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  • We met four female business founders and asked them for their top tips.

  • 1. What are your management do's and don'ts?

  • Don't hire people who may be great at their job,

  • but they're toxic in terms of the culture.

  • I call it "no brilliant jerks allowed"

  • and I think it's my number one management rule.

  • The biggest mistake is not firing fast enough.

  • It's knowing in your gut that this is not the right person for you,

  • and not being able to let them go,

  • and having the business really suffer because of it.

  • It's always about realising the truth, dealing with the truth,

  • practicing the truth, and fixing things.

  • And when things aren't good, OK, well,

  • how am I going to turn this into something positive?

  • 2. What are the keys to success?

  • The most important thing is about grit,

  • and that's what I look for in anyone that I hire in my investors.

  • Are they with you for the journey?

  • Because that will frequently be hard, difficult,

  • you'll have weeks on end when nothing goes your way,

  • where often, it's boring.

  • These are things that people don't talk about.

  • I think you definitely need a sense of mission.

  • I think that you need ambition.

  • I think you need determination.

  • You also need a good idea.

  • I mean, you need an idea that makes sense,

  • and you need to believe in what you do, and sell what you do.

  • Network matters, skills matter, confidence matters.

  • 3. What's your best advice?

  • I wish somebody would have told me how hard it is.

  • I wish someone would have told me

  • I wouldn't have the weekends.

  • I don't have weekends.

  • I haven't had a weekend since I could remember.

  • As a female, I think it's just a little bit harder.

  • I find myself that my personal life has taken a back seat,

  • and has never even been in the front seat ever.

  • I was brought up in Athens, Greece

  • by an amazing mother who had always made me feel that I could take risks.

  • She kept saying failure is not the opposite of success,

  • it's a stepping stone to success.

  • So I think being comfortable with the possibility of failure,

  • which was incredibly high when I launched HuffPost,

  • meant that I was willing to take the risk.

  • One of the things I think that women, and young women in particular, really struggle with

  • is caring a lot about what other people think.

  • So please, for women out there, develop your rhino hide

  • because I think we waste a lot of time caring about what other people think about us.

  • And one of the great joys of getting a little bit older is you care a lot less.

  • You just have to go with the wind, and not be afraid.

We met four female business founders and asked them for their top tips.

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