The Founding Moms is the worlds first and only kid-friendly collective of monthly meet-ups for mom entrepreneurs. Since it’s launch, The Founding Moms has spread to over 30 cities around the world, becoming a live, local, monthly meet-up where mom entrepreneurs around the globe can hang out, exchange ideas, connect and learn from each other.
Jill Salzman, an entrepreneur who previously founded Paperwork Media, a music management firm and Bumble Bells, ankle jewelry that doubles as a baby tracking device, is the founder of the rapidly growing group. An expert at blending her roles as a businessness woman and a mom, Salzman has recently published Found It: A Field Guide for Mom Entrepreneurs.
We caught up with Salzman via email to discuss the benefits of building your business through an external platform and having an active social media profile. She also shared her inspirations and a few simple tips on how to quickly and successfully scale your business.
1. How did Founding Moms get started?
The Founding Moms started from a very selfish place. I was running two companies and on my way to having my second baby. I didn't know a single other woman who had kids and was running her own company. I wanted to meet one, or two, even possibly three. So, I started a meetup through Meetup.com and invited anyone who self-identified as a mom entrepreneur to meet up with me. In about six months, we had 200 members online. I knew I was onto something. About that time, someone asked me to open up a Founding Moms' Exchange (or Meet-up) in her city and I realized I could open it up in any city around the world. Two years later, we're in 30 cities, 3 countries, and growing fast.
2. How has using Meetup helped to grow your company?
I don't even consider us as "using" Meetup.com. I consider them a full-on partner of The Founding Moms. Although I started the organization essentially by accident, we would not exist without Meetup.com. Each of our cities' Founding Moms' Exchanges uses its own Meetup.com page, so we are essentially built on the Meetup.com platform. It's an incredibly powerful one, and without it I'm not sure we would have grown to so many cities, or so many members, in the short amount of time that we have. You can also hear about how I accidentally met the founder of Meetup.com in my TED talk.
3. How does the use of social media to influence your brand today?
It's an active participant in our brand. In fact, just the other day I was thinking about taking a social media break (note: I take a full tech break for 1 week/year and love it.) But it was in a moment of, "Am I using social media too much? Is the joy it brings me, and my members, not really serving our community and business properly?" And after only 24 hours away, I realized that social media influences our business growth so positively that we can't proceed without it. It does too much good.
