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Hayley Barna

Hayley Barna

Hayley Barna is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist who co-founded Birchbox in 2009 while at Harvard Business School.[1] In 2015, Barna "stepped away from her day-to-day role" at Birchbox,[2] remaining a board member. In 2016 she became a partner First Round,[3] a venture capital firm specializing in seed-stage funding.[4]

Born
ResidenceWest Village
Alma materHarvard UniversityandHarvard Business School
OccupationEntrepreneur, investor
WebsiteFirst Round[24]

Early life and education

Hayley Bay Barna was born in 1983.[5] Her parents, Eileen B. Maisel and Richard A. Barna of New York, both worked at RAB Lighting in New Jersey.[5] In high school, she was published in an international science research journal.[6] She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard[5] and has an MBA at Harvard Business School.[7]

Career

Barna began her career shortly after she graduated from Harvard University joining Bain & Company in New York.[8] She moved to Christie's Hong Kong location where she worked in strategy and then in product management for Amazon.com.[9]

Birchbox

While working towards her MBA at Harvard Business School, Barna met Katia Beauchamp and a friendship was born.

So, too, was the idea of Birchbox which Barna founded with Beauchamp.[7] What began as a business plan during B-School turned into a website where they began to acquire customers interested in "an ecommerce experience focused on new product discovery."[10] They founded the company Birchbox together in 2010.[2] In 2013, she and Beauchamp won the Leadership Award At Forbes Women's Summit.[11] Barna and Beauchamp opened the first Birchbox store in 2014.[12]

As of 2015, Birchbox had received over $70 million in venture funding and had one million subscribers.[13] In August 2015,[14] Barna ceased co-leading the company as co-CEO.[2] She spent the subsequent six months as an angel investor.[14]

Although she stepped down from her role as co-CEO of Birchbox in 2015,[15][16] she remained a member of the board.[17]

First Round

After announcing it in February,[18] she joined First Round Capital as a venture partner in 2016.[14] On February 16, 2016, Barna shared a post on publishing platform medium.com about her first day at First Round stating, "I canโ€™t think of a better place to do this than First Round, which led the seed round in my company Birchbox, and has always put founders first through good times and bad."[19] She was their first female partner.[20][3] One of her first initial First Round investments was the travel startup Collective Hotels & Retreats, with her also joining the board.[21] By late 2017, she largely focused on e-commerce startups.[17] She was on the boards of Madison Reed and RAB Lighting.[17]

By late 2017, she was organizing a working group of women in technology in New York with monthly meetings.[22] Also in late 2017, she was promoted to general partner.

At that point she had invested in companies such as Collective Retreats, Keeps, CrowdJustice, and Mirror.[14]

Personal life

Barna is currently based in Manhattan,[23] New York.[17] During her time at Harvard Business School she met her husband, Fredrik Vik Maroe. They wed in 2014 at a private estate located in Staatsburg, New York.[5]

References

[1]
Citation Linkwww.huffingtonpost.comBosker, Bianca. "Executive Tech Editor". www.huffingtonpost.com. Huffington Post. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[2]
Citation Linkfortune.com"Birchbox co-CEO Hayley Barna steps down". Fortune. 2015-08-11. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[3]
Citation Linkwww.recode.netRey, Jason Del (2016-02-16). "Birchbox Co-Founder Hayley Barna Joins First Round Capital as First Female Partner". Recode. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[4]
Citation Linkwww.crunchbase.com"First Round | crunchbase". www.crunchbase.com. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[5]
Citation Linkwww.nytimes.com"Hayley Barna, Fredrik Maroe". The New York Times. July 20, 2014.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[6]
Citation Linkadage.comCotton Delo. "Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna". AdAge.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[7]
Citation Linkwww.stagiworks.com"Hayley Barna, founder Birchbox | stagiworks.com". www.stagiworks.com. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[8]
Citation Linkwww.bain.com"Hayley Barna". www.bain.com. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[9]
Citation Linkwww.claudiachan.com"Hayley Barna - Claudia Chan". Claudia Chan. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[10]
Citation Linkmariashriver.com"How I Did It: Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna, Founders of Birchbox - Maria Shriver". mariashriver.com. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[11]
Citation Linkwww.forbes.com"Birchbox Cofounders Win Leadership Award At Forbes Women's Summit". Forbes. May 9, 2013.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[12]
Citation Linkfashionista.com"BIRCHBOX LAUNCHES ITS FIRST PERMANENT BRICK-AND-MORTAR STORE". Fashionista. July 11, 2014.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[13]
Citation Linkwww.forbes.comChhabra, Esha. "Key To Success: Beauty Box Company Birchbox Says It's Not Just About The Box". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-01-24.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[14]
Citation Linkfortune.comPolina Marinova (April 25, 2018). "BirchBox CEO-Turned-Investor Hayley Barna Discusses Top Founder Mistakes". Fortune.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[15]
Citation Linkwww.entrepreneur.comLaura Entis (August 11, 2015). "Hayley Barna Steps Down as Co-CEO of Birchbox". Entrepreneur.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[16]
Citation Linkwww.bloomberg.com"Birchbox Finds Cute Boxes Filled With Makeup Aren't Enough". Bloomberg.com. 2016-06-03. Retrieved 2017-01-24.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[17]
Citation Linktechcrunch.comConnie Loizos (November 7, 2017). "Hayley Barna just became the first female GP in First Round's history". TechCrunch.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[18]
Citation Linkwww.inc.comZoe Henry (May 9, 2016). "Birchbox Co-Founder Hayley Barna: 'I Have a Few More Businesses in Me'". Inc.com.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[19]
Citation Linkmedium.comRound, First (2016-02-16). "It's My First Day at First Round". Medium. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM
[20]
Citation Linkfortune.com"Birchbox Co-Founder Hayley Barna Joins First Round Capital". Fortune. February 16, 2016.
Sep 29, 2019, 7:01 PM