Sali Christeson, Founder of Argent
Name: Sali Christeson
Founder: Argent
Who is Sali Christeson?
Sali Christeson is the Founder and CEO of Argent, a venture-backed women’s workwear label that promotes gender equality in the workplace through clothing and is redefining suiting for modern women. A business major with an MBA from the University of South Carolina, Sali spent a decade in the Bay Area's finance and technology scene, where she struggled to find clothes that were bold, practical, and professional. After reading hard statistics that women in the workplace are judged on appearance, with a tangible impact on their careers over time, Sali decided to start Argent in 2016.
In less than three sentences tell us about your company and what you do.
At Argent, our vision is to arm women with a wardrobe that delivers style, functionality, and selfexpression as they take their seat at the table. We’re on a mission to upgrade the working woman’s wardrobe and help them navigate their busy, hybrid lives.
Through confident clothes and an inspiring community, we’re creating a movement that’s all about self-expression in and out of the workplace, versatility as a power move, and radical equality when it comes to paychecks, pockets, and everything in between.
What does BEING a FoundHer mean to you?
Being a FoundHer means supporting other women and female entrepreneurs, spotlighting all of their amazing work, and leveraging Argent to elevate professional women and connect them with tools to optimally navigate their careers.
How do you support other female founders and women in business?
At Argent, we have several opportunities for networking events and community gatherings, such as book launches and fireside chats. We especially love to host at our NYC store in SoHo.
One of our recurring campaigns is a series called “Work Friends,” which features all of the trailblazing women who bring Argent to life—in front of the camera, in boardrooms, across industries, and always while challenging the status quo.
At what point did you make your company a full time gig? How did you know the time was right?
Finding comfortable workwear that looked great was a pain point in my life. While I was working at Cisco back in 2014, I read a study that showed that women are judged based on appearance, and they quantified the impact of what you wear on your bottom line over your lifetime. Seeing that was really all I needed. I quit my job shortly after and decided to start Argent. I knew it was the right time because my peers across all industries were experiencing the same struggles. For too long, workwear for women has been stagnant, constricting, and lacking key functional elements as simple as pockets - Argent is changing that.
What lesson or skill did you take with you from a prior job to help you succeed in your role today?
The power of negotiating and fighting for pay transparency. I think it’s important to understand and recognize that women and men can have very different experiences in the same exact situation. Although women are being told to ask for more, they don't always have advocates in the room, and they tend to receive way more pushback than their male counterparts. It should be everyone's role to try to support women and ensure that they get equal compensation and treatment. Having this conversation and raising awareness about pay disparity is a really powerful step forward in implementing change. As the founder and CEO of Argent, a women’s workwear brand, everything that I do today is a negotiation. I'm constantly trying to convince people to invest, join our team, or come on board as a vendor. As an entrepreneur, you have to be a master negotiator. It starts with just an idea, and you convince the people that it's the best and that you're about to do something huge.
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