5 Lessons from 5 Remarkable Founders

Including why cash is queen, starving is overrated, and no one wants an asshole on the cap table.

Dear Fabulous Female Founders,

Tuesday night I trotted out my trusty old LBD, which shockingly still fit, to facilitate a panel discussion with five remarkable founders at a capital literacy event.¹

On stage with me were five women I would happily spend an entire weekend with (left to right in photo below): Mel Strong of Next Ventures, Melanie Marconi of VIDA Coworking, Brianne Mees of Tender Loving Empire, Sadie Lincoln of barre3, and Lucy De Leon of La Patroncita and Salsas Locas. Adding myself in, our businesses spanned transportation consulting and operations, venture capital investing, coworking, retail, fitness, and food. Between us, we offered decades of hard-won entrepreneurial wisdom.

Photo credit: FLI Media.

The audience came to learn about capital readiness. We ended up talking about much more, with five key themes emerging.

1. Cash Is Sovereign Queen of the Universe. Everything Else Is a Lady-in-Waiting.

Every founder on the panel had a different capital story. Bootstrapping. Venture capital. SBA, CDFI, and traditional loans and credit lines. Angel investors. Crowdfunding. Franchising.

Yet beneath those differences was agreement: cash flow is everything.

Cash flow buys options. Cash flow buys time. Cash flow helps you sleep at night.

Investors, lenders, grants, and crowdfunding can accelerate growth, but none of them permanently solve a business model that doesn’t generate cash.

💰👑✨

2. No Assholes on the Cap Table.

Choose your investors, lenders, advisors, and business partners carefully, for money always comes attached to people, and people come attached to expectations, personalities, values, communication styles, and sometimes giant headaches. Who you take money from matters almost as much as the money itself. As I wrote about here, cultivating financial relationships in calm waters can save you in the storm.

💰🚀✨

3. Purpose Without Profit Is a Hobby.

Brianne’s purpose is supporting artists, makers, and small businesses. Sadie is empowering women to feel strong, balanced, and whole in their own bodies. Mel is enhancing human capability through innovative health care access. Lucy is crafting culturally authentic meals for schools, wholesale buyers, and food service programs. Melanie is increasing productivity, building community, and fostering work-life balance.

All are running businesses to make money. (More here.) Purpose + profit. Mission + money. Two sides of the same coin. A business that cannot sustain itself cannot fulfill its purpose.

At my companies—Alta Planning + Design and Alta Bicycle Share—our mission was to create active communities where bicycling and walking were safe, healthy, normal and fun daily activities.

4. Self-Care Belongs in the Business Plan.

We weren’t talking about spa days and bubble baths; we were talking about survival. (More here.)

Executive coaching, therapy, peer groups, exercise, sleep, boundaries, time with family, yoga, etc…: whatever you need to bring your A++ game, because YOU are your company’s greatest asset. You must protect your energy like a ferocious Mama Bear protects her cub. No one will do this for you.

Self-care isn’t optional, indulgent, or something you’ll get to after the business succeeds. Self-care must be baked into your business strategy.

🏃‍♀️🧠💚

5. Pay Yourself.

Several of our esteemed panelists survived on little compensation for too many years, yet all bore and still bear responsibilities for mortgages, rent, children, healthcare, employees, and more.

The consensus: pay yourself ASAP, and if your business cannot yet support a reasonable salary, that doesn’t necessarily mean don’t start it. But it may mean don’t quit your day job and do raise more money up-front than you’d originally intended. Your goal is to build something to support the life you’re trying to create.

💵🙌✨

~ Mia

P.S. More articles about capital options and literacy here.

1. Event hosted by Xcelerate Women, Oregon’s premier organization focused on helping women grow and scale their businesses with business advising, peer mentorship, and education programs. Email hello@xceleratewomen.org for more info. Co-hosts: Oregon Entrepreneur Network, Latino Founders, and Metro Innovation Hub.