“It’s no small feat to have a female CEO in the tech industry and that’s something that I don’t want to be proud of anymore because I want it to be the norm.”
The 2x Women in Tech Podcast with Chelsea Behrens
Jessa Santangelo, VP of Business Development at WeeCare
This episode of The 2x Women in Tech Podcast features a woman who has combined her passion for children and future generations with next-level tech that is reimagining our broken childcare system. Jessa Santangelo, VP of Business Development at WeeCare, shares her journey through various entrepreneurial crash-and-burns to a robust embrace of fear. Failing fast and often isn’t just okay, says Jessa, it’s critical to paving the way to innovation. WeeCare, the female-led application connecting families with child care, has done exactly that by providing a platform that finds, promotes and advocates for the support families require.
The goal is to move the U.S., which has seen a steady erosion of women in the workforce, towards better systems to ensure accessible and affordable child care options. Ultimately, the goal is to persuade corporations to adopt child care allowances as a standard benefit! By being fearless, practicing failure and supporting one another in acquiring tech skills, women can lead the way on this important mission. Supporting more than 65,000 facilities nationwide, WeeCare is providing not only an exciting new child care eco-system but also modeling what it looks like for women to leverage tech – now and as an example for future generations!
Key Takeaways:
Jessa introduces WeeCare and its mission to build equity, accessibility and affordability into child care for all.
Deep roots in tech? Not at all. Jessa’s early interest was in children and especially those with special needs. Her orientation was towards psychology, biology and therapeutic treatments and included a career that spanned all kinds of child-related work.
Eventually pursuing her desire to be entrepreneurial, Jessa tried and failed in several ventures before coming to the conclusion that she needed to acquire tech skills – which she did by going to work for a kids’ coding company that gave her a point of entry.
Some of the challenges that shaped Jessa’s young life also delivered pivotal mentors and other individuals who influenced her outcomes – and changed the course of her life in a way she’s dedicated to paying forward.
Startup Bumps and Bruises: There were lots of highs and lows as Jessa navigated her first ventures, including “tons of fear” and a stint living in her car after she went bust.
It’s hard – but important – to know when to quit. When are you asserting grit and resilience and when have you simply gone on too long?
Jessa’s philosophy about making mistakes:
She’s a huge proponent of freeing women in particular to have missteps.
Making mistakes is the fastest way to learn and iterate.
Forget about building the perfect model first. Just get started and adjust based on what you learn along the way.
Pain Points that Pay Off: Jessa sees critical junctures and challenges as huge opportunities to take stock, reconfigure and/or move on.
Jessa shares anecdotes about lessons learned while getting WeeCare up and running.
About business development, which for Jessa encompasses:
Tracking and monitoring industry trends.
Seeing new opportunities and converting them into new revenue streams.
Testing different strategies and products.
Driving market growth through new ideas, innovations and solutions to roadblocks.
Why child care matters so much: Women’s participation in the workforce has been falling as the result of inadequate child care – not just supply but also the cost, which can devour as much as a third of family income. There are also direct impacts to business innovation and career earnings.
The good news: Jessa sees momentum in the growing availability of better child care options and deeper understanding of what’s required to promote a sustainable system.
WeeCare’s mission focuses on the entire childcare ecosystem and its interconnectivity, overlap and the allocation of resources that technology can help mediate.
A Big Deal: Evolving corporate policy to include baseline contributions to childcare as a standard benefit.
How to help WeeCare: Spread the word!
Jessa’s Wish for the Tech Industry:
A robust role for women.
More incubators to encourage innovation.
A strong feedback loop among builders-users-creators.
More marketplace interactivity for faster iteration across platforms.
More female-led companies!
Jessa’s Parting Thoughts:
Systematic Desensitization: Learn to embrace fear by introducing the very things that are unnerving – and then drilling down on resiliency.
Practice receiving rejection, weathering negative reactions, dealing with awkward interactions – all the stinging situations that hold us back.
Role play, do exercises that strengthen resilience and help the next generation of young women coming up to throw down on fear as well!
Episode Resources
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