Her Campus sold for... - Flashes & Flames

Her Campus Media (HCM), the 15-year-old, Boston, US-based network for college women, has sold what is believed to be a majority stake to SFM, the George Soros family office investor. The founders have retained a “significant” shareholding after the deal which valued HCM at an estimated $150-200mn.

The co-founders – CEO Stephanie Kaplan Lewis, Windsor Western (president) and Annie Wang (chief creative officer) – will continue to manage HCM: “They really love what we do and aren’t looking to change it,” Kaplan Lewis says.

However, it is believed that the Soros-backed acceleration of HCM strategy will involve funding for larger acquisitions than the six self-funded, bolt-on acquisitions so far: HerUni, Lala Media Group, College Fashionista, Spoon University, Endorsify and Zfluence. HCM is believed to be currently involved in acquisition negotiations. We may also assume that a new, well-funded strategy might include ‘downstream’ membership for women after university and perhaps even networks for those starting their careers in specific industries and professions. One way or another, HCM could grow up with its Gen Z population.

The founders had met as undergraduates at Harvard University while publishing a fashion and lifestyle magazine for women on campus. When they changed it into a broad digital service with fresh weekly and daily content, it was an instant hit and also attracted readers at other US universities. Kaplan Lewis said: “We realized there wasn’t really an online media outlet that was targeting the college market with relevant content. And who better to provide that content than us, the students who related to it most?”

They decided to go it alone and (before graduating) launched the startup to give US college women practical advice and inspiration on style, health, love, college living, and careers. It also contained micro-sites for localised content provided by students. That was the start of Her Campus in September 2009. Kaplan Lewis, Western and Wang won a startup Harvard competition which gave them $50k and a free office for a year in Boston. That – and $500 borrowed from a founder’s father (and repaid two weeks later) – was their only funding, and they’ve been profitable (more or less) ever since.

**Kaplan Lewis, Western and Wang: an instant hit from Harvard**

Her Campus now has a highly-engaged community of 50k “team member” volunteers but its digital content and events (including Her Conference and College Fashion Week) attract much larger audiences online and in-person. It claims to be the largest media company for US college women and a 360-degree college marketing agency, reaching over 35mn users monthly. It has more than 400 campus chapters across the US and also in 11 other countries. It tells followers: “Whether you’re aspiring to be a trailblazing journalist, corporate leader or change-maker in your community, Her Campus will help you get there”.

It’s all about Gen Z.

It may be incidental, of course, that super-investor George Soros has been lambasted by right-wing politicians in the US as a conspiratorial liberal with investments in organisations campaigning on human rights, climate change, democratic governance and also Democratic Party causes. But Her Campus is gearing up for this year’s presidential election in which more than 40mn Gen Zers will be eligible to vote, 20% for the first time. This week, Kamala Harris is all over the site because she’s what they’re all talking about.

Kaplan Lewis told Flashes & Flames in 2019: “From the very beginning, our entire model was based around having chapters at colleges across the country, and our work being very bottom-up, informed by the wants and needs of our community, rather than top-down or with “community” as an add-on or extension. So many of our community members tell us that joining Her Campus (or one of our other brands) was the single best decision they had made in college and helped them to find friends, gain confidence and skills, launch their careers, and more. The impact we’ve been able to have on our community members is what we’re most proud of. Everything we do ties back to our mission of serving college women and serving as a career launching platform for them.”

The pandemic was a game changer for HCM as much as for its student members: “The biggest change we had to make was our pivot to virtual events, the first of which was ‘I’m Still Graduating’, a mega, epic virtual graduation for the class of 2020 with major celebrity speakers that over 1mn people tuned in to. It was the blueprint for all sorts of successful, virtual events that kept HCM busy – and profitable – throughout the pandemic.”

SFM has not disclosed the terms of its latest media acquisition (it’s also an investor in Vice Media, Audacy radio and Crooked Media podcasts). But we estimate it valued the debt-free Her Campus Media at $150-200mn (10-15x estimated EBITDA for 2024).

Our own 2019 prediction (see Her Campus Goes Global, below) that HCM’s future was in international markets may have been wide of the mark: it now seems wholly focused on North America, despite website claims to be “empowering college women around the globe”. But, perhaps, that’s a prompt for others in an era when all kinds of media should be appetised by the opportunity to build such engaged audience networks. Be inspired.