The entrepreneurial force behind Nasty Gal and Girlboss is launching a new LinkedIn platform for women
- Sophia Amoruso is the CEO of Girlboss, a media company that provides content to inspire and educate women. She's also the former CEO and founder of online clothing company Nasty Gal.
- Girlboss recently unveiled its newest venture, a LinkedIn-style professional network for women, which encourages them to show more personality with their profile.
- "This is the place where you can have a beautiful profile that shares not just what you do but who you are," Amoruso said in a recent conversation with Business Insider.
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Sophia Amoruso is the frank-talking CEO behind Girlboss - a media company that provides content to inspire and educate women
But she's best known for founding Nasty Gal, an online clothing store that she started at the age of 22 in 2006 and which became one of the fastest growing retail companies, reporting revenues of over $100 million by 2012.
Just years after that, the company crumbled - sales slid, Amoruso stepped down as CEO, and in 2016 it filed for bankruptcy. In 2017, it was bought by UK based fashion company Boohoo.
Amoruso now devotes her time to Girlboss and creating a community for women entrepreneurs. It's a network that she feels she never had during her time at Nasty Gal and something that she suffered without. Now, Girlboss is launching its latest venture, a LinkedIn-style social platform that is designed to get women connecting and collaborating.
"It's a place for someone who does or doesn't have a traditional career, who may not have this C-level title, but may be on her way up," Amoruso told Business Insider in a recent call. "There are very few places for her to go to represent her resume or life today."
But Amoruso doesn't want this to do only be professionally focused, she wants to give women (and men if they wish to join), the chance to bring more of their personality to their page.
"We are expected to be who we are Monday through Friday on LinkedIn and who we are on Saturday and Sunday on Instagram; that's not really how the world works anymore," she said.
"We're now trading on our personalities, who we are as a people, and our taste level - it's so much more than the antiquated resume."
Users join for free and have the chance to ask questions on forums about anything broadly related to work, productivity, or wellness, for example. These are questions that you couldn't ask Google, but that other users might have the expertise to answer. She used "when to ask for a pay rise" as an example of this.
Similarly to LinkedIn, you can connect with other users and message on the platform. However, you are restricted to making one connection request a day, which must include a detailed message of why you want to connect with that person. You are only able to chat with this person once they accept the request.
This prevents "willy nilly" messages, she said. Plus, it means that users are more deliberate with their messaging.
While users have the chance to share their job experiences, in the same way that you would a resume, they can also share what she described as "Girlboss moments."
These are achievements that wouldn't necessarily belong in a resume - finishing a marathon or buying a house for example.
"Those are things that are really important to us but that we are not able to share alongside our accomplishments," she said. "This is the place where you can have a beautiful profile that shares not just what you do but who you are."