Every successful athlete knows the power of seeing an opening and taking it. For women in sports, those openings often disappear after their playing days end – their professional connections scattered and their hard-earned leadership skills waiting to be used.

This gap between athletic excellence and professional opportunity caught the attention of Philippa Portnoy and Teresa Saputo-Crerend during their time as student-athletes at Columbia University. Despite women athletes proving their capabilities as leaders and team players, rigid training schedules and disconnected sports programs narrow their professional paths. Thousands of talented competitors miss opportunities simply because they lack the right connections.

Using their personal savings, they built LaunchBreak, a community that now connects over 1,750 collegiate, national, and professional athletes across generations and sports. Their story shows how recognizing a clear need, combined with solid planning and determined action, can turn an idea into reality.

From Experience to Action

Both Columbia Business School graduates, they brought different strengths to LaunchBreak. Portnoy’s journey began with a decade at Citibank before she chose to focus on raising her triplet sons. During this time, she remained deeply engaged in leadership roles, serving as a trustee for Barnard College, co-chairing the programming committee at the Columbia Club of NY, and co-founding the Columbia Athletics Women’s Leadership Council, where she helped raise $10M for women’s athletics.

Saputo-Crerend built her career in sports marketing at Tennis Magazine and Evian Natural Spring Water, managing major sponsorships, including the US Open Tennis Championships. Her work in building new ventures showed in her role as a board member of the first professional women’s beach volleyball league. She organized Columbia University’s first university-wide women’s conference featuring Ruth Bader Ginsburg and now serves as co-chair of Columbia Alumni Association’s Mentoring & Networking Committee.

They structured their partnership around their natural abilities – Portnoy handles financial projections, while Saputo-Crerend focuses on social media strategy and design. Their collaboration thrives on open communication and mutual respect. They challenge each other’s views when needed while remaining ready to compromise, creating a balanced partnership that strengthens their decision-making.

Building the Foundation

They began their work by researching women athletes and conducting in-depth interviews with university athletic administrators, HR professionals, coaches, investors, and entrepreneurs. They sought validation from Columbia Business School Start-up advisors and tech experts. The response proved encouraging – by their estimation, 95% of respondents supported their concept.

To test their model, they launched a beta version to approximately 100 users. The response validated their vision as messages began arriving unprompted: “It is exactly what I have been looking for,” “I love this community,” and “I was worried it wasn’t real.”

The Work of Growth

The journey of building LaunchBreak revealed valuable insights about business creation. “It’s not luck, it’s relentless, quiet work,” they note from experience. While they encountered unexpected hurdles – including legal startup costs that exceeded their estimates – their partnership proved essential. When one needed to attend to family responsibilities, including Portnoy’s care for aging parents, the other maintained momentum.

Their practical mindset helped them overcome technical challenges with their platform. Rather than pursuing perfection, they focused on finding workable solutions. Reflecting on their early decisions, they acknowledge how being both cost-conscious and admittedly stubborn led them to handle nearly every aspect of the business themselves – from platform development to marketing. This hands-on period taught them valuable lessons, but they now recognize that bringing in specialists from the beginning for certain tasks would have been beneficial. The experience showed them that while doing everything yourself provides a deep understanding of your business, sometimes investing in expertise early can create a stronger foundation for growth.

They maintain perspective about the challenges: “Entrepreneurship is about believing in yourself even when others may not. It brings unpleasant insecurities to the surface and forces you to come to terms with them.” Yet they remain positive, noting that “running a business is full of ups and downs but in the end can be exhilarating.”

Their commitment to improvement drives their success. They actively seek user feedback, making real-time adjustments to serve their community better. When they noticed increasing numbers of entrepreneurs within their platform, they created a dedicated startup space for members to connect with investors and advisors.

Their experience offers valuable insights for those interested in starting their own business. They emphasize the importance of staying engaged during career breaks – as Portnoy demonstrated, volunteer work and board positions build valuable experience and connections for future opportunities. They advise focusing on areas you know well, noting that expertise reduces the learning curve and builds credibility. For those considering starting a business after a career break, they stress realistic time management and preparation for the substantial commitment required.

LaunchBreak grew from Portnoy and Saputo-Crerend’s deep understanding of their community’s needs and their readiness to take calculated risks. They focused their energy on a specific group they knew well, validated their idea through extensive research, and built upon their existing relationships. Their journey demonstrates that building a successful business is possible with solid preparation, strong partnerships, and genuine dedication to solving a problem. They draw inspiration from Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s wisdom: “You can have it all, just maybe not all at the same time.” Their story proves that the right moment to pursue your business dreams might come at any stage of your career.

Learn more about LaunchBreak at https://launchbreak.com/.