Illana Raia's journey to entrepreneurship stemmed from her love of law and her personal experiences with mentorship. Despite loving her career as a mergers and acquisitions lawyer, she took a break to raise her children and later rejoined her firm. Realizing the impact of showing her daughter accomplished women at work, Illana envisioned scaling this experience to benefit other girls. She left her law practice, driven by the idea of creating a platform where girls could meet female leaders, leading to the founding of Etra. Illana is the founder and CEO of Etra, a membership platform for girls believing that mentors matter as early as middle school. Illana brings girls directly into companies they choose to meet female leaders face to face. Raia's National Research on the current state of girls confidence in 2022 and 2024 has been featured by Forbes, CBS News, Yahoo Finance, and Nasdaq, and the most recent 2025 research was conducted in partnership with Hello Sunshine and launched at Cannes. Illana is Chair of the International Space Station, US National Lab Education and Workforce Subcommittee. She serves on the National Girls Collaborative Project Champions Board, and was recently appointed to the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine Board of Governors. Illana contributes to Forbes Business Council and has authored over 60 articles for Huffington Post, Ms. Matt. Magazine and Thrive Global. Illana was named one of the first 250 entrepreneurs on the Forbes Next 1000 list. An Inc 500 female founder and recognized twice by Fast company's world changing ideas, her award-winning book, Etre Girls Who Do You Want to Be? was released on the day of the Girl, 2019. Her second bestselling book, the Epic Mentor Guide, arrived during Women's History Month 2022. Prior to launching Etre in 2016, Illana was a corporate attorney at Skadden Arps in New York City, and a guest lecturer at Columbia University. She graduated from Smith College and the University of Chicago Law School.
What You Will Hear in This Episode
02:13 Illana''s Journey: From Law to Entrepreneurship
03:59 Curiosity and Connection: Illana's Driving Forces and Career Shift
06:15 The Birth of Etra: Empowering Girls Through Mentorship
09:20 Scaling Etre: From Local to Global Impact
14:24 Navigating Challenges: Social Media and Confidence
17:37 Etre's Mentorship Program: How It Works
18:58 TED-Ed Club: Empowering Young Girls to Speak
20:02 Connecting Through Social Media and Our Website
24:06 Building a Network of Incredible Mentors
33:04 The Role of Age and Diversity in Our Programs
Quotes
" The things you most enjoy, the things that bring you the greatest amount of, of reward and joy are things you cannot do with a phone in your hand, whether that is swimming or surfing or skating or painting. Playing your sport, writing your next short story, the thing you love to do is probably better done without a phone in your hand. "
" I believe in the power of the cold email or the cold DM with all my heart, I'm stunned every day by the women who say yes to a conversation or answering a question by email because it's for the next generation.
" Never underestimate the, impact that 10 minutes of your time is gonna have on that next future engineer, future leader, future founder."
Mentioned
eConnect with Bonnie
Substack Newsletter: Own Your Ambition
Gendered Ageism Survey Results
5 Tips to own the superpower of your age
Purchase my book Not Done Yet on Amazon:
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