#116 From One-on-One to One Million
How a Trauma Therapist Became a Tech Founder Fighting the Housing Crisis
Hi! New here? Welcome to the Uplifters! I'm Aransas Savas. I've spent the last 20 years at the intersection of behavior change research and coaching. On The Uplifters Podcast, we share diverse stories of women who have found something beautiful on the other side of the hard stuff. Despite self-doubt and fear (and honestly, who doesn't have those?), they've done big, brave things anyway, and show us how we can too!
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This Week’s Featured Uplifter: Emily Levin
Emily Levin started her career as a trauma therapist, working one-on-one with chronically mentally ill New Yorkers transitioning from the streets to stable housing. She learned how to hold space for impossible stories, to see possibility where others saw only problems. But what she didn't expect was how her front-row seat to human resilience was preparing her for her own radical transformation.
When her husband shared his vision for Axcces—an AI platform streamlining affordable housing processes—something clicked. Despite never imagining she'd start a company with her spouse, Emily found herself saying yes to what felt less like a choice and more like destiny.
What strikes me most about Emily's story is how she's reframing what it means to be qualified. While the startup world obsesses over technical credentials and industry experience, Emily leads with her superpower: storytelling. She understands that in early-stage companies, your ability to tell a compelling story about a serious pain point matters more than your spreadsheet skills. Not everything requires an MBA and a five-year plan.
Now she's raising capital, signing customers, and getting families into safe homes faster—all while her 13-year-old daughter memorizes her pitch and prepares to become their summer intern.
Her Courage Practice: The Power of Make-Believe
When Emily walks into investor meetings in spaces that are overwhelmingly male, she doesn't rely on traditional confidence-building techniques. Instead, she reaches back to something she perfected as a child: the magical art of make-believe. "When kids are playing, everything they're doing is made up," she explains, remembering hours spent in her childhood room pretending to be a real estate agent, drawing pictures of houses and showing them to imaginary clients. "I didn't know what I was doing. It was all made up, but I loved it and it was this magical world."
So now, when facing the very real challenges of pitching to investors or navigating unfamiliar territory, Emily consciously brings back that playful energy: "Sometimes I will sort of bring that time back where I'm like, you know what? I'm just gonna play that I'm a seasoned CEO. Maybe it won't be pretend anymore—in fact, it isn't actually pretend anymore."
This practice ripples out into everything she does, from "future casting" (closing her laptop and imagining herself as that seasoned CEO) to bringing her 13-year-old daughter into the business as an intern. When her daughter walks around the house reciting Emily's pitch perfectly, complete with numbers, she's witnessing the power of play to transform not just individuals but entire family systems—proof that courage can be contagious across generations.
Listen to this if...
You're ready to stop being a spectator to other people's brave journeys and start creating your own
You've been telling yourself you're "just" a words-and-feelings person in a numbers world
You're sitting on expertise that could solve big problems but haven't figured out how to scale it
You need evidence that you don't have to choose between making money and making impact
You’re feeling some jealousy about others’ journeys
You want to learn how a therapist fakes it to make it
If You Loved This Episode, Listen to These
Start with Emily's Nominator:
Susannah Ludwig - The woman who saw Emily's courage and nominated her for this show
Fellow Founders Breaking New Ground:
Susie Jaramillo - First Latina CEO of a media company in the US
Jenny Jing Zhu - From village maid to $100M company founder
Jennifer Maanavi - Built Physique 57 from startup to global fitness brand
Sarah Dusek - Founder of Enygma Ventures investing in African female entrepreneurs
Regina Gwynn - Co-founder of Black Women Talk Tech
Systems Changers Tackling Big Problems:
Kerry Brodie - Founder of Emma's Torch, empowering refugees through culinary training
Amy Cohen - Co-founder of Families for Safe Streets, after losing her son to traffic violence
Shelley Zalis - Founder of The Female Quotient, creating women's spaces in male-dominated conferences
Dr. Aziza Shad - Founder of The Aslan Project, expanding global cancer care
Taylor Scott - Founder of RVA Community Fridges, addressing food insecurity
Career Pivoters and Reinventors:
Julie Hartigan - Left engineering to become a chef and travel guide
Cleyvis Natera - Left lucrative business career to write award-winning fiction
Heather Markel - Quit her desk job to travel to 39 countries
Keep Exploring
Lift Emily and Axcces Up
Support Axcces: Visit their website to learn more about how AI is revolutionizing affordable housing applications and wait list management. Share their story with investors, property managers, or anyone working in housing advocacy.
Spread the word: With only 1.4% of female-run startups receiving funding, Emily's mission to prove you can build profitable companies that create systemic change needs amplification. Tell her story to anyone who needs evidence that impact and income can coexist.
Follow her journey: As Emily works to close her seed round and scale nationally, your encouragement and connections could make the difference between reaching one family or reaching millions. Find her on LinkedIn.
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