How Each Chapter of my Life Led to Why I Built Dough
As a founder of a VC-backed, mission-driven company, I’m often asked my “Why”. The reality is I am a composite of many whys, shaped by every chapter of my life. Below are three chapters of life that led me to found Dough, a company focused on celebrating women-owned businesses with shoppers who feel empowered.
The Financial Independence Chapter
Growing up, I was instilled with the belief from both my Mom and Dad that I could do anything. Despite uprooting and moving 5 times in 8 years, across 3 states and 4 towns. Despite them divorcing when I was 7, and my Dad passing away 7 short years later.
At the center of this chapter of life is my Mom. She is the most resilient, pick up the pieces, independent human, I know.
When she and my Dad separated, she was left with nothing. My mom sold the pieces of our old life at a flea market in Florida, including all of our furniture. Shortly after she packed up our sedan with our personal belongings, and drove the 1,300+ miles to her home state of Massachusetts. We were blessed to have family, including my grandparents and aunts and uncles, who welcomed us into their homes.
Within 6 weeks, she found us a studio apartment, in a town with one of the best school systems for $500 a month above the building’s laundry room. Our apartment was always warm and smelled of clean linen.
The complex had a pool, a pond, and a playground, and was filled with untraditional families like our own. We slept on sleeping bags, ate macaroni most nights, and watched movies on the free cable the cable company forgot to turn off. She charged our life on her credit cards, a bill she’s still paying to this day, buying furniture and myself fresh clothes. She found a minimum wage job clipping electronic circuits, the ones that go in every major consumer electronic device. I still remember stepping on the pin-like pieces near our kitchen table.
As I’d run through the complex hallways, giggling with friends, nearly dropping my Ellio’s pizza, my mom was working and balancing her checkbook to the cent. I watched her jump through financial loopholes and work tirelessly to make ends meet. To be honest, she made it look effortless. In reality, I can’t begin to imagine the strength and the emotional walls she built to shield me.
Once I was old enough to stay home on my own we moved into a one-bedroom apartment down the hall. Soon after she signed up to take classes at a local community college and graduated, with honors, landing a job working for the town and a second one at H&R Block during tax season. She’d come home most nights during tax season past 10 PM, where we’d catch up over dinner and Red Sox games.
I grew up witnessing the financial hoops, cracks in monetary support, and the stigma that follows single mothers and their children. This is why I’m passionate about financial independence, stopping cycles of generational debt, and creating communities focused on thriving and creating wealth, together.
The Mentorship/Sponsorship Chapter: Navigating Life As a First-Generation College Student
Along with my mother, I was surrounded by a blended and extended family, forged through a series of divorces, marriages, and generations. To set the stage, my Mom is the youngest of 5 and has 50 first cousins. My Dad was 40 years old when I was born and married three times. My siblings, who in many ways shaped who I am, are 19–16–13 years older than me.
I was the first in my family to go to college for a Bachelor’s. It was one of the dreams of my Dad, who dropped out before high school in the 1960's, that I graduate college.
My sister-in-law’s played an integral role in navigating the college application process, a process no one in my family had been through. I would have been lost without their mentorship and guidance.
Meanwhile, my mom, ever passionate about financial independence and a master of jumping through financial hoops, had me apply for a credit card. She quickly spotted the cracks in the financial aid system and educated me on credit scores and the importance of building my credit. That credit kept me in school and unlocked my ability to take out my own student loans, all 100K+ of them.
Being a first-generation college graduate I believe 100% in the power of mentorship/sponsorship and supporting others in achieving financial independence. In my hours outside of Dough, I mentor women getting their small businesses off the ground or kicking off their careers.
The Transparency Chapter: Creating Space To Be Valued and Heard
Once in the full-time workforce, I experienced first hand the barriers I had heard women face. From outright sexism to sexual advances, pay disparity to being overlooked on promotions. Then, layer on top classism. It was a lot to take in, wade through, and rise above. I found myself code-switching in the office to blend in, taking up less space, and keeping private when I’m naturally an open book.
I jumped from company to company, searching for a space I’d feel valued and heard. It turns out, I had to set out to create that space. After years of side hustling on top of my full-time job, working nights and weekends, I was able to take the leap with two phenomenal women to co-found Six Things, which set me on the path to co-founding Dough.
My decade+ of experiences in the corporate and start-up world led me to be an advocate for transparency and its role in closing the wage, opportunity gap, and empowering everyone’s voice and story to be heard.
TL;DR
Chapters of my life has led me to found Dough, rooted in:
Financial Independence
I grew up witnessing the financial hoops, cracks in monetary support, and the stigma that follows single mothers and their children. This is why I’m passionate about financial independence, stopping cycles of generational debt, and creating communities focused on thriving and creating wealth, together.
Mentorship/Sponsorship
Being a first-generation college graduate I believe 100% in the power of mentorship/sponsorship and supporting others in achieving financial independence. In my hours outside of Dough, I mentor women getting their small businesses off the ground or kicking off their careers.
Transparency
My decade+ of experiences in the corporate and start-up world led me to be an advocate for transparency and its role in closing the wage, opportunity gap, and empowering everyone’s voice and story to be heard.
If you’re interested in learning more about what we’re up to at Dough, send me a note at vanessa@joindough.com.
