We recently connected with Jaclynn Brennan and have shared our conversation below.
Jaclynn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Fylí is a Network as a Service (NaaS) business for early-stage female founders, offering education, accountability, peer-to-peer mentorship, leadership advancement, and funding opportunities.
The stats for female founders are alarming – there are more than 13 million female-owned companies in the United States, generating roughly $1.7 trillion in yearly sales. Yet, female CEOs are only getting 2.5% of venture capital funding, with less than 1% going to women of color.
The problem is not lack of female founders, it’s a lack of support and funding for female founders. Since March of 2020, women have started more businesses than men and their businesses tend to outperform the national average, which makes the above stats even more alarming. What’s holding us back is that we are not receiving the same access to capital, resources, and support as our male counterparts.
The resources are out there, and luckily female-specific membership communities (like fylí) that help provide these resources and support are growing. fylí was started out of a personal need to feel supported through my entrepreneurial journey. My personal mission is to serve as an authentic, approachable resource to the women who lack support and the men who lift them up. This includes female entrepreneurs, women entering the workforce, new mothers who feel passed over in their careers and anyone who needs hope, inspiration, support.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?
When I started my entrepreneurial journey more than a decade ago, I focused on creating a space to share my deep love for fashion and personal expression. I was always interested in business, branding, global partnerships, and creating community. I never thought that all those things could exist in one space or “job”.
Twelve years later, a lot of hard lessons, one very bad burnout, and 22 major corporations under my belt- I’ve finally arrived. Throughout my career I have helped entrepreneurs find their OWN VOICE and tone within their branding strategy and translate that into an actionable digital strategy. Putting yourself “out there” into the world can be intimidating. Through my coaching, knowledge and unique methodology focused on authenticity and kindness, I have been able to crack the code for my successful entrepreneurial-minded women (and a few good men).
Throughout this journey, I’ve focused on helping women RISE in all aspects of their life. It certainly has not been easy. This “purpose path” has guided me to a destination that’s never felt more aligned with everything I’ve done and how I’ve wanted to show up for my next chapter, as the CEO of fylí – a Network as a Service (NaaS) business dedicated to early-stage female founders.
At fylí we provide members the tools to optimize their growth through accountability, empowerment, storytelling, and authenticity. We are a leadership group coupled with action, providing our members with a structured curriculum to help growth-hack their business, bi-monthly accountability pairings with other members, introductions to investors, access to a network of start-up resources, and exclusive invites to highly curated events with thought-leaders, investors and prospective partners.
The fylí cohort program includes an educational experience tailored to our member’s needs, virtual strategy roundtables, quarterly in-person gatherings, accountability pairings (personal and professional), access to funding opportunities and targeted resource-sharing to scale their businesses.
Our fylí+ program is an invitation-only offering designed for founders who have completed a minimum of one fylí Cohort Program. This includes masterclasses, fylí cohort-specific events, speaking opportunities, and access to our team for office hours.
Our fylí Salon Series is for anyone invested in the future of female entrepreneurship. We produce high-impact experiences to facilitate new ideas, enrich our community, and provide critical resources to level up female-founded businesses. We team up with industry leaders and corporate partners to curate panel discussions and VIP dinners addressing the needs of early stage female founders.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Many years ago I started blogging before that was even a “thing”. My mom was my photographer and she inspired me to share my outfits, personal confidence, and own my power. It was a fun bonding experience that we did together while I was working in fashion as a Creative Director. When you are a Creative Director of a company, especially a corporate brand, there are a lot of limitations as it relates to style and personal self-expression. You are expected to mold into the essence of the brand you are designing for – this felt very confining to me. Although I am grateful for all of those wonderful experiences, it showed me how unaligned the fashion industry could be and why it needed to change.
My blogging and posting helped me organically grow my audience. I credit this to it being the first time in my life that I got to be myself. I laughingly reflect on some of those photos and wonder “WHAT WAS I WEARING?!?” HAHA! I dyed my hair every single color in the book, and wore things that the brands I was working for would never let me wear, because it wasn’t “on brand”. I think people really loved the blog because of its true authenticity.
Facebook and instagram came out when I was in college. I avoided it as long as I possibly could until I realized it was the only way my friends and family were communicating and sharing photos and ideas. The first time I started using instagram, I had no idea of its power. I was originally drawn to it because of the cool photos and filters. I soon understood how amazing it was to utilize technology as a way to connect and create. Facebook and Instagram were onto something!
I grew a pretty big audience organically with the occasional boost until I was targeted by hackers on four different occasions. I know some of this hacking was beyond META’S control and I’m grateful to one amazing UK-based employee there – who took it upon himself to help me safely secure my name and start over, rebuilding my entire account from scratch.
I now sit with a small but mighty following in comparison, but I believe in quality over quantity. I don’t pay for ads. I don’t promote brands I am not super passionate about, and I no longer use the word “influencer”. I like to say that I’m “redfining influencer into ROLE MODEL”.
Any fun sales or marketing stories?
I am proud to say that to this date fylí has spent zero dollars in member acquisition; it’s been purely organic marketing and word of mouth. The best way we raised brand awareness was hosting more than 100 free masterclasses for our wider fylí community during the early stages of the pandemic when many were feeling isolated, lonely, and truly in need of community and support. While our sole purpose was bringing light and joy to our community members in dark times, we noticed an incredibly positive community response along with organic growth through this increased brand awareness. Once we were able to safely do so, we brought our community together in person. We connected our founders with each other as well as with potential advisors, investors, and supporters. We host impactful community gatherings across the US and internationally like our current Salon Series. These types of in-person and virtual offerings along with organic unpaid social media, word-of-mouth referrals, and testimonials from our current members allows people to connect with our mission, leading to heightened brand awareness across our target demographic.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://fylitribe.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaclynnbrennan/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fylitribe/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaxfyli?lang=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6GsDKnWcBRUgYOU5-pXTQw