Mary Rosenberger

I’ve spent more than twenty years helping founder-led businesses grow: building companies, partnering with leadership teams, and helping organizations navigate everything from periods of rapid growth to moments of reinvention.

Along the way, I’ve built several successful multi-million-dollar digital businesses, led strategy across marketing, products, operations, and execution, and had more than one executive role created specifically because a founder needed someone who could see the whole business, connect the dots, and help lead what came next.

More than once, I joined an organization in one role only to find myself helping shape strategy across the entire business because that’s where the greatest need—and the greatest opportunity—was.

Looking back, I realize those founders weren’t looking for another specialist.

They needed someone who could see the whole business. Someone who could connect ideas across marketing, products, operations, leadership, and execution. Someone who could help them make better decisions—and help build what those decisions required.

That’s the role I’ve found myself playing for most of my career. And it’s still the work I love most.

But the longer I’ve done this work, the more another belief has become equally clear.

A successful business shouldn’t consume the life of the person who created it.

It shouldn’t rely on constant firefighting. It shouldn’t require heroic effort just to maintain momentum. And success shouldn’t come at the expense of the founder’s energy, relationships, or joy.

That’s why I created Heartwood.

Because I believe businesses can become more profitable, more scalable, more sustainable… and fun to lead again.

Over the past two decades, I’ve had the privilege of…

• Building and operating several successful multi-million-dollar digital education businesses.
• Leading strategy, product development, marketing, operations, and execution across complex organizations.
• Partnering with founders through periods of rapid growth, reinvention, and transition.
• Building long-term relationships with clients and partners measured in years—not projects.
• Creating businesses and products that have served hundreds of thousands of customers around the world.

Outside the office…

I’ve always been fascinated by people—what motivates them, what they create, how they see the world, and what becomes possible when the right people come together around a common purpose. Looking back, I realize that curiosity has shaped almost everything I’ve done, both personally and professionally.

My happiest moments rarely involve a computer. They involve a group of curious, generous, creative people gathered around a dinner table—laughing, dreaming, solving problems, and imagining what’s possible together.

Or they involve my son, our friends, a kitchen dance party, a day at the beach, and an overly competitive board game. They involve dance classes, adventurous dinners, karaoke nights, live theater, costume parties, and brainstorming sessions that somehow become something entirely new.

Given the chance, I’ll almost always find a way to bring good people together—whether around a leadership table, a dinner table, or a dance floor.

I love creating environments where good people can do meaningful things together.

Whether it’s a leadership team finding its rhythm, a founder rediscovering excitement for the business they’ve built, or friends gathered around a table sharing ideas late into the evening, I find enormous joy in bringing people together around something that matters.

My hope for every client is simple.

That together we build a business that gives more back than it takes. A business that creates opportunity for its team, delivers meaningful value to its customers, and supports the life the founder set out to build in the first place.

Because when you strengthen the core, everything else has room to grow.