As a bootstrapped startup founder who has put all of my time, energy, focus, and creativity into building a better way to work over the last 2.5 years, the term “future of work” has become nearly meaningless for me. The mainstream conversations swirling around “future of work” (pre-COVID and the movement for Black Lives, and post) left people like me feeling like an outsider. How can we build a future of work when the same people get a seat at the table? How can we even think about a new normal without passing the mic to those most deeply impacted by what that normal looks like?
We Are Rosie, my startup, was founded in 2018 with a mission to demonstrate what the future of work can look like when diverse perspectives, backgrounds, experiences, and abilities are seated at the table. We seamlessly built a fully distributed startup that employs 40% Black and People of Color on our core team. We welcomed over 5,000 independent consultants into our community in an otherwise isolated world of freelancing. We exist to create more opportunities for people who self-select the independent path for a multitude of reasons – feeling otherized at full time jobs, needing to caretake for a loved one, needing to relocate outside of a major market, etc.
From day one, we’ve believed and persisted in stating that remote work is a form of inclusion. My unique perspective at We Are Rosie gave me the ability to see the ripple effects of how flexible work impacts not just inclusion, but also sustainability, wellness, creativity, and economic prosperity. These ripple effects led us to put together our first data & insights study: The Rosie Report – Insights from the Future of Work in Marketing & Advertising. I’m so proud of this study because it has inspired what we are launching today.
I never set out to build a media platform, although it is quite nice to be getting back to my roots in media (my career started at MSFT ads and then AOL/Huffington Post/Patch). Like We Are Rosie, the launch of The Rosie Report feels like much more of a calling than an idea. And this time that calling is shared by my entire leadership team, who have tirelessly dedicated their professional lives to building a more equitable future for everyone, by everyone. So here we go, off on the latest Rosie adventure. We are beyond thrilled to lay our stake in the ground that we will not sit idly by while the “future of work” is built by the same people who built the systems we have today, which are both outdated and arguably not in service of diversity or equity.
Our commitment to our readers is to allow you to feel seen and heard in a way you haven’t felt otherwise across the media landscape. This is a home for democratizing thought leadership, for passing and sharing the mic with the people who so often get left out of the conversation.
The future of work is for everyone, and should be manifested by everyone. The future of work is inclusive, equal, representative, mindful, and prosperous.
So, tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. The future is in motion and we must all play a part.
