Hayley Barna

Last updated
Hayley Barna
TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2016 - Day 1 (26885601526).jpg
Born1983
New York
Alma mater Harvard University and Harvard Business School
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur, investor
Website First Round

Hayley Barna is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist who co-founded Birchbox in 2009, while at Harvard Business School. [1] In 2015, Barna "stepped away from her day-to-day role" at Birchbox, [2] remaining a board member. In 2016, she became a partner of First Round Capital. [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Hayley Bay Barna was born in 1983. [4] Her parents, Eileen B. Maisel and Richard A. Barna of New York, both worked at RAB Lighting in New Jersey. [4] In high school, she was published in an international science research journal. [5] She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard [4] and has an MBA from Harvard Business School. [6] [7]

Career

Barna began her career shortly after she graduated from Harvard University joining Bain & Company in New York. [8] She moved to Christie's Hong Kong location where she worked in strategy and then in product management for Amazon.com. [9]

Birchbox

While working towards her MBA at Harvard Business School, Barna became friends with Katia Beauchamp. Together, they founded the company Birchbox in 2010. [2] [6] What began as a business plan during B-School, turned into a website where they began to acquire customers interested in "an ecommerce experience focused on new product discovery." [10] In 2013, Barna and Beauchamp won the Leadership Award At Forbes Women's Summit. [11] Barna and Beauchamp opened the first Birchbox store in 2014. [12]

As of 2015, Birchbox had received over $70 million in venture funding and had one million subscribers. [13] In August 2015, [14] Barna stepped down from her role as co-CEO of the company. [2] [15] [16] She remained a member of the board, and she spent the subsequent six months as an angel investor. [14] [17]

First round

In 2016, after announcing it in February, [18] Barna joined First Round Capital as a venture partner. [14] On February 16, 2016, Barna shared a post on publishing platform medium.com about her first day at First Round stating, "I can’t think of a better place to do this than First Round, which led the seed round in my company Birchbox, and has always put founders first through good times and bad." [19] She was their first female partner. [20] [3] One of her first initial First Round investments was the travel startup Collective Hotels & Retreats, with her also joining the board. [21]

By late 2017, she largely focused on e-commerce startups. [17] She was on the boards of Madison Reed and RAB Lighting. [17] She was also organizing a working group of women in technology in New York with monthly meetings. [22] Also in late 2017, she was promoted to general partner. At that point, she had invested in companies such as Collective Retreats, Keeps, CrowdJustice, and Mirror. [14]

Personal life

Barna is based in Manhattan, [23] New York. [17] While at Harvard Business School, she met her husband, Fredrik Vik Maroe. They wed in 2014, at a private estate located in Staatsburg, New York. [4]

References

  1. Bosker, Bianca (25 March 2012). "Executive Tech Editor". www.huffingtonpost.com. Huffington Post. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 "Birchbox co-CEO Hayley Barna steps down". Fortune. 2015-08-11. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
  3. 1 2 Rey, Jason Del (2016-02-16). "Birchbox Co-Founder Hayley Barna Joins First Round Capital as First Female Partner". Recode. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Hayley Barna, Fredrik Maroe". The New York Times . July 20, 2014.
  5. Cotton Delo. "Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna". AdAge .
  6. 1 2 "Hayley Barna, founder Birchbox - stagiworks.com". www.stagiworks.com. Retrieved 2016-11-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. "Hayley Bay Barna". Society for Science. Retrieved 2025-07-30.
  8. "Hayley Barna". www.bain.com. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
  9. "Hayley Barna - Claudia Chan". Claudia Chan. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
  10. "How I Did It: Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna, Founders of Birchbox - Maria Shriver". mariashriver.com. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
  11. "Birchbox Cofounders Win Leadership Award At Forbes Women's Summit". Forbes . May 9, 2013.
  12. "BIRCHBOX LAUNCHES ITS FIRST PERMANENT BRICK-AND-MORTAR STORE". Fashionista . July 11, 2014.
  13. Chhabra, Esha. "Key To Success: Beauty Box Company Birchbox Says It's Not Just About The Box". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-01-24.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Polina Marinova (April 25, 2018). "BirchBox CEO-Turned-Investor Hayley Barna Discusses Top Founder Mistakes". Fortune .
  15. Laura Entis (August 11, 2015). "Hayley Barna Steps Down as Co-CEO of Birchbox". Entrepreneur .
  16. "Birchbox Finds Cute Boxes Filled With Makeup Aren't Enough". Bloomberg.com. 2016-06-03. Retrieved 2017-01-24.
  17. 1 2 3 4 Connie Loizos (November 7, 2017). "Hayley Barna just became the first female GP in First Round's history". TechCrunch .
  18. Zoe Henry (May 9, 2016). "Birchbox Co-Founder Hayley Barna: 'I Have a Few More Businesses in Me'". Inc.com.
  19. Round, First (2016-02-16). "It's My First Day at First Round". Medium. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
  20. "Birchbox Co-Founder Hayley Barna Joins First Round Capital". Fortune . February 16, 2016.
  21. "Birchbox Cofounder Hayley Barna On New Ventures, Glamping, And Her Filthy Fridge". Fast Company . September 12, 2016.
  22. Clare O'Connor (November 7, 2017). "In New York VC, Two Women Make History As First Female General Partners". Forbes .
  23. Kathryn Hopkins (October 13, 2017). "EXCLUSIVE: Birchbox Cofounder Buys $14M Manhattan Condo". WWD .