Choosing yourself isn’t always easy. But after eight years leading the groundbreaking digitalundivided—D)—an organization that she founded to help Black and Latinx women tech entrepreneurs get the mentorship and support they desperately needed, Kathryn had to do just that. She chose herself and her sanity and decided to leave the business.

“You have to pivot, change, and evolve, and it's hard.”

After digitalundivided’s first cohort, Kathryn restructured the organization, moving it from New York City to Atlanta. However, Atlanta’s tech scene wasn’t as developed as New York's, so after two years, she moved the company headquarters back to the East Coast to Newark and got an investment from Pivotal Ventures, a Melinda French Gates company. This completely changed digitalundivided’s trajectory. 

“I think the greatest challenge that I saw Kathryn overcome was being in a place where you've created something that you love and adore and then taking a step back and being willing to make a change.”

The Pivotal Ventures investment gave digitalundivided the space to grow from an organization led by a charismatic leader to an institution. 

“I could leave feeling empowered because I knew I could build something else.” 

Exiting your company can be a real opportunity to unleash your creativity and consider what you want to build next. For Kathryn, it was creating her VC firm, Genius Guild. 

 

Guests

Dr. Jeffrey Robinson: https://www.business.rutgers.edu/faculty/jeffrey-robinson

Laura Weidman Powers: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurawp/

Darlene Gillard-Jones: https://www.darlenegillardjones.com/ 

Valeska Toro: https://www.instagram.com/valeska_toro/

Kelechi Anyadiegwu

Danielle Robinson Bell: https://www.medill.northwestern.edu/directory/faculty/danielle-bell.html

Citi Medina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/medinaciti/

Kendra Bracken-Ferguson: http://kendrabracken-ferguson.com/

 

To hear more, visit kathrynfinney.substack.com