Tyler Haney was fed up. Last November, she was trying to fill an executive role at her athleisure company, Outdoor Voices, and had brought in an external recruiting firm. Haney had been clear about what she was looking for, but the recruiters seemed oblivious to—or disdainful of—her wishes. So the 30-year-old founder and CEO went on her Instagram account and posted a sweaty gym selfie to her nearly 50,000 followers with an impassioned caption: “I may look sweet and people call me cute . . . but underneath it all I am a BEAST. It’s wild how many people try to chip away at this strength on a daily basis.”
The message was nonspecific in a way that prevented any controversy. And it was more about energizing her users than selling product—though perhaps those goals were the same. Broadcasting her discontent was a risk, but a calculated one. “People loved it,” Haney says. The post drew nearly 6,000 likes.
Haney, whose company raised $34 million in March 2018 for a total of $56.5 million in funding, is a formidable entrepreneur. But she’s also a social media maven whose customers enthusiastically follow her exploits, whether she’s taking a hike in Outdoor Voices’ two-toned leggings or hitting the Country Music Awards red carpet in a tulle gown with musician boyfriend Mark Wystrach. “I’ve made an effort to make [followers] feel better about themselves so they keep coming back,” she says.
Many of today’s young female entrepreneurs are as comfortable narrating their morning routines on Instagram Stories as they are leading financial negotiations in boardrooms. Some have mastered the art of social media to the point of amassing tens—and even hundreds—of thousands of followers, becoming the sort of brand ambassadors that companies have traditionally paid to align with. Though these founders may not fully embrace the much-loathed designation “influencer,” they are plenty influential.
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