The Muse, a website that offers career advice to millennials, didn’t set out to raise money from mostly female investors. It just happened that way, says CEO and co-founder Kathryn Minshew. On Tuesday, the company will announce a Series A round of funding totaling $10 million, largely from female venture capitalists.
Aspect Ventures, run by Theresia Gouw and Jennifer Fonstad, participated in the round; so did Nancy Pfund of DBL Partners, as well as QED Ventures. The round also included investments from Tyra Banks, Cathie Black, Great Oaks Ventures, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, entrepreneur Anjula Acharia-Bath (whom Coins2Day profiled last year), and angel investors Chris Herrmannsen and Mike Goldstein.
“I couldn’t have cared less in the early days about the gender of the investors that we were pitching, but there was something about both Aspect and DBL that was incredibly resonant to me,” Minshew says. As for Tyra, Minshew says connected with Banks in 2013 and learned that she was passionate about finding “growing businesses that were relevant to young people.” She’s only made a handful of startup investments, but The Muse was a fit.
Launched in 2011 as a career advice and job hunting platform, the site has drawn 31 million visitors. The Muse’s career advice acts as a customer honey pot, luring in millennials who might not yet be looking for a job. Ninety percent of the site’s 3 million monthly visitors are employed or have a job, Minshew says. The idea is that once they decide to look for a new job, they’ll look on The Muse. The site currently lists jobs from more than 300 clients, including Gap, Facebook, HBO, Allstate, and Adidas. Prices to post job listings vary depending on size of company, but are typically in the tens of thousands of dollars per year.
Armed with $10 million in new venture funding, The Muse plans to expand its personalization tools to show users information that applies specifically to their career stage and interests.
