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Right Here in MassEpisode 137: Abby SchommerAbby Schommer is the Founder of CalPal, a tool that centralizes calendar and time management […]
The post Episode 137: Abby Schommer first appeared on Massachusetts Business Network.
2025-06-1246 min
Strategic ThinkersBeyond the Layoff: Building an Unshakable Portfolio Career with Abby SchommerDiscover how to transform career uncertainty into professional resilience with Abby Schommer. After being laid off from Facebook despite stellar performance, Abby shares her journey to becoming "the lady with nine jobs" through developing a portfolio career.
Learn practical strategies for building multiple income streams, managing time across different commitments, and gaining control over your professional future.
From leveraging freelance platforms to creating systems that prevent burnout, this episode offers a blueprint for anyone looking to future-proof their career in today's unpredictable job market.
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2025-03-271h 07
MarginalBeing in the Back of the Room, Learning the Process, and Embracing Different Types of Entrepreneurship with Sean Atkinson, Owner of Majority Media#19: Today we sit down with Sean Atkinson, Small Business Advisor and Owner of Majority Media. In our conversation, Sean shares his early life experiences at Atlantic Records, and what he learned about entrepreneurship from some of the world’s biggest pop stars. We discuss how he became an active observer of people, and someone willing to own processes end-to-end, both of which paved the way for his agency career. Sean also describes what he and other marginalized groups learned from operating at ‘the back of the room,’ and what ultimately drove him to create rooms of his own. If you’re...
2025-02-1158 minMarginalLearning Imperfection, Staying Customer-Obsessed, and Defining AI’s Role in Product with Kate Minogue, Advisor and Fractional CxO#18: Today we sit down with Kate Minogue, AI Advisor and Fractional Chief Product Officer. We chat about her early obsession with customer psychology and how this paved the way for her career in data. We discuss her Marketing Science positions at Meta, and how working with certain client profiles brought her very close to product. We learn how Kate dove into fractional product roles thereafter, and what led her to finally start claiming the title of 'AI expert' and inviting other, more diverse voices to do the same. She also shares what she’d like to learn most from he...
2025-01-2851 minMarginalSaying ‘Yes’ to Hard Things, Navigating Burnout, & Laying Foundations To Follow Your Dreams with Ryan Welti, Founder of RetreatVi#17: Today we sit down with Ryan Welti, yoga teacher, retreat host and founder of RetreatVi. We chat about her journey in management consulting and her experience with corporate burnout - both of which led her to seek out more wellness practices in her life. Ryan shares how she laid the foundations for entrepreneurship early in her corporate career - doing things like prioritizing a paycheck, treating every contact as a potential investor, and building a personal brand outside of work. If you’re interested in authentic entrepreneurship, personal wellness, and making your career work for you (not the other wa...
2025-01-1449 min
Beyond BoldHow to Build a Startup Without Quitting Your Job with CalPal’s Founder Abby SchommerIn this episode, I sit down with Abby Schommer, founder of CalPal, to talk about a different kind of startup journey—one where you don’t have to quit your 9-to-5 to chase your dreams. Abby opens up about her path as a tech founder and how embracing a portfolio career allowed her to build CalPal while consulting for e-commerce and gaming companies.We dive into:The "startup myth" of going all in and why it’s outdated.How side hustles and portfolio careers can give founders financial freedom.Why transparency about your entrepreneurial journey matters—and how...
2025-01-1447 minMarginalBreaking Free of People-Pleasing, Reconnecting with Ourselves, & Redefining Entrepreneurship with Leoni Parkinson, Performance Marketing Strategist#16: Today we sit down with Leoni Parkinson, Performance Marketing Strategist and Breathwork Coach. In our episode, we dive into Leoni’s non-linear career path which includes jobs in eCommerce, Marketing Tech, and early childhood ed in Shanghai. We discuss Leoni feeling disconnected from herself which led her to move countries on more than one occasion - that is, until the pandemic, when she also discovered breathwork. Leoni shares the lessons learned when starting her own breathwork coaching company and performance marketing company, and how she decided to pause business ownership and start operating from a place of abundance. If yo...
2024-12-3149 minMarginalMoving to the US from Korea, Being a Life-Long Problem Solver, and Finding Inspiration in the Things We’re Not ‘Good At’ with Mina Kim, Co-Founder of Measured.im#15: Today we sit down with Mina Kim, Co-Founder of Measured, a tool that empowers non-tech product managers to track user behavior without engineers’ help. In our episode, Mina talks about moving to the states from South Korea and the cultural differences she noticed beginning in high school. She shares how these experiences taught her autonomy and the ability to problem-solve as the most fluent English speaker in her family. Mina also explains how her early startup experiences drove her to entrepreneurship - and how she found inspiration in the things she wasn’t good at as a non-technical founder. If y...
2024-12-1732 minMarginalSupporting Underestimated Founders, Demystifying VC, and Rejecting the ‘Growth At All Costs’ Model with Sweta Govani, Founder of Founder-Led Marketing Club#14: Today we sit down with Sweta Govani, Founder of Founder-Led Marketing Club, a program that helps underestimated founders get their first 100 Happy Paying Customers on their terms. In today’s episode, Sweta talks about immigrating to the US from Mumbai, and how this helped her see issues of wealth disparity with brand new eyes. She also discusses her early tech startup career - driven by a healthy dose of perfectionism - and how this illuminated the issues of different company funding models (not the least of which being Venture Capital). We learn how this led Sweta to work with te...
2024-12-0357 minMarginalApproaching Difficult Conversations, Changing Systems, and Finding Light in the Darkness with Tibisay Hernandez, Founder of A Curious Space#13: Today we sit down with Tibisay (Tibi) Hernandez, Founder of A Curious Space, a company specializing in DEI, training, and consultation services. Heading into the holiday season, Tibi shares practical guidance on approaching conversations with those who hold different views from our own - even when those views challenge our identity. She also speaks to her experience as a first-generation Dominican American who moved from the Bronx to Upstate NY to pursue her education, and everything else, with ‘excellence.’ Throughout her journey, we learn how Tibi constantly challenged the systems around her, ultimately culminating in the creation of her own...
2024-11-2654 minMarginalLaunching a Startup at 15, Creating Your Own Luck & Achieving the Life You Actually Want with Catherine Connelly, Author of Designing Success#12: Today we sit down with Catherine Connelly who cofounded myYearbook at 15 and grew it to become The Meet Group, a NASDAQ-listed dating and livestreaming company. Catherine talks about launching her startup in high school and the challenges of entering the public sector at such a young age. She speaks to the many evolutions of myYearbook leading up to a $500 million sale in 2020, and how ‘people’ always remained core to her company’s success. We also cover themes from her new book including how kindness has a way of ‘coming back around’ and how accessibility for one group doesn’t mean sacrifi...
2024-11-1954 minMarginalGoing from Unemployed to Founder, Tackling Imposter Syndrome & Building Community with Giovanna Ventola, Founder of Rhize#11: Today we sit down with Giovanna Ventola who founded Rhize, a free online community focused on the emotional well-being and professional development of our workforce. Giovanna shares how she was laid off three times in three years, and how she took to TikTok where audiences instantly connected with her candid expression and experiences of job loss. We discuss how her large social following gave way to Rhize, and the feelings of insecurity she still faces shifting from unemployed to self-employed. Giovanna also speaks to the impact of job loss on mental health, the importance of community, and how she’s...
2024-11-1251 minMarginalFleeing Ukraine, Helping 3,000 Displaced Job Seekers, and Having ‘Shining Eyes’ with Diana Kocheva, Founder of London Tech Community#10: Today we sit down with Diana Kocheva who founded London Tech Community, a vibrant space for Ukrainian tech professionals to find their footing abroad. Diana shares how she fled Ukraine under Russian invasion, leaving behind her successful art tech startup for a new life in 2022. After landing a new job within one week, Diana explains how she was sought out by countless displaced job seekers, and how this culminated in the creation of the UK’s largest tech community. She also discusses why diversity builds better products, the superpowers of female leaders, and how passion is a differentiator in to...
2024-10-2945 minMarginalGrowing Up in Foster Care, Re-Writing our Stories, and Bringing Business Back to People with Hutton Henry, Founder of Beyond#9: Today we sit down with Hutton Henry, Founder and Managing Partner of Beyond, a firm helping investors demystify technology. Hutton speaks to his experience in the Foster Care system, the early stories he was told about himself, and finding escape through coding beginning at age 8. He shares how he set his life on a different path by creating his own luck through a series of key encounters with his biological brother, an IT director, and a dentist. Hutton also discusses how his passion for electronic music and screenwriting inform his current M&A work, and how the most successful...
2024-10-2245 minMarginalEntrepreneurship as a First Generation American with Ronjini Joshua, CEO of The Silver Telegram#8: Today we sit down with Ronjini Joshua, CEO and President of The Silver Telegram, a boutique PR agency for technology startups. As a daughter of immigrant parents, Ronjini discusses cultural and communication gaps within her own family and how she opted for a path less-traveled early in her career. She shares her experience of tokenism in the workplace and how this jump-started her journey in freelance PR and full-time entrepreneurship. Having worked directly with marginalized founders, Ronjini also speaks to the importance of creating early opportunities for minority groups and how this motivated the creation of The Social Equity...
2024-10-1548 minMarginalNoa Schein Kahalon, Co-Founder of hoggo: Rejecting the Silicon Valley Playbook, Building a Network from Scratch, Prioritizing Communication & More#7: Today we sit down with Noa Schein Kahalon, jurist, certified privacy professional, and co-founder of the AI compliance platform, hoggo. Noa discusses being undermined by Silicon Valley’s tech elite, alternative means of fundraising, and the real ‘behind the scenes’ work of building a startup. She also shares how she cultivated her own founder community following her time in the Israeli Army, and the importance of transparent communication and trust amongst co-founders. If you’ve always had an entrepreneurial itch, but are looking to build on your own terms, this is the episode for you!
2024-10-0839 minMarginalDaniel Carroll, Founder of MakeWell.ai: Living with Autism, The Importance of ‘Going Deep,’ The Future of AI & More#6: Today we sit down with entrepreneur and AI specialist, Daniel Carroll. He created MakeWell.ai, an AI-powered health companion that's breaking down barriers in personal wellness. Daniel discusses growing up impoverished, serving in the army, and getting diagnosed with Autism as an adult. He explains how these experiences both accelerated his entry into tech, and posed various challenges when building and fundraising for his latest startup. Daniel also speaks to the future of AI, and why it’s imperative to make meaningful impact and pursue our passions in the current moment.
To get in to...
2024-10-0146 minMarginalNomiki Petrolla, Founder of PDS Lab: Building As A Mother of 4, Creating Access for Women in Tech, Setting Female Founders Up for Success & More#5: Today we sit down with Nomiki Petrolla, founder and CEO of PDS Lab, a tech accelerator for women. Nomiki shares her mission for bringing access to women creating software and closing the gender gap in tech. She speaks to her stance on female founders taking early investment and how her non-dilutive accelerator sets them up for long term success. She also explains how her role as a mother makes her a better business owner and vice versa, plus the impact that female founders can bring to the tech ecosystem more broadly.
To get in...
2024-09-2446 minMarginalRosalyn Mahashin, Cofounder of Resilient Moment: Bridging Cultural Divides, Making Mental Health More Accessible, Building with Intention & More#4: Today we sit down with Rosalyn Mahashin, cofounder of the mental health startup, Resilient Moment. Rosalyn shares how being a child of Vietnamese boat people, a first in her family to attend college in the US, and someone who went through her own mental health journey fueled her commitment to both technology and social justice. These life experiences culminated in the creation of Resilient Moment and her goal of helping more people in traditionally underrepresented communities gain access to mental health and well-being tools. Rosalyn also speaks to bridging generational and cultural divides, building with inclusivity, and prioritizing mindfulness...
2024-09-1742 minMarginalAbby Schommer, Female Founder & Startup Activist: Being a Woman in Tech, Living with Chronic Disease, The Importance of Male Allies & More#3: On today’s episode, we sit down with our host and RevScience co-founder, Abby Schommer. Abby speaks to her experience in early-stage startups, her time in big tech (Meta), and her current pursuits as a female founder. She discusses the challenges she’s faced navigating these spaces both as a woman, and as someone with Type 1 Diabetes, and shares advice for those looking to offset issues of accessibility and representation in startup culture. Abby also uncovers much of the ‘why’ behind this podcast, and how it was one she could have very much used (but couldn’t find) at various po...
2024-09-1059 minMarginalBrian Krebs, Korean Adoptee and 5X Founder: Life After Incarceration, Lessons on ‘Failure,' The Power of Relationships & More (Pt 2 of 2)#2: On today’s episode, we continue our conversation with RevScience co-founder, Brian Krebs. He discusses mental health, race, and building resilience both within and outside the context of startups. We get into his entrepreneurial pursuits after he was released from jail, and how his upbringing uniquely equipped him for success in the startup realm. Brian also shares advice for others looking to venture into startups. If you haven’t already, be sure to listen to our previous episode to learn about Brian's life leading up to his adult incarceration.
To get in touch with the...
2024-09-1043 minMarginalBrian Krebs, Formerly Incarcerated Serial Founder: Being Adopted, Life While Unhoused, The Early Entrepreneurial Itch & More (Pt 1 of 2)#1: On today’s episode, we sit down with RevScience co-founder, Brian Krebs. In addition to being a serial founder of 25 years, Brian identifies as formerly incarcerated and unhoused. Brian is also a Korean adoptee and has spent a considerable amount of time as a student, mentor, mental health patient, and mental health advocate. This episode is one of two installments where we dive deep on Brian's backstory up through the completion of his adult jail sentence. Be sure to listen to our next episode to learn about Brian's life and entrepreneurial pursuits following his release from jail.
2024-09-1046 min