Skip to content

Female Founders: Molly Moore of Decent On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Put your best players in the game — This is one of the things I took away from playing and coaching roller derby; you want your best players in the game to win. Do not be afraid to hire great people and do not be afraid to fire low performers. Bad hires early in a company can be toxic and in some cases deadly.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Molly Moore.

Molly Moore, founder of Decent, a start-up disrupting the health insurance industry, has spent the last 20+ years exploring the healthcare industry from many angles. She has worked in a variety of roles for providers, payers, venture capital investors, and self-funded purchasers. Molly hopes that her work with Decent will disrupt the status quo healthcare industry and drive meaningful change to improve the lives of all. Molly lives in Seattle with her family and is a roller derby coach in her spare time.

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 “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I have been in healthcare my entire career. I honestly didn’t think I had the risk-tolerance to become a founder. But health care coverage in the US is in need of change, and that requires people tackling the big issues. I felt I had a lot to add to any disruption strategy because I deeply understand the industry and why it is so broken.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

We started raising our Series A in February 2020. We went from in person meetings on Sand Hill Road to learning how to work virtually in the span of two weeks. We were living at home and working at home. In fact, we raised our Series A on Zoom. I was pitching Andreeson Horowitz while my 4-year-old daughter was doing zoom calls with her pre-school teacher. It was a very interesting time.

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?

We started out as a blockchain company. We thought we could build an entire health plan on blockchain technology in two years. We did not do that. Blockchain has come a long way since 2018 but holy cow we were really optimistic on that front.

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?

The team at Decent has become like a second family to me. You cannot build a company without an insane amount of scrappiness and teamwork. We wrote the tenets of our culture in the first week of forming — and one of the most important and lovely things we staked in the ground is that we would welcome everyone and ensure that everyone could bring their whole selves to work — the good, the bad, the ugly. People take mental health days, show us their new tattoos, change their pronouns, we have a slack channel with photos of team members’ pets. The team is what makes this all worth it and they act as support if anything goes sideways. Without getting too sappy, my husband has also been amazing. He is the best partner I could have ever asked for. Being a mom-founder is not easy and my husband has been rooting for this company since day one.

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?

Obstacles will be different for different people. In my experience, I faced (and continue to face) three obstacles: confidence, networking and the mom juggle.

Developing confidence as a leader is tough as a woman. Imposter syndrome is real. I work on this every day. It’s a skill and some never get passed it.

When it comes to networking, I’ve learned that it is not what you know but who you know. This is especially true when are using your network to fund your new business idea. So, build that network! There’s just one problem — you know when networking events typically are? After work. For me, after work is family time. I spend all day in the office and after that I have a whole other job. Quality time with my daughter generally happens between the hours of 5 pm and 8 pm (prime happy hour time). I’ve had to weigh mingling with strangers versus being a present mom.

Society is rough on working mothers. It’s a constant juggle weighing “Good Mom” and “Good Founder” responsibilities. Imagine looking at a typical venture capital investor in the eye (read: older male) and saying — “I will bust my butt to make this company a success, but I have boundaries and I intend to enforce them.” Delivering that message takes one tough momma to hold her ground. (A salut to all my mentors that filled me with confidence to set these boundaries.) If I didn’t have set boundaries and just killed myself for the success of the company I would be absent from my family. How could I ever reconcile that?

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?

From Large to Small undertakings.

  • More than six weeks of Paid Family Leave!! A year is reasonable, six weeks is not. At six-weeks post-partum I was sleeping just two hours at a time. If my financial circumstances or employer had required me to return at that time, I would have been fired for falling asleep on the job. My employer at the time “allowed” me to take 12 weeks but 6 were unpaid. Losing six weeks of income and then paying a $5,000 in hospital bills was a huge financial stressor. We are so far behind the rest of the civilized world on paid family leave. We need to ensure women can have children and not lose their careers. Period.
  • Remove gender bias from job descriptions. Job descriptions can be easily retooled to remove gender bias language and the laundry list of qualifications. Women use qualifications as a checklist of skills or experience they must possess in order to apply, and most women won’t apply unless they meet 100% of the qualifications. Men use the qualifications section as a guide and apply when they meet roughly 60% of the qualifications.
  • Re-think networking. I had an opportunity to influence ‘networking’ hours at a previous job, re-imagining them as breakfast happy hours. It was a dream for me as a new mom.

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?

Executive leadership at large and small companies act as a north star for communication, transparency, resilience, and empathy, When times get tough (which they always do in early stage companies) leaders often have to rally the team and speak to employees in one voice. Women should be a part of that voice. As a woman founder, you are also a role model for other women in your company and beyond. As a founder, you can eventually get more control over your work and home life balance. You’ll be able to hire smart people to help you share the burden. One of my favorite parts of building a team is hiring people who are great at the things that you don’t love (and are often not very good at). Never am I so happy as when I’m building a team where I can hire a whip-smart details-oriented person to balance out my high-level strategic thinking. They make me and the company better.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

There are so many. Here are three that come to mind:

  • You have to be confident in your ideas, but you do not need to be “cocky” about them. Except during fundraising. During fundraising, your idea is the best darn idea anyone ever heard. It’s clearly a billion-dollar idea and will IPO and make the VCs tons of money. (wink, double guns, high fives, fist bumps, etc.)
  • You cannot do it on your own. You need to get good at asking for things. You will need to ask for things you never thought you would ask for: Millions of dollars, free stuff from a business partner, your lawyers to reduce their bills, etc. People who are invested in your success, want to help where they can — but you need to ask for help.
  • Love the word “no”. There is book dedicated to “getting to yes”. It’s a great resource but, I really love someone saying “no” because it can 1) fire me up to prove them wrong. 2) sometimes a “no” turns out to be the best intel you ever gathered for strategy 3) a firm “no” is WAY better than the deadly “long maybe”. The “long maybe” can kill an early company — “Sure, we would love to buy your product/do this pilot with you we just need to identify the right people/where the money will come from/etc.” Just move on.

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?

Yes, everyone can be a founder. If you are passionate about something, good at it, and can make money doing it — do it! But don’t do it alone. Know thyself. A combination of fantastic co-founders, a fantastic coach, or hiring the best people in the world can get you to starting and sustaining your company.

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.)

  • Have Thick Skin — Being a woman founder is hard. Getting and incorporating feedback from your team is key to being a good leader. Don’t take things personally and if you can (this is hard for me) let the negativity roll off your back. Do not apologize for things that aren’t your fault. It’s all about balance. You are going to become VERY aware of how the cards in the deck are stacked against you and you are going to get mad. Good. Use that to fuel your own success.
  • Put your best players in the game — This is one of the things I took away from playing and coaching roller derby; you want your best players in the game to win. Do not be afraid to hire great people and do not be afraid to fire low performers. Bad hires early in a company can be toxic and in some cases deadly.
  • Incentives drive behavior — Whether you are building a consumer company, a healthcare company, or determining compensation for your team keep incentives in mind. There are times to use the stick and times to use the carrot. Here’s an unsuccessful stick example: if you want to incentivize a patient to shop for healthcare services what incentive will you offer them to wade through the mire to even try to price shop? A higher co-pay for not doing it? It doesn’t work. People don’t want to shop for healthcare services, it’s confusing and they are sick. Here’s an unsuccessful carrot example — What are you telling a salesperson that doesn’t have any commission potential as part of their compensation? You are telling them “you still get paid even if you don’t sell”.
  • Be Authentic — If you are excited about what you are building you are projecting that to your team! People love genuine enthusiasm… and it’s catching. Also, if you are putting on a show, when stuff gets hard the smile will fade and your real self will emerge. Why build a company that doesn’t let you be you!
  • Be Humble — Being a founder, raising money and starting a business is so rewarding. If you have grace and humility, it’s easier to bear the losses and celebrate the wins! And you should celebrate the wins!!!

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

At Decent, in 2019 — I was able to design and sell a health plan in Texas at 35% less than market rates that included FREE primary care, a one-time $1500 co-pay to have a baby (that’s it, leave the hospital and pay $1500 full stop). I also included coverage for people seeking gender reassignment health services — including mental health coverage. During Covid-19 lockdown we offered free virtual visits with your doctor. I had the ability to do the right things to get people affordable health coverage.

I have also helped women start, or get smarter about, their own businesses from car repair to raw foods to physical therapy. I have mentored men and women in early stages of their careers. I love encouraging people and facilitating people’s dreams.

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 am a healthcare nerd. I truly believe everyone should have access to healthcare. Universal healthcare is not going to happen in the next decade. Instead, we must take steps in removing the employer from the health coverage equation. As a patient and a consumer, you should be able to select your health insurance coverage based on your needs without your employer stepping in the middle. You should also be able to select a health insurance carrier the same way you select car insurance, in an open and transparent market. If we could do that, health plans would be much more focused on YOU as the customer rather than the employer. The downstream impact of this move toward portable benefits include:

  1. Allowing YOU to choose the price point you want to pay, provider network, and company you buy from! Like a real consumer product.
  2. Allowing YOU to get the tax advantages of buying healthcare coverage rather than your employer.
  3. Giving you a raise. . . since your employer isn’t helping contribute to health care coverage.
  4. Offering economic incentive alignment between the patient and the health plan.
  5. Better customer serivce. Over time, the individual market just becomes The Market so health plans will have to compete for your business not your employer’s loyalty.
  6. Saying goodbye to your employer reaping the benefits of your healthy lifestyle.
  7. Improved health programs since the ROI of said programs can be measured over a customer’s life rather than their employment tenure. (The estimated lifecycle of a person on a health plan is 30 months.)

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.

Vice President Kamala Harris: Hey Girl. . .Let’s talk healthcare policy + Innovation and raise awareness of the benefits of universal coverage. Also, because we are eating pancakes and having mimosas we should praise our supportive husbands and brace ourselves for the adult versions of our spunky daughters.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

Female Founders: Molly Moore of Decent On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.