“It’s a marathon, not a sprint” - and yet somehow, Corinne and Sharon, two founders, are sprinting the startup marathon beautifully.
We recently gathered a small group of women founders and operators for an intimate lunch, the kind with real talk, no slides, and plenty of “wait, can you say that again?” moments.
Our guests were Corinne Camay (Stern '27), Co-founder of Diagrm, and Sharon Melzer (SPS '27), Co-founder of VenueHopper, and they did not hold back.
Here’s what stayed with us.
On being in school and building a company at the same time
Corinne is navigating the Entrepreneurs Challenge while running Diagrm, and she’s clear-eyed about what that means. Being a student and a founder simultaneously isn’t a marathon. It’s a rat race. The advice? Lean hard on co-founders whose strengths cover your gaps, and build a team that compensates for what you can’t be everywhere at once.
On money
Sharon is post-revenue but hasn’t paid herself what she’s worth, and she’s made peace with that, for now. Even after raising, Corinne expects to cap her own salary at $150K, a significant step down from her previous life. Her take: you can like nice things. You just have to adjust what “nice” means for a while. The bet is that it pays off. One founder supplemented income on the side while getting the startup off the ground. The adjustment is real, but so is the upside, if you stay the course.
“You can like nice things. You just have to adjust.”
On managing people (hint: it’s not about you)
The most counterintuitive management insight of the afternoon: great management isn’t really about your style, it’s about your read on other people. Your ability to adapt how you show up for each person on your team matters far more than any consistent “management style.” Every person is different. Read them. Adjust accordingly. Corinne is more of a task-master, direct, deadline-driven, and honest about it. Her method: be clear about expectations, be transparent when things aren’t working, and use every resource available. No apologies for being direct.
On uplifting other women
Sharon keeps a living database of every person she meets, who they are, what they need, what they offer. When someone new comes into her orbit who’d be useful to someone else, she makes the introduction. She’s connected one person to ten different contacts in her network. That’s not networking. That’s infrastructure.
“It’s always a give and a get. Tell people what you need and what you offer.”
Corinne takes a different but equally intentional approach: she never turns down coffee with a woman founder who asks. Full stop. She’s benefited from that generosity her whole career and pays it forward without keeping score. Her team is deeply committed to diversity, it’s baked into how they hire and who they back.
On fundraising as a woman
One founder doesn’t see gender as a major variable in how she fundraises. The other acknowledges the gap clearly: there are definitively more male investors than female, that creates friction. Her antidote is data. When she walks into a room, she leads with numbers, with track record, with proof. “I’ve been through an IPO” isn’t a brag, it’s a credential. Be data-driven, and let your credibility speak before your personality does. Practical tip: find women in your space and get on their calendars. Shared experience shortcut to trust.
On accelerators: read the fine print
Not all accelerators are created equal. Some programs take 15–16 weeks and come with promises that have harder catches buried in the terms. The framework: is this accelerator making your discovery faster, or helping you build the product faster? If yes, it’s probably worth it. If not, unless it’s YC or Techstars, a warm introduction from someone who knows you might unlock more than any cohort ever will. Talk to founders who’ve done the program. Read every line.
On time: the thing you never have enough of
Both founders swear by time-boxing. Set a limit on everything, the essay, the pitch deck, the self-care walk. Whatever you can do in that window is what you do, and you let it be enough. This isn’t settling. It’s survival. If you don’t get your work done, you won’t be able to rest anyway, so focus, finish, then actually rest.
“Box your self-care time too. You’re not going to do good work if you don’t protect it.”
On staying organized (the tools that actually work)
HubSpot came up as the go-to for managing relationships. Log where you met someone,
create follow-up tasks, assign them if needed. Treat your network like a CRM because especially in the early-stage, your relationships are your pipeline. Corinne’s own database approach is a masterclass in this: track people, their needs, and who you could connect them with. For staying sharp while stretched thin: Speechify. Listen to what you need to read, on the go, at 1.5x.
On protecting your IP without breaking the bank
Corinne works with an IP attorney specifically for Diagrm, and recommends taking advantage of legal aid hours if the budget is tight. Don’t skip the IP conversation as a founder. Just find the right entry point and go in prepared. These lunches exist because the most useful things you’ll learn as a founder usually aren’t in a deck. They’re in a room, over a meal, from someone a few steps ahead of you who’s willing to be honest. We’re grateful to Corinne and Sharon for being exactly that.