Sarah Benken Foushee is all about what she describes as “lift and rise.” Her goal is to create a global community that helps women lift and rise—essentially, helping ambitious women succeed. She calls this community KNOW.
Fourteen years ago, Benken Foushee was living in Raleigh, North Carolina, when she launched a concierge business called Lifestyle Management Co. She grew that business and scaled it across the country, with several locations and licensee owners. She also began a management company to oversee the locations. She was juggling a successful career, a family, and friends.
The former accountant—she’d left the field after her daughter was born—was busy and social.
Then, seven years ago, she moved to the Valley to join her husband, who had moved here four years prior for law school. She had stayed behind with their two children so that their son could finish high school.
Benken Foushee arrived with the idea that she would open a new West Coast office of Lifestyle Management Co.
“But when I moved here, I realized that, essentially, I was burnt out,” she says.
Couple that with the fact that it was an entirely new location, and she realized she wanted a change.
“I didn’t know anyone when I moved here—I didn’t know a soul except for my husband,” she says. “When I moved my family here it was like, where do I go? Who are my people? I’m coming here as a founder/CEO of a business … where do I plug in? Do I start networking?”
And that, Benken Foushee says, was the catalyst for KNOW.
“I built my company now—KNOW—out of the desire to create community and to bring awareness to the dynamic women here in the Valley,” she explains.
She launched KNOW in 2017, later selling Lifestyle Management Co. in late 2022.
“I basically came up with the concept of this need to spotlight and celebrate women in the Valley who are doing amazing things,” she explains. “They are doing things like disrupting their industries, breaking ground, and building their communities. … I went into every type of environment to meet people and met so many amazing women here, but we had to find a way to bring women to the light.
“It was all about helping introduce our community to the women who are really building and growing it. [It was] showcasing these women.”
Benken Foushee decided to create the first KNOW book, to highlight some of the amazing females she had met.
Published in 2018, it showcased 135 women chosen after a nomination process, all of whom were interviewed and vetted by Benken Foushee to ensure they fit what she called the “KNOW profile.”
Since then, the company has evolved, becoming a force not only locally but in other states and expanding from just the book to a community.
“We were, essentially, bringing forth these women who are incredible, and who really want to support the next generation of women leaders, but also, we’re understanding the struggles of what it’s like to be alone at the top.
“That’s why we ultimately built a community around those women, because we thought, ‘They’re so amazing on their own, what happens when we put them all together in the room?’”
KNOW began to include events, such as launch parties as each book was released and other get-togethers.
Benken Foushee watched as friendships formed, jobs were filled, and companies launched as the women connected.
Almost immediately, women in other cities began to reach out wanting KNOW in their locations. By the end of its first year as an organization, there were chapters in five other markets and five other publications.
Today there are KNOW events almost monthly throughout the Valley, as well as an annual summit. Both members and nonmembers can attend.
There are meetups and other opportunities to connect, in addition to larger KNOW events. There are membership levels and opportunities, articles, a podcast, and more.
There is also KNOW Cares, a nonprofit formed to raise funds for women supporting women’s grassroots organizations.
“We do a lot of leadership grant funding,” Benken Foushee shares.
And, additional KNOW locations are on the horizon.
“We provide connections and visibility, and those are the only two things I believe you need to get to the next level,” Benken Foushee says. “What I do is essentially curate the space for goodness. I feel like that is such a perfect place for me. I literally just help women.”