Interview: Manon DeFelice, Founder of Inkwell

Manon DeFelice is on a mission. A mission to help executive-level women manage growing their families without leaving the workforce. We sat down with the work-life balance pioneer and found out how she plans to do it. What inspired you to begin and grow Inkwell? Before starting Inkwell I was Executive Director of a women’s rights foundation in New York. One of my first hires at the foundation was a woman named Chelsea, who was contracted to draft legislation for us. She worked from home with her small children and travelled to DC whenever we needed to meet with Congress members. Chelsea had a wealth of experience that was invaluable to our operation, but as a small nonprofit we did not have the budget to hire her full time. This did not matter to Chelsea, because as a mother of small children she preferred to work from home, part time. Chelsea produced some of my foundation’s best work. My experience with her as a contracted employee made me think about other professional mothers and organizations that would benefit from hiring them. I saw that there was an untapped market of professional women with major expertise who had left the traditional, full-time workforce to focus on their families. Working with Chelsea, I realized that such relationships were mutually beneficial for businesses and women, thus leading to the creation of Inkwell. [Photo via Inkwell]