The nursery wasn’t even finished when Kate Jorgenson drafted her first business plan. Eight months pregnant with her second child in early 2023, the former marketing executive found herself facing an all-too-common dilemma: inadequate maternity leave and a corporate culture increasingly hostile to working mothers. Rather than accept what she calls “the impossible math” of American work-family balance, Jorgenson made a decision that would ultimately transform her family’s financial trajectory.
“I remember sitting in my obstetrician’s waiting room, listening to other women compare their maternity leave situations—twelve weeks unpaid here, six weeks at partial pay there—and I started sketching what would become MamaShift on the back of my insurance paperwork,” Jorgenson told me during our interview at her company’s modest headquarters in Chicago’s West Loop.
By mid-2025, that waiting room sketch had evolved into a $4.8 million enterprise employing 27 people, including three family members. MamaShift, which provides specialized training and temporary placement services for professional women seeking flexible work during parental leave transitions, has become emblematic of a growing “maternal entrepreneurship” movement upending traditional startup narratives.
The numbers tell a compelling story about this emerging segment. According to the Kauffman Foundation’s 2025 Entrepreneurship Index, businesses founded during or immediately following maternity leave have shown a remarkable 63% five-year survival rate—significantly outpacing the national average of 51% for all new ventures. More striking still, these “maternity-motivated enterprises” report achieving profitability 7.4 months sooner than comparable startups.
“We’re seeing a fundamental recalculation of risk among professional women,” explains Dr. Eliza Montgomery, economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. “When the institutional structures of traditional employment already impose significant career and financial penalties for motherhood, entrepreneurship begins to look less risky by comparison.”
For Jorgenson, whose previous corporate role offered just four weeks of paid leave, the calculus was straightforward. “The system was effectively pushing me out anyway. Starting something aligned with my expertise that addressed a need I intimately understood—it felt like taking control of an impossible situation.”
What began as a survival strategy quickly revealed a vast, underserved market. MamaShift initially targeted professional women seeking work arrangements compatible with new parenthood. However, Jorgenson discovered her most lucrative opportunity lay on the employer side, where companies increasingly struggle with productivity gaps during parental leaves.
“Businesses were paying a premium for our talent pool because these women bring exceptional efficiency and focus—they literally cannot afford to waste time,” Jorgenson notes. “A MamaShift contractor accomplishes in 25 hours what might take 40 elsewhere, because their time management skills have been forged in the crucible of parenthood.”
The family dimension of Jorgenson’s venture adds another layer to the success story. Her husband Michael, previously in pharmaceutical sales, joined as operations director in late 2023. Her sister, Alicia Chen, leads client acquisition. Even Jorgenson’s mother, a retired HR executive, consults on talent development. This family integration—once considered unprofessional in traditional business contexts—has become central to the company’s competitive advantage.
“We built our policies around the realities of family life because we live them every day,” explains Michael Jorgenson. “When your executive team includes parents of young children, you naturally create systems that accommodate life’s unpredictability. That attracts talent who’ve been marginalized elsewhere.”
The company’s growth trajectory accelerated dramatically in early 2025 following a partnership with ServiceNow, which integrated MamaShift’s contractor network into its workforce management platform. This enterprise connection helped the startup secure $1.8 million in Series A funding from Better Ventures, a firm specializing in mission-driven companies.
Not all maternity-motivated enterprises achieve such rapid scaling, cautions Rania Ibrahim, senior analyst at CB Insights. “The maternity leave startup phenomenon shows promising patterns, but Jorgenson’s case represents exceptional execution in a particularly receptive market segment. The majority build smaller, sustainable businesses that prioritize flexibility over explosive growth.”
The physiological and psychological aspects of founding during maternity also merit consideration. Research published in the Journal of Business Venturing in March 2025 suggests that hormonal changes associated with pregnancy and early motherhood may temporarily enhance certain cognitive functions beneficial to entrepreneurship, including risk assessment, pattern recognition, and empathetic reasoning.
“The same biological processes that prepare women to protect and nurture their offspring may create a unique window for entrepreneurial thinking,” notes study author Dr. Melanie Wu of Stanford University. “Pregnant founders report heightened ability to identify unmet market needs and envision practical solutions.”
For Kate Jorgenson, the connection between motherhood and entrepreneurship extends beyond biology to practical experience. “Nothing prepares you for the chaos of a startup like having a newborn—both require functioning with minimal sleep, constant adaptation, and the ability to maintain perspective during crisis. I literally negotiated our first major contract while nursing my daughter.”
The financial outcomes have surpassed the family’s most optimistic projections. MamaShift reached profitability in month eleven, and the Jorgensons expect 2026 revenues to exceed $7 million. The company recently launched MamaShift Academy, which trains women to leverage parental transition periods for career advancement rather than setback.
As we concluded our interview, Jorgenson reflected on the broader implications of her company’s success. “What began as a necessity has become a mission. The American workplace wasn’t designed for parents, particularly mothers. But rather than continuing to force women into impossible choices, we’re building a viable alternative that recognizes parenthood and professional contribution as compatible priorities.”
The growth of maternity-motivated entrepreneurship represents a significant shift in how work and family intersect in American business culture. As Jorgenson and others demonstrate, the very circumstances that traditionally disadvantaged women in corporate settings may, paradoxically, provide the foundation for their entrepreneurial success—creating businesses that not only generate profit but fundamentally reimagine work itself.
