How To Make It In Business, The Millennial (Pink) Way

In the airy auditorium of a massive industrial space in downtown L.A., Kim Kardashian West lays out her approach to entrepreneurship to an audience of around 1,500 young women. Attendees, who moments earlier were knocking over chairs to get as close as possible to the stage and frantically posting on social media, are captivated. “I put in the work,” Kardashian West says. “There’s nothing that bothers me more than people that are lazy.

- Rina Raphael

The crowd erupts into cheers. “She’s everything,” gushes an ombré-haired audience member. As Kardashian West waves farewell, confetti falls from the ceiling and audience members wave cocktails in the air excitedly. Some dance in the aisles.

Welcome to Create & Cultivate, a one-day summit of female entrepreneurship that founder Jaclyn Johnson describes as a “work party.” The event, which has cropped ​up in nearly a dozen cities, including Atlanta and Seattle, over the past few years, showcases celebrity speakers (Lauren Conrad, Chrissy Teigen) alongside CEOs and venture capitalists. It features mentoring sessions and pop-up markets with makeup bars and ear-piercing services. Networking events, fueled by kombucha, are held against Instagram-ready backdrops of living walls and glittery feminist quotations. And with tickets priced between $350 and $550, no corporate expense account is required.