Madeline Pratt is the founder and CEO of Fearless Foundry.
With Fearless Foundry, Madeline Pratt has started a “creative consultancy that supports ambitious humans in building branding” and “marketing strategies.”
Likewise, Madeline Pratt helps clients build “business development strategies that allow them to make a meaningful impact in the world.”
Throughout her career, Madeline Pratt has become an “outspoken force for promoting equity, collaboration, and community in business.”
Madeline Pratt also “spends her time working with clients, creating content, and growing her team.”
Before starting her business, Madeline Pratt has “always felt compelled by the inequities in the world.” She has also been “curious about how we could use intellect and creativity to solve them.”
A daughter of a single mother, Madeline Pratt has watched her mother handle “all the burdens that came with trying to run her own business while providing for her children.”
She also noticed that the pressures her mother felt didn’t really go away even after she remarried. So, Madeline Pratt “realized that the burden was one that working women everywhere seemed to be carrying.”
While working at a start-up, Madeline Pratt found herself “spending almost all my free time coaching women on the strategies and tech they might need to bring their business ideas to life.”
This side project soon took over “the whole of my heart,” which showed Madeline Pratt where her true passion lay.
Check out more interviews with successful coaches here. You can also watch Madeline Pratt in conversation here:
I have always felt compelled by the inequities within the world and been curious about how we could use intellect and creativity to solve them. Madeline Pratt, Fearless Foundry
Jerome Knyzsewski: Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Madeline Pratt: I have always felt compelled by the inequities within the world and been curious about how we could use intellect and creativity to solve them.
Looking back, I think this is something that was cemented into my subconscious from a fairly young age, as I watched my mom navigate single motherhood and all the burdens that came with trying to run her own business while providing for her children.
Even after she remarried, the pressure on her didn’t seem to subside, and I realized that the burden was one that working women everywhere seemed to be carrying.
I became a mother myself during my junior year of college, and within a few years was raising my son on my own.
I had graduated with a degree in Medical Anthropology but immediately set it by the wayside to take the first job that was handed to me, which happened to be in sales in the software industry.
As a single mom, I had more tenacity than most to make sure I hit quota, and over time I rose the ranks of different companies until I became a leader of Global Business Development of a fast-growing start-up.
While I loved the team, and the industry I was in, over time, this same issue of inequity kept showing up seemingly everywhere I went.
Female friends of mine would share stories of trying to start their own businesses and having bank loan applications be denied.
Women strangers would approach me in coffee shops sharing their ideas for a company, and then point out all the hurdles standing in their way to putting their ideas into motion.
Eventually I found myself spending almost all my free time coaching women on the strategies and tech they might need to bring their business ideas to life.
What started as a side project began to take over the whole of my heart, and I realized my passion lay in helping ambitious founders, particularly those that are traditionally underrepresented, start, grow, and scale companies.
So, in 2018, I left my day job to begin consulting full time, and in the past three years, I have grown my company to be able to offer well-paying work to a team of 10 women, and creative consulting services to dozens of clients from around the globe that believe in the power of business to change the world for the better.
Jerome Knyzsewski: Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Madeline Pratt: I will never forget when I took my two-week-old baby to a tech conference.
After my second son was born over two weeks past his due date, I made the difficult and post-partum addled decision to still attend a conference that I had planned to participate in prior to getting pregnant.
What I had planned to be my first trip back after at least 4 weeks of solid bonding and resting with my new baby, turned into an intense and eye-opening experience with my mom, my new baby, and my 6-year-old son in tow.
While the company I was working for was supportive and gracious of me taking my family along for the ride, I had no idea how challenging it would be to pump or nurse my son in between sessions, and by the last day of the conference, I decided to just carry him around all day strapped to my chest rather than be separated from him any longer.
It is one thing to be a woman at this tech conference, as we’re among the minority of attendees, and it was another thing entirely to be walking around with a baby strapped to my body.
I might as well have had two heads based on some of the looks I got.
But as the day was ending, and I was waiting in line to get a coffee, I saw a woman trying to get a peek into the baby carrier.
I caught her eye and smiled, realizing she was happy to have a baby in the midst of the male-dominated space.
Her smile back made me realize that despite how challenging the past few days had been, it was critical for me and other women to show up and be seen in the tech industry, even if it means we bring our babies along for the ride.
Embracing our identities as mothers instead of shying away from it is the only way we will shift culture.
From that point forward, I have made a point to bring my sons to the office whenever I needed to, to demonstrate that my identity as a mother wasn’t something that I could simply drop at the door, and make a point to encourage the creation of a culture where others embrace parenthood proudly.
Jerome Knyzsewski: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Madeline Pratt: I’ll never forget one of the first times I flew internationally to meet with a large consulting client.
Although I had taken many meetings like this earlier on in my career, this meeting was the first I had taken while representing solely on behalf of myself and my company.
I spent hours pouring over what I should wear to look the part of a “highly valuable consultant”, and ultimately settled on a pencil skirt, blazer, and heels.
Fast forward to the day of travel, and my flight is delayed by almost 11 hours, and my only option was to fly a redeye and head straight to the client’s office from the airport.
With my bags already checked, I had no choice but to buy makeup and hair products in the airport so that I could “put myself together” on the plane, and change as fast as possible in the bathroom once I landed before beelining it to the client’s headquarters.
When I finally made it to their lobby and took a look around, I realized that everyone at the tech company was dressed in t-shirts, jeans, and sneakers, just as I had been on the flight.
While I had been losing my mind over how to showcase myself as a “put-together consultant” despite the circumstances, I could have absolutely saved my energy.
I was wildly overdressed compared to everyone I met and needless to say, I showed up the next day in the same casual attire as everyone else.
More importantly, though, I realized that I didn’t have to be anyone other than myself to impress the client, and if I did, then those weren’t the people I wanted to work with.
It was an important lesson that I’ve continued to carry forward in my career, and I’ve now got a rule that if someone doesn’t approve of me in sneakers then we likely aren’t meant to work together, and that’s okay by me.
I have come to find that the most meaningful experiences and lasting relationships in business have come from the situations where I have shown up as 100% who I am.
Jerome Knyzsewski: Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
Madeline Pratt: My favorite life lesson quote hangs in my office and comes from the words of Brené Brown:
“Let go of who you think you’re supposed to be; embrace who you are.”
When I began building my business, I would lose a lot of sleep and energy over thinking about who I had to be to impress a certain kind of client, or to attract the types of companies I wanted to work with.
Over time though, I have come to find that the most meaningful experiences and lasting relationships in business have come from the situations where I have shown up as 100% who I am.
Jerome Knyzsewski: Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Can you please share 5 things that can be done or should be done to help empower more women to become founders? If you can, please share an example or story for each.
Madeline Pratt:
- More Funding — Starting a business costs money, and women are already at an economic disadvantage due to the wage gap.Without funding, we’re slower to start or scale our companies.I know countless women with dreams of owning their own business, but they don’t have the dollars to get things off the ground.
It’s critical that we build better pipelines for financing and investments to be funneled into the hands of women founders so that we have the resources to bring our business ideas into being.
- Systemic Support — We still live in a world where women bear the brunt of caring for family members, managing the mental load, and taking on way more than our fair share of household responsibilities.In order for female founders to be successful, we need support systems in place that give us the time and capacity to commit fully to our companies.We need better childcare resources, encouraging partners, educational opportunities, and incubation programs that are designed specifically to be supportive of women so that we have the backing we need to succeed.
- Mentorship — Building a business is a big deal, but it seems less scary when you have the guidance of someone who has walked the path before you.Women founders need more opportunities to meet and be matched with mentors to serve as a sounding board and source of advice for us as we navigate the uncharted waters of entrepreneurship.The more female mentors we have step forward to offer guidance, the more future female founders will follow.
- Media Coverage — There is a saying: “If you can see it, you can believe it.” However, when it comes to women in business, there aren’t enough examples being highlighted of women that have walked this path before.Until we see authentic examples of female founders who forged their own path being represented equitably in our media, women will continue to doubt their abilities in the world of business.We need media coverage to expand and to celebrate the stories of all types of women founders, not just the ones that make it to wall street, so that we can see that the example already exists and that we have the right to walk the path of entrepreneurship and found entities of our own.
- Community — The most important thing on my journey as a entrepreneur has been connecting with other women that are walking this same path with me.Community is essential for us to bounce ideas off each other and to ensure that we don’t feel alone.By creating community, we as women build meaningful support systems, and also have the opportunity to economically uplift each other by buying from and supporting each other’s businesses.
In my mind, community and collaboration are essential to ensuring women don’t just start businesses, but that they also grow and thrive.
Jerome Knyzsewski: We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Madeline Pratt: I would love to have brunch with Shelley Zallis of The Female Quotient.
I have long admired her work and company, and in particular, am inspired by what she has brought to the gender equity conversation around the importance of women taking up space in otherwise male dominant events or industries.
Community is essential for us to bounce ideas off each other and to ensure that we don’t feel alone. Madeline Pratt
Jerome Knyzsewski: How can our readers further follow your work online?
Madeline Pratt: Readers that want to connect and follow with my work can find me on the Fearless Foundry website, LinkedIn, or on social media (Twitter, Instagram & Clubhouse) by my handle @madelinekpratt.
Jerome Knyzsewski: Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
