One Year In: The Upward Spiral of Building Something That Matters

From Shonna & Erin, Co-Founders of Fractional Insights

The adage 90% of start-ups fail within the first year is inaccurate. 50% fail within the first 5 years. And yet, it makes sense that women tend not to found companies at the same rate as men. Consider that female founders receive only 2% of investor money per year.

But one year ago today, we took a bet on ourselves. We sat with each other—laptops open, hearts racing with a mix of excitement and nerves. We were about to press "publish" on something we'd been dreaming about for months: our own company’s website. We'd both spent years at a hyper-growth startup. We knew how hard it is to build from zero. But this time was different. This time, it’s ours. Our vision. Our risk.

"Are we ready to do this?" we asked each other, both of us reassuring the other while managing our own internal uncertainty. 

That moment captures the entrepreneurial reality: you don't jump because you're fearless. We definitely were not. But, you jump because not acting, not solving a problem you know you can solve, not leveraging your unique zone of genius for collective good, becomes a more uncomfortable status to live in than taking the risk.

The Upward Spiral: Growing Through the Going

The past twelve months have felt like an upward spiral—always moving forward, always climbing, but sometimes circling back to familiar challenges that make you wonder if you've actually progressed. One day we will be celebrating a breakthrough; the next we will be wrestling with the same fundamental questions that kept us up six months ago. 

But that's how building works: growth isn't linear, it's spiral. Each time you revisit familiar challenges, you are operating with more knowledge, more experience, and more clarity about what you're actually building.

Our year looked less like a straight line up and to the right, and more like a spiral where we felt forward progress but nearly predictably would circle back down the spiral to a place that feels like the beginning again - but it wasn’t. It was just the dip before the upward rise, even higher than the last one. We see the same view from progressively higher points, each time understanding more about the territory we’re navigating.

Through it all, our partnership has been the constant. Two founders, both PhDs, both managing the complexity of building something significant while handling everything else that demands attention. Some days we're strategic visionaries; other days we're problem-solvers, figuring out how to navigate having more opportunities than bandwidth. What matters is that we've backed each other through the business challenges and the personal realities that come with the context.

We've spent late nights in Shonna's kitchen developing the frameworks that became our methodology. We've had long days in Erin's office running exercises that opened up new ways of thinking about our work. We've traveled to conferences and speaking events, handled big client meetings together, and learned that our combined approach creates something neither of us generates alone.

That's the thing about entrepreneurship, no one warns you about—it's simultaneously the most professional and most personal thing you'll ever do. It’s both the most consuming and most freeing feeling you’ll ever have.

What We've Learned About Building and Being Built

From day one, we treated ourselves—and our business—as an ongoing experiment in openness and co-creation. Here’s 10 insights so far from this experiment:

1. Collaboration Aligns to our Values 

   
   

Rather than adhering to traditional models of organization and competition, we anchored our model in feminine principles of generativity, abundance, and community. This choice means designing every process around mutual trust, even when it flies in the face of conventional wisdom. For example, we were repeatedly advised to name one person as the majority owner, but we insisted on a 50/50 split because we believe that the system and context we set up will fundamentally influence our mindsets, behaviors, and motivations. An inequitable incentive system with power differential was not the system we felt would bring us the most success. That decision has led us to share wins and losses equally, and to make choices driven by collective benefit rather than individual gain.

2. Investing Beyond the Bottom Line Holds Value 

   
   

Building a sustainable enterprise isn't solely about the bottom line; it's about cultivating a thriving ecosystem. Not every valuable action or outcome shows up on an invoice. We’ve found enormous payoff in connecting people who could benefit from each other, sharing free content we know we could charge for, or passing on opportunities to others when we could do the work, but a partner could serve a client better than we could. These decisions, seemingly small and inconsequential in the short term, have generated a powerful ripple effect. We have deepened our network, fueled goodwill, helped and educated people, inspired others to see new perspectives, and feel good about infusing positive energy in the broader system within which we are all stakeholders. 

3. Technology as Team Multiplier and Connector

   
   

To amplify our bandwidth, we’ve rigorously trialed AI tools and productivity apps, taking an experimental mindset to new capabilities. We encourage our team to use it to multiply their impact, save them time, and do the work that doesn’t bring them energy or joy. 

Technology is what makes it not just possible, but very natural and easy to be two cofounders in different states, building a “bi-coastal” company spanning the Atlantic seaboard to the dunes of Lake Michigan. We capture ideas on record whenever the inspiration strikes, share updates with each other while making breakfast or driving home from the gym, and have built community with other entrepreneurs through asynchronous video (shout-out to Marco Polo who also is a client and an accelerant!). Experimenting and learning what works for us through technology has been key.

4. The Fractional Executive Advantage

   
   

We have fractional executives vs full time. This means we are working with people who are highly experienced, seasoned leaders that can offer incredible skill and talent, but who are also working with other companies or on their own businesses while working with us. 

Furthermore, our Fractional Insights Network of Experts allows us to engage high-caliber experts on a 1099 basis for projects they are a fit for. This fluid network of specialists brings fresh perspectives and deep domain knowledge exactly when we need it. This flexibility lets us scale up for big projects and stay lean when priorities shift, without sacrificing quality.

5. Discipline Through Reflection

   
   

Structure, reflection, and review keeps our experiment honest. After each quarter, we conduct full retrospectives to surface what worked and what didn’t. Every week, we run cross-functional reviews covering sales, marketing, client success, partnerships, product, and research to ensure we’re iterating consciously. 

We are testing and learning every day - in the market, inside our business, and in our approach to work itself. In asking “Can we design the future of work while building an organization in its own image?” we embrace the challenge of holding ourselves to the very standards we advise.

6. The Compound Power of Community: Your Network Is Your Net Worth (And Your Safety Net)

   
   

One of the biggest surprises of this journey has been that every breakthrough, every pivot, every moment of clarity has been amplified by the people around us.

Our advisors challenge us, redirect our missteps, and celebrate our wins with equal enthusiasm. Mentors make time for conversations that shift perspective, offering the gift of pattern recognition: "I remember that feeling" and "Savor these moments. These early days are the ones you'll look back on with nostalgia." Fellow entrepreneurs understand the specific challenges of building from scratch in ways that even supportive friends and spouses can't quite grasp. Our families have given us the encouragement we need when facing tough moments.

But here's what we didn't expect: each relationship category serves a different strategic function. Mentors provide perspective and help us see around corners. Peers offer real-time problem-solving and validation when doubt or imposter syndrome hits. Team members transform vision into capability. Personal relationships anchor our identity beyond the work, reminding us who we are when the founder titles get heavy.

The lesson? Build your network before you need it, and recognize that asking for help is a leadership skill, not a weakness. Make time and space for others' voices even while you learn to listen to your own. Your community doesn't just support your work. It becomes the infrastructure that makes ambitious work possible.

7. Conviction as Your Competitive Advantage: When Everyone Else Zigs, Your North Star Helps You Zag

   
   

Our unwavering belief in the "middle layer" - that crucial space between research and real-world impact - has carried us through every moment of uncertainty. When potential clients looked confused by our approach, when investors questioned our market positioning, when we ourselves wondered if we were solving a problem that mattered, we returned to this conviction.

That conviction became our competitive advantage in ways we never anticipated. When we identified our dream client - a Fortune 100 company that embodied everything we wanted to impact - we threw out the traditional RFP playbook entirely. Instead of lengthy proposals and formal presentations, we got ourselves in the right room and live-pitched on the fly, trusting our expertise and each other enough to be completely authentic in the moment.

When we won that work, it validated something crucial: deep conviction about your unique value allows you to operate differently and that difference becomes your advantage. While others followed conventional sales processes, our belief in our approach enabled us to break the rules in ways that actually served our prospects better.

The hustle never stops, but neither does the learning. Every "no" teaches us something about our message or our market. Every "yes" validates not just our approach, but our ability to bet on ourselves and translate expertise into enterprise.

8. The Strategic Pause: Sometimes You Need to Stop Climbing to See the Summit

   
   

Some of our biggest advances have come from the most unexpected moments. There was one night when we felt completely stuck and overwhelmed by the gap between our vision and current reality. Instead of another strategy session, we decided to step outside and lay under the stars. That shift in perspective (from immediate concerns to longer view) gave us space, made us laugh, and clarified our thinking.

The next morning, we had breakthroughs that changed our work's trajectory for the better. But here's the thing: that wasn't random. It was strategic disengagement. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is stop producing.

We've learned to build "pause protocols" into our rhythm. Not because we're lazy or unfocused, but because stepping back from immediate problems often reveals systemic solutions that grinding through never uncovers. The view from inside the spiral is different from the view above it.

9. Building Beyond Yourself: From Good Ideas to Lasting Impact

   
   

This year has been about learning the difference between having expertise and building intellectual capital. Each new team member we've brought on represents not just additional capacity, but proof that our vision is compelling enough to attract talented people who want to be part of something bigger.

Our first major research report felt like sending our intellectual child out into the world. Would anyone care? The response surprised us. Not in volume, but in depth. People weren't just consuming our insights; they were building on them, challenging them, asking the deeper questions we intended to inspire. After one workshop, a participant reached out to share how our research was exactly what she needed to make a business case for organizational change. Countless conversations turned to into someone vulnerably sharing their own story that was connected to our findings. 

These moments crystallized something important: we're not just building a consulting practice, we're contributing to a larger conversation about the future of work. True entrepreneurship isn't just solving problems, it's creating systems, frameworks, and intellectual property that solve problems without requiring your direct involvement every time.

Our book proposal process made this real. When you have to articulate your thinking for thousands of potential readers, you realize you're accountable not just to clients, but to the broader evolution of your field. You're building beyond yourself.

10. The Authenticity Advantage: In a World of Corporate Polish, Real Is Rare

    
    

That moment a year ago looking at each other with laptops open, hearts racing, asking "Are we ready?" captures something we've learned to leverage: vulnerability as strength. In a business world obsessed with appearing to have all the answers, admitting uncertainty has become our differentiator.

This lesson in authenticity, humility, and vulnerability seems to be important, because it keeps coming back. Shonna’s first day in her PhD program, her advisor – objectively among the top scholars of all time in his field – shared that the more expertise and accolades that he accumulated over the years, the more certain he was of how little he knew in the grand scheme of things. One year in, we are so much wiser than we were when we started. And we’re even more acutely aware of how much we don’t yet know. 

Our willingness to share the terror alongside the excitement, to acknowledge when we're figuring things out, to be human about the challenges. This authenticity has created deeper connections than polished perfection ever could. Our clients don't just buy our expertise; they buy our willingness to be real about what building something meaningful actually requires.

The entrepreneurial journey isn't about courage in the absence of uncertainty. It's about moving forward because of belief in what you're building, despite the uncertainty. And when you're authentic about that reality, you give others permission to be human too. In our work helping organizations navigate change, that permission becomes the foundation for everything else.

The Spiral Continues

This year has changed us in ways we didn't anticipate. We have moments of reflection on what we've accomplished: building an all star team and incredible company network, securing significant - even dream - clients, launching large scale research projects and reports, winning competitions and navigating business deals, traveling to speak on global stages, contributing our voices to absolutely critical conversations shaping the future of work and humanity, and so much more. But we also have moments of frustration at how much more there is to do, how many opportunities we want to pursue, how much our vision has expanded.

That's the nature of the upward spiral: each level brings challenges that would have seemed impossible from where you started, but also capabilities you didn't know you had. We're not the same people who looked at each other before walking through a one way decision gate and hitting "publish" a year ago. We're founders now, with the resilience and partnership that comes with that experience.

The work ahead is substantial as we build our platform, expand our research, and grow our team. But we're equipped differently now than we were even just twelve months ago.

We're grateful for every lesson, every challenge, every person who is supporting us along the way. The entrepreneurial journey isn't about courage in the absence of uncertainty; it's about moving forward because of belief in what you're building, despite the uncertainty.

Here's to another year of building something that matters.

— Shonna & Erin

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P.S.S. If you think you could be a good fit for our Fractional Insights Network of Experts, please reach out to us at info@fractionalinsights.ai. 

P.S.S.S. Want to learn more about how we leverage psychological ergonomics to design work in a way that optimizes your people and technology? Please reach out to shonna@fractionalinsights.ai or erin@fractionalinsights.ai