Starting Trouble

Vani is passionate about enabling artists to realize their commercial potential. She founded a consulting firm for arts organizations, collaborating with clients such as Lincoln Center, World Music Institute, a host of theater and dance companies, and visual artists from around the world. Prior to this, she worked at top-tier consulting firms such as Bain & Company and The Boston Consulting Group. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, received a Fulbright to India to study temple art and architecture, and has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives with her husband, two daughters, and an inordinate number of crayons, markers, and paintbrushes.

Mother of 3 who left a full-time job last year to work on creating a work/life balance. Professionally, I am known for relationship building and strategic planning in higher education. My passions include: supporting working mothers, reforming education for out of the box thinkers, supporting children with learning disabilities and their parents, fashion, work/life balance, healthy living, transforming the idea of career services in education, education and job opportunities for disadvantaged youth, gaining skills versus degrees, and more.

Carly is an employment attorney barred in both New Jersey and New York. She represents both employers and employees on a variety of employment-related issues including discrimination, retaliation, wage and hour, contractual matters, non-competes, and whistleblowing. She actively litigates matters in both the federal and state courts and recently helped obtain a verdict of nearly $1 million dollars in a single Plaintiff gender discrimination and retaliation case.

Renske Gosselink-Tibosch lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter Kiki (6 months). She moved from Amsterdam to New York with her husband 3 years ago. Together with two co-founders, she decided to bring something beautiful from her home country to expecting women here: Noobie Box. Noobie Box is a free gift box for moms-to-be, filled with great products, coupons and trusted information to support women through the first days, weeks and months of motherhood. Noobie Box was launched end of 2015.

Jenny is the Senior Director of Strategy and Operations at ProjectEd, a mission-driven consulting group focused on making education products and services better. Her expansive knowledge of literacy and pedagogy is paired with her natural talent for interpersonal connection, a combo that makes her an indispensable partner for anyone looking to think deeply about the classroom. Previously, Jenny worked in professional services for a large EdTech company and in public school classrooms as a teacher and Literacy Coach.

At CarrotNewYork, Jennifer develops new client relationships with non-profits and corporations, develops agency strategy and vision, and oversees creative education program development. Before joining the executive management team at CNY, she held a variety of roles in education including classroom teacher, educational technology director, and has served as a consultant for educational technology companies and learning organizations. Jennifer was born and raised in Dallas, TX and moved to New York 5 years ago with her husband. They are now raising their 18-month-old daughter in Brooklyn, with frequent flights back home for Tex-Mex, margaritas, and family.

I had the opportunity to pitch #StartingTrouble and the work we are doing to change the conversation about #MomsWhoWork at the Jersey City Tech Meetup hosted by Wylei at their awesome new HQ in downtown Jersey City on April 19, 2017. Here's the pitch.

"I’m just a meal prepping mama who loves fitness, wine and interior design! During the day I’m a Space Planner in Washington, DC. But I’m also a fitness and nutrition Coach with a mission to help women to love themselves by discovering their strength and confidence."

Zahra Amanpour opened Indiegrove (the first coworking space in Jersey City) in January 2013. Since then, the Indiegrove community has grown to over 250 members and become a hub for entrepreneurship. Indiegrove is a dynamic and inclusive community that balances comfort and professionalism. Zahra’s career has been dedicated to economic access and equality. She has an MA in Social Psychology and MBA in International Business. Zahra believes business can and should be used as a tool for empowerment, equality and happiness.

Starting Trouble is a podcast show about working women. Every season we cover different themes such as "Women Solopreneurs", "Women Leaders", "Moms Who Work" etc. At the end of every season we bring back the women that were interviewed to continue the conversation we started during the season. The second season of the show was about women intrapreneurs and leaders. This meetup event brought to a close some of the fantastic stories we covered this past winter.

Heather Waibel is an MBA who speaks German and has traveled to over 30 countries. She was a "cigar celebrity" as the owner of Fumee, a cigar bar and media company. After an exit, she went corporate and spent half a decade doing business operations and UX project management at a Fortune 500 company. Returning to her entrepreneurial ways, she is combining her corporate experience with her 15 years of yoga practice into her next success, Welnys.

Adrian Miller launched Adrian Miller Sales Training 30 years ago. She’s also a Mom of 2, avid reader (runs a book club), dedicated observer of the human condition and roams the streets with her camera at the ready, passionate movie and theater goer, passive foodie (doesn’t cook but loves to eat), married forever, world traveler (8 weeks of vacation per year), only child, committed networker and connector, writer and gym aficionado. She loves what she does and plans to start more businesses before too long.

Kate is the personable, clear-minded and direct CEO of ProjectEd. Kate brings a career of leadership experience to bear as a woman leader of this mission-driven company. She started her career as an IT consultant for PriceWaterhouseCoopers before moving into education, where she’s spent the past 16 years creating and developing new products and teams. As Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, Kate’s influence reverberated throughout Amplify, touching products and teams throughout the company.

"Working with children is not everyone’s cup of tea, but those who are passionate, kind, patient, and have a very special kind of heart and talent can work with children and make a difference in their lives. I’m lucky to be one of those people."

Isabelle has both extensive experience in multilingual education and an extensive international business background. She started Be Lingual, a premier language program for schools and language immersion summer camp, in 2007 and has acquired broad expertise in the education industry thanks to this eight year venture. Before switching to education, Isabelle worked internationally for 8 years for a leading hospitality group and for an international finance consulting firm. She holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the Booth School of Business (University of Chicago). For her undergraduate degrees, she studied at ESCP Europe in France, the UK, and Germany and holds business degrees from the three countries.

"I managed the digital content business of the National Basketball Association for six years and left in 2015 to work with an old friend on launching a kids’ re-commerce site, Girls on Greenwich. My move away from a more corporate career was fueled largely by my desire to feel organically connected to my work product and build an organization with a culture of my own making. The unexpected byproduct was finding a community of like-minded, inspiring and supportive female entrepreneurs."

December 15 Meetup event to continue the conversation we started with the first season of the show.

"I barter and trade all of the time. When I was a student in undergrad, I bartered tutoring lessons to help someone for a logic exam in exchange for coffee. The passion started at a young age. I originally went to law school, because I wanted to be a judge. I have always wanted to be an agent for helping make the world a better place, and I found entrepreneurship to be the best fit to live this value. "

A graphic designer, brand strategist and a budding social entrepreneur on a quest to balance between commercially viable and strategically driven, yet soul stirring and socially responsible design practice. With the aim of creating a vibrant ecosystem that gives creative talent in this country (India) a thriving platform to flourish.

Lost Lorelei is a fashion label that celebrates life in the outback and by the sea. www.lostlorelei.com

Dr. Jennifer Rhodes is a licensed psychologist, dating coach, and seduction expert who has developed an innovated, holistic approach to supporting people in their search for love. A former forensic psychologist with expertise in divorce and child custody issues, Dr. Rhodes uses relationship science to help her clients with the personal growth necessary to find a loving and long lasting relationship.

"Jingjing Tian is an aerospace engineer with degrees in Biomedical Engineering, English, and an MFA in Creative Writing. She created HeyU because she wanted to create more delight, empathy, and more love in the world! When not working on HeyU, she likes to write scripts. She is a Sundance Writer’s Lab & Sundance Sloan Foundation finalist."

"I’m a health and wellbeing professional, passionate about practicing yoga each day, running, enjoying good food and maintaining a healthy mind. I’ve recently launched my company, Founded Wellness, a pop up well-being gym concept for the corporate workplace. This combines my eight years of experience working in health promotion and public relations with my life as a yoga teacher. Through Founded Wellness I aim to help people in the workplace feel better with the delivery of a tailored timetable of happy and inspiring wellbeing gym activities. I also work with consumer brands on a consultancy basis to more genuinely connect in with the health and well-being scene."

"I am focused, driven and a serial entrepreneur believe in taking risks and following your dreams and not be stuck in some dead end job. You have to stay committed to your vision and execute on that vision. Execution is key."

"I’ve always had a hawk-eye for the details around me — the little things other people don’t see or ideas for making things prettier. Going into a career in Graphic Design was an obvious fit for my talents. However becoming a business owner wasn’t my natural match. My career success hasn’t simply come from my creative skills but from the commitment to learning and figuring out how to be my own boss, how to bring in clients and ultimately how to run a business."

Bianca Herbert founded New York Tea Co. in 2015 after living in Tokyo, Japan. Finding it difficult to access to quality products made with Matcha, that she extremely enjoyed while living abroad. She created her own recipes and eventually ended up with dozens of original recipes using any type of tea she could get her hands on. She first introduced Matcha Chocolate Chip cookies to the world and has since been expanding her brand. She is aiming to disrupt the tea market with her innovative products and build a global community.

Women are such go-getters! Tiffany’s sweet, soft voice belies a focused and smart business woman who inherently understands what it takes to get a business going, even if its early days in her solopreneur journey. Tiffany shares my thoughts on big businesses losing out by not making it more attractive for people to stay and work for them. I loved the way she validates entrepreneurship — she says, if you can do great work for someone else, there’s no reason why you can’t do it for yourself.

Many of us have been driven to start our own business soon as we became mothers. Natalie too decided that she had to choose a career other than a traditional corporate job if she wanted to be able to spend time with her children. Natalie is a serial entrepreneur. She is the founder of Nika Consulting and recently launched goBaby - a children's travel gear rental app.

During her undergraduate years, Rebecca started her full-time career in the health field working in pharmaceutical development. She then changed courses and moved to Europe. In Spain, she founded a tour company which expanded into Portugal where she opened a beachfront restaurant. Upon her return to the United States, her lifelong passion for fitness and nutrition gave birth to MyBodyBuddy.org.

I am a Mom, a woman in tech, a first generation American and the first one in my family to start her own business. If ever there was a case against becoming an entrepreneur, I am it. Despite the many challenges though there is nothing else I'd rather be. As it happens, there are several women just like me. Their stories are the stuff of legends and I wanted to tell them.