Why Diverse Teams Perform Better

According to Harvard Business Review, "diversity — both inherent (e.g., race, gender) and acquired (experience, cultural background) — is associated with business success."

Find out why.  Diverse Teams Feel Less Comfortable -- and That's Why They Perform Better

Follow Your Heart For Your Next (Ad)venture

Birchbox co-CEO Hayley Barna (pictured) decided to walk away from the influential beauty-subscription-box startup that she cofounded in 2010 (she remains on the company’s board).  Why? She says:

"I loved it, but it turned out the beauty industry is not my lifelong passion. It’s [exploring] innovative business models."

You never know where your next adventure will take you.  Follow your heart.

Read:  Birchbox Cofounder Hayley Barna On New Ventures, Glamping, and Her Filthy Fridge

13th Annual WPO Chicago Summit a HUGE Success

We were delighted to have the following speakers at our 13th Annual WPO Chicago Summit held on Thursday, September 8th and hosted by Foley & Lardner.

• Paul Leinwand, PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory
• Sandy Marsico, Sandstorm Design
• Joanna Sobran and Karen Burneister, MXOtech

This year's theme was Create a Winning Business Strategy and all speakers knocked it out of the park on substance and delivery.

Thank you to all who participated and until next year's Summit, keep growing!

Photo credit:  ©Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

From Homelessness to Running a Multimillion Dollar Enterprise

For more than a year Arlan Hamilton (pictured) had been pursuing her dream of starting a venture capital fund focused on female, minority, and LGBT entrepreneurs. But she realized early on that it is tough to get a fund going when you don't have any money to invest.

For months, she'd been homeless, making ends meet in whatever away possible, when she finally got the oxygen she needed:

"I'm in," read the text from Susan Kimberlin, a tech veteran who made a name for herself at Salesforce and PayPal. Kimberlin was ready to bet on Hamilton to bring more diversity to tech--and her check was the lifeline Hamilton needed to get Backstage Capital up and running.

Read more:  How This Woman Went From Homelessness to Running a Multimillion-Dollar Capital Fund