Her Play

Forget polished playbooks and sanitized lessons—this is a business memoir and career journey rooted in lived experience, not theory. It’s the raw, unfiltered story of a woman who began as a casino dealer and went on to sell her startup in one of the fastest exits in the industry. What if the greatest gambles are not on the cards — but on the life you dare to build? Her Play is a business and leadership memoir that challenges the notion of luck and exposes how resilience is built long before outcomes are visible. From casino floors to tech exits, it offers an unconventional blueprint for high-stakes leadership. Written by Karolina Pelc, an exited founder and former casino dealer, this is not a book about success after it happens. It’s about the years before anything looks like success—the "messy middle" where decisions are made without guarantees and movement matters more than proof. Karolina Pelc wasn’t born into boardrooms. Her story began on the casino floor in post-communist Poland, launching a two-decade journey across cruise ships and continents before she founded, scaled, and sold her disruptive startup to FanDuel in one of the industry’s fastest exits. But this is no sanitized start up manual. In this fiercely honest debut, Pelc plunges readers into the chaos and the power plays of an unconventional path. Before the headlines, she operated in environments where every decision was irreversible—balancing the scrutiny of high rollers, the complex dynamics of international business, and the private battles fought in silence. Alongside the visible work ran a deeper internal reckoning. Through raw stories of gritty encounters, psychedelic insights, and the weight of generational trauma, Karolina examines how intuition is rebuilt after doubt and how identity shifts under sustained pressure. She proves what most people miss: Your unconventional past is not a liability. It is your unfair advantage. This book is for those who: Are building ambitious careers without a linear map. Are standing on the edge of a decision that could change everything. Are navigating leadership, identity, and pressure in silence. Want insight grounded in lived experience, not templates. More than a chronicle of milestones, Her Play reveals the internal mechanics of risk-taking and confidence. Drawing on the HerPlay mindset framework, Karolina shows how to turn your history into your competitive edge and master the art of engineered serendipity—making your own luck one bold move at a time.