How Moms Can Be The Most Needed Force In Tech Innovation

A few years ago, a colleague pulled me aside into an office and wanted to share with me that our Vice President of Marketing heard that I was a homeschooling mom.

I was thrilled! She was also a mom of girls. I looked up to her and even thought, “Wow, she would be a great mentor for me and my career!”

She continued.

She advised that I needed to tread lightly, and to not speak out that I was a homeschooling parent because of the perceived lack of commitment to the business.

I couldn’t hear the rest of the words in that conversation. All of this while I was the owner of the global search media marketing programs driving over 60% of traffic to the website and responsible for over $1 million in ad spend for this billion-dollar software company.

I never felt so alone.

These were incredibly outspoken and powerful women in the company that I admired.

A few weeks after this meeting, I booked a flight without my husband and kids and flew to Washington, DC to do my “Clarity Run”.

This is the run I used to do by myself when I found myself at a crossroads. I would run for hours and lose myself in my thoughts to solve life’s most complex problems.

It was the same route that I ran when after completing my undergraduate biology degree, I decided not to pursue medical school, and the same run when I decided to leave a guy I was engaged to at the risk of my parents disowning me…BIG life altering decisions.

On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, with tears streaming down my face (and with all the middle school tourists in June!), this was the place where I experienced God.

I stood where Martin Luther King, Jr. stood and imagined what it might have looked like that day of his “I Have A Dream” speech, and felt the power of that moment.

I wiped off my tears, and made my decision then to only work with people, companies, and products that I wanted to serve.

I walked in on Monday morning at 9am to put in my two-week’s notice. Later that day, I also turned down an offer from a unicorn startup.

I was on a mission for extraordinary excellence.

We live in a time and place where people and businesses are craving to be served and treated well.

Empathy is required for true innovation to take place. It’s where you become so committed to serving your clients, that you can create the best solutions and experiences for them.

Now more than ever, moms are needed in business and technology, to bring their unique perspective and to create the best products for businesses to teach and influence the next generation.

Over the last few years, our daughter has been a beta tester for most of Osmo’s products latest releases. We support her in this so that she knows that her voice matters, and that because of her speaking up in even a little way, she has helped build a great portfolio of innovative products within a company to reach over 30,000 schools in 42 countries, and millions of families and children, including homeschoolers.

As a mom of two girls building innovative products in Silicon Valley while fighting through my own fears to speak up, I want to leave you with this:

If you are woman in a position of power or influence, you have the responsibility to raise your voice and encourage other women and girls to find theirs.

Join the movement at: https://www.womeningrowth.com

Sophia Eng is a tactical and intuitive growth advisor and consultant to startups and small businesses. She also holds the position of Vice President, Growth Marketing at Trade The Fifth. Views are her own.

Sophia has a passion for closing the minority and gender gap in business leadership and ownership. She founded a community group called Women in Growth, open to all women in startup, tech, and business communities for support.

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