#FoundersFridays: Meet Angela Fusaro

#FoundersFridays is a StartupAmsterdam interview series: for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. Each hero answers questions on their entrepreneurial journey, their learnings, milestones and bottlenecks, as well as on Amsterdam and the Dutch startup scene. It’s a platform for entrepreneurs to speak their minds freely and pass on their learnings to anyone who’s thinking about founding a startup as well.

This week we spoke to Angela Fusaro, co-founder of Every Mother Knows, a talent platform that helps mothers connect with jobs and career opportunities. Through career coaching, returnship programmes, and events, Every Mother Knows helps mothers navigate work-life transitions and have a better work-life experience.

How did your career journey lead you to found Every Mother Knows?

I studied psychology back in Rome. I moved to the Netherlands in 2009 to start my career within the HR department of a multinational company here. Later I held other HR positions across NGOs and the tech industry in The Hague and Amsterdam. After my second son was born, I took the leap and launched Every Mother Knows, where I can use my HR, talent acquisition and coaching skills to impact mothers and employers in today’s job market. 

What makes Amsterdam a great city and a great ecosystem for a startup founder?

The diversity of people living and working here and how easily you can make things happen, turning your vision into reality. Since I moved, I have met people from all walks of life and felt welcomed and part of the village. It’s inspiring to see the many startups founded in the Amsterdam area and the different platforms, communities and initiatives to support them. For me, this is one of the best places to become an entrepreneur, and I got to learn so much from the Dutch and their entrepreneurial mindset.

What are the goals and needs of Every Mother Knows for the upcoming months?

Our goal is growth - increase the number of mothers on our platform, onboard new corporate partners and grow our current vacancy pool. We also want to upgrade our technology with more AI features to make recruitment easier and faster for our employers and candidates. 

We know growth takes time, conversations, pitching, energy,  and finances. We are now looking for investors who can help us significantly impact the job market, improve gender diversity and sponsor more career opportunities for mothers. That will definitely help us speed up our growth.

What has been a recent win for your business?

Getting corporate partners on board, such as Workiva B.V. and Rituals Cosmetics BV. The EMEA headquarter of Workiva in Amsterdam joined our Returnship programme and opened up some of their positions to mothers reentering the workforce after a career break. It’s great to see mothers from our talent pool hired and thriving in their new roles.

Rituals also joined us recently with a range of flexible roles for their customer relations teams. They are looking for candidates who speak several languages besides English, and we are now busy matching their talent needs with the skills of mothers from our community.

What was the most challenging moment in your business journey? How did you get past it and learn from it?

As a mother and a founder, the start of the pandemic in 2020 was one of the most challenging moments in my business journey. Most of our activities were in person back then - including events and career coaching workshops. The pandemic made us shift into the digital space. Doing that from the kitchen table while homeschooling the kids was a rollercoaster. At the time, I also realised that to become more sustainable financially, we had to go B2B and focus on recruitment next to coaching. The start of the pandemic was a challenging time but also an excellent opportunity to start playing big.