STEFANIE M. FALCONI

This is Ada, my daughter. We named her after Ada Byron Lovelace (first computer programmer) because we wanted her to identify with a strong female role-model. In-due-time, I discovered my unconscious reason for naming her Ada: to live unafraid of being a trailblazer. 

 

My childhood was filled with exploration and wonder that fed my imagination. However, I grew up in South America in a very different time and context, and it did not take long to pick up on the subtle, and not so subtle, expectation that girls' opinions ought to be quiet and polite. Why am I telling you this? Because my entrepreneurship journey truly began when I learned it was okay to go against the grain. The message I got growing up was that I needed permission to act or think differently. Not for Ada! From the moment she utters her name, I want her to value her experiences and opinions as unapologetically her own. She need not ask permission to be different. 

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Crisis-time CEO

A launch during a pandemic may seem like the worst timing, but then I remembered that this is the culmination of three years of conceptualizing (Global Solution Program family, dates ring a bell), two years of strategizing, and a lifetime of training. Amidst this pandemic, most people are experiencing a sense of collective grief as we face the loss of "normalcy" and of human connection. We are all experiencing some form of loss, from things big or small that we will not get back. Yet somehow, I felt like I've been here before. All the uneasiness and unpredictability of this pandemic was replaying the many times in my life I was uprooted to a new school or new city. I had forgotten how vulnerable and scared I felt the first few times I was the new kid in town. Then it hit me, these experiences also made me great at embracing uncertainty. It made me well suited to be a Crisis-time CEO precisely because I understand that when nothing is certain, anything is possible! 

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The Launch

While much of the work has been in stealth, in the last 2 years this venture has received grants, ran two pilots, and enlisted a handful of international collaborators. Then COVID hit. What the world will look like after the pandemic is anyone's guess. But here is the thing, with a lifetime of losses big and small, I learned to build things. The pandemic simply showed me I aspired to create the future with others to ensure the expert voices are heard as we build from up again. Next time I'll share exactly what I've been working on. Sneak-peek here.

 

Motherhood* hit every woman I know differently. For me, Ada's arrival forced me to ask "what I believe" and "what I'm fighting for"? The answer was to stop asking for permission and start building what I believed possible. 

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LIVING UNAPOLOGETICALLY,

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