Join us for an honest conversation about the isolation of leadership, the myth of doing it all alone, and what changes when founders build in community instead.
We build organizations to serve others, but who's checking in on the people carrying the weight of building them?
Our upcoming roundtable will explore leadership isolation, building cultures of support, and how founders are learning to lead in community instead of alone.
Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Time: 10 AM PT / 11 AM MT / 1 PM ET
Location: Call link shared after registration
Duration: 1 hour
Meet Your HostS
Nina Staer Nathan
Founder & CEO at sunflower communicationsNina founded Sunflower Communications after years of working inside companies and nonprofits in various countries and contexts. She now leads a team that produces a significant volume of creative work for clients - which is part of why she thinks carefully about what it takes to sustain that over time.
In her spare time, she paints, draws, and writes, and has learned that those practices aren't separate from the work - they're actually what keeps it sustainable. This roundtable started as a question she kept thinking about with her team: what would it look like to build organizations that actually understood that?
Audrey Selian
With almost two decades in impact investing and a PhD in technology policy and development, Audrey is a connector and capital allocator who believes that channeling investment toward good businesses is one of the clearest ways to serve the under-served.
She is Director of Artha Impact, the impact investing arm of Rianta Capital, where she helps convene networks and deploy capital toward social enterprises across agriculture, healthcare, and livelihoods, primarily in India. She is also the co-founder of Impact for Breakfast, a global network of more than 5,000 impact investors gathering across more than 50 cities.
Audrey has been active in impact investing since 2007.
DIRECTOR, ARTHA IMPACT AT RIANTA CAPITAL 
What to Expect
This 1-hour conversation in community is designed to be interactive and grounded in the realities of building something before anyone else believes in it: the conviction founders carry alone, the pace that leaves no room to ask for help, and the community that could change all of it. We'll explore how these patterns show up differently depending on the seat you're sitting in, founder, funder, or mentor.
We will explore three key themes
The Solo-Hero Myth: Where does the pressure to prove you can do it all alone come from, and why do founders keep carrying convictions nobody else has to carry yet? What changes once a founder stops and lets community in?
The Loneliness Nobody Names: What does it cost to always be the one who decides, especially once the team is hired and the funding closes? Who actually shows up when things get hard, and why does that person matter more than the next round?
Building Beyond the Myth: What becomes possible when founders and the people who support them (funders, mentors, cofounders) design relationships around real support instead of proving toughness? What does community change for a leader, and for the organizations they build?
WHY THIS MATTERS
Our work is mission-driven and can be all-consuming, and for many leaders, the isolation that comes with the role goes unspoken until it becomes a problem.
In a sector that runs on conviction, decision-making, and endurance, the real questions become:
What does it cost a founder to keep proving, deal after deal, that they can do this alone?
Who actually shows up when you're the one who has to decide, and why does that person matter more than the next funding round?
What changes once a leader stops building alone and starts building in community?
This roundtable creates space to examine the isolation that shapes leadership in the impact sector, and to share honest reflections on what founders, funders, and mentors are learning about community, connection, and support."
This Roundtable is part of a series.
Hundreds of people have joined us to talk about the things that matter most while doing purpose-driven work. We’ve discussed topics such as AI & Ethics, Staying Connected to Purpose, and Women in Social Impact, with guest speakers such as Hannah Töpler from Intrare, Emiliano Iturriaga from Rutopía, and Jessica Loman from Opportunity Collaboration.
This will be our 5th event in the series - we hope you’ll join us!
SIGN UP HERE
October 21
11AM MT | 1PM ET | 10AM PT
Come with your curiosity, half-formed thoughts, and the creative practice you keep meaning to get back to.
This is an open, facilitated conversation, and there's room for all of it.