Reflections on 2020: Growth, Slow Downs, and Surprises — Episode #175

What a year, 2020. You were one for the books.

Last year my family and I didn’t have childcare coverage for seven months. It was a long, tiring year, and we are starting 2021 in a similar place—we’re home for ten days, without childcare, waiting for the days when we can go back to daycare.

I wish that 2021 could magically, instantly be different and that I could snap my fingers for all of us to remove so much of the chaos and uncertainty in our lives. Frustratingly, it looks like the upcoming year will certainly be bringing it’s challenges our way.

In this podcast, I’m doing a highlights reel of the last year, and I want to share some of the key moments from 2020 and the lessons gleaned from the year we had.

In this episode, we talk about:

• The Wise Women’s Council — our annual leadership program, and how we pulled off an incredible year last year with 28 women, and what the Class of 2021 looks like. You can now apply to join the leadership program and become a part of the next class.
• The name change from “Startup Pregnant” to “Startup Parent” and some insight into the decision and the process behind the brand shift. It felt easy and intuitive and right, and I’m so glad we did it, even in a pandemic.
• Growth metrics and revenue — Last year, we doubled in revenue, which surprised me a bit when I looked at our year-end metrics. Most of that is likely because of the foundation we built in 2018 and 2019, and a testament to the need for community for working parents, especially and even in the midst of a pandemic.
• Doing half and cutting work from your plate, and why 2020 made it impossible to try to do it all. I used the system I outline in the book Do Half and it helped immensely this year.

If you’re struggling this year, if the last year has been a wrecking ball in your life, and if the pandemic has affected you and your loved ones, I’m so sorry to hear. Please know that I know it must be so incredibly hard out there right now for many of you. I see you, and this must be so crappy. I hope that 2021 can bring some moments of peace, steadiness, and rest for everyone this year.

Sarah K Peck

Founder, Startup Parent

Sarah Peck is a writer, startup advisor, and yoga teacher based in New York City. She’s the founder and executive director of Startup Parent, a media company documenting the stories of women’s leadership across work and family. She hosts the weekly Startup Parent Podcast and Let's Talk, her second podcast. Previously, she worked at Y Combinator backed One Month, Inc, a company that teaches people to code in 30 days, and before that she was a writing and communications consultant.

She’s a 20-time All-American swimmer who successfully swam the Escape from Alcatraz nine separate times, once wearing only a swim cap and goggles to raise $33k for charity: water. She’s written for more than 75 different web publications and and has delivered speeches and workshops at Penn, UVA, Berkeley, Harvard, Craft & Commerce, WDS, and more.