WomenVenture client Katie Sterns shares her story of lifelong entrepreneurship, knowing when to shift gears, and what her future holds.
Katie first visited WomenVenture, then known as CHART, after graduating from college to participate in business planning courses with women who were entering or re-entering the workforce. She has stayed with us all these years as an advocate, supporter, and participant in our events including the Women Mean Business marketplace.
Katie comes from a long line of entrepreneurs. Her grandparents moved from farming to real estate, leveraging relationships with neighbors to grow their business. As a young girl, Katie witnessed her mother overcome loss and turn her experience as a home economist, volunteer community leader, and single mother of five daughters to go back to school to become an interior designer and launch her own business.
Starting her first business at the age of 10, Katie learned the art of negotiation and standing behind her talents when she started cutting hair. When one customer complained about having to pay a beginner, she cheekily told him, “The haircut is $3.00 if you like it, $2.00 if you don’t, this is a business”. Katie carried that determination and her hair-cutting business throughout college. After college she helped launch the new entertainment technology, Karaoke, to Midwest bars where she integrated the systems into the bar’s A/V systems and then taught bar owners how to properly run a Karaoke show to generate additional revenue for their small businesses.
These experiences, as well as her formal education in Sociology, allowed her to understand human behavior and observe how to effectively market, drive sales, and achieve success in business. Long before ”user experience” had that label in the workplace, Katie was using her “UX” background to build new and better business ideas that were focused on the customer.
Katie is a mother to three sons. While they were growing up, she volunteered in her St. Paul community to advocate for stronger schools for all kids while at the same time starting the first Real Estate staging business in Minnesota.
Drawing on her hands-on education working with her mother on interior design projects and her background in marketing and sales, she worked for developers to design model homes informed by “customer journeys” that targeted the various demographic groups of likely buyers. Her award-winning projects helped move properties fast and with top offers. After the housing market crash in 2008, Katie returned to her passion of improving the school system by providing strategic planning consulting to St. Paul Public Schools leadership. She authored a report, “Winning Students for Saint Paul Public Schools”, that the district still references today.
In 2017 Katie started her next entrepreneurial journey that drew upon her passion to support other small businesses. She launched You Betcha! Box with $2000 she had saved from her last consulting gig. You Betcha! Box is a Minnesota artisan food gift box featuring dozens of award-winning products made by local small businesses. You Betcha! Box helped local makers promote their products and share their inspiring stories to a wide audience who purchased or received them as gifts. Katie built the business rapidly and pivoted through many challenges. You Betcha! Boxes were in high demand not only because the products were excellent, but because Katie positioned the brand to tap into consumers’ desires to share local pride and express their values through their purchases.
You Betcha! Box operations quickly outgrew its space, temporarily housed in a church basement during the COVID-19 pandemic. She found a warehouse and fulfillment partner to help her realize her vision to fully automate operations and logistics to scale the business rapidly. You Betcha! Box had achieved strong brand recognition, exponential growth, and a loyal customer base so Katie decided it was time to turn the reigns over to another owner eager to build upon the brand’s success. She was thrilled to find a buyer who believed in the You Betcha! Box vision.
Always on the lookout for a new opportunity, Katie was recently asked to lead a new tech startup, Blyngz Luxury Technologies, Inc. as Chairwoman and CEO. Co-founder, Rama Prasad, a Ph.D. mechanical engineer, was developing a first-of-its-kind “smart” earring that intersects women’s desire for audio technology and jewelry aesthetic expression. Katie contributed a new product design that provides comfortable, all-day wear with personalized jewelry options. With her well-rounded expertise in innovative design, new product and brand launch, strategic partnerships, and business operations, Katie is well-equipped to provide visionary leadership for Blyngz. Once seed funding is secured, Blyngz is set to move quickly through final development, manufacturing, and begin sales and distribution into a multi-billion-dollar global market.
Katie credits those early learning experiences at WomenVenture for helping her gain confidence and the practical knowledge she needed to start her own businesses over the past three decades. “I have seen the incredible impact WomenVenture has made in my life and countless other women’s lives. I remember being that young woman in my 20s thinking… ‘Wow, I guess it is okay to have these dreams. I actually can do this!”. We can’t wait to see her build upon her life-long entrepreneurial accomplishments in her next venture!
Author: Jess Jellings, WomenVenture Communications Manager
