In this episode of The Marketer’s Journey, I interview Deborah Singer, CMO of Girls Who Code, a unique and groundbreaking non-profit organization focused on getting more girls into STEM-focused education and career paths.

Though Deborah started her career in the tech/startup world before joining Girls Who Code, she said one of the things that attracted her to the company was how it is run a lot more like a startup than a non-profit: it’s fast-paced, fast-growing, agile and ambitious. She also understands the importance of working with great people and says that she has landed in most of her roles from a desire to work with passionate individuals who challenge and empower her.

Key takeaways from this episode:

• Girls Who Code is an organization marketing to both corporate sponsors and young girls—they know they have to do this very differently, using different channels. It’s important to understand where you’ll reach your audience segments and what you need to say to each of them rather than blasting your message across every channel.
• No matter what you’re doing, passion is key. It’s important to be passionate about what we’re doing, or at least passionate about the influence we can drive and understanding of how we can give back.
• We carve career paths for ourselves based on unexpected parallels. To many, it seemed like an unprecedented move for Deborah to move from a tech startup Lulu to a nonprofit, but to her it made perfect sense. Lulu was disrupting the dating game for women, while Girls Who Code was looking to disrupt the tech industry for women.