A few weeks ago I quit my job as a managing director with a venture firm to launch my own company and become a full-time entrepreneur.
Once I was ready to go public with the actual business I was starting, I went to have lunch with one of the people who had earlier expressed support for my career change. Below is a short transcript of our conversation:
He says (leaning over the table): “So, I am so excited to hear about your new venture! I always thought you’d make a great entrepreneur. I can’t wait to hear what you’re starting.”
I say: “I’m launching a new online community and resource for professional moms, called Work It, Mom!”
He says (leaning back in his chair, the look of excitement gone from his face: “Oh…”
I say (pretending to not have noticed his reaction): “There are 30+ million working moms in the U.S. alone and no great online destination for them to connect and network with each other.”
He says: “Oh…. Hmm…. Right… Interesting.”
I say: “What, you don’t like it?”
He says: “Well, no, it’s not that, it’s just that I never thought you’d do some mommy thing.”
Had I told him that I was launching a social network for say, venture capitalists or biking enthusiasts, I am sure we would have then gone into an extensive discussion of the size of the market, difficulty of adoption, drivers of spreading the word, key metrics to track, companies and sites to partner with, and so on. In other words, we would have talked business. But as soon as he heard the word “mom,” he was ready to dismiss my company as nothing more than a personal hobby.
My perspective has changed since launching Work It, Mom! First, I had a series of conversations, similar to the one I described above, with other guys from the venture capital world. (This isn’t to say that all the men I knew in venture reacted this way — some are investing in my company because they believe in me and the market potential.) Then I went out to recruit bloggers to write for Work It, Mom! I reached out to two women (both were moms) who are fairly prominent bloggers and speakers on career and business topics. Both came back saying that they’d love to blog about career and business for us, but they have to decline because they feel being associated with a mommy site will hurt their careers. “I don’t want to be termed a mommy blogger” one of them said to me.
Mom stigma does exist in the business world. My experience with it has been short and limited, but as I’ve started to confront it, I’ve realized that it is real.
Image from Work It, Mom!
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