Away Co-CEO Steph Korey Will Step Down, Again

TOPLINE

In recent weeks, one high-profile female founder after another has stepped down — the Wing’s Audrey Gelman, Refinery29’s Christene Barberich, Band.o’s Jen Gotch, Reformation’s Yael Aflalo, Manrepeller’s Leandra Medine Cohen and Girlboss’ Sophia Amoruso — and now luggage company Away’s cofounder and co-CEO Steph Korey will step down, again. 

KEY FACTS

crucial quote

Korey has not commented on the decision to have Haselden be sole CEO, but spoke about the criticism she got on Twitter for her Instagram stories in a new Instagram story. “I think it’s a big problem that underrepresented founders are terrified of their companies becoming big because they feel a misrepresentative takedown article will become inevitable,” she wrote.

news peg

Has the recent departures of notable female founders signaled the end of the “girlboss” era, a term coined by Amoruso in her best-selling #Girlboss? Two popular articles published this week, The Atlantic’s “The Girlboss Has Left The Building” and Medium’s “The End Of The Girlboss Is Here” argue that the answer is yes. “Slotting mostly white women into the power structures usually occupied by men does not de facto change workplaces, let alone the world, for the better, if the structures themselves go untouched,”writes The Atlantic’s Amanda Mull. 

tangent

In May 2019, Away reached a valuation of $1.4 billion after raising a $100 million Series D funding round, led by Wellington Capital Management. The funding brought Away’s total equity funding to $156 million. This April, as the coronavirus pandemic took a toll on retail companies, Korey and Rubio announced in a Medium post that sales had dropped by 90% and that the team could no longer stay intact even though they tried measures like suspending their salaries, reducing the salaries of senior leadership team members and freezing hiring. Other high-profile female-founded companies were impacted by the pandemic, including Rent the Runway and ClassPass, which were also once valued at $1 billion or more. 

further reading

Away Says Co-CEO Steph Korey Will Step Down This Year After Her Attacks On The Media (The Verge)

Emotional Baggage (The Verge)

Online Luggage Startup Away CEO Stepping Down (Forbes)