I’m Sarah Bundy — entrepreneur, founder, and one of Canada’s Top 100 Female Entrepreneurs. I’ve spent more than two decades building businesses, leading teams, and learning what it actually takes to succeed as a woman in business. Not the polished version of that story. The real one.
Today I write, speak, and show up as a voice and thought leader for female founders, SMB owners, and business operators at every stage of their journey — and for the companies and organizations that want to genuinely reach and support them. Women founders are not failing because they’re not capable. They’re failing because what they’ve been given to work with wasn’t built for them. And changing that is exactly what this next chapter of my career is built around.
Where it started
I didn’t grow up with a clear path. School was a struggle — I was a difficult student by every conventional measure, and it wasn’t until much later that I understood why: I have ADHD. I learned differently, moved differently, and needed a different kind of environment to thrive. When I finally found one — at BCIT, in a collaborative, problem-solving program — something clicked. My group project won the top award out of 300 students. I was offered a job to execute it. I never looked back.
My career began at Clearly.ca, where I was handed the affiliate marketing division and told to figure it out. I did. That accidental beginning became a twenty-year education in what it takes to build, scale, and sustain a successful company — and the foundation for everything I do today.
Building All Inclusive Marketing — from $7 to global recognition
In 2009, I co-founded All Inclusive Marketing (AIM) with my husband Iain — from our living room, six months pregnant, with $7 to our name. We built it into one of the most recognized performance and partnership marketing agencies in the world: a remote global team across Canada, the US, the UK, Spain, and South Africa, with clients ranging from eCommerce startups to Fortune 500 brands.
Over fifteen years, AIM won Company of the Year in BC out of 400,000 small businesses, earned international performance marketing awards, was recognized by the New York Times as a leader in the space, and was named among Canada’s fastest-growing companies. We built something that attracted attention at the highest levels of the industry.
By 2020, we were being approached by multiple companies who wanted what we’d built. We chose Plus Company — a values-aligned acquisition that honored everything we had worked for and accelerated the agency’s next chapter. It remains one of the proudest milestones of my career.
We didn’t sell because we were done. We sold because the right partner came along at the right time — and we had built something worth pursuing.
The harder chapters — and what they taught me
Fifteen years of building a company takes everything you have. Along the way, I hit walls that the awards and revenue numbers didn’t show — periods of exhaustion and burnout that are common among high-performing founders and almost never talked about honestly. I talk about it, because I know how many women are carrying that weight right now and thinking they’re the only one.
What I learned: burnout isn’t a character flaw. It’s a signal. And how you respond to it — whether you push through, pivot, rest, or rebuild — shapes everything that comes after. I did all four, at different points. And I came out the other side with a clarity about what I was actually building toward that I never had before.
What I’m building now — Athena Collective
After the exit, I looked around at the landscape for women in business and felt the same frustration I’d felt for years: over 100 million women were founding, owning, and operating businesses worldwide, and fewer than 2% had ever crossed seven figures in revenue. Fewer than 12% would ever reach $100,000. That’s not a capability gap. That’s an infrastructure gap.
In late 2023, I created a private LinkedIn community for female founders — and within six days, nearly 300 women had joined. The signal was unmistakable. In early 2024, I met Mikayla Stewart — a brilliant operator who had spent her career watching companies fail not because founders lacked ability, but because the systems around them did. We became co-founders immediately.
Together we built Athena Collective — a global platform and community for female founders, owners, and operators. Not another network. Not another coaching program. An intelligent platform that learns each member, builds her a personalized roadmap across 212 critical business areas, connects her to a vetted global community, and walks alongside her from her first idea to her first exit. Built to help 100 million women in business succeed — and to create a ripple effect of change across communities, economies, and generations. Explore and join at athenacollective.co →
Partnership & performance marketing — still my domain
Two decades of expertise in affiliate, partnership, and performance marketing doesn’t disappear after an exit. I built partner ecosystems for some of the world’s leading brands, led an agency recognized internationally for its work in this space, and remain an active voice in the industry. While I no longer run programs myself, I carry two decades of relationships across eCommerce, SaaS, travel, and hospitality — and I use those connections to open doors for the women and businesses I work with.
BCIT — where it all began, and where I give back
I currently serve as Chair of the Program Advisory Council for the Marketing Management program at BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology), under the School of Business and Media — the same institution where my own entrepreneurial story began. In this role I help shape the curriculum and direction of one of BC’s most respected marketing programs, ensuring it reflects where the industry is actually going.
Who I write and speak for
Female founders and business owners at every stage — solopreneurs building something for the first time, operators scaling teams and revenue, mature founders navigating legacy or exit. The companies, B2B brands, and organizations that want to reach women in business in a way that’s genuine, intelligent, and built on real authority. And anyone who wants the honest version of what building a company actually looks like — from someone who has lived every chapter of it.
What others say
I’m privileged to have worked alongside exceptional clients, partners, and founders across twenty years in business. Read their recommendations →
Let’s connect
I’m available for speaking engagements, B2B brand partnerships, board and advisory roles, and media. If your organization wants to reach female founders and women in business with real credibility behind the relationship — let’s talk.