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HI, WE'RE WITH MARI!
A wife + husband team with a thing for big ideas, unexpected adventures, and seeing what happens when you follow your curiosity.
We create thoughtfully curated experiences that bring female founders together, explore interesting places, and spark new perspectives. And when an ambitious business idea comes our way, we love bringing that to life, too.
A little less business as usual
Meet the Team
The people behind the adventures (and everything else).
Founder & CEO
Mari Milenkovic
Mari is the creative force behind With Mari and the person most likely to turn a passing “What if?” into an actual adventure.
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A serial entrepreneur with over a decade of experience working alongside female founders, she's built and sold a business, helped hundreds of women bring their ideas to life, and developed a particular talent for finding interesting people, unexpected places, and opportunities worth exploring.
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These days, she's dreaming up Founder Field Trips, curating international Immersions, and working with founders to turn their most ambitious ideas into something real.
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If it exists at With Mari, there's a good chance it started with Mari saying, “Okay, so I have an idea.”
Head of Operations
Dean Milenkovic
Dean is the guy who figures out how to turn Mari's ambitious ideas (and yours) into something that actually works.
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With over a decade of experience spanning startups and multimillion dollar brands, he brings the technical expertise and problem solving skills behind With Mari's Custom Builds.
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From interactive tools and custom business platforms to entirely new digital experiences, Dean leads the technical development, integrations, and implementation that bring each project to life. He's also the operational mind keeping With Mari running behind the scenes.
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Mari dreams up the possibilities. Dean figures out how to build them. Charlie supervises.
Community Manager
Charlie
Charlie is a chocolate Lab with nearly three years of experience in morale and absolutely no intention of slowing down.
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He attends every meeting he can, greets every founder like a long lost friend, and holds strong opinions about midday swims.
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His core responsibilities include fetch, quality control on all snacks, and reminding the team that no deadline is worth skipping a walk.
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He's also a seasoned international traveler and has never missed a day of work, mostly because he goes everywhere the team goes.
Curiosity First, Always
We believe the most interesting things happen when you're willing to try something new.
Sometimes that means stepping saying yes to an unexpected adventure. Other times, it means taking a big idea and seeing just how far it can go.
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Either way, we're big believers in getting curious, giving things a try, and seeing what happens.
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Your Next Good Story Starts Here
What Fuels With Mari
VISION
We envision a world where women follow their curiosity, embrace new experiences, and feel empowered to explore what's possible.
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A world filled with more meaningful connections, unexpected adventures, ambitious ideas brought to life, and a little less business as usual.
​MISSION
​To create experiences and bring ideas to life that inspire female founders to step outside their routines, connect with fascinating people, explore new possibilities, and discover what happens when they're willing to find out.​
VALUES
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Curiosity, connection, creativity, freedom, and a willingness to FAFO.
These values guide everything we create, from the adventures we curate and the people we bring together to the ambitious ideas we help founders bring to life.
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We believe in asking questions, trying new things, and making room for a little more adventure along the way.
A Series of Very Interesting Decisions
A few big leaps, several countries, one very enthusiastic chocolate Lab, and a whole lot of curiosity.
Here's how a series of “What if?” moments turned into the With Mari you know today.
2021
The Beginning of Her Brand & Co.
Mari co-founded Her Brand & Co. with a big idea: make entrepreneurship education and support more accessible to women building businesses of their own.
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What started as an education platform grew into programs, partnerships, and a global community of female founders.
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2022
Quit the Job. Booked the Ticket.​
Mari left her corporate career to go all in on entrepreneurship and started living and working around the world.
France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and a few unexpected stops along the way.
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Turns out, experiencing different places and meeting interesting people would become a pretty important part of the story.
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2023
Small Business. Big Partnerships.
Her Brand & Co. continued growing through collaborations with organizations including NY NOW, Goodwill, and the Greater Women's Business Council.
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The business was reaching more women, creating new opportunities, and seeing just how far the original idea could go.
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2024
Built it. Sold it.
After reaching nearly 10,000 entrepreneurs across 27 countries, Her Brand & Co. was acquired by Full Tilt Consulting.
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That same year, Mari and Dean welcomed Charlie, their chocolate Lab, into the family.
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One chapter closed. A whole lot of possibilities opened up.​​
Enter With Mari
January 2025
Hello, With Mari!
Mari launched With Mari to work more closely with female founders through personalized consulting.
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The business began with a focus on helping women create clearer strategies, stronger systems, and more structure around their businesses.
It was the beginning of a more collaborative, hands on way of working with founders.
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Spring 2025
A Little Business. A Little Lake Como
The first Founder Immersion brought female entrepreneurs together in Italy for a week of local discoveries, meaningful conversations, and experiences designed to spark new perspectives.
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It was the evolution of something Mari had been dreaming about for a long time.
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Summer 2025
From Big Ideas to Actually Making Things Happen.
Client work evolved into more collaborative, hands on projects.
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With Mari began working alongside founders to turn their ideas into tangible solutions, taking on more of the creative and implementation work.
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Turns out, making things happen is a pretty fun part of the job.
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Fall 2025
Officially a Certified Woman Owned Business.
With Mari earned its Women's Business Enterprise National Council certification.
An exciting milestone for a business built around championing women and their ideas.
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Winter 2026
A Family Business. Officially.
Dean joined With Mari full time to lead operations and help bring increasingly ambitious projects to life.
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The wife and husband (yes, purposefully in that order) team was officially in business.
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Charlie had already appointed himself Head of Morale.
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Spring 2026
Two Months in Italy. Two Founder Immersions. One Very Well Traveled Dog.
The team spent the summer in Italy hosting two Founder Immersions, exploring extraordinary places, meeting local female founders, and creating experiences that brought women together through curiosity and discovery.
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And yes, Charlie came along for the adventure.
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Summer 2026
What If We Actually Built That?
After years of working alongside entrepreneurs and hearing their ambitious ideas, With Mari began quietly creating custom digital products and business platforms for a select group of clients.
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Custom Builds became a new part of With Mari, bringing together creative problem solving, experimentation, and a love of making interesting things happen.
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Fall 2026
Introducing Founder Field Trips.
With Mari brought its love of immersive experiences a little closer to home with the launch of Founder Field Trips.
One day adventures featuring fascinating female founders, unexpected local discoveries, and hands on experiences designed to get women out of their routines and into something interesting.
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Fall 2026
FAFO Takes the Stage.
What started as a personal philosophy became something Mari couldn't wait to share with a room full of people.
The Art of FAFO took the stage, encouraging founders to embrace curiosity, experiment more, overthink a little less, and see what happens when they're willing to find out.
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Because some ideas are simply too good to keep to yourself.
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To Be Continued...
We've Got a Few Ideas.
Some are already taking shape. Others are still in the “Wouldn't it be interesting if...” stage.
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And if the last few years have taught us anything, it's that the best stories often start when you're curious enough to find out.
