Meet Becky LeBret | Founder Lotus Launch

We had the good fortune of connecting with Becky LeBret and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Becky, what role has risk played in your life or career?

After playing a relatively safe and stable work-life for the majority of my career, I ventured into a nonprofit entrepreneurial venture with my husband in 2017. We were successful in garnering support from many public and private donors, including billion-dollar foundations. We were outsiders in education, a deeply controversial and political industry, which made the climb exceedingly tough. Add a global pandemic to that and it was too much risk to bear. The pandemic proved to be the final nail in the coffin as we divided all the food and resources among the students’ families and sent them home. The nonprofit business, we poured our hearts (and money) into, was gone.

It’s been almost two years since we closed, I’m excited to take those lessons learned to my new venture, Lotus Launch. Inspired in part by my work with the education nonprofit. This platform gives female entrepreneurs community, business resources, roadmaps, and an accountability app to accelerate growth or sustain their business.

Every risk teaches you that in each new launch there is a risk. I’ve learned to be less afraid of risk and more calculated in how to manage it.

What should our readers know about your business?

My path has been windy. I have a broad range of experience which led me to this point. Some of my earliest roles were corporate roles at Disney Consumer Products, Sheppard Mullin, Towers Watson, and Delta Dental. When I dipped my toe into Silicon Valley “unicorn” startups I got my first taste of startup life. I’ve managed to use my education. With an MBA and Masters in Human Resources, I’ve conducted research alongside the renowned PhDs at the University of San Diego, Jacob’s Institute of Education. During times of business hardship, Real Estate sales help me stay afloat as I bootstrap my next venture, Lotus Launch.

Still, I learned the most from Sisu Academy, partly because it was mine. I owned the success and failure alongside my husband. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and now everything else feels like a breeze. We did the unimaginable, launched a never-been-done-before program through good old fashion business acumen and relationship building. When the pandemic hit, we quickly moved the students home and into online learning programs. We moved even before the San Diego Unified School District closed, prompting others to question how we knew to act quickly. Being industry outsiders allowed us to separate the “signal” from the “noise” and make decisions in the best interest of the students and the business.

Given the opportunity again and starting this next business I would:

a) Focus on Cash: Align operating budget with cash on hand not based on accounts receivable or accrued revenue. We were too young as a company to rely so heavily on receivables, we needed cash on hand to operate. Cash flow was always a problem. I would have increased our credit limits well before we needed it and find more creative ways to allow for increased revenue more quickly. I’m definitely not as scared of debt as I used to be, I view it more as a tool to manage cash and grow during a start-up.

b) Recognize when to Pivot. Pivot fast, but ensure that you have the money to pivot. We decided to exit for several reasons, the risk increased considerably once the pandemic hit, and there is no equity in a non-profit. In a for-profit, the strategy may have been different, but this was reality.

c) Recognize when to staff and when to hold off. Hire slow or not at all. We got so much pressure from the staff, parents, and students against remote learning and the “walls of a school” we caved. This led to high overhead in areas when maybe we shouldn’t have. We certainly didn’t know how quickly the learning environment would have changed to move online, the pandemic only accelerated it.

d) Build means to track progress, measure, and manage. Data always shifts through growth, so just ensure metrics are aligned with the mission. Set aside time to do high impact projects, like managing an operations dashboard and sharing it with partners, staff (if you choose) or investors. Don’t add a middle manager out of the gates to manage the metrics, or prepare to have your vision sidetracked.

e) Develop personal boundaries. Don’t give up more than your future self is willing to. This time around, I am thinking more carefully about the sacrifices I am willing to make for success. I am envisioning what my life will look like when it does succeed. I want to ensure I have the proper time for my family and friends, my husband and my son, and do the things that I want to do, like travel the world and see friends. I’m creating a business that

will fit my lifestyle today and will grow and easily adapt with my projected lifestyle 5-10 years from now.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I love San Diego. Aside from the beach there are some great pockets of live music, like the Casbah. I love checking out live music and San Diego has some great bands that come in. Old town San Diego has some great Ghost Tours that will terrify you, if you’re into that sort of thing. There is Mitch’s Seafood in Point Loma that has the best smoked fish tacos while you fight off the seagulls that inevitably try to swipe your food. For date night you would find us at the Ironside fish and Oyster Bar in Little Italy, it reminds me so much of the Bay area and one of my favorite restaurants there, Anchor and Hope.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

There are two entities. The first is Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), which brings together business owners from all over the world. We’ve been fortunate to be part of this organization because my husband qualified years ago. I wouldn’t have known about it otherwise. There is an even smaller group of female powerhouses within EO who build businesses to $1M. It is exceedingly difficult for women to build and grow businesses, let alone get to this amount of annual revenue. An interesting fact is many startups don’t survive past the first 2 years and only about 2% of female business owners grow their businesses to $1M. To have a group that supports you and women who you can model is a gift.

Finally, the late Will Marre, an Encinitas resident and founder of the Smart Women’s network, was dedicated to helping women realize their true business potential. I met Will through the San Diego Chamber of Commerce in 2016. He combines gender science and business thought leadership to celebrate differences in business development, viewing them as complements. National University adopted Will’s curriculum and I was honored to be part of the small group of women piloting this curriculum. As I build Lotus Launch, Will comes to mind in how his goal was to help women realize their full potential and unlock capabilities yet to be realized. To think about how the conversation around gender fluidity is continuing to evolve and the additional diversity that can be added to a new business has the potential to be remarkable. With Lotus Launch, I hope to embody that spirit of self-appreciation and authenticity backed by the support of those who have been there before. Women can now launch confidently out into the world.

Website: https://www.beckysellsrealestate.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agentyogiplants/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beckylebret

Twitter: https://twitter.com/beckylebret

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/lotuslaunch

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=ZsNtBOmQ20sjLwVdXarVbA

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX8_UDkMjC7TRe1gjQWJ3dw

Image Credits
I have the rights to the images.