with Heather Cabot
Stacey Abrams
Stacey Abrams is a New York Times bestselling author, serial entrepreneur, nonprofit CEO and political leader. After serving for eleven years in the Georgia House of Representatives, seven as Democratic Leader. In 2018, Abrams became the Democratic nominee for Governor of Georgia, winning more votes than any other Democrat in the state’s history. Abrams was the first black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in the United States, and she was the first black woman and first Georgian to deliver a Response to the State of the Union.
In the wake of the 2018 election, Abrams launched Fair Fight Action and Fair Fight 2020 to defend voting rights. She also launched Fair Count to ensure accuracy in the 2020 Census and greater participation in civic engagement, and the Southern Economic Advancement Project, a public policy initiative to broaden economic power and build equity in the South. She previously founded the New Georgia Project, which has helped register hundreds of thousands of Georgians.
Abrams is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations, where she serves on the Subcommittee on Diversity. She has been a featured speaker at the Aspen Ministers Forum, the Kerry Initiative-Yale Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, the National Security Action Forum and the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as a contributor to Foreign Affairs Magazine.
She is a recipient of the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award and a current member of the Board of Directors for the Center for American Progress and Priorities USA. Abrams has also written eight romantic suspense novels under the pen name Selena Montgomery, in addition to Lead from the Outside, formerly Minority Leader, a guidebook on making real change in the civic sector, politics or the private sector.
Abrams is an avid fan of television and movies, with a penchant for sci-fi, car chases and heists. A bibliophile, her recent favorites range from Colson Whitehead, Robert Caro and Nora Roberts to N.K. Jemison, Rebecca Roanhorse and Haruki Marukami.
Abrams received degrees from Spelman College, the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas and Yale Law School. Born in Madison, Wisconsin, she and her five siblings grew up in Mississippi and Georgia.
Lara Hodgson
Lara Hodgson is President and CEO of NOW Corp, serves as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Harvard Business School, and is an internationally recognized speaker, leading seminars on creativity, innovation, and access to capital. Prior to NOW Corp, Hodgson, with her business partner Stacey Abrams, also co-founded Nourish and Insomnia, LLC, a firm specializing in investment, development, and management of complex and innovative “world-changing” projects. She worked five years for Dewberry Capital Corporation, an Atlanta-based commercial real estate development and investment firm, where she served as the company’s CMO and COO. Her product experience also includes Dunk, a performance footwear and apparel manufacturing/retail company built on the concept of mass customization and founded with Shaquille O’Neal and Mike Piazza, where she served as Executive Vice President. Lara received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Aerospace Engineering with highest honors from Georgia Institute of Technology. She serves as a Trustee of the Georgia Tech Foundation in addition to other nonprofit boards.
Heather Cabot
Heather Cabot is an award-winning journalist, the author of THE NEW CHARDONNAY, and the co-author of GEEK GIRL RISING. Cabot is a former ABC News anchor/correspondent and served as Yahoo! Web Life Editor from 2007-12 in which she reported on digital trends for TODAY, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and nationally syndicated talk shows. She serves on the Alumni Board of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and was an adjunct professor at the school from 2012-17.
LEVEL UP: Rise Above The Hidden Forces Holding Your Business Back (Portfolio, February 22, 2022)
A must-read guide for small business owners navigating a critical turning point: when you either level up or give up.
It’s never been easier to start a business–and it’s never been harder to scale it. Half of new businesses in America don’t make it past five years. Stacey Abrams and Lara Hodgson want to help today’s entrepreneurs beat the odds by revealing the unseen tethers that keep small businesses from growing and thriving.
Drawing on firsthand experience starting and scaling multiple companies over nearly two decades, Now® cofounders Abrams and Hodgson crystallize their hard-won advice into a single how-to, got-to guide for small business owners. In Level Up, they share intense behind-the-scenes stories of building their own businesses, as well as actionable, get-it-done principles for founders looking to propel their ventures forward.
This is straight talk from the trenches on real issues like hiring, identifying a revenue strategy, recognizing when growth is a trap, and managing cash flow, from a duo that’s been there. Abrams and Hodgson also elevate and share the experiences of other successful founders including, Jules Pieri of The Grommet, Alisa Clark of Glory Professional Services, and Sheila Jordan of Knowledge Architects.
New businesses started by entrepreneurs drive net new job growth. Yet, for the last four decades, startups have increasingly struggled to overcome a system of red tape and barriers to capital and commerce. As a new generation of founders launches a flurry of firms in the wake of the pandemic recession, Abrams and Hodgson offer key insights and support to help entrepreneurs break free and get to the next level.