Lauren Wang is the founder and CEO of The Flex Company, a sustainable period-care brand built around its signature Flex Disc.

Expect to hear about:

– The Reluctant CEO: How she pitched others to be CEO, before realizing she had to step into the role.

– Inside Y Combinator: Interviewing with Sam Altman and the Demo Day investor frenzy.

– Surviving the SVB Collapse: How she got through the Silicon Valley Bank collapse by covering payroll from her savings.

– The Retail Bet: Why she pushed into Target against her investors' advice, and how it paid off.

– Working With Her Husband: How her husband became CFO and how they prevent business from creeping into their personal lives.

Find Lauren on:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenschulte/ 

Katie Sturino is the founder and CEO of Megababe, the body-care brand behind Thigh Rescue, its signature anti-chafe stick, plus deodorants, sweat powders, cooling products, and more.

Expect to hear about:

– Launching while Divorcing: Why she decided to launch Megababe during a difficult personal time.

– The Today Show Sellout: How a man-on-the-street TV segment sold out 20,000 units in a few weeks.

– Five Years, Zero Ads: How Megababe grew through PR, organic social, and retail before spending a dollar on paid.

– Buses and Low-Fi TV: Why she leaned into NYC buses and deliberately low-fi network TV spots.

– Ready to Sell: How a strategic partner could scale Megababe and take the brand to the next level.

Find Katie on:

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-sturino-10b62023/ 

Shizu Okusa is the founder and CEO of Apothékary, a liquid herbal supplement brand that bridges Eastern medicine with modern Western science. Before then, she launched, scaled, and exited JRINK, a juice brand.

Expect to hear about:

– Losing a Co-Founder: Why her best friend's exit from JRINK was emotionally difficult and changed how she approaches partnerships.

– The Form Factor Bet: Why she built Apothékary on liquid tinctures when pills, powders, and gummies rule the supplement space.

– $1M a Month on TikTok: How TikTok Shop became one of Apothékary's top channels.

– AI's 12-18 Month Window: Why she gives AI tools that long to live up to the hype before widespread frustration sets in.

– The Long Game: How she closed $19M in 12 months while most investors chased AI.

Find Shizu on:

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/shizu-okusa-87a25415/

Andrei Negrau is the co-founder and CEO of Siena AI, an empathic AI agent that handles customer service for consumer brands. He built luxury apparel Shopify brands out of Romania starting in 2014, exiting his first in 2018, then founded the SMS marketing startup Cartloop before betting everything on AI-native CX.

Expect to hear about:

– CX as the Edge: Why he texted stuck-at-checkout shoppers instead of outspending rivals on ads.

– Burning the Boats: How one GPT-3 test convinced him to kill Cartloop and rebuild on AI from scratch.

– Beating Human Agents: Why his empathic AI consistently outscores human reps on CSAT.

– Turning Cancels Into Saves: How DTC brands use Siena to catch why subscribers churn and save them.

– Never the Cheapest: Why he refuses to run Siena on the cheapest AI models to cut costs.

Find Andrei on:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/negrau/ 

Scott Dancy is the founder and CEO of Azuna, an all-natural odor eliminator built on Australian tea tree oil.

Expect to hear about:

– The Month the World Changed: How COVID took Azuna from $12K to $105K a month almost overnight.

– Betting the Farm on Glass: How a $1M glass jar order became the brand's turning point.

– Landing Josh Allen: How the NFL MVP went from a "maybe" to Azuna's official partner.

– Built to Sell: Why Scott has planned to exit Azuna since the start and is now building data rooms to prepare.

– Starve the Ego, Feed the Soul: Why Scott thinks the best founders let others win instead of chasing the spotlight.

Find Scott on:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-dancy-189542200/ 

Ari Murray is the Chief Digital Officer at Salt & Stone, the premium personal care brand reinventing the deodorant category. Previously, she was Chief Growth Officer at Sharma Brands, where she led growth across dozens of consumer brands.

Expect to hear about:

– Law School to Ecom: Why she dropped out of law school, then found her footing at an ecom brand.

– Working With Celebrity Brands: What working at Kourtney Kardashian's and Halsey's beauty brands taught her.

– Agency or In-House: Her take that growth marketers should start brand-side first, and how kindness to agencies pays off.

– BFCM Sprint: What it was like joining Salt & Stone just weeks before the biggest sales weekend of the year.

– Top-of-Funnel Bet: Why she's pushing past a Meta-heavy mix into new channels and taking a longer view of the customer.

Find Ari on:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/arimurray/ 

Hari Ranganathan is the Chief Digital Officer at KilgourMD, a dermatologist-founded brand tackling hormonal hair loss in women. Previously, he held senior roles at celebrity-backed brands like Haus Labs and The Honest Company.

Expect to hear about:

– Engineer to Marketer: How a Dartmouth mechanical engineer fell in love with the world of ecommerce and analytics.

– Lean and Hybrid: Why 60+ person teams in Ecom circa 2012 are giving way to agile in-house leads plus agency support.

– Love the Game: Hari's take that since growth marketing changes so fast, you have to love the game to stay on the cutting edge.

– Leading the Team: His lesson that senior marketing leaders have to maiximize each team member's strengths instead of stretching star players too thin.

– A False Dichotomy: Why he stopped believing brand and performance marketing are separate.

Find Hari on:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/harinarayanan-ranganathan-9387961b/ 

Jess Hauff is the General Manager of PrettyLitter, a cat litter brand acquired by Mars in 2021 that uses silica crystals that change color to flag early signs of health issues in cats. 

Expect to hear about: 

– A Decade in Madrid: Why Jess spent 10 years in Spain before returning to the U.S., and the work culture differences she noticed. 

– Leading the Merger: How Jess steered PrettyLitter's integration with Mars, and how she got the "soft tissue" of culture right. 

– Becoming a Household Name: How PrettyLitter is expanding into retail and why being on physical shelves builds trust that DTC alone could not. 

– Building the Leadership Team: The key hires Jess has made – CMO, head of retail sales, R&D leader – to take PrettyLitter to the next level. 

– There's No Playbook: What Jess changed her mind on after 20 years in ecom, and why she's learning to trust her instincts more. 

Find Jess on: 
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicahauff/

Daniel Brady (DB) is the co-founder and co-CEO of Orita, an AI segmentation platform that helps DTC brands target their maximally addressable audience across email, SMS, and direct mail. 

Expect to hear about: 

– From Neuro to AI: Why DB left a career in neurobiology after graduating Harvard after realizing he enjoyed the faster pace of startup work. 

– Consulting to Product: How DB ran Orita as an ecom consulting shop for years to find the AI-related services worth productizing. 

– No Shortcut at Scale: Why brands with multi-million-profile CRM lists can't replace real human CRM expertise with plug-and-play LLMs. 

– Evaluating AI Vendors: DB suggests don't focus on AI to start. Focus on the most painful problem you have to solve anyway, then ask if AI can help. 

– Where AI Hits Hardest Next: Why DB sees inventory, demand planning, and fraud prevention as Ecom's biggest near-term AI opportunities. 

Find DB on: 
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmbrady01/ 

Will Nitze is the founder and CEO of IQBAR, a functional health CPG brand built around protein bars, electrolyte mixes, mushroom coffee, and more.

Expect to hear about:

– Harvard Connections: Why Will scraped Harvard's red book to send thousands of alumni his first fundraising emails.

– Value Over Premium: Why Will optimizes for units sold over revenue, and how value pricing unlocked Walmart, Costco, and Sam's Club.

– The Hub and Spoke Model: How a flat 15-person team and agency partnerships scale revenue without scaling the team.

– Marriage and Business: What it takes to run IQBAR alongside his wife Jessica, who serves as CMO.

– Built to Sell: Why hitting profitability mattered more than any milestone, and how exiting brands now must have $100M+ in sales.

Find Will on:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-nitze/