The WeSpire Blog

Saturday Spark #53 By Susan Hunt Stevens, Founder & CEO Is anyone else feeling really, really discombobulated?  Now that we are into week three of our lockdown in Boston, I’m past the immediate shock that we are living through the worst pandemic to hit in our lifetime. I’m even coming to grips with, albeit still […]

Saturday Spark #52 By Susan Hunt Stevens, Founder & CEO I rarely let Twitter get me fired up. But this week, Jeff Jarvis, a professor at the Craig Newark Journalism school and well-known media blogger, took a New York Times writer to task for an article about video conference etiquette. “Who does The NYT think […]

Saturday Spark #51 By Susan Hunt Stevens, Founder & CEO It’s been a surreal week up here in the Northeast of the United States. No sports. No school. No museums or libraries to distract the kids with no school. Work is happening for some remotely. Work is still in person for others, but it is eerily […]

Saturday Spark #50 By Susan Hunt Stevens, Founder & CEO The first weeks of March 2020 will be etched in my memory as that time Covid-19 hit Boston and other parts of the US. When many companies cancelled all but essential travel and sent everyone working from home for the rest of the month, something […]

Saturday Spark #49 By Susan Hunt Stevens, Founder & CEO I spent the first six years of being a mother and an executive leader relatively quiet about how my life had radically changed. Sure, everyone knew I had kids. I talked about them and kept the requisite pictures on my desk. But I didn’t talk […]

Saturday Spark #48 By Susan Hunt Stevens, Founder & CEO In the past two weeks, I’ve gotten horrible news, twice, that involved customers, industry colleagues and workplaces. In both cases, people died at work as a result of another person who worked at, or for, the company killing them. It is heart-breaking and gut-wrenching. It […]

Saturday Spark #47 By Susan Hunt Stevens, Founder & CEO I turned fifty this week, basically a great excuse for celebrating life with friends, family, and colleagues. It’s also prompted reflection on what the next fifty years might be like. I thought first about what my Grandmother experienced after she turned 50 in 1967. Everything […]

Saturday Spark #46 By Susan Hunt Stevens, Founder & CEO This past week, the “sustainerati” gathered for GreenBiz20 in the heart of the Arizona desert. This conference is where sustainability leaders converge to share break-through innovations, best practices, and hard lessons learned. It’s like going back to grad school and participating in group therapy over […]

Saturday Spark #45 By Susan Hunt Stevens, Founder & CEO I just completed Dry January, that post-holiday ritual that one of my favorite executive tweeters defined as “(noun):  Replacing wine with M&Ms for 31 days in an attempt to be more disciplined and healthy.” It’s the first year I have tried it in adulthood, unless […]

Saturday Spark #44 By Susan Hunt Stevens, Founder & CEO Even though the Patriots aren’t playing, I do plan on being one of the ~100M people “watching” the Superbowl. My version of watching involves chatting with people in the kitchen, eating fistfuls of nachos, glancing at the TV anytime the room breaks into applause, and […]

Saturday Spark #43 By Susan Hunt Stevens, Founder & CEO As a tech entrepreneur, I spend a lot of time with professional investors. Some are former entrepreneurs and operators, but most have invested professionally their entire careers after stints in investment banking. A small, but growing, minority are impact-focused. An even smaller subset invests in […]

Saturday Spark #42 By Susan Hunt Stevens, Founder & CEO On a recent Tuesday evening, I stepped into Boston’s gorgeous Symphony Hall with throngs of people, plenty of security, and much of the Massachusetts political establishment. The occasion was Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s State of the City address, an annual opportunity to recite accomplishments, announce […]