Brit + Co Launches Selfmade Season Three in Collaboration with Office Depot and Block Advisors

The Online Startup School for Female Entrepreneurs is Enabling the Launch of Hundreds of New Female Founded Companies

SAN FRANCISCO & BOCA RATON, Fla. & KANSAS CITY, Mo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Brit + Co today announced that founding sponsor Office Depot will be joined by H&R Block’s Block Advisors to sponsor the third cohort of Selfmade, a 10-week virtual startup school for women. The course is hosted by Brit + Co founder Brit Morin and includes highly personalized skill development to enable each student to start or grow her own business.

To help drive educational change, Office Depot’s and Block Advisors’ sponsorships will enable 400 women to attend the course for free, focusing on women of color, women from underserved and underrepresented communities, and women in need of support to help them trailblaze.

“In a year where unemployment has reached new heights among women, more than 500 from diverse backgrounds made a decision to take a leap of faith and sign up for Selfmade,” said Morin. “With the tools we provided, the group and one-on-one coaching, and advice from our world class guest teachers, these women dreamt big, put ideas into motion and even started making money on their own terms,” Morin added. “I’ve been so impressed with everything our alumni have created and can’t wait to help thousands more just like them as we grow.”

As part of the curriculum, students will also hear from over a dozen other notable female founders, experts and investors who have signed on to help teach, including Gwyneth Paltrow (founder and CEO of Goop), Melissa Bernstein (co-founder and CCO of Melissa & Doug; founder of Lifelines.com), Mariam Naficy (founder and CEO of Minted), Joy Cho (founder and CEO of Oh Joy) and many more.

In addition to sponsoring 200 new scholarships, Office Depot will provide all participants with a Selfmade Welcome Kit complete with exclusive products and customer favorites and a Selfmade Workbook to help them focus on their passion and accomplish more in their business.

“Women who left the workforce last year and were drawn to entrepreneurship are still looking for the resources to start and grow their business,” said Wesley-Anne Brinkhurst, vice president of marketing for Office Depot. “We’re delighted to collaborate with Brit + Co again to provide Selfmade scholarships and the products and services needed to help even more women build the business of their dreams.”

Block Advisors will additionally lead a Selfmade class on small business taxes, sharing expertise and tips to help course participants meet their federal, state, and local tax obligations. This is just one of the services offered by Block Advisors, which supports small business owners so they can focus on what they love rather than taxes, bookkeeping, and payroll.

“We are excited for the opportunity to directly help hundreds of female entrepreneurs through this innovative program,” said Kathy Pickering, chief tax officer at H&R Block who will lead the Selfmade class on small business taxes. “Most small business owners start their business to pursue a passion, not to crunch numbers. Backed by our expertise in small business taxes, we can set these women up for success at tax time and beyond.”

Features and benefits of Selfmade include:

• 15+ hours of live instruction in all facets of how to start a company
• 1:1 coaching and group chats with like-minded entrepreneurs
• Customizable templates for P&Ls, pitch decks, marketing assets and more
• Access to world class experts in tech, finance, marketing, sales, and investing

Selfmade registration is currently open and class will kick off on Monday, March 1. For more information on Selfmade, visit www.TrySelfmade.com and to nominate yourself or someone you know for a scholarship, visit http://bit.ly/SMODScholarship.

About Brit + Co

Founded by Brit Morin, Brit + Co is on a mission to give women the courage and creativity to live life at their fullest potential. Through our inspirational content, educational online classes and useful products, she is enabled to shape her future. Over the past nine years, Brit + Co has become one of the largest digital brands for women, now reaching an engaged community of over 115 million monthly users across its website and platforms. It is a top 5 global publisher on Pinterest, has garnered over a billion video views and has produced more than 60,000 pieces of content. The brand extends offline as well, with permanent retail experiences, classes, events, and physical products sold at mass retail stores nationwide. Visit Brit.co for more information.

About Office Depot

Office Depot, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of The ODP Corporation (NASDAQ:ODP), a leading provider of business services, products and digital workplace technology solutions to small, medium and enterprise businesses. Through its banner brands Office Depot® and OfficeMax®, as well as others, the company offers its customers the tools and resources they need to focus on their passion of starting, growing and running their business through approximately 1,200 stores, an online presence and thousands of dedicated sales professionals. For more information, visit news.theodpcorp.com and follow @officedepot on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The ODP Corporation and Office Depot are trademarks of The Office Club, Inc. OfficeMax is a trademark of OMX,Inc. ©2020 Office Depot, LLC. All rights reserved. Any other product or company names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

About H&R Block

H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE: HRB) provides help and inspires confidence in its clients and communities everywhere through global tax preparation, financial products, and small business solutions. The company blends digital innovation with the human expertise and care of its associates and franchisees as it helps people get the best outcome at tax time, and better manage and access their money year-round. Through Block Advisors and Wave, the company helps small business owners thrive with disruptive products like Wave Money, a small business banking and bookkeeping solution, and the only business bank account to manage bookkeeping automatically. For more information, visit H&R Block News or follow @HRBlockNews on Twitter. Our small business tax professional certification is awarded by Block Advisors, a part of H&R Block, based upon successful completion of proprietary training.

Contacts

Julia Allison
Brit + Co
Press@brit.co

Danny Jovic
Office Depot
Danny.Jovic@officedepot.com

Angie Read
H&R Block
Angie.Read@hrblock.com