New clubhouse for women business executives lands in D.C.
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A rendering of the lounge in Chief's D.C. location. Image courtesy of Chief.
D.C. has a new clubhouse for female business executives.
Driving the news: Chief, a networking group for women senior executives, is opening a 5,500-square-foot physical location on K Street NW for its 1,000-plus D.C. members.
- The spot is currently in soft-launch mode and will celebrate its official grand opening next month.
The big picture: Unlike other clubs in D.C., Chief aims to create a community exclusively for women in senior leadership roles, with a laser-focused mission on corporate advancement, mentorship, and camaraderie.
- The new outpost comes roughly a year after the company faced criticism from former members.
How it works: Members join peer groups that meet monthly with an executive coach and get access to Chief's app, where they can connect with other members and stream content.
- They also get access to events including workshops, panels, and conversations on topics such as AI or the Metaverse, as well as speaker series featuring women like Amal Clooney or Gloria Steinem.
- Chief is also rolling out one-on-one executive coaching for members.
- Anyone can apply, although you'll have to meet Chief's criteria for qualifying as a senior leader.
The intrigue: While Chief has members across the country, it has physical locations only in cities with large member concentrations: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and now D.C.
Zoom in: The D.C. clubhouse has a reception, a bar serving coffee, cocktails, and snacks, lounges, rooms for quiet work, and spaces members can reserve for meetings.
- The group specifically veered away from anything reminiscent of millennial/Girl-Boss pink in the decor, instead going for a gender-neutral vibe with lots of greens.
By the numbers: Membership is either $5,800 or $7,900 a year, depending on which tier you choose, with an additional $1,000 tacked on for clubhouse access to all the sites.
- Many participants have their fees paid by employers, reports The New York Times.
Of note: The group offers grants to help with membership fees.
What they're saying: This isn't a social club or a coworking space — it's "a network of executives," co-founder Lindsay Kaplan, a former VP at startup Casper, tells Axios.
- It's a vision Kaplan and Carolyn Childers, a former SVP at startup Handy, sought out when they started Chief in 2019.
- "Just being an executive alone was daunting," Kaplan tells Axios. "But there was that whole other layer of being a woman that made it even more complicated and frankly, felt really lonely."
Between the lines: The group hasn't been without its critics.
- Last year, former members called out Chief's commitment to racial diversity and inclusivity, with some claiming the group focused on white women's experiences and ghosted applications from women of color.
- Other complaints have focused on the group's response to political issues, as well as reports that Chief's offerings haven't met expectations due to its quick growth.
Chief's co-founders have denied the claims of ghosting and emphasized their commitment to racial diversity and important issues that affect their members, while also pointing out that it's not a politically focused or social justice group.
- Additionally, they've said Chief's worked to fix any "growing pains" of expansion.
Chief tells Axios that they've "spent significant time listening to our members" in recent months to deliver a better experience, including through the D.C. clubhouse and more in-person programming across the county.