HBS Student Interviews YourOnRamp's Co-Founder, Millie Froeb

Millie Froeb is the Co-Founder of YourOnRamp and mother of three children. After graduating from Harvard Business School in 2000, she became a retail executive at Gap, Inc. In 2004, Millie left Gap to take care of her children on a full-time basis. During her two years at home, she met many interesting women with distinguished educations and prior careers. Most of these women opted out of the work force to take care of their children and were looking for a way back in. Millie wanted to help corporations tap into this untapped labor pool and co-founded YourOnRamp with Catherine Clifford, whom she met at her children’s preschool. YourOnRamp is a women-owned firm focused on helping female professionals enter, re-enter and succeed in the workplace.

My interview with Millie is summarized below:

Which communication tools do you use? What application do you make of them? Which modern tools have you taken to using and since when? How much time do you use them each week?

As someone who runs a (mostly) online business completely from home, Millie has a very “wired” personal and professional life. As she says, she’s “fully set up.” With five computers, including one laptop for mobility and one with a large screen to review content that’s being uploaded to her company’s website (youronramp.com), this is the main source of her communication. She uses her computers for online chatting and email. Time spent on email is difficult to quantify because it’s such a high number. Millie also has a second generation iphone (though she wishes she’d waited until the next version) and uses that to make sure she’s always reachable via phone or email.

What is the impact of these tools on your studies, work and private life? What are the positive and negative effects of these tools on your personal life? On your work?

According to Millie, when technology works “it’s magical” and when it doesn’t, “it’s horrible.” Still, new communication methods have allowed Millie to build a business from home and allow her to always be working, even while picking up the kids, and always be available. The upside is also the downside – she’s always working.

In your opinion, are modern communication tools a progress for business women’s work and private lives? How do new communication tools affect the work vs. home balance for women? Do new communication tools contribute to connecting women or to isolating them?

In Millie’s opinion, modern communication methods allow women to stay connected even when they have a family to look after. Women’s work-life balance is much improved because women can leave the office at five, log in remotely, and be free from the burden of “facetime”. Millie also observes that companies are beginning to realize that giving women and men the tools to achieve a work-life balance is to the company’s advantage. Millie gave the example of Best Buy, a US electronics retailer and company that is pursuing a “results-oriented work environment.” Best Buy encourages employees to work from home as long as they get their work done.

Beyond innovation in communication tools, if you were to describe your dream progress, what would it be? Which next evolution could have a major positive impact on your professional and personal life or on how you integrate the two?

Millie described an evolution in which everything that is currently tied to a computer’s physical software would become available through a central, web-based repository. With nothing physically stored, a crashed computer would lose its negative repercussions. Bigger and better than today’s Google documents, this form of online storage would make men and women truly mobile and give them the ability to access anything,  anywhere, at any time.