Ms. Morin’s own entrepreneurial journey started at 25, when she quit her product marketing job at Google to start Brit + Co. She also hosted a podcast called“Teach Me Something New” and helped found Offline Ventures, a seed fund that invests in early stage technology companies.
Enrollment in Brit + Co’s classes spiked after Ms. Morin made them free. Soon after, she designed Selfmade, in part to address the particular self-doubt that haunts some female entrepreneurs. The program’s first week is led by Ms. Molfino, who teaches students how to undo the social conditioning of being good and perfect instead of powerful.
“Women disproportionately don’t think they can do it,” Ms. Morin said. “They think they’re not experienced or smart enough, they don’t have the right ideas, have too many ideas, or it has to be perfect.”
That lesson was invaluable for Teralee Armbruster, 50, a user experience design consultant in Northfield, Minn., who realized that perfectionism and putting everyone before herself was holding her back. “Once I became aware of that and let my guard down, things started to happen for me,” she said.
When Ms. Armbruster’s consultant work slowed in 2020, she focused on a side business, Punchy Magnolia, which makes Canadian toque hats made from old cashmere sweaters. “I thought no one was going to buy a $140 cashmere hat in a pandemic, but fall 2020 was my busiest season ever,” she said. She is enrolling in Selfmade again for her next venture: a CBD-infused fruit snack called Salty Birch.
For Candice Walsh, 40, a medical device sales executive from Atlanta, Selfmade not only gave her a confidence boost, but also a sense of community. Last April, when her sales work came to a halt, Ms. Walsh decided to use the time to focus on one of her small-business ideas: a travel organizer for children’s toys that she calls NugLug.
