Allowlist

This episode was originally published on December 7, 2021, on Lauren's podcast Life Snacks, but we wanted to bring it back for you.

Lauren chats with Kara Goldin. Kara Goldin is the Founder and CEO of Hint, Inc., best known for its award-winning Hint water, the leading unsweetened flavored water. Her first book, Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters, was released October 2020 and is now a WSJ and Amazon Best Seller. In this conversation, Kara shares her journey building the $150 million business that is @hint. With no experience in the beverage industry, Kara was on a mission to do what she was told was impossible - successfully bring delicious unsweetened water to market…successfully. Kara shares:

• How she overcame her diet coke addiction and lost 40lbs by adding fruit to water at home
• The importance of taking the time to identify what you want in life
• Why competition can be a good thing
• The power of paying attention to the things you put in your body
• How to figure out what motivates you
• Why you should surround yourself with people that are different than you
• The importance of always staying curious
• The true meaning of success

https://karagoldin.com/

This episode was originally published on Feb 8, 2022, on Lauren's podcast Life Snacks, but we wanted to bring it back for you.

 Today we’re chatting with Alli Webb. Yes, that's the woman who invited the life-changing concept for a hair salon that only does 40-dollar blowouts...also known as Drybar. Alli is the cofounder of Drybar, Squeeze, Okay Humans, and Becket + Quill. This woman is the definition of a serial entrepreneur who has forged her unique pass to success. In this conversation, we discuss:

• How Alli started a 100 million dollar business with no college degree or business background
• The importance of following what feels fun & taking risks in your 20s
• Societal pressures to have it "all figured out" at a young age
• How to give up control
• Navigating public hardships
• Why things never go as planned & how to be okay with that
• A message to young people to slow down & stop rushing through life
• Why successful businesses are built out of necessity

https://www.instagram.com/alliwebb/?hl=en

This episode was originally published on May 5, 2022, on Stef’s podcast PM School, but we wanted to bring it back for you.

Have you ever wondered if there were clues from childhood pointing you in the direction you’ve always been meant to head?

Sara Cullen wrote a letter to herself in third grade saying she wanted to be a baker when she grew up. After spending her early career in Agriculture and Sustainable Food, she made her way to Venture for America, a program that exposed her to the world of E-Commerce and leveraging digital data to build products that customers are obsessed with. 

GEM is a VC-backed platform for nutrition founded on the principle that food is medicine – the first application is a re-imagined multi-vitamin bite that you take daily to improve your overall health and nourishment. 

Listen to this episode if:

• You like to experiment with businesses and baked goods.
• You want an inside look into building not one, but two, better-for-you consumer brands in the food and beverage space.
• Have thought about how you’ll get your business off the ground financially and want lessons from a pro who has raised multiple rounds of venture capital and talks about why she went that route versus other options available?

https://dailygem.co/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cullensara/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/gemvitamins/

https://www.instagram.com/daily_gem/

This episode was originally published on  March 10, 2022, on Stef’s podcast PM School, but we wanted to bring it back for you.

Brittany Stewart is the co-founder and President of Burst Oral Care, an affordable, subscription oral care company recommended to you by your most trusted dental professionals.  

She and her co-founder Hamish are turning an outdated industry dominated by dinosaurs upside down. Because everybody brushes their teeth, but nobody’s really given us a reason to think twice about it. Historically, it’s been oral care...minus the care. As two passionate dental nerds with a knack for never settling, they found this lack of innovation unacceptable.

In this episode of PM School, Brittany shares how her career informed her building of Burst and her approach to capital-raising, team-building and so much more. 

Listen to this episode if: 

• You want business advice from a woman who’s in the top 25 of all women ever in terms of capital raised.
• You want business advice from a woman whose business has partnered with almost all of the Kardashian family.
• You believe in making every single employee of your business a shareholder and caring about their success as much as you do your own and the success of your investors.
• Those first three bullet points blew your mind and you want to know the secrets to Brittany’s success.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyjlawson/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/burstoralcare/

https://www.instagram.com/burstoralcare/

This episode was originally published on January 27, 2022, on Stef’s podcast PM School, but we wanted to bring it back for you.

Our next guest, Lauren Schulte Wang, is the CEO & Founder of Flex…

Lauren founded Flex because she wanted to help people with periods thrive, which means menstrual products are just the beginning.

She and her growing team believe in a world where “vagina” isn't a bad word, where trans men and non-binary bleeders are part of the conversation, and where nobody is turned away from essential period care due to their financial situation.

Lauren emancipated herself from her family at 15, paid her way through college by working full time in high-tech, was inspired by a friend to finally go after her big idea of starting a better for you period care company.  

In this episode we talk about her journey scraping together $50K over multiple years and jobs to ultimately bootstrap the first days of Flex,  going through Y Combinator - Silicon Valley’s iconic (mainly) tech incubator, and thoughtfully raising over $7M to help the world have better periods. I’m personally obsessed with both Lauren and my Flex products and know you will be too.

Listen to this episode if: 

• You’ve wondered about the process of applying to an accelerator program as a launching pad for your big idea.
• You’ve wondered how raising capital and building a growing, profitable business go hand-in-hand
• You’re interested in the behind the scenes thoughts of an entrepreneur who’s raised multiple rounds of capital with different leverage in each round, but never lost sight of the fact that her purpose is to serve - her customers and her team.

https://flexfits.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-flex-company/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenschulte/

https://www.instagram.com/flex/

This episode was originally published on October 14, 2021, on Stef’s podcast PM School, but we wanted to bring it back for you. 

Have you ever wondered what it would take to launch your own clothing line? No experience in fashion or design? No problem... Stef sits down with Halfdays Co-founder Ariana Ferwerda to take you behind the scenes from inception to launch to scale-mode with Halfdays, a for-women, by-women ski & outdoor gear brand.

Ariana Ferwerda is the co-founder and CEO of Halfdays, a skiwear brand for the modern woman. She and her two co-founders were frustrated with the state of the current outdoor apparel industry, specifically due to the male-dominance that existed. They set out to create a brand that was built by women for women, creating gear that is much more approachable, inclusive, and fun than the rest of the industry. 

Ariana runs the operational and business development side of Halfdays, including growth and fundraising. Prior to starting Halfdays, she spent her early career working in market intelligence and retail consulting. She graduated with her undergrad and graduate degree from the Eli Broad College of Business @ Michigan State University, focused on Market Research and Analytics. She was born and raised in Michigan and currently lives and works in Denver, CO.

https://www.halfdays.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/halfdays

https://www.linkedin.com/in/arianaferwerda

https://www.instagram.com/halfdays

This episode was originally published on  August 19, 2021, on Stef’s podcast PM School, but we wanted to bring it back for you. 

It’s been called the SOUL Cycle of Yoga. With all-inclusive studios in San Francisco & Chicago, Ritual Hot Yoga is disrupting the yoga industry. 

From the yoga studio experience to the practice to the business philosophy that provides for sustainable full-time careers in yoga, you’ve never felt anything like this before. 

Just because the yoga industry in the United States has only operated one way–contract instructors; cookie-cutter classes; inconsistent class quality; and a cut-throat grab for market share that places profits over people–does not mean that it always will be that way. Ritual Hot Yoga is the start of the revolution.

Today I have the honor of introducing you to my friend and one of the most badass women I’ve ever known: 

• She has been involved in the yoga industry for over ten years, first as a teacher and later as a brand manager for Lululemon.
• What she noticed was a gaping hole: yoga teachers could not make a living doing what they loved. To change all of this, she founded Ritual Hot Yoga in 2015.
• Ritual is premised on the idea that teachers should be compensated for their talent by having the opportunity to work full-time, and offered salaries and benefits that reflect the skill and dedication it takes to teach.
• She is making it her life's work to revolutionize the yoga industry and we couldn’t be more excited to have her here.

Meet Lindsey Kaalberg, CEO & Founder of Ritual Hot Yoga on this episode of PM School. 

https://ritualhotyoga.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/ritualhotyoga/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsey-kaalberg-05670223/

https://www.instagram.com/ritualhotyoga/

Sit down with Julie Kucinski, founder of Wile. Co-conspirator to entrepreneurs, founders, outliers, and changemakers. Julie has focused her work years of work on positioning, innovation, brand story & market opportunity for top CPG brands. 

In this episode, we get into: 

1. The need in the market for products and supplements for women over 40
2. The truth about women's hormones
3. The power of holistic medicine

Connect with Julie and learn more about Wile.

• https://www.linkedin.com/company/wilelife/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliekucinski/

Sit down with Brianda Gonzalez: Founder and CEO of The New Bar – the alcohol-free drink discovery platform you’ve read about in Forbes that features Curated products, tips, and tools to help you drink less and who’s tasting room and retail location you can now visit in Venice, California:   

In this episode, we get into: 

1. How The New Bar defines “Post-Alc” and why that’s more flexible than you might expect
2. The curated experience you get when you go into The New Bar and are looking for a beverage to go with a specific occasion 
3. How The New Bar is curating a vibe where you can still have the “drunk debauchery” but just without the alc.

Connect with Brianda and The New Bar team! 

• https://thenewbar.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianda-gonzalez/