- Crain's 40 Entrepreneurs Under 40
- Inc. Magazine 30 Under 30
- Entrepreneur Magazine — Emerging Entrepreneur Semi-Finalist
- MBA · AI & Tech Executive · CMO
The short version
Kathryn Kerrigan founded her first company at 23 with $30K — Kathryn Kerrigan Footwear, one of the first dot-com fashion e-commerce brands — and scaled it to a $10M business before selling it to Amazon. Along the way she earned national recognition from Inc. Magazine, Crain's Chicago, and Entrepreneur Magazine.
She took that operator's education to Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd., leading initiatives in the e-commerce and technology space and securing $20M in capital for transformation work — then founded UnKommon Revolution, where she has spent nearly a decade guiding Fortune 2000 companies and government agencies through AI and digital transformation.
Why "unKommon"
Kathryn's view is that most transformation fails for boring reasons: no executive alignment, no governance, no honest measurement. UnKommon Revolution's market-tested methodology attacks exactly those failure points — proper executive alignment, effective project governance and measurement, and best-in-class platforms from leading providers — with a focus on AI, ML, and generative AI that automates and optimizes business processes to drive growth and profitability.
Her experience spans Fortune 500s to SMBs across e-commerce, retail, distribution, discrete and process manufacturing, high-tech electronics, and professional services — with deep technical fluency in machine learning, NLP, and computer vision paired with real P&L accountability.
In her words
"Large enterprise integrations used to take years, armies of consultants, and millions of dollars. AI agents are about to do in weeks what legacy systems could not accomplish in decades."
"I did not build businesses by waiting for permission. I built them by taking risks before I felt ready."
Beyond UnKommon
Kathryn is also the founder of Encourage Resources, a workforce consultancy helping organizations understand, support, and utilize neurodivergent talent — and a frequent speaker on AI in business, entrepreneurship, digital transformation, and women in tech. For speaking and media inquiries, get in touch.