Courtney Caldwell is the Cofounder & CEO of beauty-tech startup, ShearShare, the largest provider of on-demand salon and barbershop space rentals and the most affordable leases in the market. The ShearShare app gives licensed beauty and barbering professionals the freedom and flexibility to rent workspace by the day in cities all over the world, while salon and barbershop owners make money on unused space.
Prior to co-founding ShearShare, Inc., a 2022 Fast Company World-Changing Ideas App, Google Demo Day winner 2018, Tech. Co’s Startup of the Year, and a YC Fellowship and 500 Startups alum, Courtney managed an award-winning salon with her husband and cofounder, which was the genesis behind ShearShare. Before that, Courtney ran a boutique consulting firm where she fast-tracked international sales and marketing success for brands such as Zendesk, Zenefits, and Qualtrics.
Courtney spent two decades building winning teams in tech marketing and has held leadership positions in both early-stage and late-stage technology organizations: vice president of marketing for Marketing Advocate, global director of Oracle’s worldwide digital marketing strategy and innovations group, head of digital demand generation and JAPAC field marketing at RightNow Technologies. Her leadership in demand and revenue generation at RightNow Technologies was instrumental in the $1.45B acquisition of the company.
Courtney received an honorary doctorate degree from Miracle University and is the 33rd African-American female to raise $1 million in venture funding. She was named a 2022 Hype Hair magazine 30 for 30, first African-American female to be inducted into the 2021 Texas Military Institute Hall of Fame, Inc. magazine 2019 Female Founders 100 list, is the first African-American female to be named the SMU Cox School of Business Outstanding Young Alumna, the 2019 Ada Lovelace Female Tech Founder of the Year, is a 2018 Dallas Business Journal Women in Technology, and the 2017 L’Oreal Women in Digital NEXT Generation Award winner. Courtney has her BBA in Honors Marketing from Southern Methodist University and an MBA in Marketing from the University of Texas at Dallas.
She volunteers with various children’s, education, and civic organizations, and serves on the Advisory Board for Ogle Cosmetology School, the Alumni Board for Southern Methodist University, the President’s Council at SMU, the Board of Trustees for Texas Military Institute, and the Board of Directors for the UT-Dallas Entrepreneurship Council.
Courtney relocated from McKinney, Texas, to Buffalo, New York, with her cofounder husband, Dr. Tye Caldwell, and is mom to their 22-year-old son, Trey, a senior cadet and football player at the United States Air Force Academy. Courtney recently summited Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa, in seven days.
Speaking Topics -
Future of Work: The Experience Economy
- The “Silver Rule”: How to Build & Manage Successful Remote Teams
- Digital Marketing: How to Take Digital Deman Generations by the Horns & Win
- The Riches are the Niches: How Solving Your Own Problem Leads to New Innovation
Unlimited Leadership: How Working in Full-Time Ministry and Being an Army Brat Prepared Me for Entrepreneurship
- Local Startup Ecosystems: How to Build a Tech Startup Outside Siicon Valley
Black Women in Tech: Managing Mental Health as a Female Founder
"My team and I are beyond happy that we chose Courtney as our speaker for our Black HERstory month event! From the second we jumped onto our pre-event call, Courtney was so friendly and truly eager to help us achieve our goals. She really took the time to get to know our organization and ensure she had the impact we were looking for. On the day of, Courtney arrived early to ensure that everything was setup properly to deliver a great experience. Her content was informative, and our team truly enjoyed listening to all her stories. We received incredible feedback about our event and how grateful our team was to welcome Courtney for that time. We really appreciated Courtney’s willingness to answer all our questions, her bright and bubbly personality, her incredible insight, and the advice she left our team with at the end of our call. I would highly recommend choosing Courtney as your next speaker!"
"My team and I are beyond happy that we chose Courtney as our speaker for our Black HERstory month event! From the second we jumped onto our pre-event call, Courtney was so friendly and truly eager to help us achieve our goals. She really took the time to get to know our organization and ensure she had the impact we were looking for. On the day of, Courtney arrived early to ensure that everything was setup properly to deliver a great experience. Her content was informative, and our team truly enjoyed listening to all her stories. We received incredible feedback about our event and how grateful our team was to welcome Courtney for that time. We really appreciated Courtney’s willingness to answer all our questions, her bright and bubbly personality, her incredible insight, and the advice she left our team with at the end of our call. I would highly recommend choosing Courtney as your next speaker!"