“They say necessity is the mother of invention. But what if the mother herself is the inventor?”
As a mother of two and the founder of Women in Cloud, I’ve spent over five years building an ecosystem that unlocks a billion dollars in economic access for women. Along the way, I’ve helped over 1,000 tech innovators go from idea to industry impact. I’ve partnered with hyperscalers, launched cloud and AI ventures, advised global leaders—and tucked my kids into bed after late-night Zoom calls.
I didn’t just build a company. I built a movement—while managing dinner plans, deadlines, and dreams.
What I’ve learned—and what I want every mother-founder to know—is this: Motherhood doesn’t compete with innovation. It prepares you for it.
Because to lead in a world of complexity, you need more than ambition. You need preparation—the kind that starts in the home, shows up in the boardroom, and ripples through communities.
That’s why I created this Preparation Playbook for Moms in Startups—a blueprint born from lived experience and inspired by the women in our empowHER50 campaign, like Rajshree Varma and Sharmila Rathinam—founders using tech to drive systemic change in healthcare, food security, and beyond.
This article is a tribute to them—and to every mom who’s building the future while raising smart, curious human beings.
The ICONIC Preparation Playbook for Moms in Startups
Building an iconic company as a mom takes a different kind of power—part strategic, part maternal, all heart. Here’s what it looks like:
- Build What You Live
Sharmila Rathinam, founder of Eat Happy Now, is reshaping hunger relief through tech. She saw the contradiction—overflowing grocery waste and hungry families—and built a solution that turned that pain point into purpose.
Eat Happy Now connects surplus food from local grocers and culturally specific providers to those in need using real-time digital tracking. In just two years, her platform has rescued over 634,000 pounds of food, provided 508,000+ meals, and prevented 1.5 million pounds of CO₂ from entering the atmosphere.
But she didn’t stop there. Sharmila launched youth leadership programs to train students in food logistics and data tools—ensuring the next generation leads with tech and heart. Her story proves this: When moms build, they don’t just feed people. They reshape systems.
- Lead with Empathy and Data
Rajshree Varma, founder and CEO of AffableBPM, is revolutionizing non-clinical healthcare operations. Her no-code, AI-powered platform helps healthcare organizations manage contracts, compliance, inventory, and incident workflows—with no IT team required.
Built from just $100 and a bold vision, AffableBPM boosts operational efficiency by over 70%, while preventing costly penalties and easing administrative burnout. But her true innovation is inclusion: she hires women returning from career breaks and mentors founders through Ada Developers Academy and the UW Foster School of Business.
Her platform doesn’t just automate. It opens doors, builds futures, and democratizes access to tech—exactly what innovation should do.
- Create Micro-Moments of Momentum
Mothers know how to move the needle—one diaper, one email, one investor call at a time. We don’t wait for perfect conditions. We build in microbursts.
Ten minutes of courage. Twenty minutes of clarity. Thirty minutes of community. That’s how mom-led unicorns are born—not in sprints, but in stretches between life’s demands.
- Build a Table, Don’t Wait for a Seat
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard, “This may not be the right time to fund you.” But mothers know how to make time out of no time.
So, we build our own tables. That’s what Women in Cloud is about. That’s what ICONS, our Oscar-qualified documentary, was about. And that’s what every pitch, partnership, and platform I’ve ever touched is rooted in.
Because when women—especially moms—build with purpose, we don’t just join the economy. We rewrite it.
Why Moms Build Differently—and Why That’s a Superpower
Moms think three steps ahead.
We design for humans, not personas.
We test our ideas at the dinner table.
We adapt. We listen. We lead.
And when we show up as founders, we don’t just raise capital.
We raise the future.
To Every Mom with a Vision
If you’re holding a baby in one arm and a business plan in the other—keep going.
If you’re pitching with sleep-deprived eyes and lionhearted hope—don’t stop.
If you’re wondering whether motherhood makes you less of a founder—it doesn’t.
It makes you iconic.
So here’s to Sharmila, to Rajshree, and to every mother out there building quietly, boldly, and brilliantly.
You are not just raising kids.
You’re creating code, raising capital, and building the future.
And the world is better because of it.
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