In this project, I want to study ambitious modern homemakers and community builders, so I gave Jesse Genet a call. Before I had any conception of this interview series, several people mentioned I should chat with her. Jesse’s past isn’t necessarily what comes to mind as the stereotype of a traditional homemaker. She founded several companies starting at the age of 16, went off to design school against her family’s wishes, and ultimately took one company, Lumi, through the startup accelerator Y-Combinator, and Lumi was acquired later on. While raising 5 children, she was still working at her acquirer’s company full time. Today she’s expecting their 7th, homeschools, manages several small family businesses, and supports her husband’s nascent startup. Today, Jesse sees her large, blended family as another ambitious project — an evolution of the same drive that fueled her companies.
The Identity Shift: Ambitious Parenting and Homemaking
Jesse: I had this identity attribute of “I am an entrepreneur, this is what I do.” Self-identifying what I do as an ambitious, crazy thing. I think that a key shift for me was that having 5, 6, 7 kids is also an ambitious, crazy thing. There was a morphing of the way that I view myself.
I’m not working full-time professionally on anything right now. I always dabble in some side projects, but being pregnant with my fourth, number 7 total, I feel very comfortable with saying I’m not starting a new company tomorrow. Maybe sometime in the future. But it took me a little while to get to that place. So the biggest change has been being comfortable letting go of who I am as this nonstop entrepreneur person, because that was part of my identity for so long.