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An ask/invitation:

Hi squad!! I would really love to create or join a peer mentoring/coaching group for start up founders that meets on a weekly basis. A combination of a mastermind but also some skill sharing. Anyone interested? I'm thinking of a group of 4-5 women. Free and non-hierarchical. Just founder friends helping founder friends.

A little about me: I'm a former MarComm exec on a career break. My main project right now is starting up a nonprofit to elevate more racialized women into corporate leadership. On the side, I'm a fractional CMO for small-to-medium sized businesses.

It's an exciting journey but it can get isolated. So grateful for spaces like these to build community.

29 comments

29 Comments

Amelia Menk Brown

Apr 13

Hello! New to The Fairway and would love to join this group. I have a 20+ year career in Product Management, Product Development, and Education. Have worn so many hats and am happy to share expertise where needed. Just started my first company in the EdTech space and would be grateful for your shared expertise and the company of other founders! Amelia.menk@gmail.com

Mallory Waxman

Mar 31

Would love to join if it’s not too late fylppodcast@gmail.com

Ana V. Sadighi

Mar 23

Would love to join as well! AnaVSadighi@gmail.com - former corporate brand strategy for women-focused brands now starting my consultancy company for women’s wellness. Connection is so important thanks for sharing this!

Dr. Fanike-Kiara Young

Mar 17

I'm interested as well if it isn't too late. My email is fanike@drfanike.com

Pamela

Mar 14

I would be excited to join as well! Pamela@pamelameadows.Com

Lisa Hardy

Feb 27

Have you already set up this group? I’d love to join a mastermind to keep us on track & support one another!! Lisa@intunecollective.com

Amy P

Feb 08

Yes please! AmyP@unlockthemagic.org

Ola Lessard

Feb 07

Seeing what you’re interested in, you may also want to check out an organization called GET Cities. My daughter worked for them last year, before going back to grad school. They are all about creating greater gender equity in tech (GET) and have set up pilot projects to elevate women, transgender and non-binary people in tech at the education, hiring and mentoring stages. It’s a very cool program, funded largely by the Melinda Gates Foundation.

AmalMasri

Feb 07

Replying to

Thank you!

Ola Lessard

Feb 07

Olalessard@icloud.com

Ola Lessard

Feb 07

Definitely interested! I’m about to start a new women-focuses marketing company with a longtime colleague and friend. I’d love a peer support group to share and support one another’s strengths!

Minerva

Feb 05

Hi @AmalMasri , I would love to join! I'm an Operations Director in tech and a mom, but spent my nonexistent free time over the past seven years designing and launching Active Witness™, a global community-led research collective. The collective gives people who experienced intrusive abuse early in life a way to put their unwanted knowledge to good use. Active Witness is currently an unincorporated nonprofit.

AmalMasri

Feb 06

Replying to

That's sound really interesting Minerva. What's your email? We have a good number of people interested now and I would love to schedule something.

Blessing Adesiyan

Feb 05

I’m interested! Count me in!

AmalMasri

Feb 05

Replying to

Perfect! What’s your email? I’ll also connect with you on LI

Nicole Peternel

Feb 01

I love this idea! I am a 20+ year PR veteran and dual, all- women agency owner (one focused on small business, the other corporate). I have been in CLT the last seven years but spent my earlier years in MPLS and Chicago. I'm new to this group but appreciate the chance to both learn from and support others!

AmalMasri

Feb 05

Replying to

Hi Nicole, what’s your email?

Chante Martinez Thurmond

Jan 27

🙋🏾‍♀️ I’d be interested! I’m a self-funded founder of a consultancy in Chicago. I focus on equity, belonging, well-being and collective liberation. I’m in the middle of making pivot in our strategy and could use some support from peers!

AmalMasri

Jan 28

Replying to

Fantastic! I’ll DM you.

AmalMasri

Feb 05

Replying to

What’s your email?

Hillary Hittner, PCC

Jan 25

Hi! I’d love to connect and see if I’m a good fit for the group you want to build. I am an Executive Coach and the director of DEIB for a startup that creates leadership programming to support the parental leave process.

Im new to Fairway as well, so not sure how it works yet.

AmalMasri

Jan 25

Replying to

Fantastic! Let’s set up a Zoom coffee chat

AmalMasri

Feb 05

Replying to

What’s your email?

Nora DiNuzzo

Jan 25

@AmalMasri I would love to join you for this! I'm also in a peer-coaching program right now - so maybe I could contribute some best practices with the group!

AmalMasri

Jan 25

Replying to

Amazing!! Ok, we’ll chat about it when we connect this week :)

amy.cross

Jan 24

Hello Amal. I don't know about starting a nonprofit, but I want to ask, what are the deficits in the current offerings for racialized women?

AmalMasri

Jan 24

Replying to

Hi Amy, that's a great question with a very long answer. I will start it by saying that I need to refine my pitch lol and would welcome help on this with open arms.

- Overall, no where close to enough solutions in this space. We need a larger and more diverse ecosystem of solutions, and much larger scale.

- Before I dive into our mission in particular, I want to take a moment to shout out the other women doing work in this space and creating solutions that elevate racialized women. We don't want to have a monopoly on this--we want to empower and support an ecosystem of solutions by many different organizations.

- There is very little (if any) work targeting the Broken Rung (early career) specifically for women of color. Many interventions are focused on senior roles (with good reason). But this is a critical and missing puzzle piece and one of the reasons there is a gap here is because it's believed to be less profitable. We focus on this population and this population only, for this rung and this rung only.

- Many people on this app have high awareness of this issue. That's not the case in the corporate world.

- I am based in Canada and the lack of intersectional data on this career stage is shocking. There's been a recent wave in the past couple of years but for so long companies refused (and are still refusing) to open the kimono. So there are many missing insights, especially on what I've come to see as the most critical KPIs for this issue: inclusion, psychological safety and well being. )I have interviewed too many women with workplace trauma that destroyed their confidence and mental health for years. We must first prevent harm.) Going back to data-- on top of there being a deficit in solutions, there is a deficit in even fully understanding and appreciating the problem. Almost no one has invested in understanding the lived experiences and emotional and psychological realities of women of color in the work of place. #FixTheBrokenRung is among the few.

- We are building offerings through qualitative research and zero-based design centering the lived experiences of early career racialized women, with a special focus on refugee and immigrant women. Our approach is both top-down and bottom-up. We're also disruptive. I have no problem telling women to leave their current organizations (and helping them do so) if their organizations are not willing to do the work. Even when it costs us revenue--and that's a when, not if. We will always prioritize the well-being of the women we serve.

Anyway, thanks for the great question and I'd love to keep talking about this.

amy.cross

Jan 25

Replying to

Sorry I didn't understand that you had already begun. My bad.

AmalMasri

Jan 25

Replying to

My goodness no need to apologize! It was the perfect question. Thank you for engaging.

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