I BUILT IT.

I BROKE IT OPEN.

I CAME BACK FOR YOU.

+ CO-FOUNDER AND FORMER CEO, TREETREE + INC. 5000, FOUR YEARS RUNNING + FORTY UNDER 40, 2015

I know what it feels like to build something from nothing
to scale it past the point where anyone thought you could, and to sit in a quiet room wondering why it doesn't feel the way they said it would.
I've made the bet-the-company-and-the-house decisions. I've bought out a co-founder while five months pregnant. I've sat across from my spouse at dinner when we were both running on fumes from our own businesses and pretending we were fine.
I pulled the ripcord on a seven-figure agency because staying meant losing the things no revenue number could replace. And I'd do it all again, because every hard call I made is the reason I can sit across from you now and say: I know. I've been there. And I know the way through.

A woman in a red blazer stands at the front of a room giving a presentation to a seated audience of women. The room features wooden cabinets, hanging light bulbs, and a large screen displaying information.

I started my agency business at 27

after losing my job in the 2008 Great Recession, calling off a wedding, and filing for personal bankruptcy. (I’ve done my share of hard things). I had no roadmap, no clue how to start, just a relentless belief that I could build something bigger than the circumstances I found myself in. And I did.

I co-founded the company and, after years of building and leading together, transitioned into sole ownership when my business partner stepped away. It was a shift that required me to step into a new level of leadership, one that tested me, stretched me, and ultimately shaped the business into what it became.

Grid of plus signs and X marks in orange on a black background, arranged in a pattern.

Grid of plus signs and X marks on a black background.

A group of women sitting around tables in a bright room clapping and cheering as a woman performs a cartwheel in the air, with some of the women reaching out or smiling. The room has large windows, modern decor, and some beverages and papers on the tables.

Over the years, I navigated the highs

of 10x growth in just three years and the lows of an acquiring another company that didn’t go as anyone hoped. I ran a thriving company while also surviving COVID from afar, leading through one crisis after another while managing life as an immunocompromised entrepreneur.

I welcomed three babies, took three maternity leaves, and still showed up for my business, my people, and my purpose. I built a culture I am still damn proud of: a place where people didn’t just work together, they became better humans together. A team that celebrated each other, forged deep friendships, and grew in ways that went beyond the walls of our business.

Featured in Inc.

“Every regrettable decision I made in those 15 years traces back to a moment when I didn’t trust my gut.”

“You can’t move past what you won’t name.”

Becca Apfelstadt in Inc., July 2026.

Read the full story

And then, when the moment came far sooner than I expected, I walked away.

I sold the company I built, not because I had to, but because my heart, my family, and my soul were calling me toward something new. A new way of feeling and being in the world. A new way to contribute. I now believe my experience as an owner was in preparation for this path.

Because if there’s one thing
I’ve learned, it’s this:

There is a moment, a whisper inside you, that says: enough.

Enough playing small.
Enough waiting for permission from someone else.
Enough carrying the weight of everything without feeling the joy of it.

A woman giving a presentation in front of a projected slide that reads 'Light the place on fire!' in a conference room filled with seated attendees.

And then, there’s another moment.

The moment when the whisper turns into something louder.
A roar.

A woman standing and speaking passionately to a group of four seated adults at a dining table in a restaurant.

A pattern of red plus signs and X marks arranged in a grid on a white background.

That’s where I come in.

I help founders like you hear that whisper and trust it before it turns into a scream.

I help you navigate the in-between, the space where you know something has to change but aren’t sure how to make the leap.

I see beyond business strategy and financial statements. I see you: your ambition, and your exhaustion. Your brilliance, your blind spots.

I help you cut through the mental chatter, quiet the nasty internal narrative, own your power, and build something that feels aligned, sustainable and true to you and your business’s potential.

Inc. 5000 Honoree badge with black and white design and gray accents

Badge indicating Inc. Best Workplaces 2017.

The writer

The column I gave myself.

I wanted to be a writer before I wanted to be anything else. My old journals are full of it, page after page of a girl who was sure she would write for a magazine someday.

Then I took an agency internship at 17, built a company of my own, had three kids, and put that dream in a drawer for twenty years. In 2012 I put the Inc. masthead on a vision board. This summer, my story ran in Inc.

Somewhere in between, I stopped waiting for someone to hand me a column and gave myself one. The Fang & The Fruit is where I write about what wanting more actually feels like: what success costs, what it gives back, and the tender stuff underneath that nobody posts about but probably should.

Negative Equity

Why I paid money to look less successful. Read the essay

If you’re ready to claim it all: the success, the freedom, the life that actually feels good. I’m here.

Book a conversation

Because you don’t have to do this alone.

And you don’t have to settle for anything less than every damn thing you and your family deserve.

Your whisper is calling.