Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Kinsey Wolf, Founder of Lane Collective, located in Charlotte, NC, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Lane Collective is a growth marketing consultancy for future-focused startups. We work with founders and CMOs to design, execute, and optimize growth-oriented marketing and sales strategies. It's not a marketing agency - it's better.
Growing startups have unique needs and our agile approach is purpose-built to meet them. We're a network of independent marketing and sales experts that function as an agile fractional marketing department. Depending on their unique needs, startups can hire one of us or all of us.
As the founder, I'm a leading member of the collective. I work with clients as a growth marketing strategist and Fractional CMO.
Tell us about yourself
I founded The Lane Collective to be the solution I wish I'd while leading marketing at a startup. While leading marketing efforts in-house at a tech startup, I tried freelancers, I tried agencies, and I tried doing everything myself. Each option comes with real challenges and limitations. When I became an independent consultant, I experienced firsthand freelancers' challenges, too.
I knew there had to be a better, more flexible way to support startups on their growth journey while enabling independents to succeed on their terms. So, I built a way to make it real: a collective. By now, I've worked with early and growth-stage startups for a decade, helping build sustainable marketing programs that scale organically. And after all these years, I still love it. It matters to me to do work that matters—helping big ideas achieve their potential. To me, that matters.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
It may sound simple, but my most significant accomplishment has been finding a balance between work and personal life. As any entrepreneur will tell you, launching a business is challenging without sacrificing the quality of your relationships, personal development, and life outside work.
Ambition and rest seem mutually exclusive when you're in the thick of it. Over the last two years, I've focused on building a business that leaves space for caring for loved ones and myself. Surprisingly, this created breathing room for more meaningful professional growth.
Today, I'm proud to lead a thriving business I love that leaves space for quality time with loved ones, hobbies, and unplugging now and again.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Prioritization. You can't do everything or be everything all at once, as tempting as it may be to try. Successful entrepreneurs focus on understanding which efforts are the most impactful - personally and professionally - and then acting on that knowledge.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Focus on getting it right, not being right. Your job as a leader isn't to have all the answers. It's to guide your team in making solid, aligned decisions that move you toward your goals.
- Cultivate a bias to action. That will allow you to move from ideation to execution more quickly. Then, you can refine by building in ways to measure success and pivot as needed.
- Surround yourself with people you can trust and who believe in you. Being an entrepreneur can be lonely and will make you question yourself.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.lanecollective.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lane.collective/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kinsey_wolf
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kinseysullivanwolf/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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