Tory Burch Wants To Help You Get Rich

If Tory Burch can do it, so can you. “I’m not a believer that things are not in the cards for you,” she says. “I believe that you can write your own history. If I can do it, other people can do it — because if you asked me 23 years ago what I would be doing today, I would’ve had no idea.”

Burch was in her late 30s when she founded her eponymous company in 2004. While her success was swift and stratospheric — today, the company’s revenue is close to $2B according to Time — she quickly realized most other women entrepreneurs were not as fortunate. So, in 2009, she launched the Tory Burch Foundation to provide female founders with capital, education, and community.

On Thursday 1 May, during an inaugural breakfast at the Pierre in New York, Burch announced a new goal: to unlock $1B in economic impact for women entrepreneurs by 2030. Burch honored three of the Foundation’s most successful entrepreneurs — Denise Woodard of Partake Foods, Christa Cotton of El Guapo, and Beau Wangtrakuldee of AmorSui — with a final note of celebration for Martha Stewart, who received the organization’s first Iconic Founder Award.

“She’s a queen,” Burch told me of Stewart in the days before the event. “She is the ultimate entrepreneur. I admire her ability to reinvent herself — her legacy of resilience and tenacity, her sheer talent at what she does. She has changed the way we live, and I think that regardless of how many times she's been knocked down, she has proven that she is always relevant and always essential, and she can meet adversity with grit and grace and resolve.”

Below, Burch discusses the most essential leadership qualities, how she juggles creative and business priorities, and her surprising pump-up music.

Tell me about why you created the Foundation.

From Day One, I knew I wanted to build a company so that I could build a foundation. Back in 2004, purpose and business didn’t really go hand in hand. It was a very unpopular way of talking about a startup, but for me, it was my North Star. I knew that I wanted to support women, and I realized [I could do that] by supporting women entrepreneurs because I saw the challenges that they faced.

What are some of those challenges that you faced?

Well, I was lucky to have a network where I could fundraise. A lot of women obviously don’t have that, but when I started the company I went out and fundraised to over a hundred people, friends and family. I was so terrified of taking people’s money. I said, “Put in what you can lose,” because I was very, very worried. But that is a big challenge — access to capital.

I’m in my 30s and I often see that my male friends have a much greater tolerance for risk in their investments than my female friends. Why do you think that is?

It is self-inflicted a lot of the time. It’s about confidence and believing in yourself, and that’s something that we do a lot of work in our foundation around too. We used to talk about “women’s empowerment,” and one thing I’ve learned over the last 15 years is that women have the power. We need to help them see the power they have within and realize it.

42% of the 350 female entrepreneurs you’ve worked with in the Tory Burch Foundation have crossed the $1 million threshold in annual revenue. That is so much more than the 4% for women owned businesses nationally—

I’ll let you finish, but that’s not high enough for me. We want to get that even more.

What about the foundation’s support is the magic touch?

We’re building a community. We have resources for people to access. We also have a whole team of people here at the company that are willing to put in the time to mentor. A lot of businesses face the same challenges — they want to build their business through marketing or public relations, or they have a legal issue. Our team introduces them to different factories or people that might be helpful.

I sometimes find it hard to network — to walk up to people I don’t know and talk to them.

We’re all in the same boat. We all feel the same way inside, but some people are better at masking it. I had a conversation with our 50 fellows last week, and I said, “Listen, I struggled with confidence. I struggled with being shy, being out of my comfort zone. You need to just give yourself a pass and not be so hard on yourself.” That’s something that my mom always said to me: You can be your own worst enemy. It’s so true. People are not sitting there analyzing and thinking about you in the way that you think they are. They’re too busy worrying about themselves.

We’re in a very unstable economic moment right now with tariffs looming. What advice do you have for founders?

One of the biggest things that I’m doing is not overreacting. It’s such an obviously terrible moment in our history, particularly for small businesses, but sometimes in crisis people overcorrect. Take your time and really make thoughtful decisions and see how things unfold. We don’t know where we’re going to end up. Also, when there's so much chaos, take one thing at a time so it’s not a tidal wave. Break it down and do the best you can. Give yourself time to process and grace under pressure. It’s important for your team as well.

That’s so true — the ability to stay calm so everyone else doesn’t spiral. What do you do in those scenarios? Is there any specific habit you turn to when feeling stressed out?

I listen to music. I breathe. I am lucky because when things get really frenetic and scary, I get more focused and calm. That’s not the case for everyone, so I think you have to learn what works for you, whether it’s yoga or going for a run. But just know that if you’re leading a company, you’re creating the culture and you’re creating the mood, so you have to be strong. That’s part of what you've signed up to do.

Just out of interest, what kind of music does Tory Burch listen to?

Do you really want to know?

I do!

I was listening to Tupac this morning.

Well, I love that. You’re currently Executive Chairman and Chief Creative Officer at your own company. How do you balance those business and creative elements of your job?

It’s very important when you’re a creative person to do your best to understand how businesses function, otherwise your creativity can be in a vacuum. I am the biggest proponent of the creative process, but I say to my design team: but at the end of the day, if it doesn’t work commercially, it’s not that interesting for me. That’s more about being an artist — and that’s great, too — but you're not interested in building a business. This is a bit different. Certain things you create can have less sales and be interesting for the brand, but it’s a fine balance. You just need to be as intellectually curious as you can.

I often see that, too. Accepting budgetary confines can be hard for some creative people to reconcile.

That’s where creativity kicks in. When we built our business, we had no budget — that’s why we never advertised — and we were early adopters of everything. I launched with an e-commerce site because I didn’t have a way to reach people, and people were just starting to get curious about the internet. But people told me no one would ever buy online.

Wow. I bet you can laugh now.

Well, listen, it was sometimes an uphill battle because I really didn’t have the experience. I guess that’s one thing I would say to entrepreneurs as well: Go with your gut and instinct. It’s not always right, but when you don’t go with it, you sometimes regret it.