Check it out: The Feminist Founders Guide to Building Your Dream Life
A guided workbook to clarify your equity-centered vision and craft a you-centered plan for making it happen ($15, available on Amazon): https://amzn.to/4aSzeBk

NOTE: Feminist Founders is a listener-funded podcast. Your contributions enable me to continue bringing you these important conversations. To support the mission, sign up for a paid Substack subscription at https://feministfounders.substack.com/

SUMMARY: In this episode of the Feminist Founders podcast, we chat with Mai Moore, founder of Boss Me In, exploring her shift from corporate leadership to championing values-aligned networking for Gen Z women. We discuss creating safer spaces and the unique challenges anti-capitalist startups face. Mai offers impactful leadership tips for building inclusive communities and navigating the non-traditional paths of mentorship and funding. Her insights inspire entrepreneurs to lead with authenticity and purpose, aiming to transform societal norms and foster real change in the business world.

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Mai Moore (she/her) is an Award-Winning Social Impact Leader, Co-Founder of EYEJ: Empowering Youth, Exploring Justice; Founder of Setting Off Social Impact, and Boss Me In. Mai helped two tech start-ups go public; Travelzoo Inc. and United Online. She believes in diverse women, BIPOC persons, and our young people to help create a more equitable and inclusive world. Mai is from Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

Website | LinkedIn

Discussed this episode:

• Mai’s relationship with feminism
• Why Mai moved from the C-suite to helping Gen Z women kick off their careers
• What founders need to understand about Gen Z
• The challenging (and different) future that Gen Z professionals face
• What is missing in many mentoring and networking programs and what makes Boss Me In different
• How Mai chose the name Boss Me In
• The “no-mask” policy that appeals to Gen Z’s value of authenticity
• Creating truly inclusive communities
• Steps Boss Me In takes to create safer spaces
• The importance of harm repair inside of communities
• Personal growth and the ebbs and flows of finding values-aligned communities
• How Mai deals with imperfect communities
• Tips for finding truly inclusive communities
• Finding a mentor at any age
• Mai’s best tip for moving beyond the fears of getting visible
• Why founders need community
• The ways Boss Me In is challenging capitalist norms
• VC funding, KPIs, and burnout
• What’s different about Boss Me In’s approach to funding

Resources mentioned:

• Boss Me In
• Empowering Youth, Exploring Justice
• “The Four Agreements” by don Miguel Ruiz

Learn more about accountability coaching with host Becky Mollenkamp at https://beckymollenkamp.com

Check it out: The Feminist Founders Guide to Building Your Dream Life
A guided workbook to clarify your equity-centered vision and craft a you-centered plan for making it happen ($15, available on Amazon): https://amzn.to/4aSzeBk

NOTE: Feminist Founders is a listener-funded podcast. Your contributions enable me to continue bringing you these important conversations. To support the mission, sign up for a paid Substack subscription at https://feministfounders.substack.com/

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Elisa Camahort Page (she/her) is a fractional executive and strategic consultant who launches and scales businesses, products, and authentic user communities. Elisa was co-founder and COO of BlogHer, Inc. In that role, Elisa had oversight of the practices, policies, and procedures that modeled how organizations can build community, grow a business, and support inclusion in words and action.

Since leaving the company that acquired BlogHer, Elisa has consulted with organizations to define and deliver on content, product, community, and communications strategies and resource plans that are in alignment with their brand values. A frequent public speaker, LinkedIn Learning course instructor, and freelance writer, Elisa is also the host of The Op-Ed Page podcast and the This Week-ish and Optionality newsletters on Substack, as well as the co-author of “Road Map for Revolutionaries: Resistance, Activism, and Advocacy for All.”

Website | LinkedIn | Instagram | Threads | TikTok | Facebook

Discussed in this episode:

• Elisa’s relationship with feminism and how it evolved to be more intersectional
• How BlogHer was created to address the early days of blogging
• How values were more than something “laminated on the wall”
• Bootstrapping the rollout, and the growth pains of adding payroll
• Pursuing Series A funding, and who shouldn’t go for VC funding
• Challenges for women pursuing VC funding
• Why Elisa will not go for VC funding again (despite a decent first experience)
• How public and private funding negatively impacts decision making
• Choosing to sell vs. securing another round of funding for growth
• Managing the transition period of a buyout
• Navigating personal values while running a company that has grown beyond you
• The benefit of having an odd number of owners
• Male-dominated leadership of women-dominated products
• Why Elisa’s book wasn’t the one she originally thought she’d write
• The 20 years that destroyed worker trust, and how the pandemic shifted things
• Rethinking employee mentorship models
• New models for making money as content creators (ie, Substack)

Resources mentioned:

• “Roadmap for Revolutionaries: Resistance, Activism and Advocacy for All,” by Elisa Camahort Page, Carolyn Gerin, and Jamia Wilson
• “The Man Who Broke Capitalism” by David Gelles
• Center for Reproductive Rights
• National Network of Abortion Funds
• Our Hen House

Learn more about accountability coaching with host Becky Mollenkamp at https://beckymollenkamp.com

Check it out: The Feminist Founders Guide to Building Your Dream Life
A guided workbook to clarify your equity-centered vision and craft a you-centered plan for making it happen ($15, available on Amazon): https://amzn.to/4aSzeBk

NOTE: Feminist Founders is a listener-funded podcast. Your contributions enable us to continue bringing you these important conversations. To support the mission and receive bonus content, sign up for a subscription at https://feministfounders.substack.com/

SUMMARY: In this episode of Feminist Founders, Catharine Montgomery, founder and CEO of Better Together, shares her journey of building sustainable change. She discusses her unexpected start in entrepreneurship with VC funding and the social impact her agency aims to achieve. Catharine navigates the challenges of transitioning from employee to business owner, overcoming imposter syndrome, and modeling equity and social justice in her business practices. She emphasizes the importance of mentoring, networking, and finding clients who align with Better Together's values. Through her experiences, Catharine provides valuable insights for entrepreneurs navigating similar paths, highlighting the intersection of feminism, entrepreneurship, and social change.

Catharine Montgomery (she/her) is the founder and CEO of Better Together, a communications agency that galvanizes positive change for purpose-driven organizations through creative strategies, messaging and branding. Catharine’s vision for Better Together is to build a more just, environmentally sustainable world centered around human and labor rights, access to education, and healthcare for all through collaborative and creative communication campaigns. After spending nearly 15 years working in public relations, Catharine knows what truly drives results and leaves a lasting impact.

Website | Catharine’s LinkedIn | Better Together LinkedIn | Threads

Discussed in this episode:

• Catharine’s burgeoning and complicated relationship with feminism
• Exiting a toxic work environment (and fighting back)
• How a chance encounter (and a lifetime of preparation) helped Catharine unexpectedly start her agency with VC funding
• Why Catharine decided to accept VC funding, despite being in an industry that isn’t known for relying on it
• How mentoring and networking have helped Catharine as a newer entrepreneur
• Better Together’s values and finding clients that share them
• Making money and doing good
• How entrepreneurship helped Catharine overcome “imposter syndrome”
• The learning curve of going from employee to business owner
• Modeling equity and social justice in how she runs Better Together
• The legacy Catharine hopes to create with Better Together

Resources mentioned:

• Touch4Life
• National Museum of African-American History and Culture
• “Unmasking AI” by Joy Buolamwini