Why did you decide to become a mentor?
Mentorship has always felt natural to me. Long before it was a formal role, I was the person friends, colleagues, and founders called when they were stuck in a tough decision or navigating growth. Over time, I realized that what many early-stage leaders need isn’t just tactical advice it’s a thought partner who can see both the people and the business side of the equation. I decided to formally mentor because I’ve seen how isolating leadership can be. Founders carry pressure that few people truly understand. Being a mentor allows me to normalize the chaos of building something from nothing, while also helping leaders raise their standards and sharpen their decision-making. It’s deeply aligned with my career in organizational psychology and startup operations supporting humans so they can build exceptional companies.
How did you get your career start?
My career started in education. I earned my undergraduate and master’s degrees in education and psychology and spent five years teaching in the New York City public school system. I loved helping people grow, but I quickly realized I was spending more time navigating systems and paperwork than actually developing humans. That realization led me into operations. I joined a retail company in New York City and spent over a decade helping scale it through major growth stages and an eventual acquisition. I built teams, systems, hiring processes, and leadership structures from the ground up. That hands-on scaling experience combined with my academic background in organizational leadership became the foundation of my work today. I didn’t just study leadership; I lived it inside growing businesses.
What do mentees usually come to you for?
Most mentees come to me during moments of transition or pressure when they’re scaling quickly, hiring their first team, stepping into leadership for the first time, or feeling overwhelmed by competing priorities. Many founders are strong visionaries but haven’t yet built the systems or leadership frameworks to support sustainable growth. In mentorship sessions, I focus on three areas: clarity, structure, and leadership development. We break down challenges into practical next steps, identify blind spots, and build systems that reduce chaos. I often help with team dynamics, hiring strategy, performance management, founder confidence, and decision-making frameworks. Mentees can expect both empathy and accountability. I create a space where leaders feel supported but also challenged to operate at a higher level.
What's been your favourite mentorship success story so far?
One of my favorite mentorship experiences was working with a first-time founder who felt completely overwhelmed after raising early funding. She had a strong product and vision but struggled with delegation and team alignment. Her stress was affecting both performance and morale. Over several months, we worked on leadership clarity, defined roles and responsibilities, and implemented simple performance systems. More importantly, we worked on her confidence as a CEO helping her shift from “doing everything” to actually leading. Within six months, her team engagement improved significantly, turnover stabilized, and she reported feeling more in control and less reactive. Watching someone move from survival mode to grounded leadership is always the most rewarding outcome.
What are you getting out of being a mentor?
Mentorship keeps me sharp. Every founder I work with is building something different, facing new market realities, new technologies, and new cultural shifts. It forces me to continuously evolve my thinking while staying grounded in core leadership principles. On a personal level, mentoring deepens my own leadership. It strengthens my listening skills, empathy, and ability to distill complexity into clarity. It also reinforces why I started my company in the first place: to help leaders build organizations that are both high-performing and human. There’s something incredibly meaningful about watching someone gain confidence, make a hard decision, or build a healthier team because of a conversation we had. That impact is what motivates me to continue.
