Meet
Kristen Sanders
Investment Opportunity: Seed Funding Stage
At a Glance
Company: Co-Created Goods (Formerly This Moment)
Year Created: 2020
Background:
What Makes Kristen Unique
When Kristen Sanders was a junior in college, she was interested in expanding her marketing experience but struggled to get an internship. Undeterred, Kristen felt that if she couldn’t get a seat at the table, she would make her own table instead – and that’s when she founded her first company. Thus started her lifelong interest in entrepreneurship
Her greatest source of passion lies in the idea that if people can come together, they can make the products they really want to see. There’s no need to wait on corporations to create what we can envision for ourselves.
“So much of entrepreneurship is understanding your own personal issues. Being a founder requires a lot of personal responsibility because you’re in a position of power in your team, and it’s a big thing for me to make sure the culture in our team is solid.”
Q&A
We sat down with Kristen to talk with her about how she got her start as a founder, what her seed funding stage has been like, and how GET Cities has helped.
What is unique or significant about being at the seed stage?
What's unique is that right now, we have an opportunity to really optimize on how the world is really changing. Consumer preferences are changing. We're heading into recession, so a lot of it is considering how we can really help people as the world is in chaos. As a business, This Moment is in a space where we can actually do that. It's not like we're Spotify or Apple or Google where we're held down by all these organizational cogs. I think what's special is being able to move quick and fast and really solve problems for real people.
What do you wish you’d known or done to prepare for the seed stage?
One of the biggest things that I would say is: Feelings are not facts. You’re going to encounter a lot of people that have feelings, you're going to encounter your own feelings, but that does not mean that the data matches up with whatever anybody's feeling or whatever people's thoughts are. Consistency will always beat out perfectionism.
And at the same time, effort does not equal excellence. Ultimately, it’s about cutting through the noise to understand how you can best optimize and create impact is going to be the biggest thing, and that means working through all the feelings and thoughts that you have and that everybody else has as well.
Why do you think it’s important to encourage more women, trans, and non-binary people –particularly those who are also Black, Latinx, Indigenous and People of Color – to become entrepreneurs?
When I think about being part of the BIPOC community and the queer community, so much innovation and resourcefulness is central to creating impact. As we look to the future, different perspectives will always be needed to create more equitable products.
What made you want to participate in this cohort?
There's no downside to being part of a kick-ass group of women. There's no downside to participating, regardless of whether it leads to anything else. I think that it's important to contribute to this organization that's doing great work for other people down the line, and at the same time, I get the benefit of connecting with all these awesome people.
What would you say is the most valuable tool, connection point, piece of wisdom, etc. that you’ve gained from working with GET Cities thus far?
I'm really looking forward to exploring more of what it means to be a founder, especially in a group of really amazing other founders. I'm really excited about learning how to grow not only as a person and as a business, but as a friend and as someone who could help lift people up. Often, you think of startups as having a hierarchical rule, and I think this is almost a social experiment in doing something a lot more circular.