Mogul featured in Forbes' ‘30 Under 30′ denied bonuses to workers while flaunting $5K Chanel rollerblades: report
Daniella Pierson, who turned 30 last Monday, rose to prominence with a women-focused lifestyle newsletter, The Newsette, that she launched while attending Boston University in 2015.
Her entrepreneurial hustle landed her on Forbes' '30 under 30' list of notable media figures in 2020 — helping her rub shoulders with A-lister Selena Gomez, pop singer Jewel and designer Diane Von Furstenberg, according to Forbes.
5 Daniella Pierson, once hailed by Forbes as one of America's richest self-made women, is facing claims she exaggerated her business success and lavishly spent on luxuries while denying employee bonuses.
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The next year, investor Peter Rahal took a 1.25% stake in her budding media company at a valuation of $200 million.
But Pierson's self-made image has become bruised by constant exaggerations that call into question her business acumen, according to more than a dozen sources who spoke to Forbes.
She has admitted to using fake email accounts to make her one-woman startup look bigger, inflating subscriptions by double-counting readers and boasting that brands like Nike spent 'tens of millions' a year with her when no deal ever topped $1 million, the outlet reported.
The report described Pierson as an effective self-promoter — earning a reputation as a rising star in women's entrepreneurship by cultivating celebrity friendships, landing magazine covers and touting her companies as booming successes.
Behind the scenes, however, former colleagues and business records cited by Forbes suggest a pattern of overstatement, misrepresentation, and high-profile ventures that have either faltered or collapsed.
Multiple ex-employees told Forbes that Pierson denied staff their annual bonuses and, minutes later, posted Instagram Stories flaunting new Chanel rollerblades and a marble kitchen remodel for her apartment in Soho— a jarring look for someone branding herself as a champion of women.
5 Pierson built a high-profile brand through celebrity connections and aggressive self-promotion. She is seen left with singer Jewel.
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Former staff told Forbes that The Newsette's workforce is down to roughly a quarter of its peak, and revenue has dropped from the $40 million she claimed in 2021 to under $4 million in recent years.
Pierson had followed the success of Newsette with the launch of Wondermind, a mental health startup she co-founded Gomez and the singer's mother, Mandy Teefey, in 2021.
She was forced out of Wondermind last year after clashing with her co-CEO, according to the Forbes report.
Pierson's own account of The Newsette's origins includes embellishment, Forbes reported.
In a Stanford Graduate School of Business talk, she described creating fake email accounts to give the impression of a bigger staff and posing as an intern to recruit subscribers.
Pierson also managed to leverage her personal ties with Furstenberg, her 'fairy godmother,' who introduced her to several connections at Amazon, including company founder Jeff Bezos.
'I have known Daniella for years. Her drive is impressive and I am fond of her. My relationship with her is more personal than business,' von Furstenberg told The Post.
Pierson was able to parlay her newfound ties to Amazon into a marketing campaign in which the e-commerce giant featured female founders on its homepage to mark International Women's Day.
5 A screenshot of The Newsette's homepage, the women-focused lifestyle newsletter Pierson launched in 2015 that Forbes says inflated subscriber counts and brand deal values.
Amazon also became one of the first and largest clients of Newland, Pierson's marketing agency, a partnership which earned The Newsette Media Group tens of millions in sales.
By 2021, company sales totaled $34 million, according to internal documents — less than Pierson's repeated public claims but still the most it had ever made.
That year, she secured investment from Rahal, founder of RXBar, who took a stake in her company without reportedly looking at its finances.
The $200 million valuation translated into an estimated personal stake for Pierson worth nearly $170 million. When combined with her Wondermind shares and other assets, Forbes listed her as worth $220 million in 2021.
Shortly after the deal, the company's main revenue source — Newland's marketing work for Amazon and Mattel — began to crumble.
Both clients ended their relationships, and by the end of 2023, Newland had been shut down, though Pierson continued to present it as active, according to Forbes.
Former staff told the publication that she also misrepresented the scale of brand deals, telling clients companies like Nike and Ulta Beauty were spending tens of millions of dollars annually when no single contract topped $1 million.
Internal records from 2022 cited by Forbes show she overstated subscriber numbers as well. Last year, she claimed 1.3 million subscribers across three newsletters, without clarifying that many were duplicates.
Media valuation expert Kevin Kamen reviewed The Newsette's latest figures and social reach for Forbes and estimated it is now worth 'no more than $12.2 million.'
5 Pierson, photographed during her rise as a media entrepreneur, allegedly overstated The Newsette's size and client spending to bolster her image.
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At Wondermind, Pierson's co-leadership lasted about a year before she was pushed out, according to former staff.
Two-thirds of the 15-person team were later laid off, Forbes reported.
Ex-employees from both companies describe her management style as volatile, with frequent outbursts, micromanaging and public criticism of staff work, according to the Forbes report.
Several recalled her denying annual bonuses shortly before posting on Instagram about luxury purchases.
The Post has sought comment from Pierson, Gomez and Teefey. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment.
In 2023, Pierson nearly became part of an even bigger headline — the potential sale of Forbes Media.
Luminar Technologies CEO Austin Russell led a bid to acquire the outlet, and Pierson was slated to join the board, according to Forbes.
Investor calls during fundraising drew mixed reactions, with some participants questioning her involvement.
5 Pierson, 30, is reported to have denied bonuses before showcasing a $5,000 pair of Chanel rollerblades and a marble kitchen on Instagram.
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She took charge of public relations, issuing a press release that announced an 'oversubscribed' deal and included a composite group photo positioning her at the center.
The acquisition collapsed two months later, but Pierson continued to list herself online as a Forbes board member until her agency removed the claim this month, according to the report.
As Forbes prepared to publish its investigation over the weekend, Pierson posted on Instagram accusing unnamed parties of a 'smear campaign' against her and her companies, vowing to continue investing 'millions of my own dollars into helping women.'
Rahal now interacts with her ventures only sparingly. Earlier this year, he responded to one of her LinkedIn announcements with a single clown emoji.
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