I met the two women featured in nosey Volume 5 largely through something that feels very fitting for us: word of mouth.

For Cathy Cooper of Beyond Her Vision, I had the pleasure of attending her 2026 annual summit, where a friend of mine was speaking on a panel. What I didn’t expect was to find myself completely enveloped in a community of women founders, from the women on that panel, to the women sitting alongside me in the room, to the founders bringing their brands to life through activations throughout the summit. By the end of the event, I had to track down Cathy to tell her how incredible it was. Little did either of us know just how much overlap there was in our circles and the women, founders, and businesses we’ve both come to know in Chicago.

And then there’s Dr. Monica Patel. After every founder interview, we do what nosey does best: we get a little more nosey and ask, Who else should we be talking to? Monica’s name kept coming up. A handful of founders I’ve interviewed, as well as people I’ve met in completely different settings, mentioned her. Then, after a recent networking event, I noticed Monica had been there too. I reached out, told her she was apparently all anyone was talking about, and figured it was probably time we sat down together.

Both Cathy and Monica are incredibly accomplished, but what stood out to me most was getting to sit down with them and hear the stories behind what they’ve built. We’re so excited to share those stories with you.

And honestly, that’s one of my favorite parts of building nosey: the more people we talk to, the more people we discover. So keep the recommendations coming 👀