The Evolution of the Girlboss: From Scale to Sustainability

Earlier this summer, the girlboss was back in the Hamptons, but not quite as we knew her. At Montauk Yacht Club, where the docks became home to Camp FFF for a couple of days, entrepreneurs traded war stories over panels, games of tug-of-war and dinners curated by chef-in-residence Alison Roman.

Now in its seventh year, Camp FFF is an annual, invite-only retreat hosted by Anu Duggal, who founded the early-stage venture capital firm Female Founders Fund in 2014. It brings together female founders and executives for a program designed to move beyond the 2010s-era playbook of relentless growth and examine the business landscape as it stands today.

This year’s gathering included Tory Burch, Mielle Organics founder Monique Rodriguez, The Wing and The Six Bells Inn founder Audrey Gelman, former Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Radhika Jones, and Ghia founder Mélanie Masarin.

In March, I asked whether the girlboss was making a comeback, inspired by the many figures synonymous with the first wave who have since begun new chapters. In the months since, Emma Grede, the entrepreneur behind Good American and co-founder of Skims, embarked on a high-profile press tour for her book Start With Yourself, while Yesteryear, a bestselling novel about a tradwife influencer who wakes up in the 18th century and is forced to confront the reality of the life she has been selling online, became a cultural touchpoint for a growing backlash against the opposing archetype.

Meanwhile, a recent report by the Women’s Entrepreneurship Institute showed that women own approximately 14 to 15.7 million businesses in the US, representing around 40% of all enterprises. Yet the investment landscape remains challenging. Female-only teams continue to receive a fraction of available venture capital: just 2.3% of total VC funding in the US, while in the UK, around 2p of every £1 invested goes to female-founded companies.

Moreover, the legacy of the growth-at-all-costs mindset that defined the 2010s has left many first-time female founders reassessing what it takes to build a company, and whether today’s investment landscape can offer a more sustainable path forward.

What, then, does the next era of women in business actually look like? If the first girlboss generation was defined by scale, personal mythology and breaking into male-dominated spaces, what defines girlboss 2.0 in a market where access to capital is trickier, consumer expectations are harder to meet, and founders are being asked to build with sharper business fundamentals?

Those questions shaped conversation throughout Camp FFF. Across the two-day summit, founders gathered for roundtables, talks and panels exploring topics that span integrating AI into growing businesses, to the realities of building a second-time venture.

“I mentor a lot of women who call me and say their investors are putting them under pressure. It’s really stressful, and a lot of them have had to do things they wouldn’t normally have done, like opening more retail locations or making other decisions just to hit numbers. Eventually, that catches up with you if you’re not doing it for the right reason,” says beauty industry titan Bobbi Brown and founder of Jones Road Beauty, who was also in attendance to present Tory Burch with the Female Founder of the Year Award, after being honored last year.

“You don’t want to jump out of an airplane when you’re an entrepreneur. You have to take some leaps, but you also have to not be stupid,” Bobbi Brown added.

This market correction that has taken place in recent years has shifted the conversation away from growth-at-all-costs toward profitability and durability, while coinciding with a technological shift that has concentrated investor appetite.

“What’s happened is that the market has effectively split into two categories: AI and non-AI. The reality is that if you’re building an AI company, you can get a lot of attention and funding. But if you’re not, it’s much harder,” says Anu Duggal, founder of Female Founders Fund and host of Camp FFF.

As the girlboss evolves, so too must the strategies and expectations that define her. The next generation of female founders will need to be more agile, more resilient, and more focused on building sustainable businesses that can weather the inevitable ups and downs of the market. It’s a new playbook, one that prioritizes profitability over hype, and durability over growth at all costs.

A New Era for the Girlboss?

The question remains: what does the next era of women in business actually look like? As the girlboss evolves, so too must the strategies and expectations that define her. The next generation of female founders will need to be more agile, more resilient, and more focused on building sustainable businesses that can weather the inevitable ups and downs of the market.

It’s a new playbook, one that prioritizes profitability over hype, and durability over growth at all costs. And as Camp FFF and other initiatives continue to bring together female founders and executives to explore these challenges and opportunities, we may start to see the contours of this new era take shape.