Robbi Katherine Anthony, the founder @ Bliss & Solace, works to create things that restore agency for transgender people

I am the cofounder and Executive Director of Solace. Solace creates technology for the transgender community, starting with our flagship and eponymous app, Solace, which launched on December 31st 2019. I’m working on other tools and technologies for this community and my biggest objective is to create things that restore agency for transgender people.

Solace and Bliss (our second app that we are currently fundraising for) are unique in that the transgender community doesn’t generally have products, services, or technologies made for them. Bliss is like other roboadvisors in some ways, but it is entirely designed for the experience of gender transition. Solace stands alone in that is really doesn’t have an analogue in terms of other products out there.

Solace has been called the most definitive guide to gender transition ever made. Even if you are merely curious about what transgender people go through, it might be worth visiting www.Solace.LGBT, downloading the app, and exploring what these people have to weigh in terms of all that factors into transition (it is vasty more complicated than anyone ever expects).

I stay motivated by… knowing we are creating the only kind of our particular technology in the world and our apps are needed.

Three adjectives that describe me are… strategic, gentle, and brazen.

If I could have dinner with one person (dead or alive) it would be… the inventor of day-light saving’s time because I want to know if hell is better or worse than they expected.

What motivated you to become an entrepreneur? Is having your own business something you always wanted?

I always had an entrepreneurial bent to me, but the biggest driver as of late is that it is one of the few ways I can work without fear of discrimination. Being a business owner as a transgender woman insulates me against some of discrimination that comes with traditional employment.

How did you come up with your business idea? What inspired you?

My transition has been hard. I was musing at the bar with my cofounder when we were just coming up with ideas and it just struck me that an app for transition would be really helpful. We more or less took a shot in the dark that others would find value in such an idea too and we’ve since watched it grow beyond our wildest expectations.

Was it difficult get capital/investors? Has anyone underestimated you as a female entrepreneur? If yes, how did you handle it?

Extremely. I had to crowdfund my first app. Folks underestimate me as a female entrepreneur and then there’s the additional layer of underestimation that comes with being a transgender female entrepreneur. 

It’s hurtful and it sucks to be perpetually underestimated, but I know the value in the products I make. They save lives. And I keep forging ahead because I have to. I won’t quit on my community. Ever. That keeps me moving forward and capable of dealing with underestimations and rejections.

What is one thing you find to be true that most people would disagree with?

Transgender entrepreneurs have a much harder road to success than their cisgendered counterparts. There’s a lot of fervent optimism in this space that entrepreneurship is intrinsically equal, but it sometimes gets to an almost Orwellian place where some entrepreneurs are more equal than others. There’s a lot of gaslighting in entrepreneurship that dismisses discrimination as just “part of the process” or “something you just need to get through.”