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It began with a couple in crisis. Dr. Sheena K. Glover had been trained in the science of thoughts and behavior, and had developed a deep love for trauma work through her psychology practice. But when she sat across from this particular couple, she quickly realized she was being pulled toward something more specialized. Standard communication tools were not going to be enough. Their reactions to each other were visceral, immediate, and overwhelming.

Two weeks after Erika Mosteller’s boss refused to give her time off to grieve a family tragedy, she quit. What followed was a season of uncertainty, scrambling to figure out what came next while searching for new professional opportunities. Through it all, Erika’s husband kept encouraging her to consider a different path entirely: building something of her own. He knew that if she never gave entrepreneurship a real chance, she might always wonder what could have been.

Emilie Given loved her early work as an Executive Assistant. She found deep fulfillment in being the person behind the scenes who could solve problems, create order, and help leaders operate at their highest level.

For eight years, Christine Lavin poured everything she had into building her first company, Fit2Bmom, a maternity activewear brand she launched while simultaneously working in fitness and raising three young boys. She wore every hat imaginable—designer, manufacturer, marketer, fulfillment team—and along the way, there were moments that validated the dream: loyal customers, celebrity features, and signs that the business was resonating.

For most of her career, Erin Hines was the woman holding everything together. She managed, organized, anticipated, supported, and solved. From the outside, it looked like she had it all under control. But inside the constant doing, Erin was slowly disappearing. She wasn’t unhappy, exactly. But she also wasn’t living the life she had imagined, especially after doing everything “right.”

For more than five years, Becky Pierson Davidson worked as a UX designer and product strategist at a consulting firm, where she touched more than 100 products across healthcare, fintech, aviation, media, and beyond. From early-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies, each product sharpened her ability to think in systems, move quickly across industries, and build digital experiences that actually work for the people using them.

By her fifth year as a hedge fund VP, Netta Ness knew she was ready to build something of her own. What she didn’t have yet was a clear path. That changed during a high-stakes board meeting with Japanese executives, when a phrase suddenly surfaced mid-discussion: “Chance Management.” It surprised Netta as much as anyone else in the room.

Adriana Torosian’s company began with a health crisis no one could explain. After a sudden onset of symptoms that doctors struggled to diagnose, Adriana found herself searching for answers inside a system that wasn’t built to connect the dots. She started tracking her own health data, slowly building a clearer picture of how her hormones, menstrual cycle, symptoms, habits, and overall wellbeing were intertwined. That process changed everything.

For years, Eva Liu watched her immigrant parents pour themselves into their small restaurant, working long hours with extraordinary dedication. And yet, despite how hard they worked, meaningful retirement savings remained out of reach. That experience shaped Eva’s understanding of money early on. It showed her that hard work alone does not always lead to financial security, and that stability is about far more than numbers. It creates agency, dignity, and choice.

For more than 20 years, Tara Fitzpatrick-Navarro has been creating opportunities where none existed before. As CEO of the USTA Mid-Atlantic Foundation, she’s focused on expanding access to tennis and opening doors for people who have historically been priced out of or overlooked by the sport. Each year, the organization introduces nearly 100,000 students to tennis through school PE programs and funds junior scholarships.

Sarah Mapes officially started her company in 2023, but her path as a founder began long before that. She just didn’t know it yet. Across a range of back-office roles, Sarah kept finding herself inside the same kind of organizational tangle: smart people, good intentions, and plenty of tools, but no clear way for work to move across the business.

Before AI became the conversation every leader was having, Tasha Cooper was already helping professionals make sense of the next big technological shift. At the time, social media and digital automation were changing how attorneys and other licensed professionals could build their brands, market their work, and create new revenue streams.

Growing up in Jamaica, Karee Laing was raised with a clear definition of success: become a lawyer. She followed that path diligently, earning her JD/MBA and developing a deep appreciation for the analytical rigor of legal thinking and complex problem-solving. Then, one MBA elective changed everything.

Markita Billups wanted to redefine her relationship with work. She'd been working since she was 13, so that relationship was deeply familiar—steady, dependable, and all-consuming. But after years of building her career, she realized it was time to imagine something different. When she stepped away from an executive leadership role at a startup, Markita found herself in unfamiliar territory: the space between what had been and what would come next.

For Victoria Alexander, the plan was to become a gallerist. After studying art history at Pace University, that dream felt well within reach. Then she discovered real estate, and everything clicked. Victoria realized the industry offered something she hadn't expected: a way to build a career around everything she loved. History. Architecture. Community. And, above all, Brooklyn.

More than a decade ago, when Raegan Sealy moved to New York on a Fulbright scholarship, she was looking for ways to support herself in a new city. A lifelong writer, singer, and performing artist, she began teaching creative writing to young people, never imagining those early lessons would lay the foundation for a future business. What started as a practical way to make ends meet evolved into something much bigger.

Hannah Schlosser was crushing it at her sales job. She was consistently hitting 400% of quota, excelling in every role she stepped into, and quickly becoming the kind of employee companies work hard to keep. Naturally, she quit. Frustrated by the limitations of traditional sales roles and convinced she could drive greater impact by owning the entire process, Hannah stopped waiting for a title to catch up with her vision.

For much of her life, entrepreneurship wasn't part of Mika Mooney's plan. Raised by her Japanese immigrant mother who built a life for them in the U.S. as a single parent, Mika grew up believing success meant following a stable, traditional career path. But after years practicing law, she realized security alone wasn't enough. Trusting her instincts led her to found her own firm—a decision that transformed not only her career, but also how she thinks about leadership, resili

When Rochelle Sonnenberg founded Her Tech, she wasn’t interested in building just another networking community for women in tech. After years of navigating male-dominated rooms, Rochelle saw firsthand how many women in the tech industry carried emotional armor just to get through the workday—constantly performing confidence, suppressing vulnerability, and trying to prove they belonged. She dreamed of building a space where women could finally set some of that weight down.

Growing up, Mai Truong often felt disconnected from her Asian identity. As the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, she rarely saw herself reflected in ways that made her feel proud of her heritage. Instead, like so many children navigating multiple worlds, she found herself distancing herself from parts of her culture rather than embracing them.