The truth about me and money.
SPECIAL EDITION
They say in startupland how important founder-market fit is (meaning, does the founder align to the problem they are solving and the market they are entering). People need to know who I am and why I’m uniquely positioned to be solving this challenge. As someone who learned really young to hide this part of myself, this is profoundly difficult, but it’s important for you all to understand, so here it goes.
I was 25 years old and $30k in debt. And that’s not even counting student debt. No, that was credit card debt alone. I had a degree in economics, I worked for financial institutions, I was fully employed from the moment I graduated from college, and yet I never learned how to manage my money properly.
I moved through life avoiding my bank account. When I was nervous about money, I went shopping… Because if I could buy something, then everything obviously was fine. Ironically, the fiction novel Confessions of a Shopaholic came out around the time that I was going through this and it was painfully accurate to my life and behaviors. I looked around at my friends who all seemed to have figured it out, and I carried a lot of shame about how I (mis)managed my finances.
Although I come from a family of modest means, my parents were fortunately in a position to bail me out. (Yes, I do understand how privileged this is.) I confided in an old college friend what had happened and instead of making me feel less alone, he said I better have learned my lesson. (Wags finger at me, and… insert more shame here.) Yes, lesson learned: Definitely don’t talk about money. People who have it, don’t talk about it. People who don’t have it, don’t talk about it.
Years went by, I swore off working for financial institutions altogether, and yet I repeatedly found myself going back to work for investment firms and large banks. Call it gluttony or call it a deep rooted desire to keep my enemy close, to study it and crack the code so I could master it. I was licensed to give investment advice. I knew all the guidelines of what you were supposed to have saved by X age. I designed experiences for other people to better manage their finances. But it took me until I was 40 to even trust myself enough to use a credit card responsibly to earn reward points.
Ok, so at this point you’re probably thinking, “what in the world makes this woman qualified to start a fintech business?” And I’ll tell you. It’s because I’ve experienced the deep fear and scarcity mindset that cripples people from making changes even though they want to and know it’s in their best interest. Because I know from decades of working in the industry how emotional finances are, yet we treat them as pragmatic transactions. Because I know from years of user research that women make decisions differently than men, yet we were thrust into a model that wasn’t built with us in mind. And because I understand that, along with so many other women, we were socialized into believing we are bad at money and should just do the minimum to understand the basics and leave the rest to the pros (which can lead to trouble for some of us).
I am using what I’ve lived, what I’ve learned, and what I intimately believe to help women move beyond the basics in investing. I am building their confidence by bringing together the hive to learn from and alongside their friends, families, and people with shared interests. I am inspiring them to take a more active role in their investments and wealth building. I am aligning their desire to create a better future for their communities with their desire to build their wealth, showing them they can have both, not just either/or.
We’re not bad at money—we just haven’t always been offered the tools and resources to take charge. But that’s changing now.
I started BeeCene to flip the script. We’re combining technology and community-driven insights to create a financial platform tailored to women’s unique needs. We’re not just teaching financial literacy; we’re taking action, and we’re doing it together. Because we need to talk about money, and we need to do it in a way that feels authentic to women. Together, we can create a future where women are not just participants in wealth-building but leaders in shaping its impact.
