Ep 186 | Amy Errett

Written By Yasmin Nouri

What It Takes to Become an Entrepreneur, Learning From Your Mistakes & How to Lead With Your Heart

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Amy Errett founded Madison Reed with over 30 years of business and operating expertise as a four-time entrepreneur, venture capitalist and social-mission visionary. She is currently the Founder and CEO of Madison Reed, an omnichannel beauty brand that is challenging industry titans in the hair color space, and also a Partner at True Ventures, focusing on investments in consumer and ecommerce startups.

Prior to founding Madison Reed, Amy was a general partner at Maveron, a venture capital firm co-founded by former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, focused on investments in consumer-facing companies. She also previously served as Chief Asset Gathering Officer at E*TRADE, where she ran a $200 million business. She has been featured on Fast Company’s first-ever Queer 50 list of LGBTQ women and nonbinary innovators in business and tech in 2020, 2021 and 2022, along with Inc. Magazine’s 2021 Female Founders 100 list. 

After three decades in business, Amy noticed a need for at-home hair color that provides salon-quality results utilizing clean ingredients. This led her to create Madison Reed, despite having zero experience within the beauty industry or founding businesses built around physical products. Madison Reed was in part inspired by her daughter, the namesake of the brand, which takes care to empower colorists to earn up to 3x the industry average in flagship locations. Amy has a strong belief that women deserve more – not just in their hair color – but in their lives.

In our episode, Amy walks us through twists and turns across her marathon journey to Madison Reed, the steps she took to validate the idea before going all in. She also shares what she looks for in entrepreneurs as a venture capitalist, how you can find your superpower and zone of genius and things to keep in mind if you plan to fundraise. We explore balancing business decisions between your head and heart, listening to your intuition, and how to manage fear & anxiety that might come up when starting your business, and so much more.

Show Notes:

  • Amy’s advice on uncovering one’s passion. [02:57]

  • Amy’s pivotal moment which shaped her into the businesswoman she is today. [06:03]

  • How to get out of the victim mindset. [10:27]

  • Amy's career journey, her aspiration to attend medical school, and her decision to pursue work in finance. [15:19]

  • Amy’s “Aha!” moment that led to her to leave the finance industry. [21:33]

  • Amy reflects on the decisions she would never make if she could turn back time. [28:41]

  • The three traits she looks for in incredible founders. [33:47]

  • Recognizing the importance of acknowledging anger and fear. [39:00]

  • Why Amy passed on investing in Dollar Shave Club, and how it inspired her to create Madison Reed. [41:02]

  • Steps Amy took to test the idea before launching the brand. [47:54]

  • Getting in touch with your customers’ values. [51:40]

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