The Resiliency Company CEO, Abby Ross

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

  Hi Abby, thank you for talking with me and our audience. Can you describe your job and what you do in simple terms?

The Resiliency Company, Abby Ross

Sure. I’m the CEO of The Resiliency Company, and we’re focused on how to build infrastructure across the country to be more resilient to physical risks like wildfire, hurricanes, severe storms, and extreme heat, because central to our work is the recognition that we have more disasters and hazards headed our way.  So we need to build things differently, whether that’s homes, roads, bridges, or communities. We help different stakeholders figure out how to build things better, and more importantly, how to pay for them.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

Would you say your job includes a lot of structure in your day-to-day, or is there more flexibility in what you do?

The Resiliency Company, Abby Ross

  So I started this business as the founder and CEO, and in the beginning, it was wildly unstructured. Most of my time was spent listening to others about opportunities and challenges, and about how structures and systems work, and then trying to connect the dots to make sense of it.  Now that we’ve actually created programs, funds, and solutions, my day is more structured because it’s about creating outcomes for those specific areas.  

But, kind of by nature as a CEO, I am always trying to think about new opportunities, and also, how do we build a sustainable organization?  And are we meeting our revenue targets? And is our budget managed? So there’s a level of specificity, you know, talent, hiring great people that can do this work.  So there’s a level of kind of routine. But part of a CEO’s job is leading through that uncertainty.  And that’s always consistent.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

  Moving back a bit, before your current job, is there anything you studied in college that you would say contributed to your success or understanding of what you do?  Or, on the other hand, was there anything that you regret not studying more?

The Resiliency Company, Abby Ross

I was a business major at Marquette University. And what I appreciated about that experience was the breadth of the classes I was exposed to, which now gives me a level of literacy and competence.  So I remember my accounting classes. I remember my marketing and my finance classes. That provided a basic understanding of how businesses work.  I know what debits and credits are.  I know about liabilities and assets, and much more.

But I think that in college, in that moment of my life, going deep on any one specific thing wouldn’t have really influenced where I am today.  And I think the other thing is that so much is rapidly changing in our world. I think the best skill that I acquired was critical thinking. Learning about how business works and how to bring stakeholders along in a kind of communication and storytelling that is true, no matter what discipline you go into.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

So then, after college, what made you decide when starting your career to take a more entrepreneurial versus corporate path?

The Resiliency Company, Abby Ross

I was really lucky in that. My first job was at a tech startup that grew from 1 million users in the first month to 10 million users.  So it was kind of like a rocket ship: we built a thing, we had a bunch of users, we had to back into a business model, we had to go sell it, and we had to raise money.  And then we got acquired. So I kind of had this crash course in building a business and learning about its different elements, really, really quickly.  

And that kind of caught the bug, I did. I’m like, oh, I want to go do that more.  So it was kind of just the, what I recognized about entrepreneurship is that the pace of learning is really, really rapid. That you don’t always get in a corporate environment, and your ability to impact change and outcomes is really, really high.  So those are two things that I realized are important to me in my career.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

What is it like as a woman to be a repeat founder of multiple different businesses when a lot of founders of companies are men?

The Resiliency Company, Abby Ross

  Well, I always have a seat on a panel if they’re ever looking for somebody. What I think is true, no matter the gender, is that the fundamentals of the business need to make sense.  And you need to be really, really strong at communicating them, no matter who the audience is. And so that’s a skill set that has evolved from the first startup that I was a part of to the company that I started now. That’s something I’ve been consistently trying to hone and get better at: how do I make sure that, no matter who is on the other end, they see the value in what we’re doing? I have gotten better at making specific asks and telling my story about why I belong on a stage or as part of the founder cohort. I have built businesses, and I can continue to do so.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

  I love that. Can you talk about raising money as a woman and how that has been?

The Resiliency Company, Abby Ross

As I started, I co-founded an education technology company in 2012, and my co-founder was also a woman. And we went through an accelerator program, which really provided the structure for raising capital and putting together a pitch deck.  And so that gave us a really amazing competitive advantage, both in terms of the knowledge and skills. But also the network that not everybody is privy to.  And now I will coach entrepreneurs on trying to do that. And it’s so challenging to do that kind of thing without some of that structure and system.  So I really benefited from that. 

The other thing that I recognized was that consistent communication about your accomplishments is a superpower.  This might feel foreign, especially to women leaders oh, I got to go do a bunch of things.  And then I’ll have a pitch deck and raise money. If you actually talk about your learnings, successes, and failures along the way and bring funders along, it demonstrates to them that I understand the business.  I’m able to iterate and adjust. And I do what I said I’d do. So that’s been a practice.  I send a monthly update to all my funders and investors that says, “Hey, here’s what we did.”  Here’s what we learned. Here’s what you can expect. And that has been, I think, a really critical point of raising money because it builds trust, builds credibility, and it builds relationships.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

  Definitely see how that builds trust. Who did you turn to for advice or guidance when you were starting your career and moving up the corporate ladder?

The Resiliency Company, Abby Ross

 What was cool about the time I started my career was that the Chicago tech community was just starting to blossom.  And so there were a lot of networking events, other entrepreneurs, and people who were kind of doing the same thing.  And that accelerator program we went through was full of mentors who had built businesses before. So, like, Chuck Templeton, the founder of OpenTable, was there, guiding us on all the things I learned, the things I did wrong, and what you want to make sure you’re doing.  

Those little nuggets of wisdom were not always in a traditional setting; some of them were with other entrepreneurs going through it together, or from, you know, a mentor that would say something on a panel. And what I do now is actually have my own personal board of directors, like my own kind of group of people that I know, an executive coach, and some other CEO mentors and friends who I can kind of bring a challenge to.  And they’re like, oh, we did this at my last company, and here’s what I learned. So I’ve tried to go from informal to more formal structures.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

  Okay. As the business world continues to evolve, how do you see new opportunities arising for women in your field?

The Resiliency Company, Abby Ross

I think there are a couple of observations. And some of it is maybe just like getting older in my career or the fact that just so much has changed in how people think about entrepreneurship was that between advances in AI and technology, in funds that are thinking about seeding underrepresented founders, there is a time and opportunity for people who are subject matter experts to come out of their subject and go solve a real problem.  

So, my co-founder was an educator for 20 years. She understood curriculum and instruction, and how schools worked, in a way that a serial entrepreneur with capital wouldn’t.  So I think there’s a really important moment for women who are thinking about entrepreneurship.  To say, hey, there are some structures and systems that didn’t exist before, and some technology, so that I could actually test my idea before, you know, before needing to totally transform my life.  I’m happy that that exists now.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

  Yeah. My last question is, what advice do you have for girls looking to go into business?

The Resiliency Company, Abby Ross

 Why I plug working at an early-stage startup or early-stage company is kind of what I mentioned before.  Your learning pace is much faster than in other places. I’ll say the structures and systems are non-existent. You will learn, and you will be given responsibility much more quickly and much more often than you would in other settings.  And so for the right kind of girls who want to go into business. And think about, hey, I love solving problems.  I’m really curious. I’m really solution-oriented. Entrepreneurship: early-stage startups are a great place to say, “Great, I’m going to learn and get the type of experience that, you know, will give me the stories to tell that I can build a career off of.”

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

  I love that. Thank you so much. Those are my questions.

The Resiliency Company, Abby Ross

  Are there other things that I can be helpful with? Like this was great.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

  Maybe you could speak a little bit more about your experience in college studying business? Just because that’s what I’m about to do.

 The Resiliency Company, Abby Ross

  Yes, I don’t think I totally knew I wanted to do business. So I was a business and English major because I loved writing.  And I also think that that’s a skill that complements business. There weren’t many English and business majors together because people were like, “Oh, that’s a different thing.”  I really liked having that business discipline and something outside of it, and that meant the diversity of classes and learning experiences kept me more stimulated than just going from accounting to finance to supply chain to IT, like business classes.  

I also interned many places – at the Milwaukee Brewers, at Anheuser-Busch because I’m from St. Louis, at DraftFCB, and at a sports marketing agency.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

  Wow.

The Resiliency Company, Abby Ross

  Aside from the classes and studying, those internships gave me a great taste of what it meant to work in the professional world.  And some of them were really corporate. There’s probably an alternative universe where I went corporate! Those experiences were great because I got to see what I was learning in the classroom in real time, which was awesome.  So, if you want to go into business, finding internships is going to be really meaningful and help you explore what you’re learning.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

  Yeah, I definitely want to work like that in college. I just started my first internship last year. Anything else? 

The Resiliency Company, Abby Ross

Studying abroad.  Yeah, I did that too. So I went to Marquette University in Milwaukee, so they have a study abroad program with Antwerp Business School in Belgium.  So business students get to go study in, in Antwerp. And like, I don’t remember learning anything, but I had such a life experience and so much fun that I wouldn’t trade it for the world.  

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

I really want to study abroad someday.  Again, Abby, thank you so much, our readers will love this advice as much as I do. 

The Resiliency Company, Abby Ross

You are welcome. This was great.