Rae (Rachael) Stott is the Co-Founder and CEO of Refraction, a nonprofit innovation hub in Northern Virginia, and a systems thinker working at the intersection of entrepreneurship, ecosystem, human behavior, and organizational design. Her work focuses on what most startup ecosystems overlook: the internal operating system of founders and the invisible dynamics that shape how companies actually function.

Rae helps leaders understand how stress moves through an organization—how it concentrates, distorts decision-making, and ultimately impacts culture, performance, burnout, and growth. She brings a practical, non-clinical lens to concepts like nervous system regulation, boundaries, burnout, and resilience, translating them into tools founders can actually use in real time.

Rae’s approach is grounded in lived experience as an operator, ecosystem builder, and advisor to early-stage companies. She has worked closely with founders navigating high-stakes growth, ambiguity, and pressure, and has seen firsthand how unaddressed stress patterns at the leadership level ripple into teams, strategy, and outcomes.

Her work is especially relevant for founders, operators, and ecosystem leaders who want to build not just successful companies—but sustainable ones, where performance and wellbeing are not in conflict.

Rae is known for her ability to name what’s happening beneath the surface, with clarity, precision, and a deep respect for the complexity of both people and systems.