She Leads with Carly

*TW: Discussion Around Eating Disorders* 

Ali is the Co-Founder and CEO of Oat Haus, the first-ever spreadable granola. Think the texture of nut butter, but the warm, familiar taste of granola.

She founded Oat Haus back in 2018 as it was part of her recovery journey from disordered eating.  She searched high and low for a nut-free spread that resonated with her, but couldn't find one. She came up with the idea to create one out of oats, and Granola Butter was born! 

Now, Oat Haus is sold at over 5000 retailers across the country, including Whole Foods Market, Publix, Amazon, and Target.  

All of this earned her a much deserved 2024 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award. 

Prior to Oat Haus, she thought she would be a doctor. She studied pre-med at the University of California Berkeley, earning a bachelors degree in nutritional sciences. While she ultimately decided not to become a doctor, she did continue in digital health for a few years, working in marketing at Doximity - the largest medical network. 

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Past guests include Margaret Wishingrad, Kara Goldin, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Ann Miura Ko, Linda Avey, Sarah Leary, Becky Sauerbrunn and many more.

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In Today's Episode with Ali Bonar We Discuss:
1. Early Childhood Passions + A Love for Food 
2. Forgoing A Medical Career at Berkeley
3. Choosing a Career Path + Trusting Your Inner Voice 
4. Struggling with Eating Disorders + Journey to Recovery
5. Founding Story of Oat Haus 
6. Choosing a Co-Founder
7. The Power of Delusion and Grit in Entrepreneurship
8. Early Mistakes: Pressed Juice Story 
9. Branding + Naming Lessons
10. Power of Content Creation + Building Community 
11. Empathy and Intuition are Superpowers 

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Camilla is the Chief Operating Officer of Brex, a financial technology company that provides a range of financial services tailored to startups and other businesses. Camilla started at Brex as the Head and VP of Finance before transitioning into the operations side as the SVP of Global Operations before becoming the COO. 

Prior to Brex, Camilla worked at Kraft Heinz,  one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world - starting as a Finance Analyst to becoming the Director of Finance in just under 3 years and she also worked in private equity and portfolio management in Brazil. 

Camilla earned her Bachelors degree in Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering from Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica - ITA, one of the most respected and top universities based in Brazil specializing in aerospace science and engineering. She was one of only 6 women in her graduating class of 120 people. 

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Past guests include Margaret Wishingrad, Kara Goldin, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Ann Miura Ko, Linda Avey, Sarah Leary, Becky Sauerbrunn and many more.

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In Today's Episode with Camilla Matias We Discuss:
1. Growing Up in Brazil + Studying Mechanical Engineering in a Male-Dominated, Military University
2. Embracing Challenges Throughout Life 
3. Optimizing for Financial Independence in Early Career
4. Navigating Early Career: Focus on Learning + People + Cold-Emailing 
5.  Transitioning from Finance to Management at Kraft Heinz
6. Self-Advocacy in Career Growth - Rising Up the Ladder in 3 years
7. Standing Out To Your Advantage
8. The Value of Plan A, Plan B, Plan C in Operations 
9. Operations at Brex
10. Find Your Superpower and Invest In It

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Lauren is is the Founder and CEO of Love and Chew Brands, a company that manufactures and distributes tasty protein cookies that are clean-label and guilt-free - with a mission to be the leader in the plant-based dessert category and to inspire ppl to enjoy healthier and more sustainable treats. 

Love + Chew products are on the shelves of over 2,000 stores including Sprouts, Costco, Whole Foods Market, and Amazon, reaching millions of consumers across the US.

Before founding Love+Chew, Lauren worked in the sustainable energy technology space – in an energy storage startup called Stem and at Tesla, in business development, operations and sales roles. 

Lauren earned her Bachelors degree in Sociology, International Studies and Mandarin from the University of California San Diego. 

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Past guests include Margaret Wishingrad, Kara Goldin, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Ann Miura Ko, Linda Avey, Sarah Leary, Becky Sauerbrunn and many more.

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Show Notes: 
1. Intro of She Leads + Lauren Chew 
2. Lauren's early influences + growing up 
3. Navigating the Corporate World and Discovering Passion for Sustainability
4. Transition from Side-Hustle to Full-Time Business
5. Bootsrapping
6. Running a Consumer-Packaged Goods Co Do's and Don't's
7. The Process of Rebranding
8. Balancing Work and Family Life
9. Challenges of Entrepreneurship
10. Overcoming Self-doubt as a Solo Female Founder

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Elena is the Chief Financial Officer of Toast, the cloud-based, end-to-end technology platform purpose-built for the entire restaurant community - a public company now valued close to $15Bn. 

With more than 30 years of experience in leading large global organizations, Elena’s expertise ranges from scaling and building SaaS businesses into multi-billion organizations and building and leading large-scale operational teams. 

Before joining Toast, Elena has held senior roles in finance working as the VP of Finance at Charles Schwab, SVP of Finance and Strategy at Salesforce and the Chief Financial Officer at Zendesk, where she helped scale the company to over $1 billion in annual revenue.

Beyond operating, Elena is an investor and sits on the board of PagerDuty. She is also the chair of the Berkeley Haas School Board, serving as the first woman to serve in this role; Berkeley is also where she earned her Bachelors degree in Accounting. 

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Past guests include Margaret Wishingrad, Kara Goldin, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Ann Miura Ko, Linda Avey, Sarah Leary, Becky Sauerbrunn and many more.

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Show Notes: 
1. Intro of Elena Gomez + She Leads
2. Elena's Upbringing 
3. The Value of Education and Work Ethic
4. The Influence of Elena's Grandfather in Accounting
5. Early Career at Charles Schwab + Navigating Imposter Syndrome
6. Transition to Salesforce
7. Authenticity and Self-Advocacy in the Workplace
8. Becoming CFO + Building Trust in Relationships
9. Top 3 Skills in a CFO: Storytelling, Communication, Customer Obsession
10. Advocating for Diversity and Inclusion
11. 'Work-Life Balance' as a Mother and CFO

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Jessica is the CEO and Founder of Ours, a virtual couples therapy and premarital counseling platform with a mission to make couples therapy more accessible, destigmatized and designed for young, modern couples. 

Beyond Ours, Jessica also founded Access Distributed to help students at non-target recruiting schools land internships in finance and she also founded BLAZE Skincare, a personalized skincare brand. 

However, Jessica’s career started in finance. She received her Bachelors in accounting and finance from Georgetown University, and then started her professional career as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley and The Carlyle Group before receiving her MBA from Stanford Graduate School of business. 

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Past guests include Margaret Wishingrad, Kara Goldin, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Ann Miura Ko, Linda Avey, Sarah Leary, Becky Sauerbrunn and many more.

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1. Welcome to She Leads 
2. Growing Up & Jessica's Upbringing
3. Odd Jobs
4. Choosing a Major in Finance and Business + Lessons Learned
5. Power of Mentorship and Selecting the Right Ones
6. Going to Business School and Having No Regrets
7. Starting Access Distributed
8. Founding Ours 
9. Breaking Down the Stigma of Couples Therapy 
10. Choosing a Cofounder: Kindness + Communication + Trust
11. Lessons in Fundraising: Fake Excitement

Audrey is the Founder and CEO of Curious Cardinals, an edtech company committed to empowering K-12 students to discover and pursue their passions with the guidance of college mentors.

Audrey started Curious Cardinals as a freshman at Stanford University, where she was pursuing a Bachelors degree in History. Just one year later, the COVID pandemic hit and Audrey ultimately decided to take a leave of absence from Stanford to pursue Curious Cardinals full time. Today, Curious Cardinals is a global community of over 500 top college students mentoring kids across the globe.

Audrey has spoken on CNN, the Today Show and in Forbes to share her vision to create a community of lifelong learners and doers. She was also recognized in the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 Education and Youngest category.

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Past guests include Margaret Wishingrad, Kara Goldin, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Ann Miura Ko, Linda Avey, Sarah Leary, Becky Sauerbrunn and many more.

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Show Notes:

1. Welcome to She Leads
2. Audrey's Upbringing in NY
3. Audrey as a Child - being her own CEO
4. Going to Stanford with a 10-year Plan
5. The Impact of COVID
6. Founding Story of Curious Cardinals 
7. Power of Project-Based Learning and Mentorship in Education
8. Fundraising for Curious Cardinals and Lessons Along the Way
9. The Role of AI in Education Today
10. The Power of Resilience and Continuous Learning

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Jenna is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Harper Wilde, the DTC brand disrupting the $16 billion dollar intimate apparel industry with its mission to take the B.S. out of Bra Shopping. Jenna and the brand have been recognized as Forbes 30 Under 30 and Inc. Top 100 Female Founders as well as has been featured in Vogue, the New York Times, The Today Show, Good Morning America and many more. 

Jenna received her B.A. in Biological Sciences and Economics from Cornell University and her MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she met her co-founder, Jane Fisher, and together began working on bringing Harper Wilde to life.

Prior to Harper Wilde, as you will soon learn, Jenna worked as a consultant at Deloitte for 4 years as well as at digital health startups in a product management role. Her passion for healthcare and biology stemmed largely from her upbringing, coming from a family of physicians. 

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Past guests include Margaret Wishingrad, Kara Goldin, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Ann Miura Ko, Linda Avey, Sarah Leary, Becky Sauerbrunn and many more.

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Show Notes:

1. Welcome to She Leads
2. Jenna's upbringing in a family of physicians
3. Choosing a career path 
4. Transitioning from consulting to startups 
5. Discovering the idea for Harper Wilde
6. The Power of self-belief and taking risks 
7. Navigating pushback from investors with Harper Wilde
8. Building a strong company culture
9. Lessons learned as an entrepreneur
10. Defining success and personal growth

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**TW: disordered eating, depression, and anxiety**

Gracie is an American figure skater. She is a 2014 Olympic bronze medalist, a six-time Grand Prix medalist, and a two-time U.S. national champion - both in 2014 and 2016. 

In 2017, Gracie stepped away from the ice to seek help for her mental health around depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and an eating disorder. She recently returned to the ice and has become a passionate mental health advocate - leading her to be featured in Sports Illustrated, the Players Tribune, the NY Times, the HBO documentary, Weight of Gold, and countless other news sources. 

Given her experience, she’s led countless mental health initiatives and was recognized with the 2022 Bell of Hope Award. She recently released her memoir "Outofshapeworthlessloser: A Memoir of Figure Skating, F*cking Up, and Figuring It Out…" - a book in which she provides the most authentic and deep look into her journey from growing up to where she is today - navigating the world of being in the public eye as an elite figure skater. 

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Past guests include Margaret Wishingrad, Kara Goldin, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Ann Miura Ko, Linda Avey, Sarah Leary, Becky Sauerbrunn and many more.

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Show Notes:

1. Welcome to She Leads
2. Gracie's Childhood and Upbringing
3. Gracie's Spirited Personality 
4. Her introduction to Figure Skating 
5. The Pressure and Subjectivity of Figure Skating 
6. Finding Out She's an Olympian
7. The Pressure of Body Image in Figure Skating 
8. Promoting a Healthier Body Image in Sports 
9. Creating a Safe Space for Athletes - Mental Health
10. Quieting the Inner Critic 

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Raegan is the Co-Founder and former CEO of Aden + Anais – the baby lifestyle brand globally recognized for its high-quality design-driven muslin swaddles and baby products.

Her success with Aden + Anais earned her reputable awards, including being named as one of EY’s Entrepreneurs of the Year, considered one of the most prestigious business awards in the world. 

Aside from founding,  Raegan sits on the board of directors for Hopeland, a nonprofit created to help children who are separated from their family. 

Raegan is the author of "WHAT IT TAKES: How I Built a $100 Million Business Against the Odds", where she shares the story of her entrepreneurial journey from the kitchen table to a 100 million dollar global business. 

Perhaps even more impressive than all of this, Raegan is the mother to four beautiful daughters! 

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Past guests include Margaret Wishingrad, Kara Goldin, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Ann Miura Ko, Linda Avey, Sarah Leary, Becky Sauerbrunn and many more.

Follow us on Instagram | LinkedIn | Youtube

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Show Notes:

1. Welcome to She Leads
2. Raegan's Childhood and Upbringing
3. Moving to New York
4. Founding Story of Aden + Anais 
5. Challenges in Co-Founder Relationships
7. Choosing the Right Co-Founder
8. Scaling a Global Business
9. Hiring and building a team based on core traits 
10. Navigating the Challenges of Raising Capital
11. The Power of Resilience and Hard Work
12. Finding Happiness and Living in the Moment

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With over twenty years’ of experience, Charlene is one of the most renowned celebrity and editorial stylists of her generation. Her work has graced the Oscars, the Golden Globes and the Cannes Film Festival, earning her recognition in Vogue, Vanity Fair, Forbes and many more.

She has become a recognized stylist and designer  for today’s icons including Sofia Vergara, Eva Longoria, and Vince Vaughn.

Charlene’s styling endeavors span from high profile magazines to television, for clients such as Coca-Cola, Tissot, L’Oreal, Remy Martin, Nike, Guess and T-Mobile.

Now, Charlene is also the founder of Stone Windsor. Largely inspired by her daughter, Stone – Charlene has created a childrenswear collection that offers premium, eco-conscious clothing for kids (even the picky ones) that is designed for an easy and seamless mix and match styling process.

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You can find Charlene's styling website here: https://charleneroxborough.com/

You can follow Charlene's Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/charroxstylist/?hl=en

Shop and explore Stone Windsor here: https://stonewindsor.com/

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Past guests include Margaret Wishingrad, Kara Goldin, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Ann Miura Ko, Linda Avey, Sarah Leary, Becky Sauerbrunn, Miriam Haart and many more.

Follow us on Instagram | LinkedIn | Youtube

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