Cardi B, Alix Earle and 4,000 ticketed guests will descend on the grounds of an undisclosed Los Angeles venue in mid-September to attend a festival dubbed the "Coachella for career women."
Create & Cultivate has long attracted the biggest names in business – Kim and Kourtney Kardashian, Jessica Simpson and Martha Stewart among them – by blending industry and A-list fame.
In September, the festival will welcome its largest crowd since its first event in 2012, doubling last year's number of attendees by 2,000 people. The company's banner year comes as women find greater opportunities in business but still face significant obstacles to success including difficulty securing adequate financing and familial demands that complicate many of their careers.
Through there have been smaller gatherings in between, this year will be only the second Create & Cultivate festival since the company started in 2012. And one-time attendee, Marina Middleton, will mark her second year as company CEO.
"My job is to make events that truly changes people's lives and make them feel something," Middleton, 35, told USA TODAY, as opposed to a typical business conference in a center.
Biggest festival yet
Women own over 40% of U.S. businesses, according to a Wells Fargo report this year, and their entrepreneurship has grown at a faster pace than male-owned businesses. But women face key barriers to capital access and encounter other constraints because of caregiving.
In 2021, Create & Cultivate's founder Jaclyn Johnson decided to sell her brand because she says she bootstrapped the company for nearly a decade while "carrying so much of the risk personally," she told USA TODAY.
She still believed in the company, Johnson said, but she thought a private equity firm, Corridor Capital, would have the funds to bring the business bigger opportunities. "We had built a profitable, eight-figure business, and I had reached a moment where taking some chips off the table felt both smart and earned," Johnson said.
Then, in December 2023, Johnson and Middleton bought C&C back after hearing whispers that Corridor might want to sell the brand.
Now Create & Cultivate is hosting its biggest festival lineup yet: its 2026 headliners include Earle, Good American co-founder Emma Grede, Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, Olandria Carthen of Peacock's "Love Island" and a performance by Cardi B.
It is not a conference, Johnson and Middleton say. "We somehow have been able to create this large-scale event to make it feel very personal, to make it feel like it is created just for one individual," Middleton said.
'OK, now what?'
Middleton was born in Egypt and immigrated to the United States at age 8. She became a single mom at 23 and later worked in marketing roles at Yahoo and its news offshoot, as well as Tumblr.
In October 2021, Middleton, a self-described "terrible" networker, now based in Massachusetts, attended her first Create & Cultivate festival in New York.
Later, she sent an Instagram message to Johnson about developing a business mastermind, a peer mentorship group. The duo developed The Blueprint Mastermind in July 2023 with Alli Webb, who co-created DryBar hair salons.
That same year, Johnson wanted to buy back Create & Cultivate from Corridor Capital with Middleton. The pair, who together co-host a podcast called "Work Party," bought the business back in an asset sale, where buyers can pick and choose what parts of a company they purchase, according to CEO expert Ann Mooney Murphy.
Murphy, a business professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology, noted that the private equity company was obviously attracted to the company but lacked the "special sauce" of Johnson. Middleton said the sale was a unique opportunity because it is uncommon for legacy businesses to participate in asset sales.
"I remember the deal closed and it was literally Jaclyn and I and a folder of emails and we were like, 'OK, now what?'" Middleton recalled.
'I don't care how famous you are': How Create & Cultivate selects stars
They hired a new team and started from scratch, according to Middleton. She compared the potential of Create and Cultivate to Cannes Lions, an annual French advertising and marketing festival that celebrates creativity. Then, they set their sights even bigger – Middleton wanted to create the world's largest festival for women in business.
Last year marked one of the festival's most star-studded lineups. Ciara, Nastia Liukin, Brittany Snow, Normani, Ayesha Curry, Jeannie Mai, Kamie Crawford, Emma Hernan of "Selling Sunset" and tennis star Sloane Stephens all appeared.
Sophia Bush as well as WNBA All-Star Chiney Ogwumike, Olympic gold medalist Jordan Chiles, Disney star Ashley Tisdale and fashion designer Kristin Juszczyk also dotted the lineup. Doechii performed, fresh off a historic best rap album win. While marquee names attract audiences, Middleton said the company also searches for speakers who have new, candid information that impacts festivalgoers.
"I don't care how famous you are if you are not breaking down ... the reality of what it takes to build," Middleton said.
Ché Elizaga Castro, a video creator based in San Diego, plans to attend her third Create & Cultivate festival Sept. 19-20. Castro's first event, like Middleton, was in New York and she said she attends the festival for fellowship with other women.
"Last year when I went, I went to see my cousins in L.A., and they were appalled they weren't invited to something like this because they all work in government and business," Castro said.
Creating a culture
In addition to Earle, Grede, and Cardi, this year's roster will feature podcaster Les Alfred, CultureCon creator Imani Ellis, and "Selling Sunset" star Chrishell Stause. A couple of Middleton's dream guests however will not be in attendance: former first lady Michelle Obama and media mogul Oprah Winfrey.
"I think both of them have completely reinvented how they show up in public and both of them have ... evolved with the times and evolved with the seasons that they've been in," Middleton said.
This year's sessions include "Ask a Negotiation Expert: What You're Leaving on the Table and How to Stop;" "My ADHD Built This: A Workshop for Founders Whose Brains Won't Slow Down;" and a flash tattoo parlor for VIP ticketholders.
Through the Create & Cultivate's Connect program, attendees can use a data-driven, AI-powered matchmaking program that pairs festivalgoers with their interests and goals. Guests can pre-schedule up to 20 one-on-one business meetings for hiring, networking, fundraising and mentorship purposes. The gatherings are double opt-in so both participants consent to meet-ups.
The speaker lineup transcends geographical and racial lines and encompasses different skin tones and body types. "As a brown girl, it is so unbelievably important that we have diversity on all of our stages and our content because imagine a girl just seeing that and not seeing herself," Middleton said.
And five years after her first Create & Cultivate, Middelton is CEO.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cardi B, Alix Earle and more meet at the 'Coachella for career women'
