, and made it to the studio just in time for hair and makeup! I’d love to tell you what happened, but you’ll have to watch the episode, which airs Nov 30th. All I can and I say is that it was well worth it, and the lesson learned here as an entrepreneur is that you have to be bold and say yes when an opportunity arises!
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?
The biggest mistake I made when I first started Stylette was doubting myself. I focused on the things that set me apart from what is often the typical view of an entrepreneur — I was female, I was Latina, I was a single mom to a young daughter — and I was hustling in a really tough market niche. What I didn’t let myself focus on was that these were my strengths, and they had led me to recognize a need and an opportunity in the children’s clothing space. It takes many things to become a successful entrepreneur, but none of them are gender dependent.
I realize your question was about the funniest mistake, and I gave you an answer about something sad. As entrepreneurs, women face huge hurdles with regard to accessing funding, working within the social expectations set for us, and even finding other females in the workplace and in mentorship roles. I’m now very comfortable and confident in the startup world, which is still dominated by men. One of the most important lessons I ever learned came from pushing through all of the self-doubt and learning to believe in myself and my vision.
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?
Yes, I’m grateful to Kim Kreuzberger for being my biggest cheerleader. We met at my daughter’s preschool four years ago, while she was still at Goop, and she has been my best sounding board ever since. And this answer wouldn’t be complete if I also didn’t include my daughter. We have been through so much together, but the experience she is getting and hopefully the example I am setting, should prove to be invaluable to her. She’s accompanied me everywhere, from board meetings to private investor dinners. She knows how hard I work, and she is always there to encourage and support me.
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?
Yes, indeed. Only twenty percent of the founders are women, and out of those, only three percent get venture funding. The lack of capital available to women is holding them back. Even when a woman starts a successful company, her chances of receiving the capital necessary to scale her business are much slimmer than those of a man in the same position. It’s discouraging to know that the stats are against you from the start.
I’ve heard many stories of men getting funded on a napkin idea, or just on a deck. However with women, investors want to see massive traction, a million in revenue, or some other metric that’s really only possible after the opportunities provided by an infusion of capital. Women are so powerful and creative — we really have to be in this marketplace — and businesses started by women are more successful than ones started by men, but the money just isn’t there for us yet.
The PR message nowadays is all about helping female entrepreneurs, but when push comes to shove, they are still not getting the capital. We have a long way to go and need to keep raising awareness for female entrepreneurship, but this is also a huge opportunity as there is much room for improvement. Until we have the same access to capital as men do, it’s imperative that women in business support each other. We really need to raise each other up until the system catches up with us.
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?
The distilled answer is that women need more grants from individuals and government agencies to fund their enterprises. Expanding on that a little more, we need to do a much better job of moving women into roles where they can offer support and mentorship to other women in business. We just don’t get the same opportunities as men do, and we really need to start bolstering our networks to guide women in all aspects of business. Not every woman will start her own business, or even wants to, but we need to be sure we can provide them with the same opportunities that men have if that desire does arise.
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?
Statistically speaking, women have higher success rates in building companies than men do. Women who run their own companies generate more revenue, are better leaders, are more collaborative, and can multitask better than men. Women are also more resilient and honest, making them more successful than men as CEOs.
When one gender is grossly underrepresented in the corporate world, we all lose out. There are literally thousands of business opportunities that are being missed. There are thousands of unique perspectives on business that will never be capitalized on. From a consumer standpoint, this leaves so many needs unmet, and so many people unsatisfied.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
I think the myths that I grew up with are that you have to be a man, have a tech company, and be ivy league educated to be a founder, unless you’re Steve Jobs (still a man) of course. You don’t have to be any of these things to be a founder. You can be a woman, a mother, a single-parent, you can launch a creative brand outside of tech, and you can still be a successful founder.
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 don’t think everyone is cut out to be a founder. It takes a certain personality and mindset to succeed on this journey. To be an entrepreneur you must have really thick skin, as well as physical and emotional endurance. When you start out, you’re going to work seven days a week, you’ll never get enough sleep, and you have to be on constantly. You’re going to miss out on time with family and friends — you pretty much have to be willing to let your job become your life for a period of time.
High-energy people tend to do well at this. Entrepreneurship is like a marathon and there’s no time to be tired. You have to learn to pace yourself and keep moving, adapting, pivoting, and always moving. You have to be okay with rejection, because you’re going to hear “no” a lot, and you need to have complete conviction and confidence in your vision.
If you like to play it safe, want a steady income, and want quality time for yourself and your family, then you should take a “regular job”. As an entrepreneur, your business comes first — even before family — which can cause tremendous tension at home. Whenever possible I integrate my daughter into my business so that I can maximize my time with both of them. This is the kind of flexibility that entrepreneurship demands.
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.)
- Too much can be too much. As women, we tend to share a lot, and be overly honest. I wish someone had told me that I don’t need to share all the details. People, especially investors, don’t want to hear about the down moments, the doubts, the hesitations — they want to hear about the pivots, the strategies, the solutions, the successes. As a founder, you have to sort through the ugly moments yourself and move forward. Investors want to fund confident founders.
- Don’t over analyze. Analysis is good, but don’t let it stand in the way of your forward motion. Don’t overthink things, because in business you just have to do, and move, and create — there’s no time for anything else. Overthinking can slow you down, and provides the opportunity for fear and doubt to enter the equation.
- Don’t be desperate. As a founder, there is always a sense of urgency in raising capital and scaling, but not every door that opens may be the right door for you. Always remember that if one door closes, it may put you on the path to bigger and better opportunities elsewhere. I’ve either said, or been told “no” plenty of times, but it isn’t until I fully write off that “lost” opportunity that I can find my way to the better partnerships that are often waiting right in front of me.
- Build plenty of extra time into your schedule. Timing can be so important to every aspect of a business, so it’s a good idea to assume that everything will take longer than you think. Just because you’re moving super fast as an entrepreneur, that doesn’t guarantee that anyone else is moving at your pace. Don’t get discouraged if things take longer than you want. This is one of those moments when you have to take a deep breath, let go, and trust that things will come together as they should.
- Build a strong Founder Community. You’ll need a great support network to guide you through your entrepreneurial journey, but you may need to build it from scratch. No matter how wonderful your family and friends are, you’ll still want to have someone who understands exactly what you’re going through and can help you along the way. You’ll need people who can share business expertise, help you solve challenges, even take advantage of new opportunities. Mastermind groups are a great place to connect with like-minded people.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
The success of Stylette has enabled me to continue building and improving our circular economy platform, which lets parents rent clothes instead of buying them. So much of what we produce in the textile industry every year ends up in landfills, but we are able to significantly prolong the useful lifespan of all of our garments. Our brand stands for sustainability, and by showing that this goal can be achieved in the fashion industry, we are setting an example for all other industries to follow.
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?
Can you imagine how different the business landscape would look if women were equally represented? I would love to help more women take a leading role in business by bringing opportunity and capital to female founders. I’d like to see more of us out there. And eventually I’d like to be on the other side of the table — there are very few female funders. It would be wonderful to sit in that seat that’s usually occupied by a man, and be the one who gets to say “yes” to another woman and help her vision become a reality.
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.
Yes! I would love to have a private meal with Serena Williams! She is my idol as an athlete, a woman in venture capital, and a mother. I love that she has retired now from tennis to focus on her family and to help invest in female founders through her fund, Serena Ventures. I would love to pick her brain, hear her words of wisdom, and ideally have her on our board. As a mother of a young daughter, she can feel the pain points of kids growing too fast too, and understand the platform we are building to help parents and the environment.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Sheena Jongeneel of Stylette: Why We Need More Women Founders & Here Is What We Are Doing To Make… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.