“I miss the frivolous”

“He won’t stop raping me… RU there?... It’s my dad.”

It’s a text message Nancy Lublin will never forget. While some companies may  have to hammer home their corporate mission everyday to employees and  the press, Lublin’s central mission for Crisis Text Line is a clear daily imperative. Her team is saving lives. “That person is who we built this for,” she says.

The metrics for tracking success at Crisis Text Line are as impactful:  Their texts have a 97% open rate, their satisfaction rate is 86%, and  65% of the people text the word, “Thanks.” Bear in mind, these are  people contacting the site in a moment of crisis. 

Crisis Text Line came in a career of helping people. Lublin started Dress for  Success, which provides low income women with interview suits and career  development. She then ran Do Something, a non-profit channeling social  change and activism before that became the new weekend to do list.  

As amazing as her impact with Crisis Text Line has been, Lublin is, astoundingly, launching something new, Loris.ai.  It has raised $2 million in capital from well-heeled investors like  LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, Kapor Capital, and Floodgate’s Ann Miura-Ko to  help companies have hard conversations. It’s a way to monetize the  learnings and training process that Crisis Text Line has honed over the  years. 

Nancy Lublin is as good a business woman as she is a compassionate advocate for saving and improving lives. She’s an actual compassionate capitalist. 

Lublin is the latest guest for my podcast, “A Uterus Is a Feature Not a Bug.”  We talk about her journey, why New York is a better city for working  moms to build their companies, why social media and screen time isn’t  the only thing depressing teens, and also about the state of the  tech industry right now. Founders like Lublin who care about users  mental health first and profits second are even more of a rarity than  they were when she started Crisis Text Line. “I miss the frivolous,” she  says. “These are real red lightsaber days.” 

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