Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
While Haney’s story involves no fraud, John Carreyrou’s masterful account of Elizabeth Holmes and the Theranos implosion is required reading for understanding the 2010s startup climate. It details the intoxicating power of a charismatic young founder
with a revolutionary idea, and the immense pressure from venture capitalists to maintain a growth-at-all-costs narrative. Haney, like Holmes, was lauded as the next visionary, a female founder disrupting a staid industry. Reading Bad Blood provides a chilling look at how quickly a celebrated founder's story can unravel when the narrative diverges from reality, a theme that echoes in the later chapters of Haney’s first tenure at Outdoor Voices.
Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener
To understand the world that Haney and Outdoor Voices were born into, you need to read Anna Wiener’s memoir of her time in Silicon Valley. Wiener left a low-paying publishing job for the promise of the tech gold rush, and her book perfectly captures the strange, insular, and often toxic culture of startups during their hyper-growth phase. It’s a brilliant field guide to the jargon, the questionable ethics, and the unique blend of idealism and ambition that defined the era. This is the environment that funded and fueled direct-to-consumer brands like Outdoor Voices, making Uncanny Valley an essential cultural snapshot of the world that both built Haney up and created the conditions for her struggles.
Self Care by Leigh Stein
This satirical novel is a must-read for anyone fascinated by the intersection of wellness, social media, and commerce—the exact space Outdoor Voices dominated. The book follows the co-founders of a wellness startup called Richual, lampooning the commodification of self-care and the pressures faced by female founders. It explores the tightrope walk of maintaining an authentic, mission-driven brand while chasing venture capital and dealing with PR crises. The fictional story mirrors real-world headlines, offering a sharp, humorous, and often uncomfortably accurate look at the culture of the “girlboss” and the challenges of running a female-centric business in the public eye.
#GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso
To understand the archetype Haney was often compared to, it’s worth visiting the text that started it all. Sophia Amoruso's 2014 book was more than a memoir; it was a manifesto for a generation of female entrepreneurs. It celebrated a specific brand of scrappy, rule-breaking ambition that defined the era. The term “girlboss” would later become fraught with criticism for its individualistic and often exclusionary brand of feminism. Reading it now provides powerful context for the cultural movement that initially championed founders like Haney, and whose subsequent backlash coincided with the challenges she faced at Outdoor Voices. It’s a time capsule of a particular moment in female entrepreneurship.
Valley Girls by Kelley Steven-Waiss
This non-fiction book offers a practical and inspiring look at the realities facing female founders, especially when it comes to raising capital. The author, a former CHRO who became a founder herself, shares her own story alongside those of a dozen other women who navigated the venture capital landscape. The book details the unique biases and obstacles women encounter when pitching their ideas and scaling their companies. For anyone wanting to understand the structural challenges that likely played a role in the Outdoor Voices boardroom drama, Valley Girls provides a clear-eyed view from the trenches, celebrating the resilience required to succeed against the odds.
