Speaker 1: Welcome to Made by Women, a new podcast by the
Speaker 1: Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio. At a
Speaker 1: moment when businesses face some of the biggest challenges in
Speaker 1: recent history, we bring you inspiring stories, practical insights, and
Speaker 1: shared learnings to help you successfully navigate in today's environment.
Speaker 1: Every Thursday, Made by Women will showcase the experiences of
Speaker 1: legendary women, entrepreneurs, fierce up and comers, and everyday women
Speaker 1: who found success their own way. Consider this your real
Speaker 1: world n b A designed for the new now. I'm
Speaker 1: Kim Azarelli and thanks so much for joining us today.
Speaker 1: If you've ever worried about finding care for a child
Speaker 1: or an elderly relative, Sheila Marcello knows what you're going
Speaker 1: through and she created a solution. And if you're a
Speaker 1: woman who wants to rise in her career, Sheila has
Speaker 1: the tools and guidance for you. I'm Milan Vervie and
Speaker 1: I'm talking today to Sheila Marcello, the visionary entrepreneur who
Speaker 1: founded care dot com, the world's largest online destination for
Speaker 1: finding and managing family care. Sheila is also the co
Speaker 1: founder of Landed, a career platform focused on women. Both
Speaker 1: companies combine her passion for technology with solutions to very
Speaker 1: contemporary problems. Success might seem a foregone conclusion for Sheila.
Speaker 1: After all, in twenty fourteen, she became the youngest ever
Speaker 1: person to receive the Alumni Achievement Award from Harvard Business School,
Speaker 1: and just a few years later, care dot Com was
Speaker 1: acquired by I A c. For five hundred million dollars.
Speaker 1: But every business journey has its challenges and lessons. Let's
Speaker 1: get some insights now from Sheila Marcello. Sheila, it is
Speaker 1: such a pleasure to have you with us today, so excited.
Speaker 1: You are truly an extraordinary entrepreneur, and we want to
Speaker 1: talk about how that came to be uh and all
Speaker 1: of the things that you've learned along the way that
Speaker 1: you can impart to our wonderful audience. You have created, founded,
Speaker 1: co founded several successful companies, including care dot com to
Speaker 1: help people find elder care and childcare and Landed to
Speaker 1: help women advance in their careers. Both are critically needed
Speaker 1: helps today, and you have two companies that you've been
Speaker 1: intimately involved in responding to those needs. What has it
Speaker 1: been in your personal background that enabled you to contribute
Speaker 1: to the kind of success that you have had as
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. Thanks Milan. I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 1: As you know you've known me for a long time.
Speaker 1: I was born and raised in the Philippines, and um interestingly,
Speaker 1: I have what I call a tiger mom very proudly
Speaker 1: and a teddy bear dad, so sort of the counter stereotypes.
Speaker 1: But what makes it so unique is that the Philippines,
Speaker 1: as you know, you and I have been very involved
Speaker 1: in helping the world economic form with their gender reports
Speaker 1: that the Philippines is one of the top ten countries
Speaker 1: in the world with the narrowest gender gap. It's unique
Speaker 1: for an Asian country. And so my parents always allowed
Speaker 1: my sister and I and I have four other brothers
Speaker 1: along with my sister, to pursue our passions. There was
Speaker 1: never a sense of stereotypes. I remember as a young girl,
Speaker 1: my father was teaching me math to Gray Aids earlier
Speaker 1: than my older brothers, and we were doing the same
Speaker 1: math class because he just believed in us and was
Speaker 1: always encouraging. And my father even taught me to read
Speaker 1: early at a very young age and had to read
Speaker 1: in front of friends and guests. So it was always
Speaker 1: sort of highly encouraged to pursue education and our passions.
Speaker 1: The second thing I think my parents imparted in me
Speaker 1: was their very entrepreneurial We owned trucking company. Uh we
Speaker 1: distributed sugar grow coconuts, had rice mills, you name it,
Speaker 1: duck farms, mangoes, bananas, and so through through our lives
Speaker 1: growing up, my parents never wanted us to be entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1: It was a hard life. So at six kids, everybody
Speaker 1: had designated professions. There was going to be a doctor,
Speaker 1: a dentist, and accountant and engineer, a lawyer. You know.
Speaker 1: My younger brother got Scott free whatever he wanted to do.
Speaker 1: But I was a designated lawyer, and interest ly enough,
Speaker 1: out of undergrad I got into Harvard Law School. I
Speaker 1: actually paused it for a little bit, and I didn't
Speaker 1: want to disappoint my parents, but I fell in love
Speaker 1: with business, and amongst everyone in my family, I ended
Speaker 1: up becoming the entrepreneur. And the reason for that, Milan,
Speaker 1: was because I started teaching at HBS and I got
Speaker 1: introduced to grading internet business plans, and I decided that, like,
Speaker 1: this is really interesting and it could create impact in
Speaker 1: the world. Because the last sort of thing around what
Speaker 1: my parents taught me was, um, you know, one of
Speaker 1: the most memorable experience I had my life was we
Speaker 1: had went back and forth between the United States and
Speaker 1: the Philippines because my parents were entrepreneurs. And so in
Speaker 1: fifth grade they sent me back to a provincial school
Speaker 1: in the Philippines because I had forgotten the language, and
Speaker 1: and I remember how hard that was. They made us
Speaker 1: stand up and read Intagalog and I was embarrassed. And
Speaker 1: but but we also learned a lot of different things.
Speaker 1: We cleaned the classroom floors with our hands. We would
Speaker 1: get down on our hands and knees and scrub it
Speaker 1: with the husk of a coconut. I'm really good at
Speaker 1: cleaning floors today. It's a really good lesson. But they
Speaker 1: really exposed us to hard work and a sense of
Speaker 1: humility and probably something my friend Brian Stevenson always emphasizes,
Speaker 1: which is proximity that at a young age, inclusiveness was
Speaker 1: really important for my family and a life dedicated to impact.
Speaker 1: And so I would say that combination of that unique
Speaker 1: experience growing up in the Philippines, being exposed to the province,
Speaker 1: and just having this sort of tenacity and grit that
Speaker 1: my parents had as entrepreneurs I think really has been
Speaker 1: indelible in my life. You know, it's such an interesting
Speaker 1: story of one person's ascent in many ways. And while
Speaker 1: you did become that lawyer they had hoped you'd become,
Speaker 1: you certainly became an extraordinarily successful businesswoman. And it's fascinating
Speaker 1: to hear how these very fundamental lessons like those you
Speaker 1: just conveyed that you inherited from your parents have had
Speaker 1: this lasting impact on you. So let's fast forward just
Speaker 1: a tiny bit from those years, uh to your starting
Speaker 1: care dot com. You did that in two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: and I wonder where did the idea come from? Because
Speaker 1: what you undertook was something truly exceptional, I think, and
Speaker 1: it was seeing the need and responding to that need
Speaker 1: through technology. What did it take to get there? How
Speaker 1: did care dot com work? What steps did you take
Speaker 1: to create just an enormous business? You know? I I
Speaker 1: wish that I had the vision in the road map
Speaker 1: at a young age and knew that I was going
Speaker 1: to build care, But actually what end up happening is
Speaker 1: I got pregnant in college. I wanted to be an
Speaker 1: investment banker and a consultant and my parents were really pushing,
Speaker 1: of course, to be a lawyer. UM. And after business school, UM,
Speaker 1: I started to realize that in you know, grading internet
Speaker 1: business plans, there was something about the power of the
Speaker 1: Internet to help people. And here I was as a
Speaker 1: young mother going through undergrad, my jobs, between undergrad and
Speaker 1: grad school, through my career and then grad school. When
Speaker 1: I did my j d NB at Harvard, we struggled.
Speaker 1: We struggled with care And fast forward when I graduated
Speaker 1: from HBS and decided after my teaching stint there that
Speaker 1: I wanted to go join an internet company. I begged
Speaker 1: my parents to come from the Philippines to actually care
Speaker 1: for our youngest son, Adam, And as he was going
Speaker 1: up the stairs my dad was caring for my son.
Speaker 1: That afternoon, I got a call from my mother, frantic
Speaker 1: at work that my my father had fell backwards UM
Speaker 1: holding the baby because he had had a heart attack.
Speaker 1: And so I think this combination of being sandwich in
Speaker 1: our space, that's being sandwich between childcare and senior care
Speaker 1: at such a young age at twenty nine, made me
Speaker 1: start to realize that I wasn't alone in all of this.
Speaker 1: There's so many other millions of families and especially women
Speaker 1: that are impacted. And I remember I was working in
Speaker 1: a technology company and yet I was using the Yellow
Speaker 1: Pages I'm dating myself to look for care because there
Speaker 1: weren't a lot of other solutions. UM and back then
Speaker 1: Classified were going out of business. Craigslist was just beginning
Speaker 1: and it wasn't really reliable. You weren't going to go
Speaker 1: there to look for care. And oh yes, church and
Speaker 1: the y m c A or the local swimming pool.
Speaker 1: I could put up an eight and a half by
Speaker 1: eleven and have those little tag ear things that you
Speaker 1: could peel off. I mean, they're just so technology. I
Speaker 1: saw had a real potential because I was working for
Speaker 1: a company that was helping families save money for college
Speaker 1: called you Promise, and so was a great training ground
Speaker 1: for me to understand. But the real personal pain point
Speaker 1: that I went through was something that really inspired me
Speaker 1: to say, I'm not alone in all of this, and
Speaker 1: as I said, many women are impact in front. My
Speaker 1: dear friend I Gin Pooh, who you know well, has
Speaker 1: been fighting for domestic workers and she often says it
Speaker 1: care is what makes all other work possible because it
Speaker 1: is the underpinning. It's just like roads and bridges. You know,
Speaker 1: you have to invest in that infrastructure to help women
Speaker 1: work because the challenges are care costs is high. Caregivers,
Speaker 1: a majority of which are women. You know, the average
Speaker 1: pay eleven dollars an hour, I mean, whereas golf caddies
Speaker 1: or what making fifteen an hour just doesn't kind of
Speaker 1: add up. And then there are these care deserts. There's
Speaker 1: just not even enough spots for kids around the country
Speaker 1: for care for women to pursue work. And then I
Speaker 1: haven't even layered in senior care. So all of that
Speaker 1: I call I consider sort of the econ I'm excited
Speaker 1: of care as opposed to the soft love tendency of
Speaker 1: how people call the industry that we're in. I don't
Speaker 1: really understand that this is actually one of the critical
Speaker 1: issues and drives sort of the problems around an economic
Speaker 1: crisis if you're not investing in this infrastructure. So you
Speaker 1: had asked me, what does care dot Com due today?
Speaker 1: You know, it's basically simple. It's matching families with caregivers.
Speaker 1: Majority of the platform are moms, and caregivers are also women,
Speaker 1: so it's actually really serving women. But ultimately it's about
Speaker 1: servicing families and caregivers. Before I left in February, we
Speaker 1: had more than thirty million members and over twenty countries.
Speaker 1: So the way they think about that is every three
Speaker 1: minutes a family finds care on the platform and a
Speaker 1: caregiver finds a job. Well, you know, you're not only
Speaker 1: created a solution, but you've just made the most compelling
Speaker 1: case for why we need to address the whole issue
Speaker 1: of affordable, available, and quality healthcare that people can count on,
Speaker 1: and increasingly elder care, which we know is another huge
Speaker 1: imperative for our society. So you came up with this
Speaker 1: very innovative solution. But we know building a company is
Speaker 1: accompanied with a lot of struggle. So tell us what
Speaker 1: was it like, What was the hardest part in those
Speaker 1: early days, and what did you do to get strength
Speaker 1: so that you could keep going. I think the full journey,
Speaker 1: though I very much enjoyed it and learned, was difficult.
Speaker 1: Exactly what you're asking Land, I'd say. In the early days,
Speaker 1: even at the start of the company, I was worried
Speaker 1: about how I was going to be perceived. I had
Speaker 1: my d d NBA at Harvard. Here I was going
Speaker 1: to run A good friend of mine who was in
Speaker 1: an investment bank when I went to get advice from
Speaker 1: her and said, you're going to run a babysitting company
Speaker 1: with your experience. And I was so in secure about
Speaker 1: running a company focused on women that I was really
Speaker 1: worried that men weren't going to take me seriously. And
Speaker 1: a very male mentor came up to me and it
Speaker 1: took me out to lunch and said, are you in
Speaker 1: the pain business or you the pleasure business. I didn't
Speaker 1: really know what that meant, but what he was really
Speaker 1: pushing me to really think about, milanas, how do you
Speaker 1: stay true to yourself? A pain businesses look, you like
Speaker 1: to solve consumer problems. Saving for college is not that fun, right?
Speaker 1: And after you left, you promise you went to help
Speaker 1: help at the ladders to help people find jobs. That
Speaker 1: wasn't fun either, right, But that's what you're passionate about.
Speaker 1: Because at the time I was weighing running a mobile
Speaker 1: company sort of in the entertainment space, and and that
Speaker 1: real advice I took home, I slept on and woke
Speaker 1: up the next day. I was like, I have to
Speaker 1: stay true to myself. So I think the beginning many
Speaker 1: young founders when they're starting companies there's this insecurity that
Speaker 1: sets in around how you're perceived or gaining a sense
Speaker 1: of confidence to be true to who you are. So
Speaker 1: that definitely was there in the beginning. And then as
Speaker 1: we were scaling Care, some people said why wasn't this
Speaker 1: a nonprofit and because somehow what was wrong with with
Speaker 1: a you know, pursuing profitability with a comparable goal of
Speaker 1: social good? And I started to realize part of my
Speaker 1: role wasn't just the mission of Care, it was breaking
Speaker 1: the mold that this was doable as a public company,
Speaker 1: that we could scale this as a solution, and that
Speaker 1: you could have a double bottom line. You know, we
Speaker 1: call those bea corps now, but this was before they
Speaker 1: were around. We were starting care dot com. So it's
Speaker 1: an interesting sort of push that you had to do
Speaker 1: to just prove to people that yes, you know, this
Speaker 1: is possible. And more and more I try to spend
Speaker 1: time with social entrepreneurs and then even I, I know
Speaker 1: you asked me the question, you know, like in the
Speaker 1: early days, what was surprising to me, Milan is that
Speaker 1: the challenge of the of convincing the perception of men
Speaker 1: to realize the opportunity of investing in female focus businesses
Speaker 1: not only started throughout all my fundraising of the hundred
Speaker 1: million private hundred fifty million public was even when we
Speaker 1: were public, we were running into issues. I remember an
Speaker 1: analyst taking aside on a my non deal road show
Speaker 1: preparing to go public, and said to me, you know
Speaker 1: you're going to run into problems? Is is a male
Speaker 1: analysts one of the top ones in Wall Street? And
Speaker 1: I said why? He said, because there's a fundamental dilemma
Speaker 1: that male analysts won't understand the product because they don't
Speaker 1: ultimately use it. So interestingly enough, the profile when Open
Speaker 1: Table came out is similar to yours, except they go
Speaker 1: to restaurants. They know how to book that stuff. It
Speaker 1: matters to them. But many young male analysts don't have children,
Speaker 1: aren't worried about their parents, they don't even have likely
Speaker 1: dogs or plants, because they're committed to their jobs. Right,
Speaker 1: So you're going to have to figure out how do
Speaker 1: you make this issue proximate to who you're selling it to.
Speaker 1: And so those challenges we're with me all the way
Speaker 1: through until the very end, in fact, and it's a
Speaker 1: very interesting thing. And and I know that that we've
Speaker 1: got to change that, we've got to figure out ways
Speaker 1: in which men become more proximate to the issues that
Speaker 1: women face. Well, you know, I think maybe COVID has
Speaker 1: changed that a little bit. It may be one of
Speaker 1: the bright lights out of it, if I can say
Speaker 1: that about a pandemic, because we're certainly much more aware
Speaker 1: today of just how difficult it is to juggle all
Speaker 1: of this um and many of the the men who
Speaker 1: are aware of these challenge is are seeing it in
Speaker 1: a very proximate way. I dare say I completely agree.
Speaker 1: But you know, it's so interesting to listen to you
Speaker 1: because you're right. You anticipate that these struggles are going
Speaker 1: to come early on, but as you so well said
Speaker 1: in your experience, these stay with you. As an entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: You're always thinking of that next challenge, that next piece,
Speaker 1: what else do you have to do to overcome and thrive.
Speaker 1: But care dot Com did thrive. It was thriving continues obviously,
Speaker 1: and you started another company, landed. So how did that
Speaker 1: come about and how did you juggle both companies? You know,
Speaker 1: it's really interesting. I care dot Com launched a product
Speaker 1: called Carrot Work. I would say it's probably year four
Speaker 1: of our thirteen years stint at that company, and Carrot
Speaker 1: Work was providing benefits for employees, and I would meet
Speaker 1: with h r os and CEOs and CFOs and often
Speaker 1: they would say, we love care as a solution for
Speaker 1: our employees to make sure that they show up at
Speaker 1: work and they could be present at work, but we
Speaker 1: really have a problem with the pipeline of women. We
Speaker 1: start off fift when they're young, and then of course
Speaker 1: when you know, when they're in the corner office, it's
Speaker 1: getting into the single digit percentage. And I said, wow,
Speaker 1: that's that's a real problem. We know it, but that's
Speaker 1: a different business from care dot com. Because they were
Speaker 1: asking me, you know, should you launch a different product.
Speaker 1: I had the fortunate experience that I joined an Aspen
Speaker 1: Crown Fellowship class and allowed me to really search and
Speaker 1: go deeper around impact. And it happened that in my class,
Speaker 1: my HBS classmate from business school, a Lisa Skate Tatum,
Speaker 1: was also in my Crown Fellowship class and she had
Speaker 1: been contemplating the same issues about the pipeline problem. The
Speaker 1: third thing that happened is Milan also was in my life,
Speaker 1: who I remember we're telling me, who said to me,
Speaker 1: the care issue is such a big issue to help
Speaker 1: women focus on it. So the way to do that
Speaker 1: it allowed me to focus on it is really worked
Speaker 1: with Lisa where she became, you know, my co founder
Speaker 1: on land It, and it has just been incredible at
Speaker 1: really pursuing the shared mission and vision we had. So
Speaker 1: we came together to found the company, and it's allowed
Speaker 1: both of us by the way we're both women that
Speaker 1: integrate our work and life together. We both juggle running companies,
Speaker 1: we trade a lot of notes, were there for each other,
Speaker 1: we support each other, and so I I found this
Speaker 1: such an incredible satisfaction of being a board member and
Speaker 1: a founder of something I saw that other female founders,
Speaker 1: unleashing their own potential, could pursue their passion and I
Speaker 1: can impart the journey that I've been on on care
Speaker 1: to how to scale those platforms they themselves can make
Speaker 1: a big impact as well. It's something that's so near
Speaker 1: and dear to me around working with female founders and
Speaker 1: Landed has just been such a joy, and I'm just
Speaker 1: thrilled that Lisa is making such this huge impact in
Speaker 1: the world that she really wanted to. Well, that's terrific,
Speaker 1: and you know, I know personally just how much you
Speaker 1: care about women developing their leadership skills and going on
Speaker 1: to enjoying great success that is commensurate with the potential
Speaker 1: of so many. So you left care in two thousand
Speaker 1: and nineteen, and you are, by any account, UH a
Speaker 1: force of nature. So what is Sheila focusing on now? UM?
Speaker 1: I would say certainly adhering to quarantine. And I had
Speaker 1: planned to travel sabbatical, but I've been doing my Quarantine sabbatical,
Speaker 1: but my kids tease me that it's not really sabbatical
Speaker 1: because now I'm launching a couple of ventures with with
Speaker 1: a few female founders UM to continue again to unleash
Speaker 1: their power. I'm super excited. One of them is focused
Speaker 1: on girls, and I'm just excited to build new companies
Speaker 1: built by amazing female founders. And by the way, that
Speaker 1: includes for profit and not for profit, because I think
Speaker 1: impact can be achieved in many different ways and and
Speaker 1: my goal is how can I help in any way
Speaker 1: to scale that that what is in the hearts of
Speaker 1: other people to help people UM. And then specifically, one
Speaker 1: nonprofit I'm super proud to be helping right now is
Speaker 1: Him for Her by Jocelyn mangan Um and it's putting
Speaker 1: women on boards. Uh, So it's something I'm super excited
Speaker 1: about to continue to support her. Uh. Some of the
Speaker 1: companies are still stealth, but it should be announced within
Speaker 1: the year. It sounds terrific. Will all be awaiting those
Speaker 1: announcements with eager anticipation. I had mentioned earlier COVID Uh,
Speaker 1: and you just talked about how you're abiding by all
Speaker 1: the protocols and staying on the ground, which is rare,
Speaker 1: rare for you. So how has it affected your work otherwise?
Speaker 1: Has it brought on any particular challenges? Have you had
Speaker 1: to make any major pivots outside of what you described
Speaker 1: in terms of really not doing all of that extensive
Speaker 1: travel that you had anticipated in this period, but you've
Speaker 1: put it to good use. It sounds like yeah, certainly,
Speaker 1: going from a twenty four seven job running a public
Speaker 1: company to then, you know, reducing travel in the hours
Speaker 1: and all the inbound requests of my time, I've had
Speaker 1: a real opportunity to do a lot of meditation, yoga,
Speaker 1: just a self awareness time for myself. Just been a gift.
Speaker 1: I hadn't had this in over twenty years because I've
Speaker 1: just been running and gunning. But what's interesting about COVID
Speaker 1: has certainly has been silver linings, is it. It's also,
Speaker 1: as you pointed out, it's allowed a lot of people
Speaker 1: to open their eyes at the juggle is really hard,
Speaker 1: and I'm seeing with a lot of my zoom calls
Speaker 1: in also my male friends sharing with me that they're
Speaker 1: now at the front seat to see this juggle of
Speaker 1: work life balance. I used to have to hit people
Speaker 1: over the head to tell them that care was really important.
Speaker 1: They're realizing that it is definitely essential. Work at the
Speaker 1: corner office is seeing it a lot too. Um So
Speaker 1: this proximity that you described earlier, I believe it's a
Speaker 1: real silver lining in the care industry, and it's one
Speaker 1: of the nonprofits that I founded and ran, and I
Speaker 1: do want to thank I a C for helping seed
Speaker 1: that with me as a way that they honored my
Speaker 1: founding of care dot com. I a C bought care
Speaker 1: dot come earlier this year. As you know, is that
Speaker 1: the Care Institute is really focused around how do we
Speaker 1: influence the specific issue right now because it is top
Speaker 1: of mind for people. How do we use this moment
Speaker 1: because care is top of mind, because we really can't
Speaker 1: help women At the same time that I'm working on
Speaker 1: that nonprofit. It's really to train caregivers. I also see
Speaker 1: this huge need for Landed. Lisa and I are all
Speaker 1: over that UM and Landed not only to help women,
Speaker 1: but especially also people of color with everything that's happening
Speaker 1: in the world, especially with post George Floyd and the
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter movement. So I think there are silver
Speaker 1: linings in difficulty and challenges and really finding ways how
Speaker 1: we can make a broader impact. So terrific to hear.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you one final question because I
Speaker 1: think your role in UM the tech field really it's
Speaker 1: still fairly unique for women. We know that women in
Speaker 1: technology have faced continue to face so many challenges, Yet
Speaker 1: your companies have been technology based, and I think that's
Speaker 1: been part of the success and visionary in many many ways.
Speaker 1: How can we, Sheila, get more women in technology to
Speaker 1: succeed in the field and overcome some of the constraints
Speaker 1: that are strown in their past. It's definitely something in
Speaker 1: my nineties that I want to make sure is completely
Speaker 1: different from what we have now. Listen, as you've heard
Speaker 1: often the answer is having more female vcs. It's it's
Speaker 1: just it's so upsetting that in the top hundred firms,
Speaker 1: we're still seeing eight percent of partners or women. It
Speaker 1: results in these blind spots because you know, I don't
Speaker 1: know why in this day and age, we have to
Speaker 1: still convince people that gender inclusivity has a positive economic
Speaker 1: r O. I right, it's just it's it's it's just shocking.
Speaker 1: You know. We have this rule in a consumer business
Speaker 1: that ultimately, when you're designing a product, you have to
Speaker 1: be open with the design of it because you have
Speaker 1: to be objective and data driven because ultimately you're designing
Speaker 1: something probably not for you. Um. And so I'm always
Speaker 1: you know, perplexed when I talk to my male VC
Speaker 1: friends to say, you know, it should be the same
Speaker 1: when you invest. It shouldn't be about something that you
Speaker 1: have to fully understand you as a consumer to understand
Speaker 1: the economic opportunity. So it's a really interesting thing. And
Speaker 1: so and then the other thing is advice that I
Speaker 1: have for female entrepreneurs. It's really important. First look, We've
Speaker 1: heard it from from so many other amazing women, So
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not first to say believe in yourself
Speaker 1: and make sure you have a voice of the table.
Speaker 1: One of the things I did early is invest in
Speaker 1: my own self awareness in that journey. I can tee
Speaker 1: to do that with meditation. I'm working on being a
Speaker 1: bound once as a corporate athlete. With my health, especially
Speaker 1: now as I'm entering into my menopausal age, is really
Speaker 1: important to get that energy level right. UM that challenges
Speaker 1: you will face. I wanted to share one of the
Speaker 1: one of these last few stories with you. I remember
Speaker 1: we were we were traveling around again for a non
Speaker 1: deal roadshow for I P O and we flew into
Speaker 1: this um private airport and and they're just back to
Speaker 1: back meetings Milan. So I rented the bathroom. So I'm
Speaker 1: a little late for the meeting, and because we didn't
Speaker 1: have enough sleep, I go into the room and I
Speaker 1: pour myself a cup of coffee in the conference room
Speaker 1: with investors, and of course I offer everybody coffee because
Speaker 1: I feel like I was raised well that's my you know,
Speaker 1: my mom and dad would say that's what you should
Speaker 1: be doing. And so of course when the handshakes came around,
Speaker 1: they you know, my CTO UM shook his hand, mail
Speaker 1: ct O r CFO shook his hand. They got to
Speaker 1: me and they said, you must be the assistant from
Speaker 1: the bank, and I politely said, no, I'm Sheila Lerio Marcello,
Speaker 1: very nice to meet you. I'm founder, chairwoman and CEO
Speaker 1: of care dot Com. And and then we proceeded with
Speaker 1: the meeting. I didn't miss a beat. I decided I
Speaker 1: wasn't going to assault the wound. I think they felt
Speaker 1: embarrassed enough as it is. I decided in those instances,
Speaker 1: in these moments I have and I've gotten so many
Speaker 1: stories like this, I just take the high road because
Speaker 1: my hope is that they were impressed. I believe they
Speaker 1: did invest in the I p O. And my hope
Speaker 1: is that they themselves become better at addressing this unconscious
Speaker 1: bias by seeing the role modeling that hopefully the next
Speaker 1: woman that's in front of them, they're not going to
Speaker 1: assume she's the assistant from the bank, right. I just
Speaker 1: I just think I'm advising women that they will face
Speaker 1: these challenges and so they need to think about what
Speaker 1: role are you playing as a role model for the
Speaker 1: next woman. This happens too. That's for of the way
Speaker 1: that I think about things. How can I make an
Speaker 1: impactum paying it forward the next time around? And lastly,
Speaker 1: this is very specific to female entrepreneurs. As you ask
Speaker 1: me how do we get more women in tech? I
Speaker 1: often advise female entrepreneurs always be pitching for your next round.
Speaker 1: What do I mean by that? If you're raising a
Speaker 1: seed round, make sure the quality of your deck, it's
Speaker 1: as if you're raising for an A round. If you're
Speaker 1: raising for an A round, make sure the quality of
Speaker 1: your deck is raising for a B round. Why because
Speaker 1: the bar is high. Beat it, delight them, surprise them,
Speaker 1: you know, beat out that unconscious bias. That's what we
Speaker 1: need to be doing. And be confident in what you're doing,
Speaker 1: believe in it, stay true to who you are, and
Speaker 1: pursue what's in your heart. Oh, Sheila, this has been
Speaker 1: just such a great conversation, and I am so grateful,
Speaker 1: as I know our audiences for all of the good
Speaker 1: advice you convey today, for your contributions from your businesses,
Speaker 1: because they have indeed created great social value. And I
Speaker 1: think you're right. I think care today is top of mind.
Speaker 1: At least we can hope that it's top of mind
Speaker 1: and we do more to understand why it's such a
Speaker 1: critical issue. So grateful to hear how you continue to
Speaker 1: use your power for purpose and much success, and we
Speaker 1: will look forward to all of those exciting announcements that
Speaker 1: are coming in the future. Thank you, Sheila Marcello so much.
Speaker 1: Thanks Milann, what an inspiring conversation. Sheila has so many
Speaker 1: lessons we can learn from. Here are three things that
Speaker 1: particularly stuck with me. First, even today, women entrepreneurs often
Speaker 1: have to persuade male investors that women focused projects are worthwhile.
Speaker 1: But when you persist as Sheila did, you can build
Speaker 1: a business that makes a real difference in the world
Speaker 1: old Second, no matter the industry, it's important to remember
Speaker 1: that many so called women's issues, such as childcare, are
Speaker 1: really everyone's issues and they can have a ripple effect
Speaker 1: throughout the economy. And finally, pursue what matters. Imagine the
Speaker 1: incredible things you can accomplish when you have a life
Speaker 1: dedicated to purpose. See you next week. Made by Women
Speaker 1: is brought to you by the Seneca Women Podcast Network
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio, with support from founding partner PNG