Bestselling San Francisco author Julian Guthrie pivots to create Alphy, an app designed to help women succeed.
Bay Area journalist-turned-entrepreneur Julian Guthrie
When journalist and New York Times bestselling author Julian Guthrie wrote her book Alpha Girls, featuring four pioneering women VCs (it’s now in development at Netflix), she says the work opened her eyes to where women are in the world—and where they’re not. Alphy, a new app, was born. “I wanted to combine the best in storytelling with the best in technology to advance women at work, school and home,” says Guthrie, who also penned The Billionaire and the Mechanic, which is about Larry Ellison and the blue-collar mechanic who helped him win the America’s Cup. We caught up with Guthrie to learn more about her new app and what she’d tell her 21-year-old self.
What’s your elevator speech to women about Alphy? It’s a new social and learning network that makes you feel good about yourself. For companies, I say that it’s a new tech platform to help you better recruit, retain and advance women. We’ve also built a remarkable patent-pending AI tool that strengthens written communication, including diminishing gendered language.
The biggest thing you’ve learned about yourself since launching Alphy? How little I know, but how much I love to learn. I’m always saying, ‘I have no idea, but I’ll figure it out.’ Launching a business from scratch, pitching it, getting investors, putting together a team, managing finances and personnel, and building and bringing a product to market is a massive challenge.
What have you learned about women since launching the app? There is a hunger for new ways for women to connect, communicate and be inspired. Young women today care about companies where they see themselves—and their values—represented. Diversity matters.
Best advice someone ever gave you about business? Larry Ellison talked with me years ago about kaizen, the Japanese principle of continuous improvement. I’m a big believer that change happens incrementally, one step at a time, and there are no shortcuts.
Book you’re forever telling people to read? East of Eden by John Steinbeck. It may be the best novel I’ve ever read.
What would you say to your 21-year-old self? Learn finance and computer science.
What would surprise people about you? I have my aha moments while jogging, and I want to learn barrel racing, rodeo style.
Photography by: COURTESY OF JULIAN GUTHRIE
