Startup Parent: The Name Change — Episode #179

We started as Startup Pregnant but now we’re growing into our full name: Startup Parent.

When 2020 kicked off, we had big plans. One of those plans was growing Startup Pregnant and shifting our focus—and name—to cover what we were already focused on: parents navigating work, business, and career. Today, I’m excited to tell you about the new name, and introduce you to Startup Parent.

Here’s the backstory of why we changed our name, what it took, and a sneak peek into what we’re building next. Also, there are a lot of background noises in this episode, because children and vacuums aren’t quiet—at all. But, like the name change, we managed to figure out how to make it work despite all the hurdles. This episode was recorded in October 2020, then again in December 2020, and finally edited and published in March 2021. Because making things in a pandemic, as a parent, sometimes takes longer than I expect.

We are now Startup Parent

Here are some of the highlights:

• Startup Pregnant will be renamed Startup Parent. One of the biggest problems of the modern cultural dialogue around work and parenting is that it’s centered exclusively on women and mothers. There are different challenges facing mothers and fathers, and women face larger workplace penalties and cultural challenges than men, but the harm of patriarchal systems and capitalist obsessions with ‘Ideal Workers’ hurts both men and women, and the solutions for problems women are facing won’t come without an integrated understanding from all genders.
• We’ll continue to start from an anti-sexist, feminist-first approach, but this does not mean “white feminist” only. We’ll be expanding our collection of voices to talk to men, fathers, and non-binary genders in the conversations around what the future of work and parenting looks like, and continue to prioritize and emphasize voices across race, class, socioeconomic status, location, and privilege while continuing to talk about narratives in the United States primarily.
• The Wise Women’s Council will continue to be a women/womxn’s-only space. We need place for integrated conversations and we also need places for gender-specific conversations. 
• Part of our expanded product offerings will include places for all genders to talk about parenting, in various forms.
• This is a work in progress, which means you’ll see the building, painting, and unboxing happening across the website, podcast, and projects as fast as our team of pandemic parents can manage. 

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.