Female Founders: Kirsten Saenz Tobey of Revolution Foods On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Have a clear vision. Knowing what you want to do with your company, why you want to do it and how to execute your mission are key components to a company’s prosperity. The day-to-day may look different, and at times you might feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle, but when you are guided by a true north star, you can steward that vision to fruition. Be sure to clearly define what success looks like, both for yourself and your team.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kirsten Saenz Tobey.
Kirsten Saenz Tobey is co-founder and chief impact officer of Revolution Foods. Prior to founding Revolution Foods, Kirsten was a teacher, researcher and garden educator with Earthjustice, the School for Field Studies, and Phillips Academy at Andover. Her career spanned from leading experiential education programs in the US and Ecuador to evaluating school feeding programs in Ghana. She is an Ashoka Fellow, Aspen Institute Environmental Fellow, member of the Culinary Institute of America’s Sustainable Business Leadership Council and past mentor for the Women’s Initiative Fellowship Program.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “back story”? What led you to this particular career path?
Prior to founding Revolution Foods, I was a teacher, researcher and garden educator. I worked with education programs in the U.S. and abroad, including evaluating the scalability of school feeding programs with the U.N. Hunger Task Force in Ghana.
My leadership foundation came from my parents, both of whom were educators. They always taught me the importance of helping others from a young age. My mom introduced community service to my high school as a requirement for graduation, and after spending a great deal of time volunteering in low-income communities in the U.S. and abroad, I realized how many people didn’t know where they would get their next meal. As I got older, my curiosity grew in addressing overall accessibility to food.
I had always thought I would become a teacher; however, I quickly realized that wasn’t my long-term goal nor my passion. I wanted to work in a field that addressed larger issues like hunger and food systems, and during my time as an educator, I noticed some students came to school ready to learn while others struggled to focus. I began to question if students’ home situations and access to food impacted their academic success.
I went on to business school, and that’s where I met my Revolution Foods co-founder, Kristin Groos Richmond. Although we came from different backgrounds, we immediately shared interest in socially driven causes. We ended up turning our business school project into a reality.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
Since founding Revolution Foods over 15 years ago, Kristin and I each have had multiple children — no easy feat while building your own company! We’ve been able to juggle motherhood and leading a business. And while it’s been challenging at times, it’s also been the most rewarding experience. We hope to inspire other mothers and show them it is possible to build your family and still pursue your career ambitions. After all, mothers are assets to any team; they are intuitive, strong and emotionally connected, all of which drive greater success and deeper connections with the people they serve.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I’ve definitely had a couple of funny mistakes over the years but this one always comes to mind. When we bought our first delivery truck for distributing meals, we forgot to factor in the weight of the food carts. Anyone watching Kristin and me trying to hoist hundreds of pounds of fresh food and insulated fresh food containers into the delivery truck would have had a good laugh. Thankfully, a kind stranger passing let us in on the secret: the lift gate that all delivery companies use! He just so happened to be a metal welder, so he helped us weld a temporary plate onto the truck ramp for smoother access until we could get the lift gate installed over the weekend. After one week of deliveries, we took the truck to have a lift gate installed!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Hands down, I would say Kristin. From the first week we met in business school to creating our company together, we’ve always shared a vision and have been able to build a talented team that share the same passion as us. Kristin’s boundless energy, focus on delivering excellence, and her ability to build a team of incredibly talented individuals has always been an inspiration to me. Kristin’s optimism is a major factor in what has made Revolution Foods successful. Her enthusiasm is truly contagious!
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience, what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
Unfortunately, society has long set the expectation that women should play the primary parenting and home-making role than men, creating this pressure on the men to become the bread winner and ensure career success. If we got rid of these gender norms, women could prioritize their career free of the guilt caused by defying social norms. I believe for there to be more women founders, we need to normalize men and spouses taking on more of the home and parenting duties. We, as women, should encourage and support our male teammates who want to take on more parenting or home responsibilities. We must support our spouses in helping lighten our load; after all, it takes a village to raise children and build a career.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
The most important thing society can do is to normalize and recognize that mothers and women need help with parenting duties and household responsibilities. For instance, we should offer equal maternity/paternity benefits to encourage equal responsibility for childrearing. This would help both men and women to feel encouraged by their employers and society to build both a family and a career.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
If I can generalize a bit, women tend to be more emotionally in tune and can connect with clients and employees at a level that may not come as naturally to men. In my experience, women use a balance of logic, gut instinct, and emotion to lead. I also find that women tend to build more diverse teams, which has been shown to drive business success. I think women-founded companies thrive because of the unique talent women bring to the table.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
Many people assume being a founder means you are your own boss; you can make your own schedule and choose what tasks you want to work on. In [my] reality, founders feel more pressure to always be working, to be constantly available to the team, to think of the next big thing — the list goes on. Kristin and I have put more of ourselves into this company than any other jobs we’ve had and that’s probably because we feel like the company’s success rides on our shoulders. Being the founder is not the easy path — it is all consuming and takes an emotional investment, endless time commitment and hard work. But it is worth it to be able to achieve your vision.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
Starting a company is not for the faint of heart. You have to be comfortable taking risks. If you are too risk-averse, a position that offers job stability and predictability might be a better career path. As a founder, you need to be creative in problem-solving, flexible, open to being wrong and being able to learn from those mistakes, all while striving for a vision that many tell you is impossible. Founders also have to have deep conviction in their ideas because when they believe in them, they won’t be easily persuaded by nay-sayers.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)
It’s hard to boil it down to just five but here are my top pieces of advice:
- Build a strong support network. Both personal (family and friends) and professional (mentors and colleagues) support networks are vital to anyone’s career success, but especially founders. You need people you can trust and turn to for guidance — people that can lend an ear to bounce ideas off of or people who can support you to overcome obstacles. You are only as successful as the support system you build.
- Recognize when you need help. Having the self-awareness to know when you need help is vital, but that’s only half the solution. The other half is actually asking for help when you need it. Whether that is inquiring how to raise money or figuring out difficult company decisions, help can come in many different shapes and sizes. Knowing how to get it will help any founder thrive.
- Have a clear vision. Knowing what you want to do with your company, why you want to do it and how to execute your mission are key components to a company’s prosperity. The day-to-day may look different, and at times you might feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle, but when you are guided by a true north star, you can steward that vision to fruition. Be sure to clearly define what success looks like, both for yourself and your team.
- Create a team that shares your passion. You can’t do everything yourself. Being able to delegate is key, but if you don’t have like-minded team members, you won’t get far. Your team goes beyond your employees; it’s your consultants, board members and mentors. When the entire team has the same vision, you can hold them accountable and trust they are doing the job just as well as you would.
- Have a strong set of core values throughout the company. A clear, articulated set of values speaks to how teams work together, how team members are treated and what the overall expectations are — all of which is imperative to achieving the company’s goals.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Since day one, my team has been focused on completely transforming the quality of meals offered to students by offering a new approach to school lunch. Through public-private partnerships, we have designed, produced and delivered over 500 million meals to various sites across 23 states, including community feeding programs, childhood education centers, districts, charter schools, senior programs and afterschool youth programs. The company is continuing to expand its product and service offerings with the goal of making healthy, culturally relevant and delicious food accessible to all individuals, families and communities.
We also recognize the need for nutritious meals goes beyond school programs. When the pandemic began, we knew we had to expand our efforts. With the lasting effects of the pandemic exacerbating food insecurity across the U.S., the company shifted its focus to include the country’s most food insecure communities. Revolution Foods pivoted to partner with key cities and municipalities to create new distribution models — a model of positive systematic change.
Revolution Foods’ mission expanded beyond its core student focus to include vulnerable adult populations, such as the homeless, seniors and the homebound. The company now distributes 2 million meals per week in hundreds of cities and towns across the country. With school closures continuing due to the pandemic, Revolution Foods’ work became increasingly important because many families rely on school meals as one of their primary sources of food.
Our impact on the communities we serve goes beyond just providing meals; we create jobs for those who need work. For instance, we provided daily meals to New Orleans (NOLA) residents impacted by the pandemic through our partnership with the City of New Orleans, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and local restaurants. Our team realized that the unemployment rate in NOLA was at a record high, so we leveraged our public and private partnerships to create more than 500 new local jobs. Local eateries and restaurants (many of which are BIPOC- and/or woman-owned) joined forces with 90+ of our NOLA teammates and 100+ of our local drivers to nourish NOLA residents.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I’d love to ensure people have access and the knowledge of the benefits of healthy eating. If more people — particularly parents — had access to high quality foods and introduced kids at a very young age to healthy, balanced eating habits, I believe it would bring a lot of good to a lot of people.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I would be honored to share a meal with Megan Rapinoe, the professional soccer player whom my daughter admires immensely. Megan embodies those character traits I value so deeply — she lives with a values-driven purpose, she uses her platform to make a difference and inspire others, she advocates for equity and equal pay for women and men, and she strives for excellence. As a woman in leadership, seeing the personal impact that Megan has had on my daughter affirms my beliefs on how society should further embrace women leaders.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Kirsten Saenz Tobey of Revolution Foods On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.