Kerry and Ashlee are changing the way people see women innovators and entrepreneurs. They are thought leaders in our community (Nashville) and it's an honor to have them speak and mentor young girls every year at our Girls To The Moon events.
With NPR’s award winning podcast in mind, Mixtroz founders Kerry Schrader and Ashlee Ammons take the audience through their unconventional startup journey step-by-step. Hearing the backstory, in detail, the good, the bad and the ugly is the spark to ignit the innovator in us all.
In this talk, Kerry speaks about the ebbs and flows of her career. From managing a McDonalds, to landing the dream job at Ford Motor Company as a single mother. She then digs into her experience working toward a Master's degree while working full-time and building a new family. In the second part of her talk, Kerry talks IPO and subsequent sabbatical and how that led her to take a deep dive into Entrepreneurship with her daughter leaving a 6-figure corporate salary behind while remaining primary breadwinner. Not long after beginning the entrepreneurial journey, Kerry was diagnosed with Breast Cancer, fought back and defeated it through a combination of Faith, Family and Focus on Mixtroz. Mrs. Schrader finishes with her experience as a Black, Female, Tech founder and the steps taken to successfully raise capital while growing a tech startup.
A single conversation with a student peer while in Undergrad led Ashlee to the internship of a lifetime with NBA star, LeBron James. Her connection to "King James" opened doors in New York City rising from Executive Assistant to Director of Events, producing for A-Listers like Oprah Winfrey, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jay-Z all by age 26. When Ashlee's time in NYC began to expire and her new life as a tech entrepreneur began to take shape she talks risking it all, the life she built, while hustling to keep her venture afloat while also battling depression. This is a story of unrelenting hustle while breaking barriers and starting the path toward her life's greatest work - Mixtroz. When Ashlee started in tech, she was known as a "Quad Outsider" (Black, Female, Non-Technical, Tech Founder) today, She is Ashlee Ammons, 38th Black Female Tech Founder to Raise $1M in funding (the 37th is her Mom and Co-Founder), President at Mixtroz, Inclusion Activist and Nasty Woman.
This extraordinary story engages the audience to realize the power of physical connection in a digital world and inspires attendees to "use the skills that they have today to build the life that they want tomorrow".
This 45-min keynote pairs well with a Mixtroz 'mix' where your attendees will use the technology that Ashlee outlines in the talk, move from their phone to face-to-face in real time increasing their engagement, kicking off the connection and collecting valuable data for you.