RACHEL ROMER BUILT GUILD INTO A $4.4 BILLION UNICORN. AFTER ROMER SUFFERED A STROKE AT 34, BIJAL SHAH WILL NAVIGATE ITS NEXT CHAPTER

RACHEL ROMER remembers lying on the ground on a warm August evening last year, watching as darkness descended around her.

- EMMA HINCHLIFFE

She had been sitting on her outdoor patio in Denver, where she liked to unwind from long days as the CEO of Guild, the $4.4 billion education and upskilling startup she co-founded. Suddenly, she fell. She could barely move her right arm or leg, and night was closing in.

Romer, heading up one of the world's most valuable female-founded startups and a mother of two, had suffered a stroke at 34 years old.

The right side of Romer's body was immobilized, but her mind was running at full speed.

She lived in a close-knit neighborhood with family nearby; her ex-husband was next door with their twin girls but too far away to hear her soft cries for help. "I decided at some point to try to save some energy because I could tell I wasn't projecting much noise," she says.

Romer had one hope: She knew her aunt walked her dog past the house most mornings. She closed her eyes and waited for dawn.

She awoke to the sound of birds chirping and to her aunt, out for her morning walk earlier than usual. As a nurse, her aunt immediately recognized the signs of a stroke. "She was shocked that I was talking, Romer says.

Paramedics rushed Romer to the hospital, where she would spend the next three months.

The stroke and ongoing recovery reshaped Romer's life-and the future of her company.

Guild had always tried to develop a path forward for American workers, but Romer's ordeal forced her and her team to contend with the startup's own future and gave them new insight into the challenges they've been reckoning with all along.

NEARLY NINE MONTHS later Romer wheels into a conference room at Guild's Denver offices. She's dressed for ease and comfort in a Guild sweatshirt and leggings, plus a mood-boosting bright blue manicure, as she navigates life in a wheelchair, or sometimes with a cane or walker. Her hair is close-cropped, growing back after three brain surgeries.