Georgina Gooley and Jenna go behind the scenes at Billie to discuss how they’re designing best-in class body care and shaving products specifically for women, creating content through the female gaze, and slashing the Pink Tax. We also walk through formative lessons Georgina’s learned through her life and career on discovering and stepping into your voice as well as the importance of acknowledging and savoring life’s daily joys.
Penn Mutual's Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Eileen McDonnell joins Moe Abdou to discuss her approach to leadership, innovation, and to look at the decade ahead in insurance and financial services.
Zachariah Reitano and Jenna discuss how a life-threatening health scare at only 17-years-old planted the seed to launch Roman and empower men take long-term control of their health. We chat about the process of eroding and eventually breaking taboos, replacing men’s former health habits, often influenced by norms of toxic masculinity, with an open and proactive mindset, as well as the importance of raising awareness for and coming together around sexual health concerns rather than delegating top...
Kapil Gupta, MD rejoins Moe Abdou to dig deeper into the essence of mind mastery & the pursuit of Truth - both in life and in business.
Melody Koh and Jenna discuss her goal to create the most impactful product offering for startups in NYC at NextView Ventures. We then walk through the lessons Melody learned at Blue Apron during the company's ascent from 20 to 500 people in four years, including: How to constantly reinvent yourself with a growth mindset, a weekly time management system that syncs your priorities with your energy management, and daily questions to ask yourself to escape inertia.
Kevin Lavelle and Jenna walk through Mizzen+Main’s founding story, from storing inventory in their bedroom to partnering with Houston Texans defensive end JJ Watt and being sold in over 450 retailers across the U.S.. Kevin shares how gratitude helped him survive early challenges, like days when no sales were made, and navigate growing pains when customer demand outpaced the team's ability to scale processes. He opens up about his personal evolution as a leader, how vulnerability directly influen...
Peter Reinhardt and Jenna discuss how Segment empowers companies to harness their data to create a ‘memory’ of every customer. We walk through the team’s journey to product-market fit, from deciding to drop out of MIT through the turning point when Y Combinator Founder Paul Graham asked them: 'So, you have spent $500,000 and you have nothing to show for it?' Peter then shares how increasing their customer pain meter to an 11 out of 10 helped them land on the right product. We close chatting abou...
Rachel Drori and Jenna walk through Daily Harvest’s founding story, from making and delivering everything on her own to acquiring over 100,000 subscribers across the U.S. Rachel takes us behind the scenes at Daily Harvest’s R&D lab, explains the evolution of the frozen food aisle, and why her team believes that frozen food is the perfect way to solve our modern eating dilemma. We also chat about key lessons from Rachel’s journey including: Having the self-restraint to pitch only a small part...
Kathryn Retzer, Patrick Herning, and Jenna discuss 11 Honoré's multi-dimensional approach to advancing the size inclusive fashion movement, from assembling the world’s best luxury brands on a single discovery platform to equipping upcoming brands with the resources and support they need to add to their collections. We walk through how the team is fundamentally shifting the view of the size inclusive customer by demanding that she is seen and respected as a woman who deserves equal access to luxu...
Moe Abdou is joined by Kapil Gupta, MD to explore deeper why only a few can make greatness routine.
Rei Wang, Yasyf Mohamedali, and Jenna discuss how Dorm Room Fund is creating a national community and platform to support student entrepreneurs and investors. Rei and Yasyf share a few of the moon shot ideas student founders are pursuing (including a robotic kitchen!) and their commitment to social impact, as well as how DRF aims to design the program to foster that spirit of courage and fearlessness. Rei and Yasyf give us an inside look into their new product VCWiz, which acts like a founder’s ...
Munjal Shah and Jenna discuss Health IQ’s pivot from being a daily health quiz into a life insurance company and how they’re helping the health conscious save up to 33% on their life insurance. For the core of our conversation, we walk through five counterintuitive strategies Munjal chose not to scale up to 140 people and how they helped Health IQ grow even faster: Meeting and interviewing nearly every candidate, the company wide daily stand-up they’ve maintained where every person contributes, ...
Christiane Lemieux and Jenna discuss how The Inside is evolving design so we can change our homes to reflect our lives. We chat about the future of customization, e-commerce, and why entertainment is crucial to retail 2.0. We then walk through Christiane's entrepreneurial journey from founding Dwell Studio to partnering with Wayfair, how those lessons influence her building The Inside, and tips to avoid shiny objects syndrome while still leaving room for serendipity. We also discuss her personal...
Jake Kassan and Jenna chat about MVMT’s founding story, from maxing out their credit cards to launch their all or nothing Indiegogo campaign to becoming the leading millennial watch brand. Jake shares entrepreneurial stories, beginning from his first business selling lollipops in elementary school to running two e-commerce startups as a teen, and how they prepared him to help scale MVMT to $80 million in revenue in five years without any outside investment. Reflecting on those experiences, we br...
George Arison and Jenna discuss Shift’s founding story and the team’s plan to become a full service platform to purchase, finance, sell, and maintain our cars. We then walk through key lessons George has learned articulating and refining company values, finding the right CEO-COO relationship, and how to evaluate investors and board members and build a strong relationship with them.
Jennifer Bett Communications' Founder Jennifer Bett Meyer, Managing Director Melissa Duren Conner, and Jenna discuss how today’s leading consumer startups like Lunya, M.Gemi, and Parachute are navigating the new world of PR. Jennifer and Melissa break down the elements of quality PR that drive ROI, emphasize the importance of startups deploying a diverse press strategy, covering multiple story angles and publications, and explain how to assess media outlets based on how they can help you connect...
Semil Shah and Jenna chat about his first investments at Haystack in companies like Hired and Instacart and reflect on a few big bets taken by portfolio companies like Wag and Managed by Q. We discuss the realities of being a VC such as creating space to let your mind rest so your subconscious can kick in evaluating investments, the challenge of saying ‘No’ to founders you admire, as well as developing a willingness to concentrate risk to have outsized returns. We also walk through key insights ...
Carolyn Witte, Felicity Yost, and Jenna discuss how Tia aims to be women’s translator to understand their healthcare and their latest feature The Vagina Benefits, specifically designed to decode women’s unique health insurance needs and rights. Carolyn and Felicity share Tia’s efforts changing the conversation around women’s health and how they’re finding the right voice, balancing the education of your OBGYN with the comfort and trust of chatting with your best friend. We also walk through thei...
Acclaimed management thinker, Morten Hansen joins Moe Abdou to explore the modern framework for individual greatness at work.
Peter Rahal and Jenna discuss how the nature of RXBAR's product influences their culture — the constraints are a mindset — and why every team member makes bars. We chat about your values as your constitution and how to turn them from principles into practice. Peter walks us through the company’s founding days from making bars in his parents’ kitchen to running the business from his cell phone for 18 months and feeling miserably uncomfortable clawing for growth as a CPG brand. We also dive deep i...
Alexa Buckley, Sarah Pierson, and Jenna discuss how Margaux is creating staple shoes for every part of a woman’s life. The founders share their decision to take the leap after hearing Sheryl Sandberg ask: What would you do if you weren’t afraid? and the challenges of founding the company right after college, especially partnering with a manufacturer; Their best tips are not to acknowledge perceived differences, keep persisting, and have a credible advocate - whether it’s an advisor, investor, or...
Leila Janah and Jenna discuss the Give Work philosophy of shifting the view of people in poverty as those who need aid to equal producers and participants in the global economy. Leila shares how the future of work will require everyone to be an entrepreneur and how Samasource is training people to be competitive in the digital world. We discuss launching and building her skincare company LXMI with a Give Work mentality, incorporating as a B Corporation, the power of supply chain, and why we need...
Mike Natenshon, Adam Lynch, and Jenna discuss the evolution of Marine Layer from Mike trying to recreate the comfort of his favorite college t-shirt to the company’s expansion into 33 profitable stores. Mike and Adam reflect on memories from the early days, including purchasing their 1969 VW van as their delivery truck, hand-delivering orders to Levi’s, and improvising when they received an order of sweatshirts without any neck holes. We then chat about their experiential retail philosophy, Mari...
Kevin Thau and Jenna discuss how he tries to manufacture serendipity as a VC at Spark Capital. Kevin shares key lessons on how to explain your product with teaching moments when you’re pioneering a new market, the importance and challenge of being disciplined with your product roadmap, and why “more”- money, products, or people - doesn’t solve problems. We also chat about how to resist the reflex to react to a current situation like a past one, why there is no one-size-fits-all model to successf...
Valerie Macaulay, Meredith Melling, Molly Howard and Jenna discuss La Ligne’s mission to empower women to look, feel, and be confident in themselves. The founders chat about building a next generation fashion brand, emphasize the importance of rooting La Ligne in community and inclusivity, and touch on their collaborations with brands like Cuyana, Rockets of Awesome, and Jennifer Fisher Jewelry. We dive into lessons learned from their interview series La Bande including, coming to work with a fu...
Raegan Moya-Jones and Jenna discuss aden+anais' founding story and how Raegan got the business to $1 million in revenue while working full time at The Economist and building the business after putting her daughters to bed between 8:30 p.m. to 3 a.m.. We chat about the realities of launching a business, including surviving the exhaustion, how startups influence personal relationships and the way Raegan accepted and approached this. Raegan opens up about co-founder partnerships, shares an exercise...
Manish Chandra and Jenna discuss Poshmark’s newest product Poshmark Stylist Match: the first ever voice-enabled social styling engine. We chat about the journey from personally recruiting their first 800 customers to working closely with a community of 3 million seller stylists who spend an average of 25 minutes a day on Poshmark. Manish walks us through the state of social commerce and how the team views Poshmark “as a new kind of social mall that brings communities of people across the country...
Bianca Gates, Marisa Sharkey, and Jenna chat about the text that kicked off Birdies and how they launched their first collection by the holidays (including storing their first set of inventory at Marisa's house!). Bianca and Marisa explain how they got in touch with their first manufacturer and what production partners are looking for before working with a startup. Bianca shares a helpful tactic to get to know your network in order to leverage it: Every day between work and home stop and have a ...
Susan Tynan and Jenna discuss how Framebridge is making framing as simple and cost-effective as it’s ever been and the team’s goal to give everyone who sees something beautiful the opportunity to relive the moment. Susan discusses the scaling challenges of distinguishing what you will never change and what you have to change in order to grow. At Framebridge one value always reigns: “Each one is the only one — because for our customers it is.” We chat about how Framebridge navigated blowing past ...
Tammy Sun and Jenna discuss how companies are currently offering fertility care benefits and the ways Carrot is helping them customize programs to offer their employees. Tammy emphasizes that fertility care is a fundamental part of human healthcare not solely women’s healthcare and shares Carrot’s hope that fertility benefits become synonymous to other healthcare benefits, like vision and dental. We walk through tactics for companies to approach and implement fertility benefits at their companie...
