“The people with whom you partner personally and professionally punctuate every step of the journey.”
Alyssa Rapp knows “the balancing act of being a mom/wife/CEO/executive/investor/director.” | Kim Salt
Like many newcomers to Silicon Valley, when I entered the GSB I did not wonder why I should start a company but only questioned why I shouldn’t. The pixie dust in the air surrounding Sand Hill Road fueled those dreams, as did the insights I gained from entrepreneurial greats like Joel Peterson. As an entrepreneur, I hoped to create unique solutions to commercial problems, thus jobs, and give back through a life of service.
Editor’s Note
In this ongoing Stanford Business series, we ask Stanford GSB alumni to reflect on how their worldviews have changed in the years since they earned their degrees.
Alyssa Rapp, MBA ’05, is a CEO, lecturer in management, author, and director by day, and an athlete, wine enthusiast, and entrepreneurial tinkerer by night.
My inspiration for this path, as I wrote in my What Matters Most essay, were my Jewish elders: my Dutch grandfather, a Holocaust survivor and entrepreneur; and my stepfather, whose walk-around management style had taught me most of what I knew about leadership up to that point. Like them, I sought a life fueled by passion and purpose that resulted in impact.
I still do.
What has changed is my appreciation of how much grit, tenacity, luck, and support one needs to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams, even in the greatest country on Earth. I now have a deeper understanding of the complex role government plays in capital markets. I have been caught in the crosswinds of regulatory changes, first as a dot-com founder navigating the landscape for third-party marketing firms in the wine industry.
More recently, as the CEO of a SPAC, an unexpected SEC rule change nearly wiped out the entire asset class just weeks after we launched. In both cases, I pivoted to survive. I had been raised to believe that government only does good in people’s lives. That foundational value has been tempered by witnessing how the wrong kind of intervention can hamper well-intentioned entrepreneurs and decimate shareholder value.
I’ve evolved to be even more committed to gender equality in corporate America, having encountered blatant sexism over the years — from potential investors on Sand Hill Road in my 20s to a potential target company’s CEO in my 40s. These kinds of experiences fueled me to create Women as Investors, Directors, CEOs, and Executives, a course I have taught for four years at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. I am unapologetic about only serving on boards and leading teams that walk the walk of gender equity.
I underestimated how the balancing act of being a mom/wife/CEO/executive/investor/director would force me to continually assess my priorities. (I’ve been lucky that my GSB classmate, Hal Morris, has been the greatest husband, partner, and teammate I could have ever chosen.) To paraphrase my friend Marissa Mayer, the dichotomy of being a mother and CEO is no dichotomy at all — but the system needs slack in order for women to excel in their kaleidoscope of roles.
Today, I am even more of a believer in the GSB’s call to change lives, organizations, and the world. Living a life whose end product is impact and service is what matters most. And the people with whom you partner personally and professionally punctuate every step of the journey — and likely matter most of all.
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