High Stakes Growth

Mariam Naficy is the founder and CEO of Arcade, an AI platform that turns text or image prompts into real products like jewelry, rugs, ceramics, and more. Before Arcade, she founded Minted, a crowdsourced design marketplace that sells stationary, and Eve.com, the first online cosmetics retailer in the U.S.

Expect to hear about:

– Selling Before the Crash: How Mariam sold Eve.com weeks before the dot-com collapse in an all-cash deal.

– From Near-Death to 9 Figures: Why she nearly returned investors' money before Minted became a $300M brand.

– Small Guy to Goliath: How her tactics evolved from scrappy underdog moves to big-company plays.

– Leaders that Stay: How she built a culture at Minted that retained key leaders for 10+ years.

– Prompt to Product: Inside Arcade's bet on AI-designed goods that lets artists scale their work.

Find Mariam on:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariam-naficy/ 

Arin Schultz is the Chief Growth Officer at Naturepedic, the organic, non-toxic mattress and bedding brand built for healthier sleep.

Expect to hear about:

– The "Hostile Takeover": How he became head of marketing with no marketing experience and tripled revenue in five years.

– Inside the Industry: The shift to organic, how rising interest rates dampen demand, and why a COVID-style "stay home" effect could lift sales.

– Pulling Back From Google: Why he's shifting spend toward top-of-funnel brand building, and the lift it delivered.

– UGC Over Polished Ads: How creator content replaced $100K studio shoots at a fraction of the cost.

– Earning Team Loyalty: His advice for execs on why earning your employees' loyalty is better than buying it (even if that can work too).

Find Arin on:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/arin-schultz-581a132b/ 

Meenakshi Lala is the CEO of UrbanStems, a premium DTC flower and gifting brand. She spent 20 years in fashion retail before joining UrbanStems as COO in 2022 and transitioning to CEO in 2023.

Expect to hear about:

– Fashion to Flowers: Why she left fashion for fresh-flower gifting and the new challenge it brought.

– The Perishable Problem: Why delivering fresh flowers on a deadline is one of DTC's hardest operational jobs.

– Brand Over Paid: Why she shifted from paid-heavy buying to brand-building and partnering with brands like Levain Cookies.

– Beyond Google: How discovery is shifting to ChatGPT, Claude, Reddit, and Snapchat, not just search.

– The Gifting Cycle: Why she meets customers where their gifting habits are, from once-a-year buyers to monthly senders.

Find Meenakshi on:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshilala/ 

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/