--- title: "Built, Then Verified: What Our WBENC Certification Means to Me" description: Vericence Founder Alexis Bell reflects on earning WBENC certification, building a global AI engineering firm, and finding true work-life harmony. image: https://www.vericence.com/hubfs/Untitled%20Design%20(18).png --- [Skip to content](https://www.vericence.com/vericence-insight/built-then-verified-what-our-wbenc-certification-means-to-me#main-content) [![vericence.com](https://www.vericence.com/hs-fs/hubfs/794f98fb4243bdfcda0089eef3e6a07594df0756.png?width=3243&height=394&name=794f98fb4243bdfcda0089eef3e6a07594df0756.png)Homepage](https://www.vericence.com) - [What We Do](https://www.vericence.com/home) - [AI-Powered Software Engineering](https://www.vericence.com/services/ai-powered-software-engineering) - [Cloud Engineering Services](https://www.vericence.com/services/cloud) - Industries - [Healthcare](https://www.vericence.com/industries/healthcare) - [Technology](https://www.vericence.com/technology-ai-ecosystems) - [Financial Services](https://www.vericence.com/industries/financial-services) - Services - Enterprise Engineering - [Salesforce](https://www.vericence.com/salesforce) - [Oracle](https://www.vericence.com/oracle) - [SAP](https://www.vericence.com/sap) - [Quality Engineering](https://www.vericence.com/quality-engineering-services-ai-driven-testing-assurance-vericence) - [Cloud Engineering](https://www.vericence.com/cloud-native-engineering-modernization) - [AI Engineering](https://www.vericence.com/ai-engineering-advisory-production-grade-enterprise-ai-vericence) - [About](https://www.vericence.com/aboutus) - Insight - [Blog/Case Studies](https://www.vericence.com/vericence-insight) - [Career](https://www.vericence.com/careers-at-vericence) [Contact Us](https://www.vericence.com/contact-us) - [What We Do](https://www.vericence.com/home) - [AI-Powered Software Engineering](https://www.vericence.com/services/ai-powered-software-engineering) - [Cloud Engineering Services](https://www.vericence.com/services/cloud) - Industries - [Healthcare](https://www.vericence.com/industries/healthcare) - [Technology](https://www.vericence.com/technology-ai-ecosystems) - [Financial Services](https://www.vericence.com/industries/financial-services) - Services - Enterprise Engineering - [Salesforce](https://www.vericence.com/salesforce) - [Oracle](https://www.vericence.com/oracle) - [SAP](https://www.vericence.com/sap) - [Quality Engineering](https://www.vericence.com/quality-engineering-services-ai-driven-testing-assurance-vericence) - [Cloud Engineering](https://www.vericence.com/cloud-native-engineering-modernization) - [AI Engineering](https://www.vericence.com/ai-engineering-advisory-production-grade-enterprise-ai-vericence) - [About](https://www.vericence.com/aboutus) - Insight - [Blog/Case Studies](https://www.vericence.com/vericence-insight) - [Career](https://www.vericence.com/careers-at-vericence) [Contact Us](https://www.vericence.com/contact-us) ![](https://www.vericence.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Untitled%20Design%20(18).png?width=1200&height=630&name=Untitled%20Design%20(18).png) # Built, Then Verified: What Our WBENC Certification Means to Me ![Alexis Bell](https://www.vericence.com/hs-fs/hubfs/1765474720159.jpeg?width=48&height=48&name=1765474720159.jpeg) Alexis Bell October 15, 2026 Another ordinary morning, with me finishing my first client call before anyone else in the house awoke. I wake earlier than I used to, a habit motherhood installed and running a company made permanent. Lunches were packed. My kids were mid-negotiation over who gets to hold which stuffed animal, and I was half-refereeing when my phone beeped with an email. The subject line: **WBENC: WBE - Approval Letter. Our certification from the Women's Business Enterprise National Council** had been approved. Vericence was now officially a certified woman-owned business. I didn't stop to celebrate. I took the kids to school, the way I do most mornings. But somewhere between the drop-off and that first meeting, it hit. Ten months. That's how long there has been a Vericence. ## **The business of verification** WBENC certification is considered the gold standard for women-owned businesses. It isn't a form you fill out. An outside organization examines your company, including ownership, operations, management, and control. They attest that it is genuinely at least 51% owned, operated, and controlled by a woman. In our case, the math was simple: I started Vericence, and I run it every day. There's something fitting about this milestone for us in particular. At Vericence, we describe our work as engineering digital trust. Clients bring us the systems their businesses depend on, and our job is to design them, build them, and verify they achieve their business objectives. Verification is our discipline. It's the difference between "we think it works" and "we know it does." So I'll admit I felt a certain symmetry when the certification came through. Someone outside our walls looked closely at who owns this company, who leads it, and who makes the decisions, and attested that it's true. We're in the business of verification. This one verifies something about us. ## **What ten months actually looks like** I founded Vericence in November 2025. Ten months later, we're a team of about eighty people across the United States, India, and Canada, delivering AI, cloud, quality, and enterprise engineering for clients in healthcare and other complex industries. Said out loud, that sounds tidy. The year was not tidy. It was twelve- and twenty-hour days. It was building teams in three countries at once. It was to-do lists that didn't have a bottom, and decisions that couldn't wait until I felt ready to make them. I procrastinate less than I ever have in my life, not because I became more disciplined in some abstract way, but because there was simply no room left for it. I do the hardest thing first. Every day gets structured with intention, because unstructured time is the one resource I truly can't afford. ![Untitled Design (19)](https://www.vericence.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Untitled%20Design%20(19).png?width=1200&height=630&name=Untitled%20Design%20(19).png) People sometimes ask how I balance all of this with raising young children. I've stopped using the phrase "work-life balance." Balance implies every responsibility gets an equal share, measured out fairly, and that's not how any of this works. The phrase I use instead is work-life harmony; the pieces don't get equal time, but they fit together into something that holds. For me, harmony has bookends. It starts with taking my kids to school. It runs through a long, focused day leading Vericence. And it ends back at the dinner table and the bedtime routine. My hobbies and my social life orbit my children now, and I've made peace with that, because those are the two roles that drive me most: mother and founder. ## **The part these articles usually leave out** Here's what I need to say plainly, because pieces like this one so often skip it. I did not do this alone. There's a tempting story about the founder who runs a growing technology company while raising small children. That she's discovered some secret formula, that she's superhuman. This is not true. Behind my ten months is my family and a leadership team at Vericence that carries real weight every single day. Building a company takes discipline and personal commitment, but it also takes help. Nothing meaningful gets built without it. Our team at Vericence is incredible, and we simply would not be where we are without them. I’m fortunate to work alongside people I can count on, individuals who bring a true ownership mindset and consistently go the extra mile. You often hear leaders talk about the importance of hiring smart people to think for themselves, but thanks to the team I have today, I finally understand just how crucial that really is. I especially don't want other moms to read this and conclude they aren't doing enough. If you're doing it with less support than I have, you're doing something harder than I am. That deserves to be said out loud. ## **The only woman in the room** I don't think I'm exceptional because I'm a woman leading a technology company. But I'd be pretending if I said I don't notice how often I'm the only woman in the executive meeting, or at the industry table. Women in business are still too often cast as relationship builders and account managers rather than technical experts, strategists, and final decision-makers. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's Annual Business Survey, women own just 22.9% of U.S. employer businesses, and in technology leadership, the rooms are emptier still. I want that to change, and I'd rather be part of changing it than just remark on it. WBENC certification opens real doors for Vericence, like supplier diversity programs, new enterprise relationships, and procurement conversations we couldn't enter before. We intend to walk through them. And I hope that every women-owned technology company that becomes a little more visible makes it a little easier for the next woman to picture herself in these rooms. Not at the edge of the table, but deciding what gets built. ## **Ten years from now** Someone asked me recently what I hope my children take from all of this if they read about it one day. My honest answer had nothing to do with revenue, or growth, or certifications. Mostly, that I love them. ![IMG\_2213 (1)](https://www.vericence.com/hs-fs/hubfs/IMG_2213%20(1).jpg?width=5184&height=3456&name=IMG_2213%20(1).jpg) That I was doing all of this — the company, the three countries, the eighty people, the long days — and I still ate dinner with them almost every night. I still took them to school most mornings. I want them to grow up happy, loved, confident, and curious. I want them to learn, by watching, that their possibilities aren't limited, that meaningful work can be demanding and fulfilling at the same time, and that success doesn't have to come at the expense of the people you love. WBENC verified who owns and leads this company, and I'm grateful for it. But that other thing — the one my kids will verify for themselves, over years, at the dinner table? That's the certification I care about most. And it's the one I intend to keep earning every day. ## Share this post [mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vericence.com%2Fvericence-insight%2Fbuilt-then-verified-what-our-wbenc-certification-means-to-me](mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vericence.com%2Fvericence-insight%2Fbuilt-then-verified-what-our-wbenc-certification-means-to-me) ## Keep reading ### [![illuminated gear](https://www.vericence.com/hs-fs/hubfs/066fed976bbb744e1ff908d334cbd9373bf7d73f149f0ef83517bb43a3ac2593.png?width=1536&height=1024&name=066fed976bbb744e1ff908d334cbd9373bf7d73f149f0ef83517bb43a3ac2593.png) When An AI Pilot Works But Still Can’t Scale](https://www.vericence.com/vericence-insight/when-an-ai-pilot-works-but-still-cant-scale) ### [![Illustration of System One AI models making fast decisions](https://www.vericence.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Gemini_Generated_Image_qvx3x9qvx3x9qvx3.jpeg?width=2816&height=1536&name=Gemini_Generated_Image_qvx3x9qvx3x9qvx3.jpeg) Decide, Don't Generate: Jev, Laya and the Rise of System One Models](https://www.vericence.com/vericence-insight/decide-dont-generate-jev-laya-and-the-rise-of-system-one-models) [![Vericence](https://www.vericence.com/hubfs/image%201.png)](https://www.vericence.com/) #### Services - [AI Engineering](https://www.vericence.com/ai-engineering-advisory-production-grade-enterprise-ai-vericence) - Enterprise Engineering - [Quality Engineering](https://www.vericence.com/quality-engineering-services-ai-driven-testing-assurance-vericence) - [Cloud Engineering](https://www.vericence.com/cloud-native-engineering-modernization) #### Industries - Banking, Financial Services & Insurance - [Healthcare & Life Sciences](https://www.vericence.com/industries/healthcare) - [Communications, Media & Entertainment](https://www.vericence.com/technology-ai-ecosystems) #### Company - [About Vericence](https://www.vericence.com/aboutus) - Leadership - Life at Vericence #### Insights - Case Studies - [Blogs](https://www.vericence.com/vericence-insight) - Whitepapers - Point of View #### Careers - [Open Positions](https://www.vericence.com/careers-at-vericence) - Students & Graduates [in](https://www.linkedin.com/company/vericence) x [▶](https://youtube.com/@vericence?si=AVHooMACiYYpd702) [ig](https://www.instagram.com/vericence/) f Privacy Policy Terms & Conditions Cookie Policy ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Alexis Bell", "url" : "https://www.vericence.com/vericence-insight/author/alexis-bell" }, "dateModified" : "2026-10-15T01:25:29.948Z", "datePublished" : "2026-10-15T01:25:29.000Z", "headline" : "Built, Then Verified: What Our WBENC Certification Means to Me", "image" : [ "https://www.vericence.com/hubfs/Untitled%20Design%20(18).png" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://www.vericence.com/vericence-insight/built-then-verified-what-our-wbenc-certification-means-to-me", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://www.vericence.com/hubfs/794f98fb4243bdfcda0089eef3e6a07594df0756.png" }, "name" : "Vericence" } } ```