RACHEL ROMER remembers lying on the ground on a warm August evening last year, watching as darkness descended around her. She had been sitting on her outdoor patio in Denver, where she liked to unwind from long days as the CEO of Guild, the $4.4 billion education and upskilling startup she cofounded. Suddenly, she fell. She could barely move her right arm or leg, and night was closing in.
Romer, heading up one of the world’s most valuable female-founded startups and a mother of two, had suffered a stroke at 34 years old.
The right side of Romer’s body was immobilized, but her mind was running at full speed. She lived in a close-knit neighborhood with family nearby; her ex-husband was next door with their twin girls but too far away to hear her soft cries for help. “I decided at some point to try to save some energy because I could tell I wasn’t projecting much noise,” she says.
Romer had
