Meryl Hunter

“Whenever you feel afraid, just remember. Courage is the root of change – and change is what we're chemically designed to do.” - Bonnie Garmus

About me

I am someone who believes knows that by honoring who you are and following your intuition, you can do phenomenal things and deeply enjoy doing it. 

In my product career, I have worked hard, engaged in the professional spaces that made sense and I was on a career trajectory that was going up and to the right – we love that in product. But through my own pause, I learned there’s another way to go about this - a way that is more aligned with my humanness and how I want to engage in my professional life. 

As I advanced professionally and having worked in both NYC and Chicago, I found myself taking more demanding roles in tech. I had my third child, and I hit a wall. This had never happened to me before, I had grown accustomed to rising above the challenges I met. I had an urgent fear that if I did not figure out how to better spend my time then I was at risk of being swallowed whole and completely lost. My default mode of riding the river of the needs of others and only exerting myself to avoid calamity or catch a nice view felt ludicrously insufficient. I quit my job to take stock of my life. It was painful and wonderful.  

I spent the next 6 months reading anything that caught my interest, from theories around creativity to philosophy. I completed an intensive meditation course and started to engage more directly with my intuition. I then took a job at the Mom Project as the Director of New Bets. This meant I was leading the development of our new freelance platform for moms. 

I made a commitment to showing up fully as myself, not turning myself inside out to become whatever I thought they needed me to be (more on what that means to me here).  At this point I had no idea that I was walking into a complete dream of a scenario. The brilliance, heart, and creativity of my team was like none that I had ever experienced. Our leadership gave us agency, trust, and support. We met it eagerly by testing the boundaries of what we could build and how we measured success. We asked ourselves deep philosophical questions and dared to bunk how it was always done with how we hoped it could be done. We got to spend all this lovely creative energy on helping others find their own path, create their own way, build their own beautiful lives. The best part was, It worked. All the heart and integrity we wove into this product resonated. We surpassed our goals, got nominated for awards, and built a community of freelancing moms who loved and relied on our product. 

I am excited to channel these experiences into supporting startups and individuals in finding more connectivity and success in their lives and work. I have learned that true fulfillment and success come not from fitting into predefined molds but from aligning with one's authentic self and passions. I seek to empower people and startups to embrace their individuality, trust their instincts, and cultivate their personal and professional lives in a way that support their growth and expansion.

Meryl has an MBA in entrepreneurship, has started two companies, and been an early employee (among the first 10) at 3 start ups; two that went on to scale and one had a successful exit. She has also worked with enterprise level companies such as Groupon and BMW.