What Linkedin Doesn’t Say About Roma Van der Walt: Vitelle CEO, ‘geriatric mom,’ and female longevity aficionado
+ The 'Gen X Career Meltdown' hits close to home • Oprah's menopause special
Top of mind by Amy Cuevas Schroeder
1. Oprah + some of the first ladies of menopause
Years ago, Oprah was one of the first people to talk openly about peri/menopause with the masses, and she’s continued to bring the topic to the forefront on TV and in her magazine and website.
On March 31, she hosted a new special with Halle Berry, Naomi Watts, Maria Shriver, Mary Claire Haver, MD (an ob-gyn and the author of The New Menopause), and Rhonda Voskuhl, MD, a neurologist who specializes in menopause.
Halle Berry talks about how she thought she’d skip menopause altogether:
2. ‘The GenX Career Meltdown’ story in the New York Times hits close to home
As a career-long creative who’s worked in media and advertising, Steve Kurtz’s March 28 NY Times piece accurately describes the career shift that many of us GenXers are going through right now. It’s true: just when we should be at our peak, experienced workers in creative fields find that their skills are all but obsolete.
On the one hand, I think the doom-and-gloom alarm story will help GenXers talk more openly about our career struggles. On the other, I don’t want us to give up, my friends.
I like writer Terri Trespicio’s take, from her recent newsletter:
[Steve Kurtz] describes Gen Xers as the people who were training in candlemaking when electricity was invented.
I get it: The things we invested heavily in learning and worked hard to do don't happen anymore: Huge-budget shoots. Paste-up text. Hand-made illustrations. Living comfortably on a journalist's salary.
We don't rely on candles for light anymore. But I still have some around, don't you? They still play a role, even if it's not to see by.
Also: Would you really want to go back to no electricity? Of course not.
I always dreamed of being a magazine editor, and then I was one—and then, I wasn't.
There was never a guarantee that our jobs would stay the same, or that anything would be the same. Do you regret the skills you learned? I don't.
And why should we? The world may feel like its on fire, democracy in a death spiral — but we still are living in a pretty unbelievable time. And learning what we did helped shape who we are today.
We have access to things we never did before: Low-cost tools and low barrier to entry, basically free platforms on which to build brands and work of our own imagining. The tech that allows us to work with anyone, anywhere, anytime we want. Plus, no end of things we can learn — without going into debt learning it.
You're not old. Show me someone who says they are and I'll show you someone who stopped learning years ago.
I realize you may not agree with me. That's fine.
Just remember what Gay Hendricks says in The Big Leap: “If you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them.”
Meet Roma van der Walt: CEO of Vitelle, ‘geriatric mom,’ and female longevity aficionado
Santa Monica, age: 43
File under: women’s longevity, female sports, science and tech, seeking funding
Let’s connect here: Instagram • Linkedin • vitelle.co
I’m in the midst of: launching our B2B startup’s first customer pilots. Vitelle is a health intelligence platform providing digital health companies with the insights and analytics around their core product to improve their customer engagement, care coordination, and continuity of care. I lead a team of seven remote and some fractional team members. They are incredible.
Previous locations: In backward chronological order: Adelaide, Australia for 1.5 years; Sydney, Australia for two years; NYC for 15 years; Cologne, Germany for five years; and prior to that, Bavaria.
Relationship status: Married with children
Partner’s age and profession: My husband is 51 and the breadwinner. When we first met, I was in a high-income bracket working at the United Nations despite being younger. He is very supportive of my ambitions. Not just work but also when I am dared to do crazy sh*t — like when one of his friends dared me to run a 27-mile ultra marathon four months postpartum with 4,500 feet of elevation gain.
My husband took the kids, kissed me goodbye, and watched me beat his friend and come back happy after having some well-earned me-time on the mountain.
My income: is a roller coaster and as founder and CEO, I pay myself last. I have learned that there are a lot of myths about how much and how quickly founders can pay themselves, and I am very realistic about how much black women have raised in the U.S. (less than 300 black women have raised $1 million or more).
Expenses in a nutshell: I grew up without a lot and am proud of the life we’ve built for ourselves and our kids. My husband and I have poured a lot into my decision to build this company, so the past years have been lean. We have some incredible angel investors that supported Vitelle early on and in 2024, Techstars Boston invited us into their program. Most of our pay goes toward rent, car loan, childcare, cost of living. Gone are weekly date nights.
Primary personal debts: I’m lucky as a German to not have student debt, but the past years of bootstrapping have meant accumulating some personal debt.
Retirement savings as of December 2024: not comfortable saying
Work remotely or onsite?
Remotely at home and will co-work with friends from time to time. I love meeting my friends who are freelancers or fractional at spaces to work side by side.
A typical weekday schedule in a nutshell*
7–7:45 am: Get the kids out of bed, fed, dressed, and into the car with their dad to drive to school.
8 am–4 pm most days: At my desk for meetings and working on sales, partnerships, and fundraising.
4:15 pm: Pick up kids from school, rush home, manage the toddler’s emotions, and make dinner.
7 pm: Often back at the computer until about 8/8:30 pm
9:30 pm: Bedtime
*Not mentioned: Picking up stuff nonstop, organizing groceries, lunch boxes, laundry, dealing with sicknesses and extracurricular activities
Ideal schedule
I wish I had time to exercise before the kids get up. It happens some mornings but it’s short.
I also need to schedule more mindfulness into my life and walk more. I don’t live in New York anymore and our dog died last year.
How much my career is tied to my identity:
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