Who We are
Introducing Kaija & Janessa
Hi! We're Kaija & Janessa, the dynamic duo behind Founders I Love.
Kaija has spent her career in the kind of rooms that are supposed to have it all figured out: a Fortune 100 tech company, an MBA, a string of startup incubators. What stuck with her most is how little of that ever reaches the women doing this on their own. So she's made it her job to pull out the pieces that actually help (and leave the jargon behind) so you can start your business with a real plan instead of guesswork.
Janessa founded, ran and scaled Simply Eloped for a total of 10 years of which she scaled to 7m in revenue and eventually sold to The Knot Worldwide. She's made every mistake one can make in building a business (even though it had a happy ending) and wants to help you avoid the pitfalls she faced so you can build your business in a sustainable way.
OUR approach
What We believe
Entrepreneurship can be both ambitious and deeply human. These principles serve as our compass, helping us build businesses, relationships, and lives that feel meaningful and sustainable. We believe:
- Your business should support your life, not consume it
- You don't need permission to begin
- Healthy founders equal healthy businesses
- Progress matters more than perfection
- Great things come from combined efforts
What We Value
We believe meaningful businesses are built by thoughtful people. These values serve as our compass, guiding how we connect, grow, and create businesses that support both our ambitions and our wellbeing.
Radical Welcome
We lead with warmth, empathy, and inclusion - everyone belongs here.
Authenticity
Show up as your true self. We honor honesty, vulnerability, and realness.
Humble Curiosity
No one has all the answers. We approach each other with openness and willingness to learn.
Champion One Another
We rise by lifting others. We celebrate, support, and cheer one another on.
Sustainable Flow
We honor balance, pacing ourselves to prevent burnout and thrive long-term.
Collective Growth
We grow stronger together. Our success is inseparable from our community's.
How we use AI
We believe AI is a tool, and tools take on the values of the hands that hold them. Around here, every word you read comes from us. AI helps with editing, clarity, and graphics, the busywork that would otherwise cost hours we'd rather spend with you, and we will never use it to fake being human with you.
We also believe AI can democratize entrepreneurship. It lets a woman without funding move like a woman with it, and we think it will help more women start more businesses. That doesn't mean handing everything over to it; the heart of your business should always be yours. We use AI on purpose and sparingly, especially in the early seasons where it carries real weight, and we believe every founder gets to draw her own value set around it: what you'll use it for, and what you won't.
And we hold ourselves to using it sustainably. We save AI for work that truly lightens the load, and we advocate for a better version of this technology, including data centers with closed-loop water systems. We've set internal growth guidelines, and as we meet them, the work AI helps with today becomes paid human jobs.
Let's Begin!
Be it taking one of our courses or hiring us as coaches, we're ready to help you bring your idea to life, refine your business or just simply support you along the entrepreneurial journey.
