She was looking for a waitressing gig,
and instead became the first female president
of the New York Stock Exchange in 226 years.
Stacey Cunningham had no idea what career she wanted.
She couldn’t land a waitressing gig,
so her father, a stockbroker,
got her a temporary job on the trading floor.
“𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘳," she said in an interview.
"𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵, '𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰.'"
But Wall Street was a man’s world.
When Stacey became a member, there were only about 30 women out of 1,300 men.
It took 175 years for the Exchange to have its first female member (Muriel Siebert).
Her career path did not have a clear trajectory.
At one point, Stacey called it quits and tried her hand at culinary school.
“𝘔𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥."
❗ But finance had her heart and she went back.
In 2015, she was the Chief Operating Officer, focusing on making markets more accessible to small businesses and investors.
3 years later, in 2018, she made history by becoming the president of the NYSE.
Here are some gems on how Stacey views business:
💎 1. 𝐅𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬.
When building a management team, Stacey views diversity of thought as critical.
💎 2. 𝐆𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝.
Highlighting that the U.S is a nation built on shared success, she views IPOs and public markets as an opportunity for companies to share their success with the community, whereas staying private longer actually contributes to the bifurcation of wealth.
💎 3. 𝐃𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜.
Slack and Spotify are the only companies that have taken this route to date, allowing them to decouple capital raising from going public.
Companies primed for Direct Listing are well-capitalized with no need to raise new capital and have generally raised significant capital in private markets, giving them a large number of shareholders.
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This is one of my favorite stories! Hope you enjoyed it. :)
Link to the full article in the comments ✍
Btw, I'm Ivelina, content lead at doola and founder of my new passion project EverythingStartups.
#businesstories #femaleceo #NYSE #goingpublic #IPO
