This seasoned entrepreneur wants more women to build multi-million dollar businesses

Sherry Deutschmann (in featured photo) reached a business milestone that shockingly few women-owned businesses ever do. As the founder and CEO of Nashville-based LetterLogic, Inc., she grew the company to $40 million before selling it in 2016.

But, she saw a problem in the business landscape. The reality is that less than two percent of all women-owned businesses even reach the $1 million in ARR.

After selling her company, Deutschmann found herself fielding a flood of requests from women entrepreneurs who were struggling in silence.

“I was inundated with women business owners reaching out to me, asking for help because they were feeling lonely and uncertain - not knowing what their next move should be,” she told Hypepotamus. “I was gathering them regularly in my home to help one another,  with the groups getting larger and larger, when I realized the need was not just in Nashville.  It was EVERYWHERE.”

There are plenty of membership-based and peer organizations designed to help founders. But most have a steep annual revenue requirement. That leaves millions of female-founded companies without the support they need.

So she got to work building  BrainTrust, now in cities across the Southeast, to help women founders do exactly what she did.

Building BrainTrust

BrainTrust is a membership organization for women business owners. It is designed to “ensure they have an equal opportunity to build financial independence, wealth, and influence,” according to the company’s website.

Members come together in monthly meetings to process challenges and opportunities, identify blind spots, develop strategies, and celebrate wins, and lean on one another's lived experience rather than outside advice. This means diving deep into financial realities a company is facing and other challenges coming up. The model is built on the fact that knowing what worked or didn't work for someone else in a similar situation can be crucial, and can ultimately “shorten the learning curve” for business owners.

Membership is tiered based on business size. The Key Club Vault™ is designed for business leaders generating more than $1 million in annual sales. Vault Membership is open to business owners who between $100,000 and $999,999 annually, or founders who are pre-revenue but have raised more than $350,000 in seed capital.

Heading To Atlanta

BrainTrust already has active hubs in Nashville and Charlotte, along with a virtual community. Now, it's expanding into Atlanta.

“We chose Charlotte first, and then Atlanta…for the same reason:  Women in those cities heard about us from friends and investors and reached out to us, imploring us to come there next," Deutschmann told Hypepotamus. "With those women as the nucleus, we then looked at the density of women-owned businesses in the community, the lack of existing dominant organizations there for women founders, a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem…and then proximity to our headquarters in Nashville.  Atlanta was an easy choice!”

Women business owners interested in joining the Atlanta hub are invited to start by attending a local Lowdown event. Upcoming March gatherings are being held at The Lola and Atlanta Tech Village. These are not networking mixers or happy hours. Deutschmann says attendees will "walk away with relief and excitement because they'll realize they are not alone — that they now have a vibrant community to help them recognize their blind spots and hold them accountable to the changes they need to make in their businesses."