Brittany Greenfield – CEO & Founder of Wabbi

Wabbi-founder-Brittany-Greenfield

Website: https://wabbisoft.com/

“International Women’s Day is always a great reminder to step back and look at the progress women have made, but also evaluate where we need to continue to focus, so I can set my goal for how I can be part of the solution.”

“For me this year, it will be supporting fellow female founders. Despite 2020 being a record setting year for VC, female founders were not part of this equation with funding dropping 31%, despite that their companies continue to exit faster and at higher valuations. I am dedicated to raising awareness about the persistent issues of supporting female founders and in doing so, helping to find the right partners that support female founders.”

International Women’s Day is just one day that reminds and pushes us all to support more diverse and inclusive societies and workplaces. It’s not diversity for diversity’s sake, but because there are real benefits to us as individuals and companies when we get to participate in communities where we can grow and learn from different perspectives.”

When asked how can women better enable each other instead of compete? What needs to change in your opinion? Greenfield replied “This is one of the greatest fallacies. The strong female leaders I know never compete to put others down, but rather compete to bring out the best in each other. They are each other’s biggest advocates. When one of us succeeds, we all succeed.”

 

 

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Don’t change yourself. Carve out your own path. The right people will respect and support you for being you, and the wrong people aren’t worth your time. It’s not always going to be easy to follow this – and there will certainly be times you don’t – but if you let that be your compass, that’s when you will succeed.”

Don’t go looking for mentors – you’ll know them when you meet them. It’s not about finding a man or a woman, but rather a person that understands you and always has your best interest at heart. I think one of the biggest challenges women face in finding mentors is not finding them, but actually using them. Don’t be afraid just to ask for time – these relationships will evolve naturally, and the best mentors will make the time because somebody has done it for them.”

We don’t need to mentor young girls to dream bigger – they dream just as big as the person sitting next to them. What we need to do is make sure they have the psychological security to never let go of those big dreams. This can come from any place – family, friends, teachers, mentors – you name it, but most importantly has to come from themselves.”

“I’ve been lucky that while I’ve always had those people there to remind me that they’ll be there for me no matter what, but (sometimes daily), I have to remind myself that failures will happen and *I* will be able to pick myself up, move on, and learn from it.”

Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable. It is advice I give to all founders, not just women.  When it was given to me, I thought it was something to do with being a woman and promptly ignored it. But I realised – the hard way – that it had nothing to do with my gender.”

“It’s about being willing to acknowledge and share your problems, because no matter how talented you are, you’re never going to solve them alone. People may not always get your issues specifically, but they’re always going to be able to help in some way.”