Mhm Welcome back to Cheddar News. The mom project
just announced$80 million series C funding round the company
is a digital marketplace that connects working women with companies
. And the new funding comes as of course,
many women and mothers across the country remain unemployed during
the pandemic. Here to talk about how the mom
project will use its new funding to further its mission
is the director of the company's rise scholarship program.
Shandra Sanders Shandra, thank you so much for being
here. Congratulations on the new round of funding.
I want to start here. Can you just talk
about how you're going to use that money? Uh
and why was lead illuminate the right partner for this
new round? Of course. Thank you for having
me. And number one this funding represents the largest
global investment and female workforce technology, which really means
that the market is really now realizing the potential and
the power of Moms with this funding right? Led
by leads, aluminum and I'll speak to that a
little bit later. But with this funding, uh
it means that we are able to make significant investments
in both our team growth as well as our product
. Right? And so with team growth we want
to see our teams for like data analytics, um
data science teams grow also we want to see our
customer support teams grow. So that means investing in
that and enable and scaling that so that we can
um grow globally. Um also in our product right
? We are now able to take a deeper dive
into R and D. And really get ready to
scale this product globally and again reach that I.
P. O. Mount stone. Right. Yeah
. Let's talk about that leads illuminate. Why was
that partnership really important here? Oh for sure.
Because leads illuminate. Right. They are um committed
to investing in technology that can change the world and
that technology includes education as well as technology um for
you know the future of work. And so of
course with the mom project we fit right into that
. Um We are Creating technology to change the world
to help women get back into the workforce, but
not just that with rise program, right? We
are re skilling 10,000 women and so it just made
perfect sense for us to come together for this series
. C your your funding as we kind of alluded
to at the top of this segment really just feels
like um it's so timely, right? The latest
jobs report just show that there is a continued struggle
for women to enter the workforce. Certainly moms,
can you just provide insight from your unique kind of
perspective and your angle of of this business? Um
You know why why is it so tough right now
for women to get back into the workforce? Um
What are some of the reasons you're seeing? Well
, you know, over the last 18 months,
right over two million women left the workforce either voluntarily
or involuntarily right? The pandemic had a disproportionate effect
on mothers and women of color. Um we had
to leave the workforce. Either we had to choose
to stay home and take care of our kids who
are dealing with remote learning at the time or we
were laid off and having to, you know,
really pick up on the caregiving, um uh caregiving
um that we have. Right? So um in
order to get back into the workforce, right,
all these two million women in order to get them
back and we may not be going back into the
same roles, right? It's going to take us
to be creative to get us back into the workforce
so that we can again get some economic opportunity and
earn income to take care of our family. Yeah
, I wonder then, have you started to see
an increase in women reaching out especially as kind of
schools uh start up again, maybe people feel more
comfortable putting their kids back into child care. Have
you started to see that increase in what has it
been like? There's definitely an increase right now?
We are really feeling the impact of being out of
the workforce for a while and women are really now
at a time ready to get back in. So
either that's coming to the mom project, creating a
profile and starting to search for jobs or that's coming
to rise right and getting the skills that you need
part time fast track skills, tech skills um that
can really get you in back into the job market
, keep you competitive. You know, we're doing
confidence training. We're doing um networking, right?
We're teaching all these ladies how to really be able
to sell themselves so they can get back into the
workforce and you know, get the income that they
truly deserve. Are there particular demographics that that you're
seeing in terms of um those who are probably struggling
more to re enter the workforce? Is it those
who have been out longer? Is it mother?
Is is it older women? Younger women were the
demographics distinguish mints you're seeing definitely women write all sorts
of women. It could be women who have been
out of the workforce for a minute and maybe,
you know, their priorities have changed at home and
now both, you know, income earners, both
parents need to earn income, right? So it's
everyone those who were privileged at one time may not
be privileged today. Everyone, every woman at this
point needs help to get back into the workforce.
And the mom project has that solution. I wonder
if you could hit home for our viewers, why
it's so important to be active in helping women return
to the workforce. Obviously, maybe for the economic
reasons. But even for, I would imagine kind
of just the continued woman's movement, this seems like
a bit of a step back for a lot of
the progress that has been made in equitable relationships in
the workforce. Yes. Um yes, we,
uh the progress definitely the progress has had a backslide
. Right? And so it's extremely important. It's
an imperative that we get back into the workforce right
? Having women having females having women of color at
the table, right? Just brings different perspectives to
all teams, right? In order for us to
truly um have a workplace in which people want to
come to work in which people feel valued and are
able to operate at their highest level. We need
to have women female women of color representation at all
levels. You mentioned rise a moment ago and we
know you're the Director of Rise, can you talk
about what that is exactly and how it's helping of
course Rise is our first initiative of the Mom project
dot org which is our not for profit arm of
the Mom project and we are a transformative re skilling
up skilling program right? We are offering no cost
at all um scholarship opportunities for women to come and
gain the gain access to the skills that they need
, such as ux design, project management data analytics
I. T. Support roles in which they are
sorry, skills in which these women can go back
into the workforce earning income possibly get opportunities for flexibility
. Right? We're connecting these ladies with mentors at
Fortune 100 companies were giving them a completely well rounded
experience um in order for them to truly again feel
valuable within themselves but also bring value to the workplace
. Does the Mom project have any, you know
, specific initiatives focused on already working women or women
of color? I'm sorry, can you repeat that
one more time. Does the mom project have any
specific um initiatives focused on working women and women of
color? Because we know of course women of color
in particular have been disproportionately impact even more during this
pandemic. Yes, for sure. With rise,
right, we are focusing on women of color and
moms at this point we are making connections with other
uh companies who are invested in truly diversifying their workforce
to so with rise, we are able to connect
these women women of color to companies who truly value
them and really want to diversify their workforce. I
wonder there are there any companies you can mention out
there companies that you guys are working more closely with
in terms of employment or are there specific sectors that
are really doing well with the people that you're helping
right now? Well for sure. You know,
there's a extreme representation gap for mothers for women of
color for women in tech. Right? So we
are working with the tech industry to truly feel that
gap that gap and cultivate a pipeline of highly skilled
women to get back into the workforce. Right?
So these are companies that were working with such as
Apple, such as google, such as Cisco,
just to name a few But top companies out there
who are willing and committed to this initiative and really
want to get women and women of color into their
workplace really quickly before I let you go here and
something just popped in my head at the beginning of
this pandemic. I had worked with um, you
know, reaching out to people who were in the
hospitality sector for example, or in the restaurant business
, decided they were going to up skill and go
into tech because that was in high demand. Um
, and we just saw so many stories of that
happening at the beginning. Are you still seeing that
trend? Are you seeing people go from kind of
these entry level positions of like the restaurant or the
hospitality industry that let them go during the pandemic and
then taking advantage of the opportunity and the tail winds
in tech for example. Oh for sure. Especially
moms who were in the hospitality, right? Or
the service industry, especially women of color once this
has happened to you, right? That was pretty
tragic. Right? There's a lot of trauma associated
with being laid off in a lot of trauma associated
with this pandemic. Right? So no one really
wants to go through that again. So these women
are coming to this program really trying to set themselves
up and put themselves in a position so that when
these economic shifts happen, uh it won't be as
big of a burden on them. So they are
really trying to come and get the skills that they
need. And again we have a program for both
. You know, entry level ladies who have no
tech experience at all and we have companies willing to
hire them. I just I asked that because I
think about that every time we continue to report on
the struggle to get workers to come back into the
restaurant industry or the hospitality industry. Although they are
kind of accelerating right now. I always think about
those end of the stories that I covered early on
the pandemic. I wonder if they're still happening now
. It could be a factor there. Really appreciate
your time you're inside and certainly I know a lot
of women appreciate the work that you are doing right
now to get more women to get back into the
workforce. Help them do that transition. Shandra Sanders
, director of rise at the mob project.