Female Founders Need More Than Marketing to Be Successful

Why I walked away from a business I'd spent years building to create Innovate LAUNCH™, a place where accomplished women can turn their ambitions into businesses and create opportunities for one another.

Why the Jump in Female Entrepreneurship? I Know Why.

In 2024, women started 49% of new businesses in America, according to Gusto's research. In 2019, that number was 29%.

Why the jump? I know why.

And if you're a woman in your 40s, 50s, or 60s who's spent a good part of her career navigating corporate America, you know why, too.

How many times have you sat through an annual review and heard:

"Great job, but..."

The same shit we've heard our entire careers. You've exceeded expectations, but you're not quite ready. You're an excellent leader, but you need to work on your executive presence. You're too assertive. You're not assertive enough. You're brilliant at what you do, but perhaps you should be a little more patient.

Meanwhile, you watch another opportunity go to someone who looks remarkably like the people already running the place.

And you're expected to smile, thank everyone for their feedback, and come back next year.

I'm a woman of a certain age. I've had a successful career, built my own agency, and spent decades in business. I've reached a point in my life where I have absolutely no interest in asking anyone's permission to pursue what I want.

And I know I'm not alone.

We've lived through "Lean In," "Me Too," "I'm With Her," and "I'm Her." We've had the conversations, challenged the inequities, shared our stories, and demanded a more level playing field.

All of that has mattered. But I'm ready for women to do something with the power we already have.

Make the decision.

Decide what you want your life to look like. Decide what kind of business you want to own. Decide how much money you want to make, how you want to spend your days, whom you want to work with, and what you're willing to invest in making it happen.

I've made that decision for myself. I chose to move away from an agency model I'd spent years building because I wanted something different for this chapter of my life. Something that excited me enough to get out of bed every morning wondering what I could create next.

Seasons change.

And I want this for you.

If you've spent years being told to wait your turn, consider this: What exactly are you waiting for now?

You have choices. You have ideas. You have interests and ambitions that may have absolutely nothing to do with the career you've spent decades building.

You can pursue them. You can change your mind. You can build something profitable, exciting, unconventional, or completely unexpected.

And you'll love doing it.

When I look at my friends and colleagues, I see women who are ready to do exactly that. Women who have reached the same point in their lives and careers that I have.

I see her. Because I am her.

That's what those entrepreneurship numbers mean to me. Women making decisions about their futures, on their own terms.

And I want to see a whole lot more of it.

You know who you are.

What 25 Years in Business Taught Me About Starting Over

I've spent more than 25 years in digital strategy, sales, marketing, and business development. I've managed hundreds of millions of dollars in sales for global companies. In 2012, I founded Innovate Social Media, an agency that helped businesses develop their digital presence and generate revenue.

Much of our work involved larger privately held companies. We developed strategy, built websites, managed advertising, improved search visibility, created content, and installed the systems that connected marketing activity to business results.

And I was good at it.

I still love the strategy. I love understanding how businesses operate, identifying an opportunity, finding the right customers, and connecting all the pieces that make a company successful.

But somewhere along the way, I began to ask myself whether I wanted to spend the next chapter of my life doing the same thing I'd already done for years.

That's a strange place to find yourself when you've built something successful.

You know the business. You know how to make money. You have relationships, experience, and a reputation.

And then one day you realize the work no longer excites you the way it once did.

I could have stayed with what was familiar. There was certainly a financial argument for doing so.

But I had started noticing something that made me think differently about where my experience could make the greatest difference.

The Women-Owned Businesses I Couldn't Forget

Over the years, I watched some established women-owned businesses struggle to survive.

These weren't all inexperienced entrepreneurs. Some were legacy businesses with long histories, loyal customers, and owners who had invested enormous amounts of time, money, and personal sacrifice into keeping their companies alive.

They knew their industries. They knew their customers. And for years, the way they operated had served them well.

Then the marketplace changed.

Customers began discovering and evaluating businesses differently. Competitors adopted new technology. Digital visibility became increasingly important. The relationships and reputation that once brought customers through the door weren't always enough to sustain growth.

I understand why some business owners were slow to change.

When you've spent 20 years doing something successfully, you have every reason to believe you know what works.

Until it stops working.

By the time some women reached out for marketing assistance, they weren't investing in growth. They were trying to save businesses that were already in serious trouble.

Those were difficult conversations.

A new website cannot automatically recover years of lost customers. Advertising cannot guarantee that people will return. And even the best marketing strategy has limitations when the underlying business has lost its competitive position.

Could every one of those businesses have been saved? Of course not.

But I often wondered how many outcomes might have been different if the owner had received the right strategic guidance earlier.

If someone had helped her recognize the changes taking place.

If she'd been encouraged to evaluate new opportunities before the old ones disappeared.

If she'd understood how to adapt her business rather than waiting until marketing became an emergency.

Those experiences stayed with me.

I began thinking about what it would mean to help women make those decisions at the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey, while they still had time, resources, and choices.

And then I went to Austin.

June 2023: The Moment Everything Came Together

I attended Kajabi Live Hero Conference in Austin in June 2023, and that experience changed the direction of my thinking.

I was surrounded by entrepreneurs turning their knowledge into education, consulting, coaching, digital products, and communities.

At the same time, I was watching women reconsider their professional lives following the pandemic and the Great Resignation.

Many had spent years pursuing corporate careers and were now looking at entrepreneurship with renewed interest.

And I could see the opportunity.

When you work for a corporation, there's an infrastructure surrounding you.

You may have a marketing department, sales support, technology specialists, an established customer base, and a recognizable brand. Even as a senior executive, there are resources available to help you accomplish your goals.

When you leave that environment to create your own business, suddenly you're responsible for decisions you may never have had to make alone.

Who is your customer? Is there enough demand for your idea? How much should you charge? What makes your offer different? How do you find qualified prospects? Which technology do you need?

And which investments should you make first?

These were the kinds of questions I'd spent my career helping companies answer.

So I started thinking about bringing that experience directly to women who were making the transition into entrepreneurship.

But something else made the idea even more exciting.

Imagine what happens when you bring these women together.

A woman with 25 years in finance. A healthcare executive. A communications professional. An operations specialist. A technology expert. A consultant with an idea for something completely new.

Think about the experience in that room.

The knowledge. The relationships. The different perspectives.

Think about the opportunities they could create simply by getting to know one another and being willing to share what they've learned.

That was the moment I could see the kind of business I wanted to build.

I wanted to bring serious business strategy together with the collective intelligence and feminine energy of accomplished women.

And I wanted those women to have a place where they could grow something of their own while helping other women do the same.

That vision eventually became Innovate LAUNCH™.

Why I Burned Down My Agency Model

In 2024, I began moving away from the traditional agency business and into business strategy coaching.

It would have been easier to call this a rebrand.

It wasn't.

I was changing a business model I'd spent years developing. One that I understood and knew how to operate.

There were financial consequences, difficult decisions, and moments when I wondered whether my timing was completely insane.

I've had plans that didn't work. I've invested in things that turned out to be wrong for the direction I wanted to take. I've changed course and made decisions that were uncomfortable.

And there have been days when the whole thing felt like a colossal shit show.

But here's how I tend to wake up the next morning:

"Yesterday sucked! I'm here to win today. What you got for me, Universe?"

I love a challenge. I love finding solutions. And I believe deeply in what I'm building.

I'm also experiencing the same entrepreneurial realities as the women I want to work with.

When your business depends on decisions you're making with your own money, your own time, and your own reputation, the stakes feel different.

I understand that firsthand.

And I bring something valuable to that experience: decades of business strategy, digital market knowledge, sales experience, successes, mistakes, and the judgment that comes from seeing what works in the real world.

I've earned that perspective.

Now I intend to use it.

You Bring the Vision. I Bring the Map.

One of the things I want women to understand about Innovate LAUNCH™ is the role I play.

You bring the vision. I bring the map.

You decide what you want to build.

Maybe you want to turn professional experience into a consulting practice. Maybe you've discovered an entirely different interest and want to create a business around it.

Maybe you're ready to build something substantial, hire a team, and see how far you can go.

Your ambition belongs to you.

My role is to help you evaluate the opportunity and understand the decisions that will influence whether the business works.

I've spent years watching companies grow because they understood their customers and made disciplined strategic decisions.

I've also seen businesses waste extraordinary amounts of money pursuing visibility before they understood what they were selling or why someone would buy it.

I know how expensive those detours can become.

And I know the questions worth asking before you head down a particular road.

Where is the opportunity? Is there a real market for the offer? What does the customer value? How should you position the business? Where will you find qualified prospects?

What technology supports the business without creating unnecessary expense or complexity?

Your answers will be different from another founder's because your business is different.

I have no interest in handing everyone the same formula.

I want to help you recognize your opportunities, make informed decisions, and pursue the ones that make sense for the business and life you want.

You get to be the hero of your story. I'm here to help you navigate the terrain.

Feminine Energy Belongs in Business Strategy

I believe in feminine energy.

I believe it's powerful, and I believe women have spent far too much time being encouraged to leave parts of themselves at the office door.

I'm talking about intuition, creativity, empathy, collaboration, and our ability to recognize potential in other people.

I've watched women make introductions because they genuinely wanted to see someone succeed.

I've seen a thoughtful question change the way another woman looks at her business.

I've seen relationships create opportunities that would never have appeared on someone's carefully constructed business plan.

And I'd love to see a whole lot more of that.

When I imagine the LAUNCH VIP Community, I imagine women who bring different experiences and perspectives into the conversation.

Women who can disagree intelligently, ask better questions, and offer guidance grounded in what they've learned.

I want the finance professional talking to the creative founder. The technology expert sharing ideas with the consultant. The healthcare executive recognizing an opportunity for collaboration with someone whose work might otherwise never have crossed her path.

There is enormous intellectual capital among women who've spent their lives learning, working, and experiencing the world.

And we've reached a point where many of us have more freedom to decide how we want to use it.

I have no desire to spend the next chapter of my life looking in the rearview mirror.

There's too much ahead.

I want to see women building profitable companies, creating wealth, expanding their influence, and opening doors for other women along the way.

Lighting up other women is what we do.

And I want that to be something we're doing every week through conversations, introductions, shared resources, partnerships, and real opportunities.

Why Marketing Alone Isn't Enough

Now let's talk about the business side of this.

Because you can have a brilliant idea, years of experience, and a genuine desire to make something happen, and still spend a great deal of money pursuing the wrong things.

I see founders investing in websites, branding, advertising, social media, and technology before they've made some of the most important decisions about their businesses.

There's an understandable excitement that comes with starting something new.

You want the website. You want the logo. You want to announce your business and let the world know you're open.

I understand that excitement. I've experienced it myself.

But I've also spent enough years in business to know what happens when marketing gets ahead of strategy.

A beautiful website isn't going to establish whether people need your offer.

A social media campaign won't automatically make your positioning compelling.

And an elaborate automation system isn't much use when you haven't figured out whom you want it to reach.

Social media is not a strategy. It's a tool.

The same is true of advertising, email marketing, LinkedIn, your website, and AI.

Each has a role. Some can be exceptionally powerful when they're supporting a business with a sound foundation.

But first, I want to know what you're building.

Who is the customer? What problem are you solving? Why is your solution valuable? How will people discover you? What happens when they express interest?

And can you create a business that delivers what you've promised while supporting the life you want?

Those answers influence everything else.

That's why I describe Innovate LAUNCH™ as a holistic founder collaborative community.

Your offer, positioning, marketing, sales conversations, customer experience, technology, and professional relationships are connected.

Ignoring one while pouring money into another can become an expensive mistake.

Validate. Position. Pitch.

The foundation of our approach is the VPP™ Framework: Validate, Position, Pitch.

And the order matters.

Validate

Before investing heavily in an idea, find out whether there's sufficient demand for it.

Who needs what you're offering? What problem are you solving? Are people willing to pay for your solution?

You may discover that your original idea needs some refinement.

That's valuable information, particularly when you find out before spending thousands of dollars making it look beautiful.

Position

Once you've identified a viable opportunity, it's time to get clear about how your business fits into the marketplace.

What makes your offer valuable? Who will recognize that value? How is your approach different from other available solutions?

We develop your Cornerstone Positioning Statement™, creating a clear foundation for your message and how you communicate the value of your business.

This work has little to do with making your corporate résumé sound impressive.

Your customer wants to understand what you can do for them.

Pitch

Now we start getting that message in front of the right people.

We look at where qualified prospects are, how to approach them, how to begin meaningful conversations, and how to communicate your value.

I want you talking to people who have a legitimate reason to be interested in what you're building.

Those conversations also provide feedback that helps you keep improving the offer.

And as the business develops, we can make better decisions about visibility, sales, technology, and growth.

Here's something I want you to remember:

Before you make your business more visible, make sure you're making the right business visible to the right people.

How Innovate LAUNCH™ Brings the Pieces Together

We've developed a series of learning and coaching experiences that follow the decisions founders make as their businesses develop.

It begins with our free Founder Masterclass, where I introduce the larger strategy behind validation, positioning, visibility, and the customer journey.

We examine why the order matters and how to recognize where your business may need attention before you invest more money.

Then there's Burn Your Suits™, our foundational experience for women ready to evaluate an idea and position a business around it.

I love the name because it represents the freedom to decide what you're taking into your next chapter and what you're leaving behind.

We explore your potential customers, examine the viability of the offer, work through positioning, and develop your Cornerstone Positioning Statement™.

Once that foundation is established, From Corporate to Founder™ focuses on using LinkedIn as a business development platform.

I've earned a ranking in the top one percent of LinkedIn's Social Selling Index, and I know how valuable LinkedIn can be when you're using it strategically.

We work on your professional positioning, your profile, your message, and a process for identifying your first 100 qualified prospects.

People with whom you have a legitimate reason to start a business conversation.

The Automated Lead Engine™ addresses what happens once someone becomes interested.

How do you capture the opportunity? Follow up? Maintain the relationship? Guide people through the customer journey?

We look at email marketing, lead management, automation, and AI-supported workflows to help build systems that support your business.

And From Invisible to Unstoppable™ is designed for founders ready to look more seriously at growth.

We examine the business as it exists, including positioning, visibility, customer acquisition, strategic investment, and the opportunities that could take it further.

Each experience has a purpose.

Together, they provide a framework for understanding what your business needs at different stages.

But there's another piece that makes Innovate LAUNCH™ particularly exciting to me.

And it's the reason I wanted to build something beyond a collection of courses.

The LAUNCH VIP Community Is Where the Magic Happens

Here's the part I look forward to most.

The women.

The LAUNCH VIP Community brings accomplished female founders together to share experience, work through business questions, learn from specialists, and create connections that can lead to real opportunities.

We come together on weekly for conversations about our businesses, strategic decisions, new ideas, and the challenges we're working through.

We bring in expertise in technology, AI governance, automation, systems, communications, and other areas that matter to growing a business.

But I want these gatherings to become something much more valuable than another appointment on your calendar.

I want you to know the women in the room.

I want you to be comfortable saying, "Here's what I'm working on. What do you think?"

I want someone to recognize an opportunity and say, "I know exactly who you should talk to."

I want members collaborating on projects, introducing potential customers, sharing professional resources, and celebrating one another's successes.

And I want the conversations to light you up.

I've been in enough networking groups over the years to know that collecting names and attending meetings doesn't necessarily create meaningful professional relationships.

I want us to know each other.

I want us to recognize opportunities in each other's businesses.

And I want women leaving a conversation with something useful, whether that's a strategic insight, a potential collaborator, or an introduction that changes what's possible.

That's the kind of community I'm building.

The programs provide resources. The strategy provides direction. Your experiences bring perspective.

What we teach isn't the light in the program. It's you.

And when you bring accomplished women together around a shared commitment to building something meaningful, the possibilities reach well beyond anything I could create by myself.

Why This Next Chapter Matters So Much to Me

I could have continued operating my agency.

There was a business there, a career I'd invested in, and a model I knew how to run.

But I wanted this.

I wanted to take everything I'd learned about business strategy, digital markets, sales, and technology and make it available to women who were creating their own opportunities.

I wanted to help them avoid expensive mistakes and make better decisions about where to invest their money and energy.

And I wanted to create a community where those women could put their collective knowledge and relationships to work for one another.

That's worth making a significant change in my own life.

I look around at the women I know and see an extraordinary amount of potential.

Join the LAUNCH VIP Community

I want you to come see what we're building at Innovate LAUNCH™.

I want you to meet other accomplished women who have decided to pursue their own ambitions and are willing to share what they know along the way.

Bring your business idea, your questions, your expertise, and your perspective.

You'll find strategic guidance, practical learning experiences, thoughtful conversations, and opportunities to build relationships with women who understand what you're working toward.

And together, we can build something extraordinary.

Explore Innovate LAUNCH™ and join the LAUNCH VIP Community

The map is here. Your guide is here.

The community door is open.

 

About Suzette Cotto

Suzette Cotto is the founder of Innovate LAUNCH™, a virtual learning platform and collaborative community for accomplished women creating businesses on their own terms. We’re off social media and the distractions and focused on what you’re building.

With more than 25 years of experience in digital strategy, sales, marketing, and business development, Suzette has managed hundreds of millions of dollars in sales and founded Innovate Social Media in 2012, helping businesses develop their digital presence and connect marketing investments to meaningful business results.

Ranked in the top one percent of LinkedIn's Social Selling Index, Suzette brings her expertise in business positioning, digital strategy, customer acquisition, and emerging technology to female founders who are ready to create their next chapter.

Through Innovate LAUNCH™, Suzette is building a place where experienced women can combine sound business strategy, professional relationships, and their collective intelligence to create new opportunities.

Learn more at InnovateLAUNCH.com.