Therapist. Working mom. Reluctant entrepreneur. I spend a lot of time listening to people describe their lives — and noticing the small, fixable things that are quietly draining them.
"Listen to learn, and understand how you use your voice."
My path has never made clean sense on paper — anthropology to the NHL to social work to an MBA to nonprofit leadership to building apps. But there's always been a single question underneath it: what is actually driving this?
That question is what connects all of it. And it's what I bring to every session, every team, every problem worth solving.
I studied anthropology and religion in college because I was fascinated by the invisible forces that shape how people make decisions. From there I ended up at the National Hockey League in New York doing strategic planning — which, yes, is an odd detour, but it taught me how organizations and markets actually move.
I eventually found my way to clinical social work, where I spent years with children and adolescents navigating serious trauma. That work changed how I see everything. I got my MBA somewhere in there too — because I kept running into good ideas that didn't survive contact with a budget.
After nearly a decade leading a nonprofit focused on women's financial independence, I started noticing different gaps — the ones my clients were describing in therapy sessions. The sandwich generation stress. The screen time battles. The small, recurring things nobody had bothered to build a solution for.
So here we are. Hello Telle and Compass Kids Crew came directly out of those conversations. The therapy practice is still where it all starts.
I've never thought of myself as someone who builds things so much as someone who listens until the right answer becomes obvious. The best teams I've been part of work the same way — slow to decide, clear on the problem, and allergic to solutions that look good on paper but don't hold up in real life.
It usually starts in a therapy session, or in my own life as a working mom. The friction is real and recurring. The stress is specific. That specificity is everything — it's the difference between a solution that actually works and one that sounds good on paper.
Before building anything, I look for what's already out there. The goal is never to reinvent what already works well. When a good tool exists, I connect people to it. When it doesn't — that's when things get interesting.
When the gap is real and the solution doesn't exist, the answer is to build it. With the right team, the right behavioral insight, and an intolerance for leaving solvable problems unsolved. That's where Hello Telle and Compass Kids Crew came from.
Everything here started with a gap I noticed — a specific, recurring stress that real people carried and that existing tools weren't addressing. Each venture is a different problem, a different audience, and the same intention: give people their bandwidth back.
This is where everything starts — and always returns to. My therapy practice is built on the belief that the right support at the right time can genuinely change everything. Virtual therapy for adults navigating work stress, relationships, burnout, and the weight of keeping it all together. Every venture I've built grew out of what I kept hearing in these sessions.
Learn more & book a sessionSupport for your loved one. Reassurance for you. Hello Telle connects with aging loved ones through meaningful phone conversations and thoughtful wellness check-ins — no new devices, no apps for them to learn, just a familiar phone call. Families receive warm, high-level summaries after each call: mood, routine, any notable changes. Built for the millions of adults balancing aging parents and growing children at the same time.
Learn more about Hello TelleExisting platforms are engineered to maximize watch time — not childhood. Compass Kids Crew is an app for children under 13 that makes screen time intentional. Kids earn free-choice video time by first watching educational content curated from YouTube. No autoplay. No ads. No rabbit holes. Videos don't load automatically, and the experience is calm and distraction-free by design.
Learn more about Compass Kids CrewIn partnership with Midwest BankCentre, Rising Together is focused on the people and businesses that fall between the cracks of the current system — earning too much for traditional nonprofit support, but not yet at a place of economic stability and thriving. The missing middle of Main Street deserves the same access to tools, capital, and community that everyone else takes for granted.
Learn more about Rising TogetherA few of the moments that have been written about along the way.
Named among the top 100 CEOs and C-suite executives in St. Louis for servant leadership, organizational transformation, and community impact.
Read feature → St. Louis Magazine · Cover StoryOn the cover of the November 2023 issue, celebrating women shaping the city through leadership, innovation, and community.
Read feature → Mestiza New YorkA profile on leadership, empowering women's financial independence, and the philosophy of leading with compassion and high expectations.
Read feature →St. Louis Magazine put us on the cover in 2023 as part of their Saint Louis Women issue. The Titan 100 followed. We're grateful for both — and still very much in the middle of the work.
"Leadership stopped being a position of authority and became a role of service and guidance. I see every day as an opportunity to learn something new, alongside my team."
— Julie Peters, Titan 100 FeatureThe biggest opportunities in wellness, caregiving, and childhood development are hiding in plain sight — in the daily friction that people have accepted as inevitable.
The ventures I'm building are early and intentional. If you're an investor, strategic partner, or someone who wants to help close the same gaps I'm closing — reach out.
For investor and partnership inquiries, collaborations, speaking, or press:
Start a Conversation