Bre Russell

I started Fem Thrive in 2019 as a women's business advisory firm. Before that, I ran a girls' soccer and leadership company for 10 years with both for-profit and non-profit arms based in San Francisco. Soccer was a huge part of my life growing up - I played in college, and it was where I found my confidence, my voice, and my leadership. After undergrad business school and playing in college, I went into the Peace Corps, and I always knew I wanted to help women. Soccer was the vehicle for that, and then it turned into business and leadership. The inspiration for my first business came from my experience in the Peace Corps in Vanuatu, where I started a women's soccer team after being told only men played soccer there. We won first place at a tournament funded by FIFA, and that was the light bulb moment for me, seeing sports as a vehicle for women's empowerment, community change, and economic opportunity. When I came back to the Bay Area, I went to graduate school and started coaching soccer on the side. There weren't many women coaches, so I started my own company and basically cloned myself, eventually hiring 30 women coaches across San Francisco and Oakland. I sold the for-profit arm 2 years ago when I knew it was time to move on - my husband and I were trying to conceive for 2 years, and stress was a large part of that. I needed the business to run without me. Now with Fem Thrive, I help founders get out of the day-to-day, avoid burnout, and think about their exit strategy.