In December 2019, Cassie Abel was having a moment. She was trying to run two small businesses and went into labor when her only employee, a part-timer, emailed to say she was taking a full-time job elsewhere.
Then Covid hit. His mother was hospitalized in the first wave, and his father suffered a heart attack and was airlifted to a nearby hospital.
His parents gradually recovered. Abel’s business did not improve as quickly.
Clients at her PR, marketing and consulting firm were stunned, not knowing when the world would reopen. His women’s outdoor apparel company, Wild Rye, was also facing uncertainty. “We’ve had retailers email us threatening that they’re going to cancel major purchase orders because they don’t know what the future holds,” she says. But as people began to flee their homes and get out, they needed gear, and Wild Rye began to grow. Abel left the consulting business and became fully involved in it. The now-Idaho-based CEO has 11 full-time employees and, despite the impact of the tariffs, had sales of more than $4 million last year.
Hard work, foresight and patience all got him there. And a little help from someone else.
‘Negativity is noise’
In 2017, Tory Burch appeared in a striking black and white ad campaign alongside Reese Witherspoon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jon Hamm, and Gwyneth Paltrow. They were not modeling her juggernaut fashion line, known for its “preppy boho” style, double-T logo, ballet flats and tunics. The campaign was titled #EmbraceAmbition.
It was a make-good kind of thing. In an interview about her success, Burch was asked – “in a very rude way,” she says now – whether she would describe herself as ambitious. Birch delayed. When the article came out, a friend was quick to respond: “Great article, but you can’t really avoid that word.”
“As soon as he said that, something changed in me,” says Burch. “Certainly we need to collectively control our ambition.” Hillary Clinton recently lost the presidential election. There were questions about how ambitious women should or could be. But Burch picked up the phone – and she called almost everyone she could to join the campaign and said yes.
When it came out, there were people who protested. “I mean, I’ve been criticized pretty much at every point in this company,” she says. “This expression from my parents has been very helpful to me: Negativity is noise.”
Abel remembers the expedition. “I love that motto,” she says. “I grew up as an athlete. I was like a mega nerd at the same time. I felt like I was made fun of because I was a hard-working and ambitious person, and so that statement really resonated.”
This is part of what inspired her to apply for the Tory Burch Foundation Fellows Program, which at the time offered female founders $5,000 in grant money, networking and other support. Amidst the pandemic, his family’s health crisis, and growing business challenges, Abel did what he thought was another interview for the program. Burch then came onscreen and told the group that he had been selected as a Fellow.
“It was that moment of, OK, things are starting to change,” Abel says. “Like it’s exactly what I need, when I need it.”
‘Go ahead and get it done’
Burch launched her fashion line in 2004 and the industry has changed dramatically in the two decades since. The onslaught of social media, fast fashion, e-commerce, supply chain disruption and AI have made it more challenging – even as cultural phenomena like “The Devil Wears Prada” have made fashion more accessible and mainstream.
But for Burch, fashion was always a Trojan horse. “My business plan was to create a global lifestyle brand so I could start a foundation,” she says. “I don’t know why I felt so strongly about that idea, but I did it intuitively.”
He said it pitch by pitch. An investor quickly shut him down, making it clear that business and purpose could not go hand in hand. At the time, they didn’t – this was when Toms or Warby Parker promised to give to charity with every purchase. Birch stood firm anyway. She launched her fashion line in 2004 and her foundation five years later.
In its early years, the foundation offered mentoring, coaching, and low-interest small business loans. In 2015, it launched its fellowship program with just 10 entrepreneurs. This year there will be 120 fellows. The foundation has announced a target of adding $1 billion to the economy through women entrepreneurs by 2030. Total so far: $342 million.
The company founded by Burch has an estimated value of $3.2 billion. She has been named to the Forbes Most Powerful Women list six times. But she continues to refocus on other founders. “We haven’t made enough progress,” she says – less than 2% of VC funding goes to women-led businesses, a number that is declining, even though women-led companies deliver higher average rates of return. “We need to – what’s the phrase? – continue and get this done.”
From fashion to empanadas
Pilar Guzman is the founder and CEO of Half Moon Empanadas in Miami. Empanadas They make everything – a product, a brand, in airports. She became a Fellow in 2021 when her company had $3 million in revenue but growth had stalled. “Very successful people used to say to me, ‘Expanding into airports is crazy, you’re crazy Pilar,'” she says. This year it’s opening four new locations, including Boston Logan and JFK, has 200 employees (paid about $10 an hour more than the industry average) and is on track to reach $30 million in revenue.
Beau Wangtrakuldi founded Philadelphia-based Amorsui after the standard lab coat he wore at work spilled chemicals and burned. Two years ago, she needed a $25,000 loan after completing a $1 million contract with the VA. An interest-free foundation loan helped him accomplish this—and resulted in a $5 million follow-up contract.
“Much of the ‘women’s empowerment’ stance across the industry is marketing smokescreen,” says Megan Mason, branding strategist and founder of Elle Collective. “Real economic impact requires comprehensive, intentional architecture.” The Tory Burch Foundation “definitely” made it, she says.
The fellowship targets early-stage businesses with at least $75,000 in annual revenue. The intensive 12-month program includes financial bootcamp, pitch deck design and assistance in organizing investor meetings. To date, 500 Fellows have average annual revenue of more than $2 million, according to LendingTree data – nearly 30% more than the average women-owned business. About 91% are still in business after five years, compared to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ national average of 50%.
“Tori is playing to her strengths; as an entrepreneur she knows what it takes,” says Jason Kelly, author of ‘The New Tycoon.’ “There’s a very powerful flywheel effect because she’s building an incredible network that has a vested interest in each other’s success — and it’s compounded.”
Recently Burch has felt ready to speak more openly about how difficult it all has been. “It’s been an amazing 20 years,” she says. “It’s been exhausting, challenging and sometimes brutal.”
Six or seven years ago, he called up the investor who once told him to never mix purpose and business. “I just went to a Forbes event, and I said, ‘You know what? They said purpose and business go hand in hand.’ And he said, ‘Okay, what do you want?’ And I said, ‘A check for the foundation, naturally.’
He sent a check that year and every year thereafter.
Reported by Wendy Naugle, USA TODAY.