Building a high-growth company is one of the most demanding journeys an entrepreneur can undergo. Balancing that effort with raising a family is often framed as an impossible trade-off. Yet, Beth Mazza and Victoria Sivrais have proven that women don’t have to choose between financial scale and family life.
During today’s The Female Founder Show with host Bridget Fitzpatrick, the Co-Founders of Female Mavericks and Co-Authors of Entrepreneur Like a Mother share their two-decade journey. From boss and employee to business partners and lifelong friends, the duo has built and sold two consulting firms, all while raising nine children between them.
While the partnership began nearly 20 years ago under anything-but-ideal circumstances, Mazza was eight months pregnant with twins and managing a rapidly scaling investor relations firm. Desperate for talented staff to handle the workload, she brought Sivrais in for an interview.
At the time, Sivrais’ career plan was entirely traditional, which was work for a few years, then start a family and stay home full-time. But seeing Mazza lead a high-stakes firm while managing a growing household completely flipped that narrative.
Sivrais recognized Mazza’s vision and drive early on. What started as a supportive employee role quickly evolved into mentorship, deep mutual trust, and eventually, full-scale equity partnership.
The anatomy of an enduring partnership
Working together for nearly two decades requires more than shared goals, it demands structural alignment. Mazza and Sivrais attribute their long-term success to three core habits:
“We both recognize what the other one is brilliant at and what their shortcomings are, and we stay in our own lanes, and we do exactly what we should." — Beth Mazza
- Staying in distinct lanes: Beth acts as the high-level strategist, spotting market opportunities and long-term positioning. Victoria serves as the operational engine, driving execution, logistics, and structured follow-through.
- Operating from “yes”: Rather than defaulting to skepticism when a partner pitches a bold idea, they start from a place of support and explore how to make it viable.
- Unwavering mutual respect: Both founders defer to each other’s expertise without micromanagement, allowing decisions to move quickly.
Redefining the “mompreneur” playbook
In Entrepreneur Like a Mother, the authors tackle the isolation and guilt that often paralyze women attempting to scale a company alongside motherhood. They dismiss the societal pressure to be perfect, urging founders to replace unrealistic standards with practical execution.
"Our goal for this book, Entrepreneur Like a Mother, was to hopefully be the unicorn for a bunch of female entrepreneurs that are also moms." — Victoria Sivrais
1. Pick a business model that fits your life
Not every business needs to follow a venture-backed, high-mayhem path. Mazza and Savray emphasize that founders must decide early on whether they are building a business designed for an exit or a sustainable cash-flow firm aligned with their desired lifestyle.
2. Embrace the minimum viable product (MVP)
Perfectionism often delays progress. The authors urge founders to “start before you are ready”—putting service offerings or products into the market early to gather immediate customer feedback, rather than spending years refining something in a vacuum.
3. Give yourself grace daily
Managing large workloads and family schedules means items will inevitably fall off the to-do list. Beth advises identifying the single most critical task each morning, executing it, and acknowledging what was accomplished rather than stressing over unfinished items.
4. Build a “kitchen cabinet”
Isolation is a key threat to any founder. A trusted core network of advisors, peers, and personal cheerleaders provides the perspective you need during operational fatigue or self-doubt.
Respecting the pivot
Navigating growth requires adaptability. When early client acquisition methods like executive cold-calling stopped working, Mazza and Savray listened to junior team members, pivoted into digital search and SEO marketing, and reignited their pipeline.
Their overarching advice for founders facing a plateau is simple: shrink your focus. Tackling and fixing just one operational or financial bottleneck creates momentum, builds confidence, and clears the path for the next phase of growth.
ASBN, from startup to success, we are your go-to resource for small business news, expert advice, information, and event coverage.