Elizabeth Gore of Hello Alice on How to Navigate the Current Macro Environment
Founder's Story
‘A good business is a good business’: Elizabeth Gore of Hello Alice on How to Navigate the Current Macro Environment
In the latest Founder’s Story, meet Elizabeth Gore, Co-founder and President of Hello Alice, a US-based company which helps businesses launch and grow. The free platform serves more than one million small business owners across the United States, and has a special focus on women, people of color, those who are military-affiliated, the LGBTQ+ community, and people with disabilities.
Elizabeth and her co-founder Carolyn Rodz secured Hello Alice’s Series B funding in 2021. Investors include Serena Ventures, Backstage Capital, How Women Invest, Silicon Valley Bank and Jean Case.
“Make sure you stick to your purpose. Why you created that company will see you through both growth times and uncertain times, so lean on that. Lean on your purpose to get you through uncertain times.” - Elizabeth Gore, Co-founder and President of Hello Alice
Read about Elizabeth’s entrepreneurial journey and Hello Alice’s mission in our Q&A:
How has your career journey led you to start Hello Alice?
EG: I started my career as a humanitarian with the UN and the Peace Corps and really saw the disparities for particularly women to start and own a business. I was incredibly passionate about creating a scalable solution to start and grow a business with my co-founder Carolyn Rodz. We felt that the most important thing is equitable access to capital.
What is the goal of Hello Alice, and how does it operate?
EG: Hello Alice’s goal is to bring equitable access to capital to small business owners, with a special focus on what we call the New Majority - women, people of color, those with military affiliation, the LGBTQ+ community, and entrepreneurs with disabilities. We have 1.1 million entrepreneurs on our platform, and almost 70% of those are women. We provide technical assistance and training, as well as access to apply for credit, loans and grants to those small business owners.
What’s the geographical focus of Hello Alice?
EG: We are global, while our main market is the United States. We have people using the platform from all over the world. Our solutions center, which is home to our funding resources is solely US-based, but our training, education, and technical assistance are utilized all over the world.
Do you work with specific partners to provide capital?
EG: Our credit card is in partnership with Mastercard. On loans, we have a marketplace with lenders our team vets to ensure that they prioritize the New Majority. For our grants program, we have a rotation of partners to supply grant opportunities to small business owners.
You’ve recently published several surveys. How do you use the collected data and what have been some of the key findings?
EG: We use our survey data from small business owners to ensure that both policymakers, enterprise business services, and banks know trends from the small business owners to ensure their voices are being heard and folks can understand based on their industry, location, their gender, their ethnicity what their needs are, what they are worried about, and what they are excited about.
Top concerns are about inflation, supply chain, and uncertainty on the market, yet at the same time, there is optimism and definitely a belief that holiday shopping and the receipt around that were actually quite high. So there are some legitimate concerns around, again, uncertainty, inflation, and supply chain, but there is still a sense of optimism out there.
Have you identified any particular needs female entrepreneurs have?
EG: There is an issue area and then a need. The issue area is women who are still pulled back by the care economy, so particularly still coming out of the pandemic, there is elder and child care that we are still bouncing back from, which really tap into the small business space right now. I think that’s entirely unique for women and women founders.
As it relates to actual needs for the business, ensuring that women are getting that early capital they need, particularly when they are starting a business, namely operational credit, and small business loans, there still is a pretty significant gap. The banks right now, because of the economy, don’t have a high-risk profile, so that’s a real gap and something we need to pay attention to.
What’s your message to investors hesitating to back underrepresented founders?
EG: It’s really important to acknowledge that when women get equitable access to the capital, they tend to financially outperform their male counterparts. It’s a profitable bet. I always bring it up because I think it’s critical, and not everyone knows those data points, and they need to.
Do you have any advice for underrepresented founders?
EG: No matter what you hear about the economy, a good business is good. Don’t let the news hold you back from really going out there, asking for what you need, selling your ware. And the same time, be very practical, listen to your customers, and be very iterative with your business planning as the economy tends to be very uncertain right now, but don’t let it scare you! A good business is a good business.
Make sure you stick to your purpose. Why you created that company will see you through both growth times and uncertain times, so lean on that. Lean on your purpose to get you through uncertain times.
Read more about Hello Alice’s EOY Report Data:
Hello Alice conducted a survey of more than 2,500 US-based small business owners to understand their overall sentiment and challenges heading into 2023
The survey uncovered 4 key findings:
1. Inflation remains a top-of-mind concern:
69% of small business owners said the effects of inflation on their businesses
worsened throughout 2022, forcing them to increase prices and adjust product offeringsNearly 70% of owners applied for funding to manage inflation-related challenges in 2022, and another 70% plan to do so in 2023.
Two-thirds of owners said their expenses increased in 2022, whereas only 30% had an increase in annual revenue
2. Owners are optimistic they have the tools to grow:
73% of surveyed owners predict their businesses will grow in 2023.
3. Marketing will be a key determinant of success:
Top concerns include losing customers due to price increases (57%) and not being able to acquire new customers (54%)
Owners must optimize marketing efforts to avoid these outcomes
4. Current outlook hinges on a potential recession:
Double the portion of owners are planning to hire in 2023 than were actively hiring in 2022
However, 65% of owners are worried about a potential recession, which they fear will reduce sales, limit cash flow, and make it harder to access credit.
For more information, visit helloalice.com.