Melody McCloskey
Co-Founder & CEO, StyleSeat. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutive@melodymcc ↗LinkedIn ↗styleseat.com ↗
Melody McCloskey co-founded StyleSeat in 2011 to provide an online marketplace and scheduling platform that connects beauty and wellness professionals with clients. Under her leadership, the platform has processed billions of dollars in appointment bookings and secured tens of millions in venture backing from prominent investors.
1shows
1appearances
17statements
1resolved
1supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
1said about them ↓ Everything Melody McCloskey said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
McCloskey: Executives rarely transition successfully between early and late startup stages
“I think it's very rare to see that flexibility. I, it is that rare bird to find the person who can work at the public style company, or the company that's on that smooth paved road that is scaling, that can also go do the early stage stuff, or that gravelly ro…”
McCloskey: Leaking low runway to VCs severely damages fundraising terms
“When, I mean, the biggest challenge is when you are, let's say you're in the A stage of raising money, and you don't have a lot of runway, and as a startup, you need to try and keep as much of the power in that negotiation process as you can, while also, you k…”
McCloskey: Every founder should bootstrap their startup
“I think everyone should bootstrap because especially in boom times, I mean, a couple of years ago we had pretty significant boom times.”
McCloskey: The individual VC partner matters far more than firm brand
“The partner is so much more important to me than the firm because there's such asymmetry of information between founders and VCs that makes it really hard for a founder.”
McCloskey: Operating experience makes board members far more valuable than pure investors
“One of the big lessons that I've learned around what makes a good board member is having as much operation experience as you can, because investors can sort of say, well, here's what we've seen other companies do. Here are some trends and here's some data. And…”
McCloskey: VCs maintain information asymmetry because transparency isn't in their interest
“The challenge is that founders can't really share that information because it's not in their best interest, and VCs don't Really want to be transparent because it's not in their best interest, right? They sort of hold all the power. And what that means is that…”
McCloskey hired StyleSeat's first engineer via equity-only Craigslist ad
“I found my first engineer by posting an ad on Craigslist and saying, I'm stealth company seeks engineer to build first version of product for equity, only no money. And believe it or not, that actually resulted in a fantastic engineer from Google who had made …”
McCloskey: Founders must transition from doers to leaders after year two
“But after that first year or two, you have to take a completely different type of approach to running and building your business, which is not having all the answers and not being the person to go do it. You turn from a doer to someone who needs to empower the…”
McCloskey: Founders Should Gather Mass Advice From Peers Even If Ignored
“Getting to the next level, whatever problems you have to ask people and you have to ask a ton of people. You can ignore their advice, right? But just getting that information in those data points on this is how other really successful businesses have done it a…”
Melody McCloskey: Founders cannot survive long-term without loving a frenetic pace
“And so those constant challenges you have to love, because if you don't love that super frenetic pace, it's gonna, gonna kill you because it's incredibly, incredibly intense.”
Melody McCloskey: CEO longevity requires comfort with executive criticism and transparency
“And if you aren't really comfortable with that level of criticism and transparency, I think that can be challenging to stick around for the long run.”
McCloskey: Bootstrapping forces founders to achieve product-market fit faster
“And I think what bootstrapping teaches you is you may never see this dollar again, so you better spend Every hour, every day, getting, you know, to product market fit as fast as possible because time is running out.”
Melody McCloskey: Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick were StyleSeat's first angels
“Our first seed round, my very first, well, my first two advisors and angel investors were Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick.”
McCloskey predicted StyleSeat would reach profitability by 2018
“And I think, you know, we're going to be profitable in the next year.”
McCloskey lived in a closet paying $400 monthly rent to launch StyleSeat
“I saved a ton of money because I lived in, I think it was technically a closet in this home with a whole bunch of other roommates. I paid 400 dollars in rent and I did that for a couple of years and saved a little bit of, yes, saved a little bit of money”
Melody McCloskey worked out of Travis Kalanick's house during StyleSeat's early days
“In the beginning, it was Garrett, and then I was working out of Travis's house three days a week for like a year, and then it became Jenny Lefcourt, who after, you know, as the needs have changed for the business, the, my mentors have changed.”
The other half of the tape: Melody McCloskey's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
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One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Melody's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Co-Founder & CEO, StyleSeat | 1 | 17 | 100% 1/1 | full record on 20VC → |