Jun 23, 2026 · 39 min · 13 segments
Scaling a nonprofit usually means working harder until something breaks. Missy Heilman found another way. She spent 15 years in marketing and tech before launching **BIO Girls** in 2013, and she…
Missy HeilmanGuest
Max KringenHost
If you were doing automation in that work pre-2018, what is your mind doing in 2025 as we're about to go into 2026? Are you just thinking about how we can optimize everything and automate so many things?
It's pretty mind-blowing because when I started at Vtrends was the company name, the small startup that was the second in the market for marketing animation.
And so we were developing things that didn't exist, similar to where we're at today.
It's not like fear, like, holy crap, we're behind, right? It's what can we do and how can AI support the work of nonprofits?
Well, I think one of my favorite conversations was my cousin, who is your chief operating officer, my dear cousin, Laura.
She's hey would you want to grab coffee and i just i need to learn more about ai and i was like of course now here's what's also funny and i don't know if she told you this story but within like 15 minutes and we met at some random coffee shop in south fargo within 15 minutes her mother was calling my mother to be like did you know max and laura met and My mom's like, no, I have no idea what his schedule is.
And I love that your team is thinking about how do we harness the power of these things?
You know, the difference being, well, we still think very strategically about those things.
And I think one of the things that has helped BioGirls be successful over the years is that we are thinking about how do we do this without burning out our resources, i.e. our people? How do we do this and still be fiscally responsible to our supporters? And how do we do this in a way that supports our mission? All of our decisions are mission first.
So, I mean, one, I think we need to have you come back and let's just do one on marketing automation because I think every nonprofit needs to learn how to harness the power of marketing automation.
If you were doing automation in that work pre-2018, what is your mind doing in 2025 as we're about to go into 2026? Are you just thinking about how we can optimize everything and automate so many things?
It's pretty mind-blowing because when I started at Vtrends was the company name, the small startup that was the second in the market for marketing animation.
And so we were developing things that didn't exist, similar to where we're at today.
It's not like fear, like, holy crap, we're behind, right? It's what can we do and how can AI support the work of nonprofits?
Well, I think one of my favorite conversations was my cousin, who is your chief operating officer, my dear cousin, Laura.
She's hey would you want to grab coffee and i just i need to learn more about ai and i was like of course now here's what's also funny and i don't know if she told you this story but within like 15 minutes and we met at some random coffee shop in south fargo within 15 minutes her mother was calling my mother to be like did you know max and laura met and My mom's like, no, I have no idea what his schedule is.
And I love that your team is thinking about how do we harness the power of these things?
You know, the difference being, well, we still think very strategically about those things.
And I think one of the things that has helped BioGirls be successful over the years is that we are thinking about how do we do this without burning out our resources, i.e. our people? How do we do this and still be fiscally responsible to our supporters? And how do we do this in a way that supports our mission? All of our decisions are mission first.
So, I mean, one, I think we need to have you come back and let's just do one on marketing automation because I think every nonprofit needs to learn how to harness the power of marketing automation.
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