The Audacity to Build: Flossie Hall and the Future of Women Entrepreneurs
tl;dr
As CEO and co-founder of Stella Foundation, Hall is creating an inclusive ecosystem where women, from solopreneurs to venture-scale founders, can access resources, networks, and capital.
She’s challenging the binary of “scalable” vs. “non-scalable,” proving that every woman’s version of success is valid and powerful.
A military spouse turned seven-figure founder, Hall embodies resilience and community, showing that access, not permission, is what fuels women’s entrepreneurship.
When Flossie Hall walks into a room, she carries more than a title. She carries grit, lived experience, and the audacity to believe that women deserve every opportunity to build the futures they dream of.
Hall, CEO and co-founder of Stella Foundation, is no stranger to challenge. For 20 years, she was a military spouse raising four children while her husband was deployed. She started her first company out of her kitchen with “four kids under 12, no network, and no roadmap.” Within a year, she had scaled it to seven figures and hired over 100 military spouses. That business didn’t just give her financial independence; it lit a fire.
“I didn’t know business owners. I grew up very poor. I had to work for everything I’ve ever had,” Hall says. “But once I found this community, once I found the networks, I said: I’m going to bring all these women with me.”
That determination has been instrumental to Stella Foundation, a national nonprofit supporting women founders across the spectrum, from solopreneurs in small towns to venture-backed startups eyeing global scale.
Breaking Down the Buckets
Silicon Valley has a way of dividing entrepreneurs into “scalable” and “non-scalable,” but Hall rejects that binary.
“We’re doing the country a disservice by ignoring freelancers and solopreneurs,” she says. “Success looks different for everyone. Maybe it’s making your own income, being your own boss, taking care of your family, and doing something you love. That’s equally valid as an IPO or billion-dollar exit.”
At Stella, founders are supported no matter where they are in the journey, what Hall calls the “0-to-1s” (ideators, freelancers, solopreneurs) and the “1-to-2s” (venture-scale founders). “If we don’t start paying attention to the 0-to-1s, they’ll never become 1-to-2s,” Hall explains.
Her approach isn’t about optics or numbers. “I’ve always said I’d rather serve 10 than 10,000,” she insists. “Clicking on a website isn’t serving. I want to make a real difference.”
Capital Beyond Capital
Ask Hall what really moves the needle for women founders, and her answer is swift: relationships.
“The world runs on networks,” she says. “Capital is important, but it’s access to connections that open doors. The right introduction, a mentor who cares, credibility when you walk in a room, that’s what changes trajectories.”
This ethos fuels Stella’s programming. Whether through accelerators, mentorship, or convening investors with underrepresented founders, the foundation operates as both guide and glue, tying together ecosystems that too often operate in silos.
Hall is unapologetic about her grassroots, hands-on approach. “You have to be authentic,” she says. “There are enough organizations where the CEOs swoop in for the stage time, I hope to never find that kind of disconnect.”
Laughing, she calls herself “the glue” of her team, the one who keeps things moving and doesn’t mind rolling up her sleeves.
From Grit to Vision
It’s not hard to see how Hall’s own story has shaped Stella’s DNA. Military life gave her resilience, perspective, and, as she puts it, “grit, strength, and determination.” But it also exposed her to systemic inequities: the isolation of military spouses, the lack of accessible resources, and the need for communities of belonging.
She’s carried those lessons forward. “Every woman that comes in and says, ‘I found this because of you’, that fills my cup,” she reflects. “This work is a drug. I could make more money in corporate, but I don’t care. I love waking up every day doing this.”
Hall’s bold vision for Stella is simple: access. She wants any woman, whether in New York, Omaha, or a small town in Canada, to tap into Stella’s resources at little or no cost. “We will be the go-to organization for women running businesses,” she declares.
The Audacity of Women
When asked what she’s manifesting, Hall doesn’t hesitate:
“The audacity for women to have the opportunity to do whatever they want. Without being told, we can’t. Without being put back in a box.”
She rattles off her own life as proof that women are never just one thing. “I’m a mom, a CEO, a military spouse, a published genetic researcher, an EMT, and an author. You can be anything. You can be many things. And when you realize that, it’s freeing.”
Her legacy, she hopes, will be to instill that audacity in others. “Step up. Mentor someone. Open a door. Spend your dollars with women. Every single person can do something. We don’t need more silos. We need more people saying: You should talk to Stella.”
What She Knows for Sure
When pressed with Oprah’s famous question, What do you know for sure? Hall’s answer is resolute.
“What I know for sure is that women will persevere. No matter what. And that’s what scares people.”
For Hall, Stella isn’t just an organization. It’s a movement, one built on grit, networks, and the belief that women don’t need permission to lead.
And in her own words: “Watch us.”
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