Designer Rebecca Minkoff's Female Founder Collective and UBS team up for next phase of Project Entrepreneur

Designer Rebecca Minkoff’s Female Founder Collective and UBS have teamed up for the next phase of Project Entrepreneur, aimed at accelerating and funding women-led businesses. Rebecca Minkoff joins Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel to discuss the collaboration.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: I want to talk about small businesses-- and, in particular, female-led businesses. We're joined by designer Rebecca Minkoff for this week's "Women in Money" segment brought to you by USAA. And, Rebecca, you are also involved with something. Aside from your day job, you're also involved in something called the "Female Founder Collective" that recently teamed up with UBS to launch the next phase of Project Entrepreneur, which accelerates and funds women-led businesses.

So talk to me about what you guys are doing right now. I know you have a virtual meeting coming up to try to help these businesses.

REBECCA MINKOFF: Yeah. Well, thank you for having me. I think when we began to speak to UBS about the opportunity, and especially right now with women struggling, founders struggling, across the nation, women are being hit the hardest. Also, as caregivers, it's increasingly getting more difficult to run your business if you still can and care for those at home.

So we had partnered with UBS to relaunch Project Entrepreneur. And it was going to be a physical event. Now it'll be our first virtual event. And we really pivoted the programming to help women get support they need now. How do they stay in business? How do they, you know, reach new audiences in this time? And what can we do to support them through this trying time, and then also give them the foundation that they need for when this is all over to sort of go out there and hit the ground running and launch or relaunch more successfully.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Hey, it's Adam Shapiro. I'm curious, what does that look like-- helping people now prepare for the launch or to grow their business after we're past the worst of this crisis?

REBECCA MINKOFF: Well, I think for a lot of women who were mid a seed raise or series A, it's, how do you fundraise in this climate? How do you market in this climate? How do you-- if you had a physical retail location, what are your opportunities? There's also a ton of resources we're going to be providing around that, as well as the opportunities around all the amazing programs that the government is launching.

So I think our goal is to give her, you know, the immediate emergency room treatment in these virtual cohorts for just, how to survive. And then as we expand beyond that, we'll go into our-- you know, our programming that we had planned.

JULIE HYMAN: Rebecca, to your point, even, you know, before this, we have done a lot of coverage about how VC money does not tend to flow to women and minorities, for that matter. How do you think that changes? Do we see things actually get worse coming out of this for that kind of funding?

REBECCA MINKOFF: I think it's going to get worse before it gets better. But the results are there. Women who have received VC money perform 63% better than their male cohorts. And of the 1,600 women that have already completed the Project Entrepreneur program, they've gone to raise over $50 million. So we know the program works. And we think in this new iteration, they'll be, you know, really suited to go out and fundraise if that's what they're going to go do.

JULIE HYMAN: Rebecca, I want to turn it to your business, if we can. You're working from home, obviously, like all of us are.

REBECCA MINKOFF: Yeah.

JULIE HYMAN: What are you seeing in terms of demand right now? Because it feels like a lot of people are feeling very sort of frozen at the moment.

REBECCA MINKOFF: Yes. Yeah, I mean for us, we've seen our customer acquisition costs lower. So we're able to start looking for new audiences, new eyeballs. And I think, you know, I reached out in the beginning to my community, what do you want to see from us as a brand? And I think it's important to have that dialogue so that, you know, you're not talking to your customer in ways they don't want to be spoken to.

She replied, she wanted to be entertained. She wanted a break from the news. And she wants to see things that delight her. So a lot of our content and marketing is centered around that-- how to get ready for a Zoom meeting. And just, you know, keeping it light as possible. And so we've seen that working for us as now a direct-to-consumer business. And we're a good place that she can, you know, go and get closet cleaning tips to how she's going to pair, you know, different tops and outfits.

JULIE HYMAN: I think we can relate to all of that stuff, (CHUCKLING) Rebecca. Party on the top-- business on the top, party on the bottom. I don't know what people are doing right now.

REBECCA MINKOFF: Exactly.

JULIE HYMAN: Rebecca Minkoff, designer, joining us for our "Women and Money" segment brought to you by USAA. Thank you so much. Appreciate your time.

REBECCA MINKOFF: Thanks for having me.