#StartupsEverywhere Profile: Margot Lee Schmorak, Co-Founder & CEO, Hostfully & Co-Founder, VC Backed Moms
This profile is part of #StartupsEverywhere, an ongoing series highlighting startup leaders in ecosystems across the country. This interview has been edited for length, content, and clarity.
Optimizing Vacation Rentals and and Supporting Founders who are Mothers
For Margot Lee Schmorak, Hostfully and VC Backed Moms are the results of her years navigating the tech industry as a woman, mother, and mission-driven professional. While Hostfully promises a better property management experience, VC Backed Moms is the ultimate online community for founders in all stages of motherhood. We spoke with her about rental property management, increased STEM education, and the ways in which policymakers can support motherhood in entrepreneurship.
Tell us about your background and your journey to creating Hostfully and VC Backed Moms.
I grew up in Minnesota, and as the daughter of a doctor and a nurse, entrepreneurship was never very familiar to me. After my undergrad years, I pursued an MBA and got a job at Apple, which brought me to California. After a few years, I left to work at a startup, where I fell in love with the small team atmosphere, realizing that this was the space I eventually wanted to be in.
Around the age of 30, I knew I wanted to start a family but needed more job stability than a startup could offer. So I joined a larger, more established company, but it wasn't for me—I wanted to be a part of something much more mission-driven. After taking some time off, I eventually met my co-founder, David, who owned an Airbnb/rental property in San Francisco. We started working on an idea he had around the guest experience and found a big market with lots of customers, and Hostfully was born.
In addition to being Hostfully’s co-founder, I'm also a mom. About three years ago, I spoke to a couple of other women founders who were also Precursor Ventures portfolio companies. We were all moms and started talking about how there are so few venture-backed entrepreneurs who are mothers. We wanted to cultivate that connection, so we started an organization called VC Backed Moms, and we weren’t expecting it to take off at first. We had 12 people to start, but as of this week, we’re at over 400 members. Collectively, we've raised over $4 million in capital, and we now have moms from all over the world building businesses or actively participating as full-time operators.
What is the work you all are doing at Hostfully?
We make software for short term rental property managers to help them run their businesses. We’re one of very few companies in the world with direct integration partnerships with Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO. We offer a centralized calendar for automated messaging and the ability for our customers to connect with lots of different services in our space to help them with things like dynamic pricing, turnover management, and payment processing. With a team of around 100 employees located all over the globe, we've expanded our footprint into 30 countries.
Tell us more about VC backed moms. How can policymakers support mothers in entrepreneurship?
A few years ago, I wrote a blog post on a community site for professional women, sharing my experience as a SaaS CEO navigating maternity leave. The response I got was amazing. At that time, it was taboo to go on maternity leave or to even say that you were having a baby, and it was an even bigger deal if you were running a small startup. People resonated with my post, sharing it widely and laying the foundation for the initial communities within VC Backed Moms.
At this point in my journey, as a founder, the number one issue for me is having policies in place that support women as they become mothers while building companies. In my case, I had a well-functioning company and a great co-founder, so I was able to take two months off and have the burden rest solely on my company to pay my salary during that time. I had relatively uncomplicated births for my first two children, and I was lucky to understand my own limits during my third pregnancy and childbirth.
I’m hearing more stories about women taking maternity leave as founders and it's important for investors to embrace and support this reality—even though it may not be their own. Statistically speaking, the large majority of Limited Partners and Venture Capitalists are men, so they don’t have the same level of consideration or understanding of what the experience and challenges are like for female founders. In fact, there is a misconception that women can't run a successful business while going on maternity leave. Women hear these misconceptions and horror stories and then they become intimidated. Soon, everyone believes that a woman cannot run a business and have children at once—which is ridiculous. It is not easy, but it certainly can be done - you just need to have a healthy support network.
The primary lever to support women is access to childcare. I am very aware that I’m in a position where I was financially stable before starting my company and we were able to hire an au pair who lives in our house and cares for our kids. So many founders who are mothers don’t have this—they need options for childcare that are flexible and not too expensive.
Lastly, female entrepreneurs are indeed fighting bias in fundraising, not all of which are directly linked to motherhood, but rather with building trust and dealing with similarity bias, where investors are more likely to invest in someone that looks like them. We need more women investors to get more funding to women-run companies, period.
Are there any other ecosystem-related issues that you think should receive more attention from policymakers?
Something that should definitely receive more attention is the need to teach overall financial and entrepreneurship literacy. Stereotypes and discrimination have made it hard for a lot of women to break into the worlds of financial modeling and math, and while not all women are affected, I think most of us are at a disadvantage when we start companies because of this. And I would love for policymakers to lean even more into improving STEM education for girls, especially in creating learning topics that are interesting for them. Implementing comprehensive math and science programs in high schools and colleges, creating pathways to mentorship, and grants and special scholarships for girls would make a big difference.
What are your goals moving forward?
Hostfully is on its way to be a market leader in our category and that's really amazing. I'm excited about it, and I feel like it's achievable. With VC Backed moms, our vision is to be a living and breathing resource for hundreds of women. Whether it’s figuring out how to balance the breastfeeding journey when you might have to travel for work, or how to talk to your investors if you're having a hard time with your kids’ medical issues, I’m so grateful to be working at a company and in a community where these kinds of tough conversations are welcomed. We need more of this in the world.
All of the information in this profile was accurate at the date and time of publication.
Engine works to ensure that policymakers look for insight from the startup ecosystem when they are considering programs and legislation that affect entrepreneurs. Together, our voice is louder and more effective. Many of our lawmakers do not have first-hand experience with the country's thriving startup ecosystem, so it’s our job to amplify that perspective. To nominate a person, company, or organization to be featured in our #StartupsEverywhere series, email advocacy@engine.is.
