We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Briana Brown a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Briana, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

My co-founder Natalie Costa e Sa and I met at a Sparez Bowling in Broward County for the first time in June 2018. It was the first event to kick off our family’s Family Reunion. Natalie was my cousin’s girlfriend (now wife) and we were chatting about Miami since I had recently relocated, and our new jobs. Natalie and I discovered that we were both working or pursuing technical degrees and we found ourselves encouraging each other in our fields since representation was painfully low. Natalie mentioned wanting to provide scholarships for girls who were interested in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) fields and I remember asking her if someone in our family told her about the foundation I had created in New York which was an extremely similar concept! That day, the idea for StrongHER Future was born the next few months we spent organizing the idea.

We met several times at CIC, the coworking space my company at the time was based and developed the structure to include mentorship and professional development. We identified Board members, created a database and application, identified the types of high schools we wanted to reach, and solidified a partnership with the Coral Gables Foundation so donations would be tax-deductible. We went in person to the high schools and spoke with guidance counselors, principals, and students to address any questions or concerns they had about the program. Over the next 10 months, we built out the elements of the StrongHER Future Foundation and officially launched it in June 2019 with our first 6 recipients.

Briana, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Natalie and I both knew firsthand what working in Science and Technology felt like but we also spent a considerable amount of time researching the impact on Women in STEAM. Women are disproportionately represented in STEAM fields and publications like the Harvard Business Review acknowledge that there are biases that obstruct women’s entry and success in these career fields.

We developed StrongHER Future’s mission and vision to get to the core of some of these issues:

MISSION
To provide scholarships and career advancement opportunities for women dedicated to pursuing their education in a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) field of study and empower, mentor, and educate them throughout their collegiate and early professional career.

VISION
To increase the ratio of women to men within the science, technology, engineering, art, and math fields by empowering women to pursue their passion and encouraging them to become mentors in college and throughout their careers.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

We initially used the Fiscal Sponsorship model which allows an organization to borrow a larger organization’s 501c3 so donations from individuals or other organizations are tax-deductible. We developed a relationship with the Coral Gables Foundation collected funds on our behalf and completed accounting documents in exchange for a management fee.

We also applied and were selected as finalists for the Awesome Miami Foundation and received donations from Target towards school supplies our recipients needed for college.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The 2020 pandemic has caused many organizations, businesses, and corporations to pivot! For us, we were ramping up into years two and three when we needed to pivot our mentorship and professional development events for the StrongHER girls online. We also decided not to offer an additional scholarship in 2021 due to funding disruptions and we wanted to continue investing in our 9 students currently in the program. And while It has been difficult, we still keep in contact with the girls in our program, currently, Juniors and Sophomores – we couldn’t be more proud to be a part of their journey.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: strongherfuture
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/strongher-future-foundation

Image Credits
StrongHER Future Foundation Board Member