Women in Retail Leadership Circle (WIRLC) recently released its 13th annual Top Women in Retail report. The valuable resource highlights female executives who impressed us as well as colleagues from the industry. 2023 Top Women in Retail honoree Bianca Gates, co-founder and CEO of Birdies, is one such example. Here’s a sampling of Gates’ interview featured in the report:

Women in Retail Leadership Circle: What was your journey to founding Birdies?

Bianca Gates: I have no background in retail, product or manufacturing. But I have an extremely large passion for home entertaining, cultivating conversations and community within my home. However, throughout my career journey, whenever I was hosting events in my home, I was always barefoot, in socks or had a pair of frumpy pajama slippers to entertain in. I thought, “This is silly!” As I got older and began inviting more and more amazing women to my home, I thought there had to be a better solution for at-home entertaining shoes. The seed was planted in my head. I wanted somebody else to solve the problem so I could continue with my media sales career. Unfortunately, nobody had the foresight to solve this problem. So about eight years ago, I tapped my best friend and co-founder, Marissa Sharkey, and said, “I don’t think anyone’s going to solve this problem. I think it’s going to have to be us, despite having no background in retail or in production. We have the vision. We have passion. We can do it.”

WIRLC: You’ve said when it comes to running a successful business, mentorship and community are key. Can you elaborate?

BG: My mom was a stay-at-home mother and an amazing mom, and my dad was a teacher and professor. I didn’t really grow up in an environment where business was at the forefront of conversation in my home. So when I began my professional career, I was always very dependent on others for mentorship and educating me in the professional world. As I got older, however, I began to realize the importance of peer-to-peer networking. I love identifying like-minded individuals who have the same vision and goals as I do, and connecting with them and having conversations around our passion and our vision and using that collective wisdom to get to our goals. I’ve been very fortunate because I’ve been able to put together small communities of women who share similar professional dreams. They have mentored me and inspired me to not only start Birdies while I was at Facebook, but ultimately make the decision to leave my full-time job and make my side hustle my full-time job and grow and expand Birdies.

WIRLC: You’re a first-generation American, and a Latina. How has your background contributed to your professional success?

IC: Growing up as a daughter of two immigrants from Latin America, I was challenged to try to assimilate culturally within the United States from early on. Being a Latina in a predominantly Spanish-speaking home in the 1980s was sort of survival of the fittest. We weren’t the cool girls. People weren’t curious about our background or our language or anything about us. Because of those challenges and social pressures, I had to fight hard to assimilate into society. While that was a struggle growing up, it gave me that extreme desire to create a broader community of fitting in and being accepted. This is part of the reason why Birdies is so successful, I believe. Nobody cares more than I do about creating a community around something that people love and that ultimatley makes their day better. So, being the daughter of immigrants and being Latina has made being an entrepreneur easier, better and, quite frankly, more fun.

WIRLC: One of Birdies’ missions is to lift all women up. Why did you decide to focus on this mission?

BG: Our mission is very near and dear to my heart. I grew up not feeling accepted in society. So for me, it breaks my heart knowing that any woman still feels the way I did growing up. Even though we’re in the business of selling shoes, the greater purpose and the greater mission of our company is to lift up all women, help them feel their best, look their best, and give them the confidence to break through any challenges in front of them. Everything we do at Birdies is inspired by our mission of lifting up women, whether it’s the investments we make, products we make, partnerships we form, or sponsorships we create. They’re all aligned with the purpose of lifting up women.

WIRLC: Lifting women up led the brand to sponsor a women’s soccer team, the Los Angeles-based Angel City Football Club. Why?

BG: Birdies is a very proud sponsor of Angel City Los Angeles. In 2020, during the throes of COVID-19, I got a call from Julie Irman, the president of Angel City. She shared her vision of establishing a new women’s soccer team in Los Angeles. She had a greater vision than just a soccer team; she wanted to inspire and entertain the next generation of women. I thought, “This is fascinating. I want to be a part of this. This is so mission-aligned with what we’re doing at Birdies.” However, we’re a shoe company, not an athletic shoe company. So it seemed quite odd to sponsor the team. On the other hand, just using our mission as our guide, I thought, “There’s no better opportunity than to partner with somebody who has such a strong vision of lifting up women.” There’s a lot that we do to inspire women, encourage women, cheer women on and mentor women. But at the end of the day they also need sponsorship dollars. And that’s where I thought we could really help Julie and Natalie Portman’s vision of Angel City, by writing a check and investing in the team so that these women could have livable salaries — equal salaries to their male counterparts — and to deliver on something so great that we as a society can benefit from, which is soccer and entertainment.

WIRLC: How would you describe your leadership style and how do you motivate and inspire your team?

BG: I lead by inspiring, setting the vision, anchoring us in our mission and working with our team to execute. We’re also a culture of testing and learning. We try not to overthink our decisions and let our customers and our community be our guide.

WIRLC: What are you most looking forward to in 2023?

BG: 2023 for me is the year of creativity. We’re done with the supply chain challenges, hopefully. Now we’re on the road to discovery, creativity, optimism and opportunity. A lot of what you’re going to see from us at Birdies this year are really embellished shoes, fashion-forward shoes, high-fashion shoes that inspire women to go out there and be their best authentic self. 

Read more interviews from our 2023 Top Women in Retail report by downloading it here. Want to connect with women leaders like Bianca? Apply to become a Women in Retail Leadership Circle member today!