Hi, I’m Sophia.
I write a newsletter for people who work for themselves, written by the poster child & fall girl of it all.
Here, I share my learnings, insider knowledge, hot tips & how-tos, and (as someone who still considers herself an outsider) my oblique view of it all.
Who am I?
If you’re just finding me for the first time today, let me briefly introduce myself: I'm a misfit community college dropout from Northern California. I started selling vintage clothing on eBay when I was 22, called it Nasty Gal, and eventually scaled the business to over $100 million in annual revenue. Then I wrote an 18-week New York Times Bestselling book about it called #GIRLBOSS that sold 500,000 copies, and was adapted into a Netflix series (weird!) produced by Charlize Theron (weirder!).
In 2020, I launched a digital course and membership called Business Class, where I teach entrepreneurs how to build businesses. It’s a pretty massive program, with over 8 hours of lessons taught by yours truly, 100 hours of video trainings, and 300 pages of worksheets to work through.
Over the course of my career, I rather accidentally became an angel investor, writing over $1m worth of checks into over 20 companies like 1stDibs, Liquid Death, Eight Sleep, Therabody, Ceremonia, and Kindbody. From this, I realized I had great access to deals and loved helping founders.
So in 2022, I decided to raise a venture capital fund called Trust Fund. Since then, I’ve invested in 14 early-stage software companies (see the full portfolio here), and have found the support of legendary backers like Marc Andreessen, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, Paris Hilton, Andrew Chen, Jeff Jordan, Jeremy Liew, Ev Williams, Anthony Noto, Sam Parr, Andrew Wilkinson, and Codie Sanchez, to name more than a few.
When I launched this newsletter earlier this year, it was to share not just my own expertise and experience, but learnings from the fascinating people I know and continue to meet, insider knowledge I’m privy to, founders I’m inspired by, news that’s relevant to you, and, as someone who still considers herself an outsider, my oblique view of it all.
Over the past several months, the engagement has become more and more pronounced. Dozens of readers began writing in each week, sharing their thoughts. It began to feel like a community. And Substack is where newsletters become communities.
What’s in the newsletter?
Readers have said my newsletter is “banging with knowledge to build an empire” and “the business newsletter for weirdos doing shit in their own way” and “cuts through the noise and bullshit.”
All subscribers get:
A regular roundup of the most relevant news for people who work for themselves (per my reader survey, that’s you, or soon-to-be-you!) on the topics of entrepreneurship, money, social media, marketing, cultural trends, and style – and the ability to share your commentary with the reader community
What my buds in biz are buzzing about, and their insider perspectives
Live interviews with cool founders, marketers, finance bros, creatives (kind of like a podcast without committing to the word podcast, and an excuse for me to learn for an hour, but broadcast to you too!)
Regular updates on my increasingly weird life (investing in audacious ideas, relocating poodles across the planet, dates with 24 year-olds, etc. etc.)
Community features, including live chat, the ability to connect with other readers, start your own threads, and weigh in on the week’s topics. Like a 24/7 chat room for the coolest people in business.
Join a community
Be part of a community of founders, creatives, creators, freelancers, and solopreneurs. For an easy-to digest format, as well as chat, AMAs, and community features, get the Substack app.
