Women’s lifestyle startup Tara&Co brings on board advisory council

Despite a belief that women don’t support each other, Tara&Co is bringing on three female leaders in the tech industry to serve on the lifestyle startup’s advisory council. Hearsay Systems CEO Clara Shih, Google GM of small and medium business ads Kim Spalding and Etsy COO Linda Kozlowski are all coming on board to advise Tara&Co.

“There’s a common meme that women don’t support each other and that’s why they don’t rise,” Tara&Co CEO Julia Lam told TechCrunch. “I don’t think that’s true.”

As an example, Lam noted the recent launch of Female Founder Office Hours, led by Sequoia Capital’s Jess Lee and other prominent female VCs in tech.

“When you have women at the top, it trickles down,” Lam said.

With Shih, Spalding and Kozlowski on board, Lam hopes to further Tara&Co’s mission of building beautiful yet functional products for the professional woman.

“For any startup to be successful, you need the best team — both staff internally and advisors and mentors to help guide you along the way to help you focus and iterate on your product, and future business strategies,” Lam said. “People who have seen the problem before, and can point you in the right direction so when you see a challenge, you can more easily navigate it.”

Tara&Co’s goal is to “fuse fashion and function,” Lam said. All of the products are designed to be aesthetically appealing yet have lots of hidden and convertible functionality.

“The women we design for need to look good, but also seek practical accessories as they navigate their busy schedules and often switch from work to play.”

Tara&Co was totally bootstrapped through the research and development process. In June, the company completed a crowdfunding campaign that resulted in more than $110,000 in funding. Already, the company is generating revenue, mostly from its Tracy 2-in-1 bag, which is named after former Pinterest engineer and Project Include co-founder Tracy Chou.