For years, Karina Valencia was certain kids would derail her ambitious career. Growing up in a traditional Mexican household, she rebelled by dedicating herself to climbing the corporate ladder, working in the office of the CEO for companies like Citigroup and Palantir. But after her first marriage ended, she met her now-husband in her late 30s, and everything changed. After a challenging fertility journey that forced her to choose between her high-stress COO role and having a baby, Karina made the difficult decision to resign—and got pregnant one week later. When returning to work brought challenging discrimination, she decided to build her own company instead, creating Lonvia, a longevity consultancy staffed almost entirely by mothers.

Timestamps

03:10 – Why Karina's traditional Mexican upbringing made her reject motherhood
09:50 – Building a global career at Citigroup and living in nine countries 
15:00 – Going through divorce while climbing the corporate ladder at Palantir 19:45 – Meeting her husband and slowly changing her mind about having kids 
24:45 – Multiple miscarriages and realizing work stress was affecting her fertility 
31:10 – Quitting her COO role and getting pregnant one week later 
36:15 – The identity shift from workaholic to new mother 
42:55 – Facing discrimination and salary cuts when job hunting as a mother 
47:50 – Starting Longvia, a company run almost entirely by mothers