Virago: Google defines the word Virago as “a domineering, violent, or bad-tempered woman.”
“But for us, Virago was and always will be a woman of excellence,” explains Virago’s website. “Taking back the word and coming together, we will rewrite the narrative of what it means to be a driven woman building a business today.”
MSLGroup’s former Global Director of Social Media and Digital, Stephanie Agresta and Jory Des Jardins, who co-founded and sold BlogHer, a venture backed women’s digital lifestyle company that enables premium digital publishers to grow their platforms and monetize their content have cofounded a strategic advisory supporting women entrepreneurs named Virago.
The company aims to inspire women, remove obstacles, change the narrative, and set women on an accelerated path will launch on November 2 with a full day inaugural event, The Scale Collective, at the Hudson Mercantile in New York City.
“We feel our work for women is a pay-it-forward for the years of support we received as entrepreneurs,” Agresta said. “One of the key messages we are going to relay at our event is this need to acknowledge and serve the forces that got you to where you are and will continue to get you there.”
She added that the only way to keep growing as a group is to keep helping entrepreneurs.
“As we say, you don’t get off the train after you get to your destination; you greet the next group of entrepreneurs and ask them how you can help,” Agresta explained.
The event will focus on the overall startup ecosystem: investors, advisors, and potential business partners. Corporate experts include Cisco, Dell, eBay, Facebook, GE, Publicis, Havas, Spotify and more. There is also a large group of investors including Google Ventures, Founders First Capital Partners, Battery Ventures, Comcast Ventures, 500 Startups, and Iris Capitals. 
“All of these are critical components to scaling startups. We’ve built in content and networking opportunities with all of these constituencies,” Des Jardins said.“It’s more interactive and enables both informal networking as well as smaller groups and one-on-one meetings.”
The event will have three tracks: Marketing/PR track, Scale track, and the Fundraising track. Sessions will include discussions on topics including “Getting to $50M: Scaling Your Ability to Innovate and Deliver,” “#YourBrandHere: Developing a Social Strategy,” and “Do You Need Silicon Valley Funding to Be Successful?”
Marian Salzman, CEO, North America, Havas PR, Rachel Weiss, VP, Innovation And Entrepreneurship, Sallie Krawcheck, CEO, Ellevest, and several others will be speaking/serving as advsiors at the event.
For those who haven’t registered, they can register at https://thescalecollective.splashthat.com. Onsite registrations will also be open, space permitting, up until 10:00 a.m. on November 2.
