Stay the Author: Founders Building on Their Own Terms
Convener & moderator
Convened Women in AI Colorado business leaders for a panel.
AI doesn't become a competitive advantage by default. It becomes one when you decide what it's for and stay in charge of where it's taking you. This panel brings together four founders who are doing exactly that: using AI as infrastructure for work that is distinctly, irreducibly theirs. They'll talk about what it actually looks like to build with AI while staying the author of your own goals including the decisions, the friction, the moments of clarity, and what becomes possible when you refuse to let the technology set the agenda.
Panelists
Maureen Keating
Maureen Keating is the founder of Swytch.careers, a platform reimagining how talent connects with opportunity. By removing the systemic barriers that have long kept capable people out of the rooms where decisions get made, Swytch is building the infrastructure for a talent ecosystem that sees the whole person, not just the resume. Her work sits at the intersection of AI, economic mobility, and the belief that fast-growing businesses do better when they can find people who are genuinely built for what they're building.
Kathy Long
Kathy Long is the founder and CEO of NixIt, an AI-powered support platform built for neurodivergent people, by someone who has lived the problem from the inside. NixIt is daily infrastructure, not a crisis app, and it grows through community trust because the people it serves recognize immediately that it was built for them, not at them. Kathy brings 30 years of SaaS and revenue operations experience to a market that has been underserved, underfunded, and talked about far more than it has been listened to.
Cynthia Coulbourne
Cynthia Coulbourne is a community architect working at the intersection of AI and civic participation. As a leader within Women in AI Colorado, she builds the connective tissue that ensures people aren't just consuming AI, they're shaping it. Her work is grounded in the conviction that the most important question isn't what AI can do, but who gets to decide.