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Hi, I’m Kathryn Rose and my story is probably not unlike your own. Most women I meet have some challenges they have had to overcome to get where they are. In 2007, I was a sales leader for a Wall Street firm and about to give birth to my first child. Then everything up-ended–the mortgage market melted down and I was laid off. At the same time my mom had a brain aneurysm leaving her paraplegic.

With no job, a new baby, and my mom in the hospital, I knew I had to do something and fast. And I wanted my son to grow up thinking his mom is a fighter not a quitter.

So I did what all good salespeople do–go to my network and see if I could start something new. I called all of my old clients offering them my services for sales training, marketing, really anything I could do that didn’t involve a true full-time opportunity (this was before the gig economy). Their main need was to get a better online presence. Specifically they wanted their websites to rank on page one for Google and other search engines. I thought, “how hard could that be?” and told my top client I would get back to him in two weeks. Well…it turns out it’s pretty hard especially with NO internet background whatsoever.

No one I knew owned their own business never mind in technology so I had to figure it out for myself. I turned to online resources and found everyone wanted me to take their course or read their book. I knew that if I just found someone to talk to, someone to teach me, I could do it. I was on Craig’s List looking for something and on a whim typed in “learn SEO” and I found someone, an expert. I spoke to him every day for 2 weeks, paying him for his time and expertise, and soon I had my first paying client!

I then began to get involved in social media–again paying for expertise when needed–and quickly set up a successful SEO and Social Media consultancy. I went on to write 9 books (including two best sellers), be featured on TV (Fox News, Channel 12 and others), and became an international speaker.

I also joined a lot of women’s networking groups (like many of us do) thinking I could find clients there but I quickly found out that the statistics were true: 90% of women-owned businesses are solopreneurs and 88% made under $100k in revenue. The fact is they couldn’t afford my rates so I did what I could to help them: I wrote books and did a lot of “pick my brain” sessions and coffees for free.

In 2013, after realizing I had no idea how to scale a consulting business (and after the birth of my daughter), I went back into corporate and ran sales for a software company. I had lots of experience working in male-dominated fields and thought maybe things would be different after a 5 year break. No such luck! I found out my male counterpart was being paid $25,000 more than I was!

When the company was sold, I decided that I was going to do something to help women. As I looked more into women in business and their challenges, I uncovered some alarming trends. In 10 years, women went from owning 10 million business to nearly 13 million businesses but 90% were STILL solo and under $100k in revenue–we weren’t starting more profitable businesses, just more businesses. In terms of career, the numbers of women in top posts were actually declining. I set out to figure out why and design something useful, something impactful that will help women get unstuck and move them forward, faster.

Enter wiseHer. Our platform makes it easy for women to do what I did – leverage tactical, practical advice from experts all over the world to move their businesses and careers forward and change their lives for the better.

Building a technology platform–especially a marketplace focused on one segment of the population–is not for the faint of heart. There were many times I wanted to throw in the towel but the mission and my team kept me going. We are not venture-capital funded (yet). We are a small and mighty team who are here to do what we can to help women around the world rise higher.

Welcome to wiseHer, let’s do this together!

Caroline Webb is an executive coach, author and speaker who specializes in showing people how to use insights from behavioral science to improve their professional lives. Her book on that topic, How To Have A Good Day, has been published in 14 languages and more than 60 countries. Caroline is a Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company, where she was previously a Partner.

During her 12 years with McKinsey, Caroline co-founded the firm's leadership practice and led McKinsey's work on organizational effectiveness in the Healthcare practice. During this period she coached and advised hundreds of healthcare leaders, including a government Health Minister, a national CMO and CNO, 30 hospital CEOs, 6 regional health system CEOs, and a wide range of clinical leaders driving improvements in patient care and patient safety. Caroline has written on behavioral change topics for Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Quartz, Business Insider, Thrive Global and WIRED. Her work has been widely featured in the media, including in The Economist, Financial Times, Guardian, Inc., Forbes, Fortune, and on BBC Radio. She is one of Marshall Goldsmith’s ‘MG100‘ coaches, and a Founding Fellow of the Harvard-affiliated Institute of Coaching.