Who Packs Your Parachute? ~via @katkrose, Founder @getwiseher
Years ago, when I was traveling for work, I turned on the TV after a long day and for some reason the satellite wasn’t working properly—I could only get local stations and a religious station.
I kept the TV on in the background while I called down to the front desk, and after I hung up I realized I was tuned to the religious station and there was a televangelist preaching. While I was searching for the remote to change the channel, the preacher started telling the story of a man named Charles Plumb. He was a U.S. Navy jet pilot in Vietnam, and after 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted to safety.
I was transfixed and kept listening...
He continued and told how, years later, Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant when a man from another table came over and said, “You’re Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!”
“How in the world did you know that?” asked Plumb.
“I packed your parachute,” the man replied.
Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped Plumb’s hand and said, “I guess it worked!” Plumb assured him, “It sure did. If your chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.”
Plumb couldn’t sleep that night, thinking about that man—wondering what he had looked like in his Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back, bell-bottom trousers. Plumb wondered how many times he might have seen him and not even said “Good morning, how are you?” or anything—because Plumb was a fighter pilot and the other man was just a sailor.
Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, each time holding in his hands the fate of someone he didn’t know.
The question the preacher asked at the end of the sermon was, “Who packs your parachute?”
As we go to launch wiseHer, our startup that my team and I have poured our heart, soul, money, and more than a few tears into, I am reminded of that story because too often we focus on the one in front—the person who is visible—and no one looks for or even asks about who is behind the scenes. People ask me all the time, “How do you do it all?” The answer is, I don’t. It’s a team: my co-founders Lisa Raiche and Erin Cox, and our tech team, Gina Gonzales and Mohammad Ali, our web designer Jennifer Bonito and social guruess Victoria Tibbetts.
These are the people who pack my parachute—every single day. I know they do, I appreciate them, and I hope they know it.
It has been quite a journey to be sure: what was supposed to be a quick MVP ended up being a slow, painful slog as the technology gods did not smile on us. We are—like the vast majority of female-led startups—not venture capital or angel funding backed. We are scrappy and we work through challenges, and through it we work as a team and weathered every storm. We found and hired a real tech lead and things started humming along.
But as recently as last week it was iffy if we were going to launch on our target date. We don’t talk publicly enough about the challenges we face as founders, but it was one of those Murphy’s Law situations of: “if it could go wrong, it did go wrong”—yet we kept pushing forward, always keeping the Mission in mind.
wiseHer helps women accelerate their business and careers by providing them with access to experts, education and funding opportunities because we want to help them feel supported, enabled and hopeful for the future.
We have a saying that all the forces of darkness could not stop the forward momentum of what we were building. And it didn’t. It’s very much a work in progress, but women can find the help they need from thousands of experts—in all different disciplines—at an affordable price.
All the forces of darkness cannot stop you when you are surrounded by light
We are surrounded by light, and I want to shine that light on those who have helped us to pack our parachutes and get us to this point.
All the people who’ve lent us their expertise as we’ve sprinted toward the finish line. Kara Bianchi whose branding and positioning helped wiseHer get its start, Brenda Crawshaw, Lauren Gill, Anna Tenuta, Laura Mayhew
Our advisers Anita Brearton and Sheryl Schultz
The Microsoft startup team who accepted us and gave us the tools to scale Noga Tal, Herut Omesi and the specialists Kevin Gates and Nikki Conley who offered up their technical knowledge
The team at Fast CTO stepped in and helped us figure out our hosting challenges, Igor Belagorudsky
The WPI TAN team at WPI Sarah Mahan, Donna Levin, Bob Mason, Susan Penta, Randy Wheeler, John Paulter, Micah Chase and the late Joe Vignaly who accepted us into their community and inaugural cohort and made us believe we belonged there--so much gratitude!
The Dots -- Jody Comins, Erin Mahoney, Michelle Mercier, Jen Karofsky, Katy Shemligian, Jill Dixon
The legal team at Gennari Aronson, Larry Gennari, Michael Mahoney for not only providing legal guidance but the personal and moral support all founders should be fortunate enough to have.
The many friends and neighbors and who pitch in and help with the kids, treat this bootstrapped founder to a mani-pedi or my tech channel colleagues who inspire me to keep going, either by listening and drying my tears, kicking my butt, contributing to my crowdfunding campaign, buying me a dinner, martini or margarita, letting me share a room so I could attend events or bringing wiseHer into their organizations-- Lorna Garey, Cristina Greysman, Janet Schjins, Julie Koslen Diehl, Katie Bird, Mary Catherine Wilson, Holly Delgado, Hilary Gadda, Heather Margolis
The CompTIA team and the Advancing Women in Technology EC who give their time to design programs that help recruit and retain women in tech it is my honor to serve with all of you and count you as friends--Nancy Hammervik, Blythe Girnus, Kathleen Martin. Caroline Smith, Cory Schaeffer, Heather Murray, Caitlyn McCaugran, Jeff Ponts, Karl Palachuk, Kristine Stewart, Rayanne Buchianico, Amy Babinchak, Sandy Ashworth
The steadfast support of people I’ve been fortunate enough to have in my life -- Laura Rubinstein, Julie Eason, Tonya Hicks, Patty Farmer, Traci DeForge, Ted Rubin, Lou Bortone, Jen Groover, Alyssa Dver, Robyn Parets, Barbara Tibbets, Lisa Tepper, Sean Troy, Tracey Welson Rossman, Caroline Gutman
Rachel Sklar and Glynnis MacNoil -- founders of TheLi.st and Tereza Nemessanyi for introducing me. The list of supporters from TheLi.st is too long to mention here but know I appreciate you all!
Our collaboration partners, Bobbie Carlton-Innovation Women, Lori Richardson-Women Sales Pros, Merici Vinton-Ada's List, Helena Ronis-Women Founders Community, Gloria Bell-Women in Tech Summit, Ayumi Moore Aoki-Women in Tech, Vicki Saunders-SheEO World, Marie Warner-Boston Women Connect
The Nasdaq Milestone Makers team who we only just met but have already had a huge impact on our business -- Nicola Corzine, Colin Mahin and all the other founders in the cohort, we look forward to seeing you all rise!
And finally to my husband, Howard who puts up with me and my wild ideas, dreams and goals for a better tomorrow: he is a guy who “gets it” and has always been a supporter of mine and women everywhere—and to my two kids, who make me laugh and who support mom in everything she does. These are the loves of my life!
There are so many others over the years who have packed my parachute I can’t possibly name them all. I hope you know who you are and know I appreciate each and every one of you.
You will see many of their smiling faces on wiseher.com as they all come out and set themselves up as experts in the network.
In the end, no matter what happens with wiseHer, (our IPO will certainly be forthcoming!--if you knew me you'd know I wasn't joking) these people—and so many more—have made an indelible mark on my heart and soul, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of my parachute every single day. Because of them, we get to pack the parachutes of countless women across the globe as we help them go farther, faster, wiseHer.
