Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Thomas.
Hi Jessica, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I spent over a decade working in various capacities within Employee Benefits and Wellbeing. Throughout my experiences working with my clients, I realized a pretty significant gap in the market when it comes to meeting the needs of small businesses who want to offer support, education and training in areas of health, finance and benefits comprehension to their employees. I watched as these companies struggled to find programs that adequately engaged and meaningfully impacted their employees and time and time again, I saw vendors over-promise and under-deliver, costing these companies significant spend (not to mention overhead). I basically just got really tired of seeing clients I really cared for struggle through these pains. I decided to do something about it by building Yellow. I started creating the business plan in early 2021 and fast forward to two years later, we have a completed product, completed the Atlanta Tech Village Pre-Accelerator program, gained our first customers, secured our first partnership and our team has doubled in size! It’s been an exciting journey and I’m just so grateful every day to be doing something that really positively impacts the lives of others.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It wouldn’t be entrepreneurship if it were a smooth road! In my opinion, though, that is part of what makes this journey so dynamic and enjoyable. When I reflect back on the challenges I’ve faced, the struggles and adversity I’ve overcome, I realize it has been in those moments that I’ve grown and learned the most. Being a female founder (and mother), there has naturally been some built-in adversity and challenges I’ve had to face. I’m the mother to two children 3 & 1.5 so it’s an incredibly busy season of life but I do the best I can to optimize for efficiency where I can. One of the biggest challenges I faced early on was taking the initial leap to launch the business. I had the idea, vision and passion but taking that initial step was challenging, especially given the timing. I quit my job late 2020 with a newborn in tow and began outlining the initial business plan.
Due to the pandemic, I didn’t have childcare so I had to strike a balance between learning to be a mother and also learning to be an entrepreneur. I learned more about effective time management in those initial months than I ever had before! I literally turned into a time management machine waking up at 4am to crank out work and compartmentalizing my working hours with motherhood. I didn’t know it at the time but this really laid the foundation for me becoming a female founder and finding balance to be effective at work but also, and most importantly, show up and be present as a mother.
I’m in no way saying I’ve got this balance thing down pat or that I have all the answers to how to make it all work today. The biggest thing is that I stay open-minded and I don’t underestimate the importance of self-care… I’m extremely intentional about finding time to prioritize my own health and needs so I can show up better for my family and for my business.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My passion has always been for health and well-being. It’s so hard to live well, with temptations and easy options not always being the healthiest options. I spent my career in health strategy consulting in the employee benefits space. This experience really gave me a unique perspective on the current landscape of employee benefits and healthcare in general. We’re such a reactive society when it comes to health and we see this in rising healthcare rates, employer health spending and just a really broken healthcare system in general. I’ve worked with all types of companies helping them craft and develop their internal employee benefits and well-being programs. I’ve worked with clients ranging from Fortune 500, large metro municipalities, and even small non for profits.
With the help of my team, we’ve been able to build a product that helps companies digitize a lot of this initiative and promotion work. Yellow is unique in that our pricing structure is only pay per participant which stands out in the industry as most providers require PEPM (per employee per month) pricing which essentially locks companies into overpaying for low engagement.
Our goal with Yellow is to minimize all barriers that companies experience when prioritizing their employees’ health and well-being. This way, we can make proactive and preventative health the new norm, reducing significant costs to employers.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Being an entrepreneur wasn’t always a goal of mine. I grew up in a pretty traditional household where the goal was to do well in school, get a good education, and a good, stable career. I didn’t know that Entrepreneurship was a viable path. I sort of stumbled upon a pain point that I was so passionate about solving and that’s how this all started. I love sharing this story, especially with other innovative and passionate women because I think, as women, we can be pretty risk averse but we’re also so powerful and dynamic and for the good of the world, we need more female founders!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.wishforyellow.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-thomas-joy/
