Boomerang chief executives keep coming in swinging. Coined as the label for executives returning to companies they departed or were removed from, the cohort of prominent tech and media comebacks recently grew with Bob Iger and Sam Altman.

On Feb. 23, the founder of local female-founder media company Create & Cultivate announced she had bought back the company three years after cashing in $22 million for her majority stake. 

Jaclyn Johnson struck a deal with her company’s former buyer, the Brentwood-based private equity firm Corridor Capital, and brought on a new chief executive to take back majority ownership at a slashed $8 million valuation, according to a Forbes estimate.

Her new business partner, Marina Middleton, now owns an equal stake in the startup. After packing up the office space financed by Corridor, Create & Cultivate’s new leadership believes they can more than make up for lost value.

“Our ambitions are big; we want to build this into a $1 billion brand,” Johnson said.

The former media company

In 2020, Chinatown-based Create & Cultivate was riding high, and Johnson was well poised to sell the company.

Create & Cultivate grew to become a multihyphenate media and events hub for women entrepreneurs, and generated $5 million in the first quarter of that year through sponsorships and participant sales. 

Set up at the downtown Rolling Greens event center, its “LA 2020” conference saw celebrity business owners like Jessica Simpson and Eva Mendes grace a Mastercard-sponsored stage, while brand activations ranging from LaCroix to Facebook Messenger filled attendees’ tchotchke bags. 

It was all imagined out of a two-story, 5,000-square-foot office space in Chinatown, where millennial-pink hues and exposed wood beams earned a feature in Dwell Magazine. 

For a company built for, well, brand building, Create & Cultivate itself amassed a substantial following.

“It was gangbusters success,” Johnson said. “We were the largest media company for female entrepreneurs and small-business owners.”

Johnson started Create & Cultivate in 2011 as a 22-year-old entrepreneur looking for a community. Her first event attracted 25 attendees to a conference room at the Ace Hotel downtown. Nine years later, ‘LA 200’ marked the company’s largest conference; it had 2,000 attendees, growing substantially from its bootstrapped roots and hitting a niche with a growing number of women founders coming in the fold.

Even after the Covid-19 pandemic forced the company to transition to online events, Create & Cultivate’s digital accessibility only broadened its attendee base. According to Johnson, 50,000 people joined monthly summits and virtual events, which propelled the company to profitability.

This caught the eye of Corridor Capital, which ultimately acquired a $22 million majority stake in March 2021.

After the private equity takeover, Create & Cultivate struggled to transition the digital event value back to in-person events coming out of the pandemic. Last year the company reported $5 million in revenue total. 

Now back at the helm, Johnson is bullish on experiential demand.

“I think people are hungrier than ever to be in person,” Johnson said. “The caveat (is) they are looking and investing in events where they can upskill and learn,”

New offerings for next-gen founders

Johnson and Middleton have mapped out events into next year that dwarf the L.A. 2020 event peak.

A multiday festival in Los Angeles is slated for the summer of next year, which Middleton frames as the “Coachella for career women.” After becoming a serial Create & Cultivate event attendee in 2021, Middleton says her value in the partnership comes in knowing the consumer the company can reach, and betting on more women seeking connection to validate and grow their ventures.

“We’re very clear on who we want to help, and we truly see that there’s a huge runway,” Middleton said.

More women are representing startup founders coming out of the pandemic. According to a survey of U.S. entrepreneurs by the human resources software outfit Gusto, 47% of new business owners were women in 2022 – a significant increase from the 28% reported in 2018.

As the onramp to small-business ownership becomes more crowded, Create & Cultivate aims to pivot its educational offerings from startup tips. Johnson wants to attract seasoned entrepreneurs looking for guidance on their businesses’ runway.

“We’re really focusing on the lifecycle of a female entrepreneur,” Johnson said. “Talking about exits and fundraising and everything from launch to legacy is our new curated programing.”  

Create & Cultivate’s relaunch is starting as a remote operation, but the newly minted co-chief executives plan to have a physical Los Angeles office as well. Right now, the team consists of fewer than 10 people, but the company plans to grow to between 20 and 30 employees by the end of this year. 

When asked about Johnson’s readoption and Middleton’s appointment to the company, both dismissed the nerves or stress that may come with a brand relaunch. 

For Johnson specifically, a return underwrites responsibility beyond the current 1 million customers, but a need to top what she peaked past her previous sale.

“You don’t want to do things the exact same way you did them before,” Johnson said. “We’re thrilled to come out swinging. So I would say nothing keeps me up at night yet, but maybe soon.”