The Fit Magazine originally sat down with Catalyst20 in July to learn about their innovative newsletter, aiming to “catalyze” activism beyond social media in our ever digitally focused society. 

Eight months later we sat down again with Catalyst20 to hear about their progress since their lunch. 

Founders Maggie Brown, Amanda Hartstein, and Emma Bochner aim to streamline your social media feed to highlight initiatives and action items in pursuit of sustained activism. 

Catalyst20 (formerly The Catalyst) has rebranded to highlight the pivotal year that was 2020, as well as the idea that “hindsight is 2020.” The founders were not always activists, yet realized they had to be moving forward.

The founders may have changed the name of their venture, but their mission has stayed the same: to inform and activate change. Bochner noted that although their goals remain the same, Catalyst20 has been able to streamline their objectives through time and experience. 

Most notably, the founders have been able to maintain their initiatives based almost solely on their initial inspiration and intuition. Catalyst20 was inspired by  a passion for change, which is why the founders have been able to continue their growth.  

“We came together, had an inspiration, a feeling, a thought, an idea, and turned nothing into something,” Bochner said. 

The Catalyst20 team was able to sustain the growth of their newsletter while working on outreach by systematizing their work. They stuck to schedules to get into a routine.

Bochner emphasized that as first-time entrepreneurs, it was challenging to navigate maintaining their core product while also attempting to spread their mission.   

“Since we are all in this together and have a community of readers and every-day activists as we like to call them that are happy to be on this journey with us, it’s been a great ride,” Bochner said of the potential challenges they faced. 

Catalyst20 has continued to primarily utilize email to spread their  mission but has aimed to increase social media presence on Instagram and LinkedIn through initiatives such as giveaways and their highlighting of a Woman of the Week. 

Catalyst20 has engaged in strategic partnerships over social media and within the newsletter itself, which they found successful in aiding their outreach efforts. Collaborating with people and brands that are female-founded or activism-oriented has also proven helpful, as well as connecting with other like-minded individuals that give back to their community. 

While their outreach efforts have been successful (they’ve upped their subscriber count from around 600 to over 1,700), launching their product has been nothing short of hard work. The team knew it would be a challenge and one that needed a lot of back-end work. 

The members of the Catalyst20 team are not just activists and had to learn how to balance the operational business component of the project for change to occur. 

“We want to make sure we are the best we can be for our community, and that all of our information is accurate, up to date, factual, and not biased, and that we are curating the most high-quality resources and action items,” Bochner said. 

Above all, the team remains excited to see what the future holds for Catalyst20 and the future of activism, as well as educating and informing their community. 

To subscribe to Catalyst20, click here!