BILFPOD - Stax Founder's $1B Exit - Then She Started Over in 6 Months

Episode Date: August 20, 2026

Stax founder Suneera Madhani built a fintech from zero to a $1B exit   then started over in six months. Here's what nobody tells you about rebuilding.

She has defied all odds, a true trailblazer to women, which we don't often find. I built a company from zero to a billion. I started it at the age of 26. I presented my idea of stacks, which was the first subscription-based credit card processor. And they left me out of the room. Less than 1% of capital even goes to minority founders, let alone just women founders. So I've had every single odds stacked against me. I literally was rejected from every single bank, every single processor.

Every one in that room was pale, male and stale. Do you think they can have it all, balance of business, raise kids? Is it possible? I'm going to play the game. And guess what? I'm not just going to play. I'm going to win the fucking championship. Welcome back to the BiltPod.

We're authenticity trumps authority. Now, if you're under the impression that Bill Fizz, you know, boss I'd like to follow, you're absolutely right. It is about that. But here we like to exercise and show women in the boardroom to men, to anybody that really is a boss in their own right. And I am so excited for today's guest. She has defied all odds, a true trailblazer to women, which we don't often find. So I'm excited to introduce Zanera Madani.

Woo, girl, yeah. Had a billion dollar exit. We have to talk about this. We have to founder of stacks. Yes. We have to talk about this too. We have to talk about what you're doing. I mean, let's just dive into it.

Are you ready? I'm ready. I'm so excited to be here. I'm like, and so pumped your energy is so fun and very authentic. and we were already like chatting it up pre the episode and we're like let's just get rolling. I'm excited. I feel like I'm like looking at myself in the mirror. I really do.

I mean, you're much prettier. So much harder. She's gorgeous. She's gorgeous. You're so beautiful. I love it. So let's, okay. So prior to, you know, the billion dollar exit and prior to the fortune, who was Samira prior?

I am exactly who I was prior. And this is who I am today. Sennara is a mom and a wife and a daughter. and a really fun dinner date and a really good friend and a loyal friend and the lover of fashion and life. I am definitely an overachiever. So I'm a Virgo type A. I've always been exactly the same in terms of like I need a checklist. I need to cross everything off my checklist. If there's an opportunity for me to get extra credit, I'm going to go for the extra credit. I did, you know, I was the first person in my family to graduate college, but also did like a double major and a

minor and did the hardest degree and got scholars. Like I did all of the stuff because that was like just who I am. And that is exactly still who I am today. So even post exiting and, you know, I built a company from zero to a billion. I started it at the age of 26. It was a financial service technology company. So it was a fintech in payment processing. It was called Stax Payments.

And I led it from founder to exit, raised, you know, multi hundreds of millions in venture capital, you know, defied every odds, but I didn't go to CEO school. So I also did it, you know, with one step, you know, one foot in front of the other, one brick at a time, had built an incredible team. I have the most incredible co-founders. Like, but I do it all with heart is like who I was then and even post. It's exactly who I am today, probably a little bit more confident in myself. Yeah, absolutely. Confident in my, like in my own experience, more confident I was telling you in my own point of view now. and because I've been there and I can now like come from a place of I've done that.

But I'm still like like if you ask any of my friends and my, you know, that have known me prior to that, I'm still the same as that person. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I'm the same person. I feel like I'm the same person. Just have nicer shoes.

Yeah. Like now. Now I have nicer stuff. But I feel like I'm the same exact person too. Like I still love down south, booty shaking, snoop dog. Like that's never. Taco Bell eating. Like that's never going to, I mean, now I definitely balance it out with the exercise, but like that is, you know, I think it's just part of the journey, you know. It's not, yes, being, I think being influential and, you know, opening a company and closing and seeing the exit. I think that's just part of the story. Yeah. But it really starts with the beginning and not losing that authentic person and the humbleness inside of you. No, I, I, I, you know, and part of what I was saying is like, I'm just an overachiever. I already, we built it, you know, I built a company sold it. And then we're building an.

another one again. Like it was like six months later on to the next. And so I that is who I am. Like I'm a builder. I'm a doer. I, you know, people are like, you work so much. Like I'm like, you don't work enough. That's right? You're like, I can resonate so much because it's like, you know, I, on the one hand, I'm like, oh, I'm so tired. But then on the other, I'm like, what would I do? What would I be doing? I'm definitely not staying home. I love my kids, but I'm not a stay at home mom. And bless those moms that can do it. It's just I'm not one of them. And I constant, same thing, overachieving. Like it's not, you know, it's not good enough that I go to the gym at 4 a.m.

But I also have to come home and work out again. Or, you know, it's not good enough. Same thing, extra credit. I was always that chick for the extra credit. It wasn't enough that I just had, you know, a bachelor's degree. I had to go get the master's degree. So I could totally relate. But that's also a problem, too.

I feel like in my post, like, journey, like, I have been working on stillness and and trying to, trying to slow down. It's a double edged door. It is a double-edged sword. And I do think that it's, rest is good. And sometimes we are occupied in that. Like there is a, you get a high from checking off something off your list. Like you really do.

They're like that is, but that's, if that's my addiction, that's a pretty good. I think it's the, I said that I literally just said this is somebody the other day. I was like, if this is the worst addiction that I have going to the gym and working all the time, so let it be. Like, leave, but I want to have the gym addiction. I don't have that one. So I go, but I don't have the addiction. I mean, I, like, that is just, I mean, everybody needs a vice in life. And that is my vice.

I have to. I just started weightlifting. So I'm, like, new to the strength training version of it. And I really am, I'm focused. So you're going to keep me accountable to that. Do the math. So, you know, one thing I do agree with you that you started to say is like, just being still for a moment.

And like living, that, that's hard for me. That's really hard. So I started this mat class, this hot mat class, not Pilates. It's like hot booty workout, but it's 45 minutes of like stillness. It's, you know, it's all like scripted. That's not still. It is because your mind, usually my mind is going 500. I'm going to call you out.

I'm going to call you out. It is. It is because I can't meditate. I can't meditate. I've tried because I'm one of those I'm sitting here and I'm like, I'm meditating. I'm meditating. You're doing what you said that women do that you don't like. What?

You said I can't. Oh, all right. I, I, I, you're right. Let me change. Let me change the verbiage. I'm not trying to. I probably, I choose, I choose, maybe I choose not to. You know, this is not where the podcast is going to go. But I think now we're like, we've been friends. Like, we're like becoming friends. So this is, this is supposed to be like authentic and fun. And I actually did take, I really struggled with the stillness. And I did take a really weird and for those that really love it. But it is, it's profound. And it was incredible. And I'm still practicing it. Multiple. times a week was a transcendental meditation class. And it is a methodology and a way to meditate without, hear this, which you're going to be like, that's crazy. I never thought I could ever do it without guided voice, without music, without anything to be able to sit in any place,

no matter the chaos, like at an airport. I think that's great. I don't think that's weird. I actually think that's amazing. Yeah. And like be able to actually go into like a 20 minute. meditation of stillness. Now there's still going to be thoughts racing and you're like, you know, there's like a way to go about like how you come into the zone. And so they teach you how to meditate. And what was weird was there was like it was a thing. Like I had to go and then I had to take like you have to find like somebody who can teach it to you. It's pretty like, like you, we're not supposed to talk about like you get like a meditation word. And so you're not supposed to share that word. So there's like a couple of elements of it that aren't like you can't like

you don't just look it up and can learn it. But it's a little sacred in a really cool way as well. I did take it two years ago. So post my exit, I exit in 2021. And then I have gone on a journey to like, you know, I've done enough. I've done really well. And, you know, what is next for me and trying to do it while still like finding some stillness? And me just even talking about it. Like did you see like my voice just kind of like I slowed down a bit even just like talking about it? It was actually pretty really profound highly recommend it for those that like really struggle with it and i've been able to keep up a practice multiple times a week for 20 minutes to zan out and do that so we all can um we all can't it's just a matter of training your mind it's a mind of training it's a mind of

and it's the same thing it's like working out i'm on the camera i'm like i can't yeah yeah i can't i can't i can't do what you do but of course i can yeah absolutely i have to choose and then i have to put in the work. I think with the world being so chaotic, I do really, that is definitely something I struggle with is shutting off. I'll share it with you. I'll show you. I'll show you that's a TM app. I mean, I'm open to it. I'm definitely open to it. Just finding that moment of like. But I'm happy for you. You found your moment on the mat in that 45 minutes. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. Like, that's what we should be. We should be happy for each other. You like, I love that you are finding your peace there. But we all need those moments. Like as high achieving

humans, and I think that's what you talk about on the show, being lost. It is the most, like, they're this pressure of not only your business, life, work, kids, especially as a woman, like beauty and like the million other things that you have to add to your plate. And then, you know, just the stressors of employees and like scaling. And then we add in social media and content. And that isn't entirely, like there's so much pressure and so much stimulation around us 24-7. Oh, I agree. And I think as women, especially as moms, and then entrepreneurs, and then wives, and then friends, and then daughters. So you're putting, like, not only are you, do we have these assumed roles, right? And then being an overachiever on top of it,

so it's not like I can just be a little bit of a friend or a little bit of a mom. Like, I'm extreme. My son is actually sitting right there. But I'm an extreme person in everything that I do. And I don't think that people really realize the stressors that come along with being a woman and an entrepreneur and mom all at the same time. It's a lot. It is a lot of pressure. It is. So how are you? And you're doing a great job.

So are you. I mean, look at you. And you look beautiful while doing it. Graceful. You look graceful. Thank you. So how do you handle it? How do I handle the all of the things?

I would say I have an incredible support system. So that's like the full on truth. Like one, I think I have a really strong. mindset that comes like naturally within and I really do believe that I can do anything. Like I really do believe in myself. And I really do believe in like I know that hard work gets me places and I'm a really good person and I believe in myself in that way. And I'm like I'm an authentic human. I build genuine relationships and I do the right thing. And so I feel like that'll that will work out for me. So I trust in my co-founder is my brother. And he's always like,

He's always something. You're such an optimist. But I love that. Like, I am an optimist and I feel like the world is genuinely good. And if I'm good, I'm going to receive that good back. So that's like first and foremost is I'm able to handle it because I really do trust in like the universe has my back. And two, I would say like in the reality of it, though, there is a lot on my plate. There's a lot on most women's plates. And I have a really incredible support system. I have a partner at home, not just a husband. And, you know, we definitely do. He's an entrepreneur. as well, but we divide and conquer. Like, he is super active.

Like, he's got multiple, you know, businesses, and he's in real estate, and he runs our family office and takes on a lot himself from a business standpoint. And I do as well. And so we're, like, two ships in the night sometimes of, like, two very successful careers. But I do feel in raising our children and our home, I have a real partner. And I, like, I feel very lucky and privileged in having a partner in that. way and I really do mean that when I say I don't call him like my husband like he truly is my partner like he's my partner at home and we like there's nothing above and beneath like either one

of us when it comes to the girls when it comes to chores when it comes to life when it comes to cooking when it comes to whether it's like order whatever it is like life happens together and I do have a really awesome partner and support system I also have a like secret super like I'll say that part again I also have a secret, like, superpower that a lot of people don't have. I have my mother who lives across the street for me. And so that is, like, the real truth of, like, how crazy it is to, like, you know, I'm always traveling for work and I'm in tech and, you know, I speak at conferences. Like, I have to do a lot with, we're all doing a lot with work.

But my mom is, like, the sweetest angel ever. And I fight with her all day long. But at the end of the day, like, she is, like, my super rock support system. She's a young grandma. She's like there for my kids. She just picked up my girls from camp right now so that I can be here. And outside of like my family support system, we are privileged to be able to have help. So I have help in the house.

And I have help. Like I do. I have a house manager and I have a nanny as well, which feels like that's a lot of help. It is. And our life is really big. And that is a lot. I was going to say that is that is a lot of help. But I want to be transparent like with women and people listening that it does take a village.

And so I didn't have all those. resources. And I've been doing this for a really long time prior to me being able to have the additional support systems, but I've always had friends and family. Like it takes a village. I'm Pakistani. Like I'm an immigrant kid. Like we grew up around a village. And I have an incredible community system. Even with our daughters, like their schools, like the school moms are incredible. Like we're always like supporting each other and pickups and drop off. And my daughter plays football right now. And like she's got like there's always practice. There's always this. But all the moms are just really just, it takes a community.

community. And so I do have that level of support around me. And I feel so lucky for that. I think there was a few things that you said that were really important that are, I mean, I'm telling you, our lives are very, very parallel. You know, number one, it's full belief in yourself. Because same thing. Like, there is nothing that I don't think that I, like, I think I can do everything. If you tell me I can't walk on water, I'm telling you I think I can. I really do believe this 100%. Then the other thing that is really important is having a partner. Same thing. My husband and I, sometimes, I mean, we're lucky. We're in the same business, but we do completely different things.

So we are sometimes two ships in the nights also. You know, he goes to bed late. I'm up early, you know, but there is nothing too little or too big that is beneath or below, either beneath or above either one of us. Same exact thing. So marrying somebody that's just not your husband, but is really your full support system, your biggest cheerleader, you know, your greatest critic. That's the person that you know no matter what is going to be there.

And then, of course, you know, your full village. My mom, too. I'm very close with my mom. Oh, I love that. She's my best friend in the entire world. What's your nationality? We're Jewish. Oh, that's amazing.

So, yeah, so family's very important. Family is all there. It's all community. It's all. I love that so much. I feel like that is like how I grew up. And I just believe so much in whatever like the like cultural portion of, of your community is.

Like, I just think it's so special. I'm trying to hold on to it so much with my. kids, but as like, I feel like I had it with my grandma. My mom has imparted so much of like our culture on us. I'm trying to do the same. My husband and I are. He's from East Africa and I'm Pakistani. And so there are a lot of differences, a lot of similarities as well. But I'm like trying to figure out how I keep the culture like like, you know, within the family. It's super important to me. Yeah. We're not religious, but we are very cultural. Yes. So all the holidays, all the food. Like there are just some things that I'm not letting go up. I love ever. I mean, there is,

It's a big part. I think that's a big part of you and building your empire. Those are things that you stay near and do. That's part of the authenticity. Yeah. It's all part of it. So, I mean, I think all of those things together, you know, with your culture and your personality and your community, you've been able to build this entire legacy for yourself and for your family, which is incredible in itself. Yeah.

Let's talk about stacks a little bit. Yeah. Tell me about this. So did you go to school for business? I did go to school for a business, but I feel like you could go to school for like, I actually did end up using my degrees. So I did business finance and I built a financial services company. I built a fintech. I did a minor in leadership. I did a double major in marketing. So I ended up using the degrees. But I can't tell you, like I don't remember anything about school. I like can't tell you a class that I took. I think most of my experience has been because of my work experience. And I started a fintech because I was working for, a company that did what I was trying to change. Like I was working for a payment processor. I saw that like they weren't taking care of like, you know, the small businesses. I saw an opportunity. I presented my idea of stacks, which was the first subscription based credit card processor,

which is, which was like crazy that it wasn't out there. It was super disruptive. I had zero thought to go build it for myself. I literally took it to my old bosses and I was like, we need to do this. This is going to be incredible for the. the company and they left me out of the room. They said like this would never work. Why would we be transparent on pricing? Why would we invest in technology? Our customers will like, you know, we're going to, like the banks do it. We've been doing this for so long. We don't need to change. This is too disruptive, which is exactly in the prime of technology and what disruption like was really amazing. And like they didn't believe in it. And I ended up quitting my job thinking that I like I, you know,

I was like, I'm going to give it a shot for six months. And I tried to get the company off the ground. And I did. And I got registered with Visa MasterCard. My brother came on board as a co-founder. We built the thing from zero to $40 billion in payments. On our platform, we supported 40,000 small businesses. We, you know, I grew the company from zero from just like myself to over 400 employees.

We did three acquisitions. We raised our series A, our series. our series B or series C, we sold a private equity in 2020. We recapitized the business in 2021. And then we left in 2020 post our exit to P.E. And it was like truly a wild, like it was the true founder to exit journey. It was insane. Now you did this all being a wife and being a mom.

Yeah. Because I got married in 2013. The company was started in 2014. Faisal and I had been together. We've been together since we were like 21. So I met him in college. So we've been like college sweethearts. We've been together forever. And he was also an entrepreneur. So we're both like building our companies at the same time. And having a family was really important.

My first baby was the business. So I didn't have any kids prior to starting the company. And when, you know, I was 26 when the first, like the first, like 26 when I started the company. And I knew I wanted to be a mom. Like that was not. And like it was something I, like, it was something I, I knew 100%. And I don't know what it was, but it was like the milestone of like, and now it's like so young because I think times have changed so much, but it was like 30. I wanted to make sure I had a baby before 30. I get it. And so it was like, I was like, okay, that was like coming up on the horizon. And I was like, this is the year that we're going to try to have a baby. We'd been married for a couple of years.

And I knew I wanted to like, I wanted to be a mom. And we were pregnant with Mila. And we're so excited. And it was the hardest thing ever to build. one of the fastest growing technology companies, like, ever, and to raise a human, like, at the same time and then give her a sibling and to, like, manage, like, mom life and CEO life and all the things. So my daughter is turning 10 in July, so Mila's going to turn 10, and I don't even know, like, where the time is going, and every parent tells you this, but it is crazy. I still look at her and I'm like, how are you in double digits now?

But I'm so proud of the girls that they are and they're really, really cool and incredible humans as well. So I'm doing the things. I mean, my daughter actually just graduated high school. Oh, goodness. So I had my daughter at 24, which nobody was doing that then. Nobody. I was, my friends are just now in the last few years having kids. So, you know, same exact trajectory.

I was there doing it. Now, do you think that women can have it? Do you think they can have it all? Balance of business, raise kids. Is it possible? Yeah, I 100% think that every woman can have it all, whatever all looks like to her. Yeah. And I think that whatever like the blanket definition of all is, like that is never going to work because that's just built for us to fail.

Like there's it's too much. There's too much if we're putting all on our plate. And how I think about it is like, you know, I call it the three bucket principles. So I have there's like three things that I can, I believe in the role of three. I think that there's so much that we can add onto our plate, but I'm not trying to live life by eating through a buffet. And I just keep adding to my plate, adding to my plate. And I'm like, oh, I want it all.

And it's like, here's this really gross plate of food that I actually didn't want to eat. We're just like, just because it's there, we're adding it. Versus being really intentional and curated. And I want a really, I want a curated plate through life. And so I believe that if you can curate and say here's three things that I'm going to focus on, and that's what's going on my plate, then I can actually strike achievement in that. And I do believe that that's my all. So for me, my three buckets are where I spend my time, my energy, and what I want.

Like, if I were to say, like, this is what success looks like to me in these three areas. That's where I'm focused. And everything else is a no. So nothing else can come on the plate. And if I'm disciplined about that, then yes, I can have all of it in those three and those three buckets. And for me, it's always been, you know, my family is number one. I'm like such a family girl. I work with my brother.

My mom lives across the street. You know, my husband, I've already told you, like, the love of my life. Like, my daughters. Like, I am true. Like, my house is the house. So, like, that's the house that I have. Like, we call it everybody loves, like, you know, everybody loves Fasel. Like, everybody loves Raymond.

And, like, my mom lives on one side. My mother-in-law is, like, on the other. The house is always, like, flowing. All the kids are always, like, it's everything is always my house. And I love that. That's the kind of house I grew up in. That's what I want for, like, my, that's my definition of having it all is, like, like it's my house with all the people that I love. And family is like my bucket. So that's one

bucket. Bucket number two is my, like my job, like my company. That's super important to me. Making that successful, it's a huge bucket that occupies most of my time. That's an area that I have to stay disciplined and focused. And then bucket number three, that's the one that kind of like ebbs and flows because I've always had a company to look after. But it's really around impact. Like that's my third bucket. And for me, it's CEO school. I love supporting women in business so much, so much, so much. I have an incredible podcast called CEO School.

There's an incredible community around that podcast. This is where I want to spend my time on impact, is supporting other women to build really big companies. And that's an entire bucket. That takes up a lot of time. And so anyone can have there. You can have your buckets. You can have your three buckets,

but I don't believe it can be more than that. Because then it's just, it's too many things. and you're also allowed to change your buckets. Absolutely. You know, and I think that we get stuck on like needing, like maybe like right now, this is a season that I'm in and this is my season. And I finally, I exited the company and I was like, okay, I'm ready to like add another bucket.

Like, what is this bucket going to look like? And then we started another company so that bucket is back. And so other things have to go. Like I can't add anything more. Like I can't sit on other boards and do like all these other things that I was like, this is what I'm going to do in like my next phase of life and be, you know, focus on keynote speaking and whatever else. And I do some of that if it falls under my impact category, but it's not my whole bucket

anymore. And so view your life in that in the bucket formula. I think it like it works like everyone that's like I can't balance it. I can't do it. Try the buckets. And then you'll see, oh shit, I've added too much to the plate. And so you have to be willing to be disciplined to say, I'm going to say no. And that's also on you.

If you want a plate full of buffet food that like that's like that's the life that you like. and you like that and like that's cool for you it's not for me i want a really sophisticated curated plate and that's how i know i agree i really do i would say that one thing i am guilty of that i would want more and i used to be ashamed to say that i want more but in within reason i want more you know exactly what you said yeah i'd love to serve on the temple board and i did i actually tried i tried for it two weeks and i realized i just can't do it just not in my bucket it wasn't on there But there are some things that are non-negotiable. And you're absolutely right.

Family is going to come to us. No matter what, that's a non-negotiable. Working that is our livelihood. But when we talk about impact, I think, you know, my oldest is a daughter. And when you have a daughter, right, especially with two girls, so I have a daughter and she's watching.

You know, she is watching every move that I made, everything that I do. So I move in a way that I want to be, impactful to her. And that's kind of when everything started to switch for me. It's like, I have a daughter. Wait a minute. I can literally possibly meet me from every single person, especially women that I meet.

So it's the same thing. Like my impact is very geared towards women. But one thing that really, that like hurts my little Jewish heart is seeing women not succeeding the way that we show. There, you know, that kind of, I was telling before, like I know this is probably a little hunt for victim, like, I can't. I won't. And I try not to be used, I mean, sometimes you're a new native language early, but I don't like the tentative language. I don't want my kids to get a language. I can't. I won't. There's no way it's not going to happen. And so many women

I think stunt their growth because they have this mentality, like, I can't leave my kids in daycare, or I can't let, you know, the nanny help me raise, or I can't do this because of this, that, and the other. And it's, I think, as women that are so A-type and so driven, where do you, like, how do you, I think for me, it's so disappointing. How do you navigate me to this water through these murky waters? Yeah, I think it's just leading by example now. And so I, I am not here to change, like, anyone's, like, you know, she believes what she believes and what she feels is right for herself and for her family and not, like, her, it's hard to change someone's, like, belief system. And it's only there

because she hasn't seen it otherwise. Yeah. Right. And so I do think that being, having encouraging, I think it's also the circles that you keep, right? So iron sharpens iron. And when you are around people that are achieving bigger things that are also incredible moms and doing this and doing that,

you naturally also start to see that for yourself. And so I think that leading by example is what I try to do, and especially what you said of being a girl mom, such a responsibility because I, I do, and I don't want my kid to just be such an overachiever and such a perfectionist and so many things that I am. I want her to enjoy her life and to be a kid and to not stress about, like, it's okay if you've got to be, right?

Like, I don't want her to have, like, I want her to care. For sure. And that's, like, what's your best effort. Give your best effort. And so I think for women, you're absolutely right. I see it all day long. I run an entire community called CEO school. it is based on the fact that less than 2% of female founders ever break a million revenue.

And that statistic that is not. That really hurts my heart. Yes. That really hurt. Yes. And it's still, and I've been at this for, so we've been talking, I've been, you know, I've done, like, I've been speaking on venture for so long. There's a huge gap in venture capital and women counted companies. We're getting less than two percent of funding.

Like the numbers aren't changing. Yeah. And we've done a lot of work research. I put 6,000 women through our programs. Everything is designed for us to go build bigger businesses because once we achieve that millionaire revenue, it's not about the million in our pocket. It's not about becoming a millionaire.

This is about really creating a business that has value. Because what that does is it buys you freedom. What money does is it buys you. I truly believe, and we have a motto, nothing that happens when women make more money. Because actually, when women have more money, we make greater impacts for our community. Absolutely.

When women are building companies, our companies, actually, I never meet a woman in business that just started a business for the sake of it. She's starting a company because no one was listening. She started a company because no one was paying attention to the customer that she was serving before. She started a company because something was happening for her kid that no one was solving for. So she decided to create the product to fix it. And she's like, fine, no one else is going to do it. So I will do it. Right.

That's how women are starting companies. And now 50% of businesses are actually started by women. So we've attained that to say we're actually starting companies at the same rate as men, finally. But if we're only creating lifestyle companies, we're not creating enterprise value to have exit opportunity to create wealth for our families, to create freedom. And what we end up doing is building companies. And we're pulling ourselves out of the 9 to 5 to then work 24-7, right, and to create a job for ourselves. Yeah. And so what I want is for women to step in a CEO mode and to build an awesome company

so that the true freedom is being able to have a company that's scaling without you, that build enterprise value that has, whether you want to sell it or not, that has, and like that reaches, like, as I was saying for women who have impact, she's creating this, you know, like, you know, an example that I can think of is a woman who created, you know, she was on our podcast. she created the cauliflower crust pizza because her son was, you know, blooms like had a saliac disease and she couldn't, you know, finds the, you know, everywhere he went, like, he wanted pizza.

And so she finally created this crust and all the other moms were asking for this recipe. She finally created it. If she kept it to build it for scale at a lifestyle level, none of us would have cauliflower crust pizza, right? And so like the impact that she's making is so much larger. So it's actually not about it. Right. And I think that's what I love about women is that we actually do. We care. We really care. Yeah. And so our business is if they succeed, that only means that we can have a bigger impact. And that's what I want for her is to be able to see that. And I do think this is pretty simple. I've built and it's complicated and it's really hard. And of course, but I think that men can do business in a very simple fashion. And I think as women. And I'm going to get we're too, we are emotional. And so but we put that level in emotion is a good thing. So I'm going to,

I'm going to say that. Emotion is a great thing and that's our superpower as women that we can care about things, that we can bring that empathy to our teams. But we also can't have that level of emotion on every decision. Agreed. Right. And so there is a way to be in like to think about business and to keep it simple, to continue to execute, focus on revenue. And that way we can be in our feminine and create impact and lead teams and do it like in a way that feels authentic and amazing and creates like world impact for us. Yeah. No, I mean, I agree. I'm in a business. It's male dominated. And I'll tell you this, I used to love working with men. I mean, I like working with men. But women, right, women that do well, they do exceptionally well.

They're careful. They're thoughtful. They're nurturing. Their teams perform better because they add something that a man doesn't bring. The problem happens for women is you're right. We're emotionally bound and a lot of times women can't separate it and the emotions take over the business and they cannot separate business from emotion. Yeah. I used to be like that and I'm still. Oh, me too. I am still like that. But now I know how to like, yes, three to one. Yes. Exactly. And everything doesn't deserve that level of attention. Yeah. Agreed. And then when you learn how to do that, then you can scale and then you make decisions now like I have this rule that I do. I never make a decision when a problem is brought to me. I wait 24 hours because the way that you feel today is never, at least for me, it's never

the way that I feel tomorrow. And if it is the way that I feel, then I know that the decision or the way that I felt was truly the way that I felt. That's a really good rule. That is, like, that's probably like somebody needs to like, you need to take that advice like right now 24 hours before a reaction, even an hour before a reaction. Because you want to be in a state, like, do you want to be reactive? Like, I don't want to be in that state. I want to be thoughtful. And I think that is something we can all learn in our relationships in business and life is just taking the time to pause. See, you are pausing. Well, not with my relationship.

I just said in business. I don't know about personally. I'd be a liar to tell you that in my relationship, my husband might come in here and tell you otherwise. But no, in business, I really have. That's really good advice. I would say in business, part of the reason I have been so successful is because I could separate the two. And I can also apologize. I can, if I, if I'm wrong, I will say I'm wrong.

And I will even apologize even if I'm not wrong. Because the one thing I do live by is do you want to be right or rich. So it's not always worth it. I like that. It's not always worth it. It doesn't, sometimes it really doesn't matter. Really, at the end of the day, especially when people are working for you or you're working with people, you want to be right or rich.

And then the decisions that you make, I mean, if they're a serious decision, not to say that I don't make decisions off whim, like, you know, whatever. is, but a really serious decision, I'm waiting 24 hours. I think that that's solid advice. Yeah, I mean, what else? You can't make an impulsive decision based on emotion because it never works. Never. And I have Jewish guilt.

It's like a real thing. So I have to make sure that I don't feel like that the next day. But, you know, for women, unfortunately, I think that women really slight themselves when it comes to business and what they're able to do. And unfortunately, society hasn't progressed as much as we think it has for women. It hasn't. And I don't think it's changing. No, I don't either. One of the things that you and I were discussing before is the rules of like the, we're trying to change how the rules are operating for us, which we're all trying. And the only way that we change the rules is by actually making the rules,

by being up top to change the rules. They're not changing. And so what we have to learn is how to play the game so that we can reach the top and then change the rules. Absolutely, which is not always easy. And I was telling you before, like my mom told me. I remember I was telling you, it was like, my mom told me the power. The power of the P is a real thing. And I don't know why I get uncomfortable with. No, I would never say the word because that would really make me uncomfortable. Don't worry. I can't say. But what to prove. But what she really meant by you, what she meant is that being a woman, we have these super powers that women, for whatever reason, don't want to exercise. Because women like to talk to women and men like to talk to women. And if given the right circumstance,

can exercise it in a way that women really can move forward in business. Unfortunately, a lot of women, they shrink themselves before that even happens. Whereas, like, I've come to a point in my seasoned era, like, what you see is what you get, and I'm not going to shrink. I'm not going to back down. If I feel strongly about something, I'm going to come forward. I don't, you know, I don't think that traditional norms, I don't believe in that either. I think women can think, feel, and act however they want within reason, absolutely.

I think women can think, feel, and want, period. Yeah, I agree. I don't think there should ever be any, you know, a man versus a woman. It should just never be like that. But unfortunately, I think for women, I would say one thing is just the victim mentality. It is there. And I wish that there was a way for women to overcome that. Yeah, and it's not our fault.

No. I will say that way society, like just the rules haven't been made for us. business hasn't been made for us. They're, you know, we're living in a completely different time with, like, it's a lot of divisiveness. There's, there's just a lot of pressure overall on us as humans, then let alone as women. And so I don't, I don't, and then even like, there's only been one position available at the top for the woman.

So we're, like, at the same time, like, we're also not, we're supporting each other, but we're also fighting each other. And that's how we've been conditioned for the, since the dawn of time. Like literally since we've been in the workforce, that is what's taken place. So it's not our fault of what it is. But we have to now start discerning better. We have to be more conscious of this. And we really do have to ensure that we have the right support systems, that we are truly being girls, girls, and guys, girls too, because guys are also important in the conversation. Being a feminist, like, you know, one thing that I will say, I love women.

I am a feminist. I consider myself a feminist. I'm a girl mom. And being a feminist does not mean to me women are greater than men. All I want is for women to be equal to, right? That is what this is. This is what the fight is about. And I think some women also have it wrong where it's all about where women are greater than. I'm not trying to be greater than. There's things that I don't want to be greater than in. Right. There are like there are things I truly believe in natural gender roles. I'm not saying that I can't play different roles. I can play every role. If my kids needed me in any single role, I would play every single role. I don't want to play every single role. I don't want to play every single role. There are things that I definitely, I want to be passenger princess with my husband and I make

decisions all day long. I don't want to take out the trash either. I don't want to take out the trash. I want, he's going to plan the trip. And that's what works for us in our marriage. I'm not thinking it has to work for all women. But I just think it's the choice in needing, like, I don't need to be either or I get to be who I want. And that's again, the choice portion of like my plate and what I choose and my partner. And I think society is, it's a lot of pressure. So I don't. blame women for being victim, but also at the same time, like, if you want more and you want a better life, like no one is going to come hand it to you. And so you have to make the decisions, knowing these are the rules of the game. So either I can sit here and bitch about it and say,

they're not designed for me. They're not made for us. And guess what? I'm also a minority brown woman. I, like raising venture capital, I sit and talk about raising capital and women in tech and all the things, but also less than one percent of capital even goes to my minority founders, let alone just women founders. So I've had every single odd stacked against me. I didn't have a husband with connections. I don't have, you know, a rich dad that was able to fund my business or I didn't go to her. Like, I didn't, that's not the circles that I came from. And so I've had every single card stacked against me. And I could have had the victim mentality to say, well, I got 12 rejections, which I've gotten, I mean, thousands of, like, I literally was rejected

from every single bank, every single processor. And I could have been like, well, guess what? It's just not made for me because every person, every one in that room was, you know, pale, male and stale, right? And I could have walked out and said, that's what that is. And here's who I am and maybe hired a white CEO. Like, I don't know. I didn't do that.

I was like, no, there is a yes around the corner. And what do I have to do to change my pitch? What were the questions? What were the things that why didn't they want to invest? What were they saying about my business? How do I make sure that my business can speak for itself? regardless of, you know, me standing as the steward of the business because I know they're going to ask for it. And so I started to, you know, let my business speak for itself. And I'm not saying

that that's correct. And I do agree. Men will get investment for their potential or they're going to get it because, you know, they have a connection and they've got a friend and they're like, oh, we see, like, we know he's going to be successful. And it's group think and it's like all relationships. Everything is FOMO, like in business also and investment and deals and all the things. And so being likable is what I heard. Like, okay, building relationships is what I hurt. Having my business be so strong and letting my financial support itself so that when I do do an investor pitch, they're like, this is a no brainer. So I focused on the things that mattered.

So because I was like, here's do I want to get, do I want to be right or do I want to be rich? You're just going to play the game, girl, play it. I'm going to play the game. And guess what? I'm not just going to play. I'm going to win the fucking championship. Agreed. And that's what we did.

Chesh. I love it. I mean, that's what it comes down to. And I think a lot of women. don't do that. You know, you have to play the game. And women are likable. That is a quality. That's a big quality when it comes to business. Being likable and knowing who your competitor is. And playing the game does not mean cheating. It does not mean buying. It does not mean being inauthentic. It does not mean not being yourself. Like that's not what playing the game is. It's just about learning the rules

and saying, okay, where are my strengths? What do I need? Like, who else do I need on the team? Right. Yeah. I mean, I agree. I went through this. I was in a male-dominated industry. I started as an insurance agent and I couldn't get the buy-in. So then I had to think, right, self-reflect, which not many people like to do. So I'm like, okay, well, and I failed. I failed. I was a miserable salesperson, the worst. Like, I make no money for six months. I made none. So then I had this introspective moment. Like, I think we all have these introspective moments where I realized that it's not, you know, it's not everyone else. It's 100% me. And then I used everything that I knew was a stepback and I used it as the comeback. So, you know, I knew,

I already knew the elephant in the room. It was that I was young and I was a woman, you know, and I didn't look like all this. I love how you said stale, the male stale. Yeah, I love that. I know, I like didn't fit. I didn't fit these people. And then finally I realized when people like you, you're likable, you're relatable, you're authentic and you can play the game.

You get the respect one way or the, but the rejections there. And a lot of women don't like rejection. They don't have tough skin for it. You're going to get rejected. I don't care what you do. I don't care what business you're in. you're going to get rejected. And this is what I don't love of like the glorification of entrepreneurship online right now

is at an all-time fucking high. Yeah, it doesn't happen like this. It doesn't. And the glorification of it, it's not for the faint of heart. One sale in your, you're a millionaire. It doesn't happen like this. It's not for the faint of heart. Like the amount of like even like it's not an overnight success.

Yeah. It is true hard work. You have to have really fixed skin, which is resiliency. You're going to get rejected. You're going to feel like it fails more times than you think you're ever going to win. Like it's more failures than wins that then accumulate to the overall win. But it's the fact that you didn't give up. Like if you look at any entrepreneur's journey that is successful, it took a long fucking time to get there. And it was a series of every single day of misery for a little

bit of glory. But then the glory at the end of it is worth it because we're crazy and that's what we're chasing. I think that was very well said. Absolutely. I think a lot of the propaganda, one thing that people see is they're looking, I call it fake book. Like they're looking at right, fake book. looking at social media. They're looking at, you know, they see all these new women that are coming out and they're, oh, I've made so much money. It's bullshit. It's not. That's not the truth. The truth is, is anything in life worth having you have to work hard for. And hard work is going to beat out talent any single day of the week. I say this thought, I'm not the hottest anymore. I'm not the youngest. You know, I'm not the most well spoken, but I will work out work anybody. I will absolutely do

that. And that's what it comes down to. It's hard work and resiliency and having that tough, tough skin in order to be successful. And there really is, yes, we do have setbacks. And yes, it is a double-edged short for us. But at the end of the day, the opportunity is there. We just have to be willing to take it as women and root each other on instead of having this back and forth banter of, you know, whatever nonsense is going on between rivalry. No, women need to stick together. They do. And then I think eventually we will, I hope, I hope that there'll be a change with entrepreneurship in women. I think that there will. I think that there will. I see the progress. Like I'm part of a lot of amazing female communities. I'm part of a lot of like the entrepreneur, female entrepreneurship conversations and like have a big voice in that and cultivate a lot of like conferences and just I'm in the room. And I do see it. And I do think and there are, I'm not saying that it's perfect again. But I do see progress being made. And I do think that that is where we can really amplify. Like we have, I have a group called the Millionaire Founders Club. So the women that do make it pass.

the 2%. I'd love to invite them into the Millionaire Founders Club. And we get together for a spring and fall retreat. And it's just so fun to be around also women that just get it. And it's not just like the programming and the content and the connections, but the whole, like the entire tagline of Millionaire Founders Club is your network is your net worth. A hundred percent. And for men, they've been doing that for so long. They can pick up the phone and call a guy. They can call a guy for, one of their bros. They can call. We need that. We need to stick. together and be like, I need to be able to call my friend who does this already and she's already got that. I already know a person who had the same struggle or challenge or I need to, you know,

fire someone and oh yeah, Tiffany just went through that last week where she had to let go of this, like, who can I call? And that is such a powerful thing to really have our network really help us with our net worth and also give connections. Some of the things that I think that as women, because we've been like pinned against each other, we have this level of wanting to share, but only just enough. Yeah. Okay, just enough so I can like help you,

but like not all the way. Yeah. Okay, so not all the way. Why? I don't know. I'm not like that, so I don't know, but I've seen it so much. Like people give you just a little taste.

Just a little taste. Yeah. No, all the way. Like be willing to give and know that there is enough to go around. Absolutely. And that her success is not taking away from yours. That's something.

thing that I haven't seen change because I see that even and I see there's like it's getting there it's getting there but there's still a lot of that gatekeeping it's got to stop I agree I absolutely agree now women that want to join your program yeah how do they get to join the program well I've got two programs I have the founder to CEO accelerator which I think is like every entrepreneur needs to like jump out of their seats right now and like go sign up for this it is my entire playbook of scale. I've scaled multiple companies. I'm building my second unicorn right now. CEO school is a multi-seven figure business. I have over 60 companies that I've invested in. 6,000 entrepreneurs have gone through this program. It's the real deal and it's the playbooks of scale to really step into

your CEO, look at your business from a non-emotional, true business fashion and how do you scale and it's on the principles of people process profit and scaling your business. It's going to be the best time that you spend. It's 12 weeks is the accelerator, but you can do it self-paste. you can have your team do it. It's the best. It's like modern day MBA for business today, actually taught by someone who has been there. And that's something that I'm really frustrated with

in this space of digital programs and, like, mentors that have never actually, like, stop getting advice from people who haven't been where you want to go and have actually have receipts to show what they've done. And so the founder to CEO Accelerator, I will share the link with all of you. And then if you are a female entrepreneur, that has a business that's over a million, come join the network. It is so incredible. There's

an application to apply. We'll share the Millionaire Founders Club application. And I would love to spend more time, help you connect you with a ton of amazing women. It's peer led. It's just an amazing social network that is truly curated for deep connection and being surrounded by like iron sharpens irons and being surrounded by like the top women across all industries. That's absolutely incredible. And if people want to find you on social, where would they find you? You can find me everywhere. I'm definitely, I'm not on, on, on, what is it? What is it? What was the fake book? I'm not on fake book, but I am on Instagram and on LinkedIn. So those are the two areas that you can find me, Senera Madani. So just my first name, I'm pretty active on LinkedIn as well.

I'm very active on Instagram. You can find my podcast CEO school on any of the channels that you listen to. If you listen to the BILF podcast, definitely tune into ours. You're going to love it. It drops every Wednesday. And then you can find it like on YouTube. and on, like on Spotify and everything else. Incredible. Today's conversation, I mean, you're just incredible, but I hope that our audience today really got a deeper dive into understanding that, you know, the glory is one thing.

But doing the hard work is another. As well as, here's the deal. We are women. We are at a disadvantage sometimes. But that doesn't mean that we can't have the upper hand and do it all because we absolutely can do that. So if you like today's episode, please tune in for other episodes that are coming up, as well as you already know the deal.

Like, subscribe, unlike unsubscribe. I don't know. Do something. Leave a comment. But I just want to thank you for coming on today. It was absolutely incredible. So much. You're so amazing.

I feel like I made such a fun friend today. Yeah, today was amazing. Today was absolutely incredible. You have to come back and hang out. I'm 100% going to come hang out. The studio has been so fun. You're so amazing. She's the real deal, guys.

I don't know about the real deal. You're the real deal. You're the real deal.