October 2024 Startup Grant Awarded to Coderre Conservation

We’re excited to announce the $10,000 Startup Grant recipient for October 2024. Congratulations to Rachel Coderre, founder of Coderre Conservation.

Recently, WomensNet Advisory Board member Jama Hernandez sat down with Rachel for an exclusive interview. You can listen to their conversation and view the transcript below.

Video Transcript

WomensNet: My name is Jama Hernandez with WomensNet, and I am so excited to introduce to you our October, 2024 winners. So today we’re going to be speaking with Rachel Coderre from Coderre Conservation, and she is our October Startup grant winner. We’re so looking forward to knowing a little bit about your business, and getting to know how you’re tackling some of the challenges that you may have. So thank you so much for being here. Rachel, can you tell us a little bit about what Coderre conservation is all about?

Rachel: Coderre Conservation is a private practice which specializes in the preservation, protection and restoration of cultural heritage material. So, like artwork and artifacts, and things like that. Conservation is essentially a combination between science and art. So you use material science and art hand skills to ensure the longevity of objects for future generations. That’s the short version!

WomensNet: So amazing. Preserving our history, sounds like a little bit of archeology! So your business is super unique, and so who or what inspired your business and this idea?

Rachel: It started with my first mentor, which kind of just happened to me- it was like right place, right time. I’ve had the pleasure of working with extremely talented conservators since the beginning of my career. When I was fresh out of undergrad, I had a BFA in sculpture. So I thought I was going to be an artist. Then all of a sudden, I found myself in an art conservation laboratory, being interviewed right out of school. And it sort of hit me right in that moment. I was like, okay, this is awesome. I’m so over my head, and I really hope I get the job. All of a sudden I went in thinking, I have to have this!

I did get the job and Shannon Kimbro, was essentially my first mentor. She’s a conservator. She’s a very hard worker and very strong woman. Especially for that time, when you don’t really know what’s going on like right after school. So she changed the course of my life and my career. I didn’t even know what art conservation was at the time., I just ended up accidentally stumbling into what I really feel is my calling in life essentially. She’s a big inspiration. And recently I’ve been working with another very successful woman, conservator business owner. Her name is Jackie Wilson. She built a conservation private practice from the ground up in New York City. Her team is all women, which is awesome! 

So they took me in with open arms, and not only am I getting to learn so much from them, but I’ve made a ton of female friendships, which is a bonus! There’s so many women in conservation who I aspire to be like and I see them as the blueprint essentially.  I want to provide for future generations what they’re providing for me right now. They are guiding me, and I can call them and they help me. They tell me things like, my invoice looks bad- things like that. It’s really, really helpful. So they’re the inspo for sure!

WomensNet: Amazing. It sounds like you’re learning a lot of lessons even early on in your startup, which is invaluable! And so again, your business is a little unique. And so how do you measure or will you plan to measure your business growth and your milestones?

Rachel: So I’m at the beginning stages of the business, but even so far, a lot has happened. I mean, this has happened. This, is reassuring to me that I’m on the right path. This is a big deal to me. It’s a milestone within itself to win a grant. So to answer the question, I am a goal oriented person and I think that sometimes that can be a strength and a weakness. I put a lot of pressure on myself to succeed and sometimes when a milestone is happening I don’t even realize it because I’m fixated on the next thing that I want to happen. So I’ve been really trying to be mindful and celebrate small things because the small things equal big victories. But to physically track it, I have a notebook. I have a prized notebook for every season of life essentially. So I have a detailed tracking system of just where I’ve been and where I’m going. And I am old school. I like to write it down. 

It has everything in it, from daydreaming about it, from the very beginning, to then a to-do list, like bank account, apply for grants, make a website, all the different things. And crossing them off is therapeutic! It’s like, oh, okay, onto the next thing, it feels so good. And also like if I could have done something better, I also journal and schedule and make wish lists, and all that stuff. I think starting a business especially at the very beginning of your career, that’s a big deal within itself. And an honorable mention for Excel spreadsheets! I’ve gotten really into color coding Excel spreadsheets. It’s really soothes some part of my Type A brain. So I think, Excel has helped me sort of zoom out a little bit and track what’s going on. 

WomensNet: Wonderful. Well, even Excel, or even like the notebooks that you’re talking about, what I love about your response is that they are low cost or accessible ways to be able to track business milestones without having to purchase expensive programs. These are really powerful tools that can help us. We’re so happy that you took the time to talk with is. I do want to end our conversation today with asking how our viewers can find you.

Rachel: I have a website. It is a basic landing page, but it’s a way to get in contact with me for sure. It’s, coderreconservation.com, and then I’m on Instagram as well, so you can find me there.