185: How Defying Silicon Valley Culture Landed 400K Clients, with Melody McCloskey of StyleSeat

Melody McCloskey is the founder of StyleSeat, a San Francisco-based SaaS company that has raised $40 million in funding, powers billions in transactions and is recognized in 82% of American cities. StyleSeat provides tools for beauty professionals, which lets them run their entire business with just one piece of software.

If StyleSeat sounds like your typical booming, industry-disrupting tech startup, don't be fooled. McCloskey is dedicated to running her company in very atypical ways, and in today's interview, she shares how bucking Silicon Valley norms can help you achieve tremendous success—on your own terms.

For example, her startup is led overwhelmingly by women, a rarity in an industry with persistent gender gaps. The company has also chosen to stop raising money, and without a marketing or sales team, it barely invests in marketing.

McCloskey loves what she does and her business decisions are not solely driven by a pursuit of revenue and growth like many of her peers. Her goal is to empower female business owners with amazing products so they can do what they love as well. When they win, she wins.

Check out the interview to learn McCloskey's unique approaches to funding, growth, and staffing, along with other priceless lessons.

Key Takeaways

• Why McCloskey, against popular opinion, is not interested in raising any more money
• The primary engine behind StyleSeat's exponential growth
• Why the startup walked away from a billion-dollar business model
• Why McCloskey keeps her team smaller than most comparable startups