Want to know what a true innovator looks like? Introducing Sascha Mayer, whose company Mamava is using progressive and sleek design to support a social mission: Mamava delivers workplace solutions for “mamas on the go,” and at Fairygodboss, we don’t know many who aren’t! Huge applause to Mamava for making it easier - and more attractive - for women everywhere to breastfeed and/or pump.
Fairygodboss of the Week: Sascha Mayer
Co-Founder, CEO - Mamava
Burlington, VT
FGB: Tell us about your career. How did you get to where you are now?
SM: The day after I graduated from college I went to work for then Congressman Bernie Sanders. After a few long years, I decided to head to the private sector, and began my career as a brand strategist for a design studio. The studio called Solidarity of Unbridled Labour (the name says it all) was lead by an amazing Owner-Creative Director named Michael Jager who was not only a mentor to me and many others, but allowed me to incubate my current company within the design studio.
FGB: What is an accomplishment that you are proud of?
SM: I am proud to have not only created a mission-based company, in which every employee has an ownership stake, but also one that has created a category and is shifting the cultural perception of what it means to be a breastfeeding mama on the go.
Lightning Round:
FGB: What do you do when you’re not working?
SM: I spend time with my husband, two kids, five chickens, and dog. Not necessarily in that order.
FGB: If you could have dinner with one famous person - dead or alive - who would it be?
SM: Beyonce
FGB: What is your karaoke song?
SM: I am terrified of karaoke.
FGB: What is your favorite movie?
SM: Motorcycle Diaries
FGB: What book would you bring with you on a desert island?
SM: Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff. Maybe if I was stuck on a desert island I would finally get through it!
FGB: What is your shopping vice? What would you buy if you won the lottery?
SM: A trip to France with all three generations of my family. (And then a trip to a beach resort with my best girlfriends to recover after.).
FGB: Who is your Fairygodboss?
SM: Michael Jager, Owner and Creative Director of Solidarity of Unbridled Labour for whom I worked for twenty years. His relentless energy, belief in the power of design to shift culture, and his ability to connect people, ideas, and causes truly made me what I am today.
FGB: What is the #1 career tip you'd like to share?
SM: Perfection is the enemy of progress. At a certain point you have to put yourself, your idea, your product into the world and see what happens.
Fairygodboss is all about women helping other women - so each week, we celebrate a woman who made a difference in another woman’s career. Is there a woman who has made a difference in your career?
Celebrate her and thank her by nominating her here.