She’s hot. She’s smart. She’s rich.
That much we know.
But the magnetic allure of Maggie Sellers? That is a more subtle yet complex answer to pinpoint.
First, there is her beauty which is just as striking in person as it is behind a camera. Then there is the effortless energy she exudes on TikTok that we all admire; as if creating content was a graceful yet dramatic ballet that she has mastered. And, of course, you can’t forget the valiant factor that she is disrupting and standing up for women in business with the smarts and expertise that outlive the boundaries of our own knowledge.
But there is…something else.
As I sit on her sprawling white couch in the middle of her bright and roomy Beverly Hills apartment, I look at the woman who we all desperately want to be like (there, I said it) wondering what it is beyond the hotness, the smartness, the richness that truly expands and moves the busy life that belongs to Maggie Sellers.
You see, we all know the story: Maggie Sellers immigrated here from Canada, called off her engagement, spent months in a chamber of self-discovery, soared in numbers on TikTok, released an old skin and stepped into a hotter, smarter, richer version of herself, grew a holy grail newsletter, traveled the world, entered into the healthiest relationship she has ever been in, and has been fighting to make investment dollars more accessible to female founders since, as she will repeat over and over again until every single one of us knows the stat, “82% of consumer spend is controlled by women but women-owned businesses only receive 2% in venture capital dollars.”
That is the story of Hot Smart Rich: the Maggie who was creating such an impact in the business world that she decided to show her face and document it along the way online; being the face for a brand that is separate from her because, as she so deliciously says, “I love liquidity.”
But then there is another Maggie. A Maggie who bets on herself time and time again, who walks away from security in pursuit of her alignment, who is, at this point, offended by the backhanded compliments of people being surprised at how smart she is (“I thought you were just a model” is one she gets often), who is tired of being underestimated, who is shocked at just how often she is misunderstood.
I wanted to get to know that Maggie.
When I walk into her apartment, I am first taken aback by how much it exudes the essence of a home: a large kitchen, expansive living room, and a vast rectangular window that bathes the space with bright light.
She is wearing…
Paige jeans; “My absolute favorite pair.”
An Allara sweater; “Because it’s a deal I am so proud of.”
Bala bangles; “Because I have been too busy this week to work out.”
A white sapphire lab grown necklace; “Because I never take it off.”
And, she points out; “I didn’t even put on earrings or rings today.”
She gives me the home tour. We start in her spare bedroom.
“This is like my dumping ground,” she says of the space. “I just got back from Nashville. I have the LACMA gala on Saturday night and then I am going to India on Sunday. So, my life is chaotic.”
My favorite part of her master bedroom is that she has two coat racks with a selection of clothes; “This is what I wear in rotation so it’s easy.”
I ask her how often she switches out the line-up of clothing.
“Each season,” she responds. I take notes.
We then make our way to her large white couch and we get to talking – about being hot, about being smart, about being rich, about being unapologetically yourself.
I ask her if she is surprised that she is a content creator.
“Yes and no,” she says. She tells me stories of her musical theater days as a kid but lands on the fundamental reason why she loves doing what she does.
“I always loved making other people feel good,” she says. “The biggest compliment people give me is, ‘Usually when I leave you, I feel better than when I came.’ And so I think that’s part of content creation, right? I have always inherently loved performing. I loved making people feel good. I loved building community.”
And building community is what Maggie Sellers does best. With over 150k followers on TikTok, a newsletter in the tens of thousands, an engagement rate on social media that would make any social media manager’s mouth drop, a merch line that sells out time and time again, and a NUDESTIX collab, and a podcast, one might forget that Maggie does more than create content for a digital community.
She is also an angel investor, the founder of Hot Smart Rich Media, a digital media company that empowers startup founders, investors, creators, operators and other aspiring knowledge workers with real business insights by cutting out the boys club bullshit and getting real about what it takes for women to dominate in a man’s world, and the co-founder of HSR Ventures, an early-stage consumer syndicate that invests $150K-$500K into some of the fastest growing consumer products, services and technology including De Soi, Sydecar, Mixlab, and Ohza.
“People hate happy, successful, and confident women,” Maggie declares with an air of assurance. “I’m one of those people where you’re either gonna like me or you’re not.”
The brand of Hot Smart Rich might stop you in your tracks, disrupting your idea of what a woman is allowed to say, be, and exude, but one thing is clear about Maggie’s content. She isn’t here to be an authority.
“I try not to do things from a position of, ‘Here’s what you should do,’” she explains. It’s the reason she doesn’t do advice question boxes on social media; “Once you put yourself in the position of a guru, it is very hard to be learning with your audience.”
In that sense, when you inevitably fall in love with Maggie, you feel like you are learning, growing, and evolving with her.
I ask her what her definition of success would be for Hot Smart Rich ten years into the future since, as she points out multiple times during our time together; “It’s not about me. It’s about the impact.”
She says, “It would look like the two percent [of capital going to female founders] goes to five. That hasn’t changed in 15 years. So if I could help change that number, that’s success.”
But when I ask why she is ambitious, why she is so driven, and what lies beneath the outward facing mission of female empowerment in business, I get a different answer. An answer that unravels itself. An answer that seems to be a spider web with no shortage of surface area to cover. An answer that illuminates the match that lit this burning fire that lives within.
“I think the biggest theme is that my whole life – and it happened last week – everybody has always underestimated me or misjudged me,” she reveals. “Everybody has always just been like, ‘You’re really pretty.’ When you hear that as the only compliment that you get growing up, it kind of hurts after a while. I would be a fucking billionaire if I could tell you the amount of times people have been like ‘I totally misjudged you, I thought you were gonna be a huge bitch, I thought you were gonna be really stupid and like you’re actually really smart, you have insightful things to say and you’re actually really kind.’ Like it hurts after a while.”
I sit there and listen to her unpack every comment she has ever received that has left a scarring mark on her. I sit there and listen to her recall the details of being sexually assaulted at one of her first jobs right out of college. I sit there and listen to her go through the comments that VC bros have thrown at her, undermining her intelligence and decade worth of experience.
As she comes up for air, I ask her, “Do you think HSR is a little bit of you coming forward and saying what your worth is before someone can tell you what they think it is?”
She immediately answers, “Totally. Totally. In some weird way, I feel like that’s me taking my power back from everybody.”
Chills fly up and down my spine. I have tears in my eyes. There is nothing more powerful than watching a woman take her power back…and within that sacred and momentous transformation, take every woman along the path with her as well.
That is the magnetic allure of Maggie Sellers. She isn’t just here to be unapologetically herself; Maggie Sellers is here so that you can be unapologetically yourself.
The richest, the hottest, the smartest version of yourself.
WRITTEN BY GABRIELLE SCOUT