Third Wave Fashion

Fashion Icon Friday: Caroline de Maigret

Considered a CHANEL muse, in 2011, Caroline de Maigret has been a major player in the fashion industry for years.  The French model, music producer, and entrepreneur is the granddaughter of Prince Michel Poniatowski (former Minister of the Interior and Health in France) and the daughter of Count Bertrand de Maigret.  She launched her modeling career early on and quickly took the company of esteemed photographers like Terry Richardson and Mario Testino while walking for houses like Balenciaga and Marc Jacobs.

In 2006, Caroline, along with long-time friend Yarol Poupaud, created the French-based music label, Bonus Tracks Records, where they now boast a myriad of eclectic entertainers and musicians.  

Because of her contributions to music, she received a nomination by the Cesar Academy (basically the French Academy Awards) for “Best Soundtrack of the Year”.  Her dedication to a number of industries and her stunning demeanor seem to be what has gotten our attention. But what are the things we love the most? Her self-driven initiative to be more than just a pretty face; she’s a music aficionado, she’s intelligent, she’s forthright, and she’s definitely an icon.

Got a little extra time? Check out Caroline de Maigret’s Tumblr here.

This week we are crushing on Angie Hicks of the ever helpful customer review service, Angie’s List.

Angie, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer, launched the company in 1995 out of her hometown of Columbus, Ohio. What started as Angie going door-to-door to solicit business has exploded into a well-known, internet-based company with listings in over 200 U.S. cities.

Last year, Angie’s List went public on NASDAQ, and now serves more than 1.5 million households that pay about $45 a year to access the site. As Angie’s List has continued to grow, Angie has kept the company true to its roots, providing the information members say they couldn’t live without.

When interviewed by Tech Crunch’s Chris Dixon, Angie spoke about the strategic importance of launching early in big cities, mentioning that if they hadn’t “danced around” the idea of opening in Chicago, they could have learned a lot more, and faster.

For those starting their own companies, or considering joining a young startup, Angie shares the advice her grandfather gave her back in the mid-90’s: “What’s the difference between being 22 and looking for a job and being 23 and looking for a job? There’s nothing.”

Angie is now a working mother, on top of running a successful “Fastest Growing Company” as ranked by Inc. 500 Magazine - proof that you really can do it all! 

Thanks for the inspiration, Angie! Check out her interview with Tech Crunch for their Founder Stories.

Tech Crush Thursday: Ashish Thakkar

What impresses us so much about Ashish Thakkar is his background that has inspired him to start his latest company, The Mara Foundation.

As a child, his family moved from the UK to Rwanda. Shortly there after, they became refugees of the Rwandan genocide, and headed to Uganda. As a high school student, Ashish started selling computers to classmates, which eventually evolved into The Mara Group.

Ashish quickly became a successful entrepreneur, with The Mara Group operating in 16 countries with over 5,000 employees. The company focuses on “Information and Communications Technology, Real Estate & Hospitality and Manufacturing & Services”- all of which he started from the ground up. Thanks to The Mara Group’s success, Ashish was able to start the Mara Foundation. 

The Mara Foundation is the non-profit branch of the Mara Group. Ashish created it in hopes of bringing mentorship and funding to small businesses and startups in his home country, Uganda. To start the Mara Foundation, he has reached out to successful entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, asking them to give advice to business owners in Africa.

He believes that what Africa needs is not direct foreign investments, but rather, “the answer is nurturing small and medium sized businesses.” He wants to give back to his native continent, making a social and environmental difference. The Mara Foundation promotes startups and mobile companies to the younger generations in Africa, knowing they are the ones who can make a difference in the future. 

Adding to his list of accomplishments before the age of 30, Ashish is about to be the second African astronaut and the only one to pay $200,000 for Virgin Galactic’s first flight to Space.

Tonight’s the night!

Check out our meetup page to RSVP for our mobile event tonight.

We hope to see you there!

XO,

TWF

Tech Crush Thursday: Kelly Hoey

We love strong-minded women—especially ones in tech—and that’s why we’re crushing on Kelly Hoey, co-founder and Managing Director of Women Innovate Mobile (WIM).

Hailing from Canada, Kelly is known for her strong ability to connect people at the right place at the right time, a type of serial networker. Originally in corporate law for 11 years, Kelly made the switchover wanting to become an entrepreneur.

In December of 2011 she co-founded WIM, the first ever startup accelerator specifically for mobile technology companies with female founders. The startups in WIM receive support, mentoring, office space, and $18k in seed funding, in return for 6% equity. The founders of WIM started the accelerator because they wanted to see more women in leadership roles within companies and startups - and we couldn’t agree more!

Kelly is on the advisory board of two of our favorite companies, Lion’esque Style and The Levo League. She’s also a Pipeline Angel and has been a mentor for Women in Wireless. We really appreciate how much Kelly has done for women working in tech.

Follow her on Twitter!

Tech Crush Thursday: Caryn Marooney

Our latest tech crush is Caryn Marooney, Facebook’s Director of Technology Communications.

She is in charge of reaching out to the technical community—engaging developers, engineers, technology influencers, and bloggers. She also covers the platform, product, and any technology recruiting.

Caryn only joined Facebook in 2011, prior to which she was a co-founder of OutCast Agency, one of Silicon Valley’s top tech communications firms. During her time at OutCast Agency, she handled the communication strategies of companies such as Amazon and Netflix; Facebook was even one of her clients before she made the switch. Facebook actually created the position of Technology Communications for Caryn in the hope of building its PR.

Watch this video of Caryn Marooney talking about Leveraging Facebook at the PRSA Digital Impact Conference.

Tech Crush Thursday: Angela Ahrendts

Our latest tech crush is Angela Ahrendts, digital innovator and CEO of luxury brand Burberry.

In 2006, giving up her title as Executive Vice President at Liz Claiborne Inc., Angela became CEO of Burberry. While she does not have an educational background in technology, Angela saw that to help the British brand grow and reach the younger generation, she would need to implement a digital initiative. Angela had a vision she wanted to see come true: anyone who wanted to touch the company could have access to it. Since she arrived in 2006, she started reinventing the Burberry image, making it more appealing to a younger and more global consumer. This makeover proved to be a good move with sales having more than doubled.

Angela has been working closely with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff to form a technology strategy using Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets, as well as software from Salesforce and SAP. Employees are encouraged to use social media throughout the day.

Despite the past aura of exclusivity at Burberry, Angela saw that the way to grow the company was to take them into the future digitally. Burberry is considered one of the top technology-forward companies in the luxury fashion industry. They have high rankings in Facebook and Twitter followers, as well as an impressive and easy to navigate website and great video campaign ads. It all makes sense, as half of their media budget goes to digital.

Watch this interview with Angela to learn more about the Burberry digital initiative and check out some of their films.

And of course, on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Want to learn about digital branding, and how to reach your consumer? 

Check out our next meetup event on July 17th at the Fashion Center! 

You’ll get to hear speakers from Refinery29, Bonobos, & Of A Kind.

As always, snacks and drinks will be provided. :) 

We hope to see you there!!

XO,
TWF