Full Stack Moms

What happens when twin motherhood, career ambition, and entrepreneurship collide? Melissa Chandler, communications leader and founder of her own consultancy, shares her journey raising twin boys while launching a business after nearly two decades in tech. She opens up about becoming a mother later in life, balancing work and family, and creating a parenting partnership without a default parent. In...

Rebecca Grimes has spent her career taking on hard things. As Chief Revenue Officer at SheerID, she leads sales, customer success, marketing, and revenue operations. At home, she and her husband are raising two kids, caring for aging parents, managing a multigenerational household, and somehow still finding time for fifth-grade field day. In this episode, Rebecca shares the behind-the-scenes story...

What happens when a high-growth startup marketer decides to step away from a dream job and build a life that's more aligned with her values as a mother and entrepreneur? In this episode of Full Stack Moms, Shannon Curran and Mallory Lee sit down with Cat Canada, former Director of Marketing at Bobbie and founder of Re:Brand, a thriving networking community for women. Cat shares her journey from he...

What happens when a newborn baby joins an executive board meeting? Shannon shares the story behind one of the defining moments that inspired Full Stack Moms: bringing her exclusively breastfed infant to a startup board meeting in New York.   In this conversation, Shannon opens up about returning to work just weeks after giving birth, leading strategic discussions while caring for her baby, challen...

What happens when career growth, motherhood, and entrepreneurship collide? Amber Williams, head of RevOps and Chief Revenue Officer at Passetto, talks about her journey through tech leadership, maternity leave, and building a startup while raising a young child. Amber opens up about navigating layoffs while pregnant, doubling her income with the help of career coaching, and balancing high-pressure...

What happens when the “corporate husband” is actually the wife? Chantel Hirschel, Director of Revenue Operations at Sana, talks about her career growth, motherhood, and building a nontraditional family dynamic. Chantel opens up about her husband’s life-changing accident, becoming the sole provider, balancing leadership in tech with raising two young children, and the emotional realities of postpar...

Balancing a career and navigating motherhood requires more than ambition, it requires resilience and bold decision-making. Barbara Nicholas, CEO of Polly, shares her journey of growing up with limited resources, becoming a young mom at 18, working double shifts to make ends meet, and still managing to carve a path all the way to the C-suite.  Barbara opens up about one of the most defining moments...

Building a business and navigating motherhood requires more than ambition,  it requires embracing uncertainty and constant reinvention. Jillian Whitlow, founder and CEO of Ink & Honey, shares her journey of transitioning from a corporate career to entrepreneurship while raising three kids under four. From navigating the challenges of starting a business after a layoff to balancing a thriving c...

There’s no clean handoff between work and parenting. It all happens at the same time. Paula shares how years of frustration over finding snacks her kids would actually eat turned into Sampleit, and what it really took to get there. Not a perfect routine or carved-out hours, but stolen moments between school drop-offs, snack requests, and the constant pull of little people who need you right now. P...

What happens when the childcare system fails you? You’re a mom, you fix it. In this episode, Karen Kelly shares how losing afterschool care for her son two years in a row led her to quit her job as a startup president and build a grassroots movement. After a single post in her town's mom Facebook group yielded 75 emails overnight, she mobilized 600 parents, negotiated with local vendors, and helpe...

Balancing a career in tech with motherhood requires more than time management. It requires rewriting the rules. Margaret Kelsey shares what it really looks like to build a high-impact career while navigating motherhood, divorce, and a beautifully complex blended family. From getting hired eight months pregnant to redesigning her career through fractional work, Margaret breaks down the real decisio...

Content Warning: This episode discusses Postpartum Depression. We cover topics including mental health struggles and parental burnout. Please listen with care. Building a career while navigating new motherhood can feel like an impossible balancing act.  But for Courtney Nugent, an unexpected layoff at eight months pregnant became the catalyst for something transformative. After years of thriving i...

Building a career and raising a family can be a juggling act, but for Mel Goodman, it became a chance to create something meaningful after experiencing a major career crossroads. After spending years in the tech industry and leading teams, Mel found herself at a pivotal moment when she had to dissolve a team due to the effects of COVID-19. Mel shares her journey of founding WorkMom, a business ded...

If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s actually possible to build a high-growth tech company while raising a family, this conversation will challenge everything you think you know. Join us as we talk with Alina Vandenberghe, Co-founder and CEO of Chili Piper, about what it really looks like to lead at the highest level while raising four kids. From navigating the constant tension between ambition an...

Growing a family and building a business at the same time can feel overwhelming, but for Sydney Mulligan, it was an opportunity to do both - after she was laid off while on maternity leave. Yes, you read that right.  Sydney shares her journey of founding EMMIE Collective, a marketing and revenue operations agency. She walks us through the challenges she faced as a new mom starting a business, how...

If you’ve ever wondered whether building a flexible career is really possible without losing yourself or missing the moments that matter most at home, this episode will feel familiar. Join us as we talk with Rachel Johnson about going fractional, redefining identity beyond job titles, and choosing a career path that gives her more control over her time, her work, and her family life. From hard les...

Building a big career while navigating motherhood is already a lot to organize, but once you throw travel into the mix, it can feel nearly impossible. Join us as we talk with Sandy Robinson about her path from sales into sales operations leadership, the mentors who helped shape that transition, and the decisions she made about career and motherhood. From being the only woman in early sales roles t...

If you’ve ever felt like you needed a childcare plan before you were “allowed” to tell anyone you’re pregnant, this episode will feel familiar. Join us as we talk about childcare: the waitlists, the deposits, the sticker shock, and the identity shift that can hit when your work life and family life collide. We share what we’ve actually done across different seasons: daycare, sitters and part-time...

If excelling at work and motherhood at the same time feels harder than it should, know you’re not alone. This is Full Stack Moms, a show for working moms navigating high-performing careers, motherhood, and life - just like we are. In this episode, we share our own stories of balancing full-time roles, staying home, consulting, fractional work, and everything in between.  This conversation sets the...

Work like you’re not a parent.  Parent like you don’t work.  What if that whole system is wrong? This is Full Stack Moms, and we are Mallory Lee and Shannon Curran, two working moms navigating tech careers, parenting, and everything in between. We talk about why the traditional rules of work don’t fit modern parents and how women in tech are doing things differently. Through honest conversations a...