How Chief built a national network for senior executive women

Executive overview

Senior executive women — 5.5 million VP-and-above in the US — consistently mentor and speak for others but lack community for themselves. Chief was built to close that gap and accelerate women's representation in leadership.

The platform combines a professional network, curated content, and data-driven small-group matching. A waitlist of 60,000 signals the scale of unmet need.

The strongest predictor of career success for women is a network of other credible women — Chief is built around that finding.

From 100 members to national scale

• Launched in New York with 100 women; a waitlist of thousands appeared immediately
• Now 12,000 members across 8,500+ companies; waitlist close to 60,000
• Expanded nationally in January 2022; international ambitions are next
• 70% of members are company-sponsored, framing Chief as a leadership investment, not a perk

Navigating the pandemic pivot

• Chief was entirely in-person in early 2020, with signed leases and active build-outs in LA and Chicago
• Pandemic hit just after the Series A closed; investors were watching closely
• Community engagement went up threefold — demand increased as women faced leadership challenges with no playbook
• Crisis accelerated the shift to virtual and allowed faster expansion into more cities

The technology platform

• Core product is core groups: 10 women, monthly meetings, executive coach in the room
• Platform layers: LinkedIn-like network, Masterclass-like content, dating-app-style matching
• Investment focus is data infrastructure and machine learning to match the right women together
• Off-the-shelf tools (e.g. Zoom) handle the meeting layer; proprietary tech handles connection-making
• Series B partner Capital G (Google's investment arm) provides synergies on the data platform

Vetted, not exclusive

• Chief describes itself as a vetted community, not an exclusive one — membership criteria are about leadership level, not selectivity for its own sake
• Geographic rollout (not elitism) explains much of the waitlist backlog
• Local network effects matter even in a virtual model: critical mass in a city enables in-person meetups
• Northwestern study cited: a strong network of credible women is one of the biggest predictors of women's career success — not true in the same way for men

Co-founder dynamics and company values

• Carolyn Childers (operator: scaling, strategy) and Lindsay Kaplan (creative: brand, experience) have complementary skill sets
• Shared values — not identical skills — are what make the co-founder relationship work
• Chief was among the first companies to issue a statement after the murder of George Floyd
• Committed $1 million annually to nonprofits aligned with the mission (focus: underrepresented communities and access to opportunity)
• On polarising issues, Chief distinguishes between personal views and the community's voice before speaking publicly

Hybrid work and women in leadership

• Hybrid work is an opportunity — but only if companies approach it with intention
• Risk: remote work predominantly chosen by women and underrepresented groups could reduce visibility and limit advancement
• Optimistic case: flexible schedules remove long commutes and enable better balance, particularly when childcare infrastructure supports it
• Early-career employees lose the most from remote work (osmosis of being around senior conversations); less true later in careers
• The pre-pandemic model "wasn't working before" — the goal is not to return to it