Daniella Pierson, entrepreneur, founder and chief executive officer of The Newsette, is leveraging her network and entrepreneurial knowledge to help women everywhere find their own success in business. Having built a net worth of $200 million by age 27, the self-made BIPOC woman has often spoken out about the alarming wage gap and the lack of funding being given to women — something she aims to disrupt with the launch of a new invite-only membership club called Chasm.

Chasm’s mission is to close the gender gap through entrepreneurship. Notably, reports have found that male-led businesses in 2023 received 98.2 percent of VC funding while women received just 1.8 percent. Pierson said that her bet is simply that the fastest path to gender equality is helping women earn as much as possible so that they are in a position to put women in the room.

“Chasm is going to make a massive dent in the gender gap by focusing on one solution that has a domino effect: creating more successful female entrepreneurs,” said Pierson. “If you think about who has the most wealth and power in the world, they have two things in common. They are men and they are entrepreneurs. We’re using that exact formula for women, without excluding men from the fix. In today’s society, money equals power — and when women earn more, we all win.”

The invite-only membership is a club for “the most successful men and women in the world” and is launching with 50 members, including household names and moguls worth $200 million to $2 billion. Named members of the organization include Sara Blakely, Spanx and Sneex inventor and founder; Lionel Richie; Fidji Simo, chief executive officer of Instacart; Alli Webb, cofounder of Drybar; and entrepreneurs Tony and Sage Robbins, among others.

The club will make moves to transform capital into change by funding monthly non-dilutive grants to the Chasm community and welcoming female entrepreneurs into an ecosystem rooted in community and insights. The strategy behind Chasm is informed by Pierson’s own entrepreneurial journey.

Reflecting on her own experiences as a young, female entrepreneur, Pierson said that she was surrounded by male, VC-backed entrepreneurs around her age and hesitated to ask for advice to avoid seeming inexperienced. While Pierson admits that she “secretly envied their term sheets” at the time, not getting funding from “the men who laughed [her] out of their offices” turned out to be a “blessing disguised as a bruise.”

“Without investors or a board breathing down my neck, I built a business that let me put eight figures in my bank account by 25 — and more importantly, I had full control over my destiny,” said Pierson. “That kind of independence is rare. And while some businesses do need VC money to grow, no one tells you the fine print: like how giving up a board seat too early can backfire, or how your lead investor may end up feeling more like a boss than a partner.”

In addition to providing grants, Chasm’s solutions will be designed to focus on eliminating all barriers for women entrepreneurs and leveling the playing field for resource access beyond funding. Resources will include free content and access to a network designed specifically to help women founders thrive.

“Money helps — but access, insight and resources are what actually tip the scales,” said Pierson. “Empowerment without actionable content is just a Pinterest quote. The gender gap isn’t going to vanish because we manifest it away. Inspiration is great — but action is better. The old system wasn’t built for us. So instead of trying to fit into it, we’re building something bolder. Something better. We’re not waiting to be included — we’re constructing the table, carving our names into it, and passing the power forward.”

Pierson said that she believes the main point of disconnect for women not getting funding is power, adding that “if 99.9 percent of the power, money and influence still sits with men, they need to be part of this solution.” Moreover, she doesn’t believe that the conversation around the gender gap is happening nearly enough. Instead, it usually gets “trotted out during Women’s History Month or at panels where people solemnly nod at stats, they secretly think are too massive to ever fix. It’s like gender equality is treated as a noble idea, not a solvable problem.”

With that in mind, Chasm’s solution has been built to not isolate men, but rather to invite them in.

“The funding landscape favors people who look like the last person who made investors money — and historically, that’s been men,” said Pierson. “Instead of ignoring that fact, Chasm is flipping it into a feature. We’re inviting the most powerful men in business into the solution. With Chasm, men aren’t on the sidelines — they’re co-architects of progress. And when those with money and influence decide to redistribute both? That’s when the game actually changes.”

For entrepreneurs, Chasm is now live and free to access online.