Chief
Private membership network for female executive leaders
- 1001+ employees
- B2C
- B2B
- Networking
- Community
- Midtown Manhattan, New York, NY
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Company mission
Chief’s mission is to drive women to the top — and keep them there.
Our take
Chief aims to help more businesswomen rise into positions of power with its private membership network. C-Suite, senior executives, and accomplished VPs are evaluated for membership based on seniority, professional experience, background, and impact, as well as a demonstrated history of supporting others along the way.
As of the start of 2023, 53 of the Fortune 500 companies had female CEOs - the first time ever that women had represented over 10% of this group. Women are also drastically underrepresented when it comes to leading funded startups, which is where the need for a community like Chief's comes from.
Chief's has over 20,000 members from top organizations including Google, Nike, HBO, Pfizer and Disney. It achieved Unicorn status in 2021 and continues to launch new initiatives such as "Chief Enterprise" for businesses looking to invest in their women leaders.
That said, it has also seen its fair share of controversy over alleged discrimination towards minority members. The current CEO, who took up the position in 2025, has addressed "gaps in communicating" in the past, and restated the company's commitment to reflect the majority of women and women senior leaders today.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Benefits
- Partnership with Talkiatry to support our employees
- Bonus structures
- 401K
- Stock options
- Fully funded health insurance
- Spending allowances to support your work
- Chief employees receive quarterly stipends to support your wellness and work from home set up where eligible
- Flexible approach to PTO, 10 paid holidays, and a 4.5-day workweek
- Generous leave arrangements, and 4 weeks of sabbatical for team members when they reach their four year anniversary
- 20 weeks of parental leave for new parents of any gender, plus we design a personalized re-boarding program that eases the transition back to work
- Work from anywhere
Funding (last 2 of 4 rounds)
Mar 2022
$100m
SERIES B
May 2020
$15m
EARLY VC
Total funding: $140m
This company has top investors
Leadership
Carolyn Childers
(Chair & Co-Founder)Previous Operating Partner at Primary Venture Partners for 2 years and SVP of Operations at Handy HQ for 4 years.
Lindsay Kaplan
(Board Member & Co-Founder)Previous Social Media Manager at ELLE Magazine for 1 year and Communications Manager at Time Out North America for 2 years.
Alison Moore
(CEO)Also a Board Member at Comic Relief (where they were previously CEO) and TRACE. Was a Member of the Board Of Directors at Downtown Music Holdings, and an Advisor at several early stage start-ups.