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Taking Time, Refining the Process, and Creating a Unicorn Farm

In this special episode of The Outspoken Podcast, Rebecca Scott of TallSmall Productions interviews podcast host Shana Cosgrove, founder and CEO of Nyla Technology Solutions. Shana describes how her goals changed over time: at first she’d hoped to climb the corporate ladder, and then she realized she could start a company of her own. Shana tells Rebecca the story of how she named her company after her mother, Nyla, creating a people-centered company rooted in the values that her mother lived by. She talks about navigating the uncertainties of the Covid-19 pandemic as a contractor in the defense sector, where remote work is common but security constraints mean “work from home” can’t work for every employee. Shana explains that she started Outspoken because she wanted to hear from female experts—and she reminds us that you don’t have to make every single sandwich to be a great mom.

QUOTES

• “I’m a huge risk-taker professionally. I never was attracted to going to the big companies. I was never attracted to the long-term stability of the company. I was always very interested in the work that was going to be done.” - Shana Cosgrove [15:26]
• “There’s an endless amount of work to be done, but not all of that is valuable. Sometimes you are gold-plating or making something better or making something bigger that doesn’t need to be done [. . .] It is really understanding the limits, which will force a prioritization of what needs to be done. And that’s why they say, ‘You want something done, you give it to a busy person.’” - Shana Cosgrove [34:19]
• “The best thing you can do is just really enjoy where you are and embrace all that’s good of where you are.” - Shana Cosgrove [53:23]

TIMESTAMPS  

• [00:04] Intro
• [02:14] Meet Shana Cosgrove
• [04:18] On Understanding Business and Starting Nyla Technology Solutions
• [09:58] On Learning to Like the Defense Industry
• [13:20] Getting Ready to Launch
• [17:17] Just Know That You’ll Figure It Out
• [22:35] Naming for Values, Naming for a Woman
• [25:13] Navigating COVID-19 in a People-Centered Company
• [31:50] When to Wind Down . . . and When to Double Down
• [36:13] Nourishing Yourself While Managing a Company
• [39:36] Inviting Women to Be Outspoken 
• [43:04] Making Money is Freedom
• [45:46] Envisioning Nyla’s Future
• [49:34] Raising Children While Running a Unicorn Farm
• [53:35] Winning Friends and Influencing People in Tech
• [57:16] Outro

RELEVANT LINKS

• Shana Cosgrove on LinkedIn
• TallSmall Productions
• Nyla Technology Solutions

I’d love to hear from you -- your feedback is important to me and I read all of it. If you enjoyed the podcast, I hope you’ll give us 5 stars. I’ll be sure to thank you via email. If not, let me know what you think we should do differently. Don’t forget to hit “subscribe” so you’ll receive notifications about guest interviews and other topics that drop every Tuesday.

Live well, Shana