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We recently hosted a conversation between Claire Lee, Head of Early Stage at Silicon Valley Bank, Liz Curtis, CEO & Founder at Table + Teaspoon, and CJ Legare, Lean Startup Co. Chief of Staff, about the realities facing female entrepreneurs today.\n\nIn Claire, Liz, and CJ\u2019s conversation, they discuss:\n- Why Liz decided to start Table + Teaspoon, a \u201cRent the Runway, but for table settings.\u201d \n- What Claire calls the \u201cSingle Digit Club\u201d and what we can do to change it.\n- The importance that mentors have played in both Liz and Claire\u2019s career.\n\nAnd much, much more\u2026\n\n\nLiz Curtis didn\u2019t always intend to be an entrepreneur, least of all in the world of entertaining. In fact, she was studying to become a lawyer when she started Table + Teaspoon \u2014 a blog that featured decorating ideas, entertaining tips and recipes. The blog was initially just a creative outlet for Liz as she pursued her career as a corporate litigator, but eventually, it became a much bigger idea that she launched into a business. \n\nIn 2013, while she was still practicing law, Liz decided she wanted to build something \u201crather than tearing things apart,\u201d the latter of which she felt she was doing as a lawyer. Liz pivoted on her career and started interviewing with startups to do something \u2014 anything \u2014 to hop aboard their rocket ship. But after verbally agreeing to join a startup about to launch their new app, she \u201crealized that she\u2019d rather build her own rocket ship.\u201d \n\nSo in 2013, she left law behind and started looking at what tech-enabled solutions were needed in the entertaining space, a huge market lacking any innovation and thus ripe for disruption. After getting her hands dirty and exploring a little bit of everything in the industry \u2014 catering, interior design, flowers, weddings \u2014 she landed on her current business model which she describes as \u201cRent the Runway, but for table settings.\u201d The bootstrapped idea launched as a prototype in the Fall of 2016, went nationwide in 2017, and late last year she started raising her seed money, which, according to Liz, \u201cis the hardest thing I\u2019ve done in my life, including taking the California bar exam.\u201d\n\nEmail us: education@leanstartup.co\nFollow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup\nhttps://leanstartup.co/education