What I Learned Building a Female-Powered Company in a Male-Dominated Industry

By Gillian Harris I didn't set out to make a statement about women in business. First I was amazed at people ordering valet service for events at their HOUSE! Not a restaurant, hotel, hospital - their HOME! I'd lived in Los Angeles for just over 20 years and had never seen that! So that was the FIRST thing!

By the time I discovered at-your-house-valet in 2000, I also found one of the only all female valet companies operating in a sea dominated by men. Like the first time seeing female drummers, guitar and trombone players - my jaw dropped when I realized there was female operated valet. So in 2000 I started working in the valet industry at a female valet company I intended to buy. Plans change. On 03/03/2003, I opened Valet of the Dolls around a ridiculously simple truth: women could do this job—and do it exceptionally well. I already knew this from other examples.

There were two female valet companies before mine—one dating back to the 1970s and another to the 1980s. I was the youngest of the female valet company owners. I quickly became the largest. 

Twenty-three years later, I'm the last one standing.

The last one - unless I can find another amazing -ambitious and energetic - in it for the long haul owner to take Valet Of The Dolls into the future. I would love to see the company live into the future - after me...

What began as an unusual concept became a company that challenged assumptions before DEI was a corporate buzzword and before “female-powered” was something companies put in their marketing plans.

More than two decades later, the real story isn't that women can park cars. Of course they can. It's what happened when women were given an opportunity to redefine the experience itself. The Dolls brought competence, hustle, warmth, attention to detail, personality and hospitality to a job traditionally treated as a transaction: hand over your keys, get a ticket, retrieve your car. We discovered that valet could become part of the event experience—and our clients noticed. They noticed their guests noticing! They came back. They referred us. They remembered us. And with all of our clients, the history is deep...

What building Valet of the Dolls ultimately taught me is that breaking into a male-dominated industry isn't about proving women can imitate men. We don't need to imitate when our essence creates an even richer response and experience with hosts and their event attendants. Its an energy, a vibration. It's the peace of mind you get when you arrive at your destination and encounter a Valet Of The Dolls branded service has coordinated yet another perfectly hospitable female team of valets.  

And now, Valet of the Dolls is evolving again.

Private-event valet has always been a specialized little corner of a much larger parking industry, but today that circle is smaller still. Of more than a hundred valet companies operating across Los Angeles, only a small handful specialize in private events. There used to be more of us. Rising insurance costs and an increasingly challenging hospitality economy have made this business tougher to operate and tougher to survive. Clients are harder to come by than they once were, too, as hospitality and discretionary spending take a beating during this economic chapter.

So after 23 years inside this industry, I did what entrepreneurs are supposed to do when the landscape changes: I changed the landscape around me.

Valet of the Dolls moved to the center and became Valet of the Dolls Concierge—a one stop shop for anyone planning an event. Be connected with a curated network of select private-event valet operators but also many other features and services that may enhance your event.

Not every valet company is part of this network. The operators I work with are carefully selected and highly vetted. When you come through Valet of the Dolls Concierge, I connect you to a private-event valet operator I trust—and when you request a female team, that's where something exists that you're simply NOT going to find everywhere else. Not right now. 

We are still hiring, training and deploying real Dolls—seasoned female valets with the skill, polish and personality upon which this reputation was built. This isn't a female crew hastily assembled from a Craigslist ad because somebody decided women would look cute at Saturday night's party. Oh my gosh, NO! 

These are the real deal—the continuation of the Valet of the Dolls brand and tradition featured in Janelle Brown's 2005 New York Times story, “Baby, You Can Park My Car,” where the Dolls were described as:

“Decorative, yes, but also adept with a clutch!

Twenty-one years later, the line still fits.

When you come through Valet of the Dolls Concierge, you don't just get access to a valet company. You get access to my 23 years of knowing who in this business can actually deliver.

And then I thought: Why stop at the driveway?

Twenty-three years in private events has introduced me to extraordinary people far beyond valet—host helpers, bartenders, non-alcoholic wellness bartenders, security professionals, party psychics, performers, planners, florists, balloon artists and, yes, even the people who can make a portable toilets in style and synch with a luxury estate.

Valet of the Dolls Concierge is becoming the connective tissue between all of them: a trusted, highly curated network built from relationships accumulated over decades in Los Angeles private events.

Technology can make a reservation. AI can generate a list. But neither one has spent 23 years standing in the driveway watching who actually shows up, who performs under pressure, who the guests rave about—and who gets invited back.

That knowledge is the concierge.

The novelty of female valets is not as shocking today but it is still so wildly accepted and enjoyed. The focus now is about discovering what happens when women are allowed to bring their own strength to the table. Allowed to take the wheel! Twenty-three years later, I'm less interested in celebrating that women can do the job than in asking a much bigger question: How many industries are still waiting to be transformed simply because nobody has dared to unleash women on them yet?