FOUNDERS LAB - The Messy Middle
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ツ💡 What’s the Messy Middle
Most people only see the highlight reel: the launch, the raise, the “we made it” post.
Every “overnight success” you admire lived in "The Messy Middle" first.
And founders live here longer than anyone admits.
This is the stage before momentum.
Before validation.
Before clarity shows up.
It’s confusing. It’s lonely.
And it requires a kind of courage that doesn’t look like confidence.
It looks like belief without proof.
This night is for the people in it — to tell the real stories, share what actually helped, and not do it alone.What’s the Messy Middle
Because The Messy Middle isn’t a failure.
It’s not a pause.
It’s the work.
And every breakthrough you admire once lived here too.
🙋 Who This is for
Building something real (startup, product, community, creative business) and feeling the fog
Tired of polished panels and want honest, usable conversations
Craving clarity + community
Curious how other women founders navigate the hard parts without pretending it’s easy
🎤 Who’s on the Panel
Ananya Jain McLaughlin - CEO of FullCircle
Ananya Jain Mclaughlin is the CEO of FullCircle, which powers the technology behind the likes of Andrew Huberman’s premium supplements brand Momentous, Grammy Award-winning Cyndi Lauper’s fanbase in 43 countries, and other enterprise customers. FullCircle began in mental health by supporting 3M people during covid and quickly earned recognition from Forbes and the royal family’s Princess Diana Award. That work revealed a pattern: as the number of customers grows, providing each customer the same attention is challenging for almost all businesses. Seeing how quickly customer relationships may break down at scale, FullCircle built the customer journey technology layer that enables brands today to deliver hyper-personalized attention across every moment of the customer lifecycle. Prior to FullCircle, Ananya studied engineering. The US government fast tracked her to citizenship under the 'exceptional talent' category.
Sri Ramaswamy - CEO of Charlee.ai Inc
Sri Ramaswamy is the Founder & CEO of Charlee.ai, a patented risk-intelligence platform that turns unstructured claims language into actionable signals. With 22+ years across insurance, analytics, and AI, she pioneered Charlee’s Claims Graph RAG and pre-trained language models built on 60M+ claims to predict litigation, improve reserves, and surface potential fraud. ARM-certified with decades in tech, Sri turns unstructured insurance data into measurable outcomes. A frequent speaker and mentor, she advances practical and ethical AI that delivers operational value at scale.
Jiayue He - CEO & Founder of Ergeon Inc.
Jenny He started Ergeon after learning through her own home renovation that construction was inefficient for everyone involved. She became a licensed contractor, mapped the failure points, and built a platform that makes outdoor projects fast, transparent, and fair. Ergeon’s end-to-end software lets customers design, price, and manage projects online, while vetted local installers deliver on-site. By combining technology, AI, and disciplined operations, Jenny’s woman-led company delivers faster timelines, clearer pricing, and steadier work for installers—proving that modernizing construction is as much about people and process as it is about tech
Moderator:
Jenny Chen - Founder of Puzzle Exchange
Jenny runs a health community called Puzzle Exchange, a health community with 100+ SF-based healers to support you in building the right health plan (and the right “doctor” for you, not the “best”) through curiosity, real conversations, and practical tools. Prior to Puzzle, Jenny runs a AI social listening platform and a social commerce agency that worked with over 200 DTC brands and provide consulting to global brands such as Louis Vuitton, Google, Armani, and Dior.
Agenda
5:30 - 6:00 Networking
6:00-6:20 TCM de-stress workshop
6:20 - 7:10 Panel Discussion: The messy middle
7:10 - 7:30 Q&A
7:30 -8:00 Networking
🤝 Puzzle Exchange
A safe space for healers to be human, and for you to find what works—building the right health plan (and the right “doctor” for you, not the “best”) through curiosity, real conversations, and practical tools.
GREY Journal – Media partner spotlighting modern entrepreneurs (featured on Apple News + Google News).
Guest List
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