Stairway to CEO

• How childhood and jobs and internships during high school and college taught Rachel a lot of skills that she uses today
• What led to the idea of Snowe and why she knew it was the thing she would be passionate about and would move forward with to build a brand
• Why Rachel and her team spent two years researching, surveying, testing, and sourcing to lay a solid foundation before launching the brand
• How product development began in their very own home with ideas of how to innovate a hand towel to be what they envisioned as better than other hand towels on the market
• Why they launched the brand with a big press event in New York City that created a brand experience to communicate the vision and the voice of the brand and why that gave a lot of credibility and success to Snowe right from the start
• What advice Rachel has when hiring and how her team makes sure that a new hire fits well within the company culture
• What fundraising was like for Snowe, especially from Rachel’s perspective, being a female, and how they overcame roadblocks
• What advice she has on overcoming challenges and what some of the challenges they have faced were, including a leak in the warehouse on their first Black Friday
• How she continues to grow and learn as a leader and what is next, new, and exciting coming up for Snowe

SnoweHome.com

“Ultimately I realized I wasn't a thousand percent passionate about this particular idea. And that was something that was really valuable to learn. When we started Snowe...I really then knew the difference of, OK, this is it. This is the passion that you kind of need to go forward.”

“What's interesting about the home space is it’s not until you're thrust into your first apartment in your twenties that you even really think about it. You grow up thinking about fashion, cultivating your style and how you dress yourself at an earlier age often, but for home you have no idea what your aesthetic is, no idea what's out there.”

“A big initial brand vision that I believe we've stayed true to was that things get messy, life gets messy. It's OK. How do we create a brand and celebrate those moments around it?”

“Speaking to customers is the most valuable information you get. And you have to kind of piece together the art and the science.”

“We brought it to life and did a press launch event that ended up being really successful and helped us get some great press out of the gate that I think then just helped build credibility from the start.”

“Our team and our people are our most important asset. I think anyone is remiss to think you can launch a company, build a brand, and do everything on your own.”

“I think the biggest thing is also thinking through ‘What's your vision? What is your ultimate vision for the company? How do you see yourself getting there? What are the steps in between? How do you start to envision that? And then how do you learn to articulate that?’”

“The same way founders have to be passionate about what they're doing, investors have to be excited and passionate.”

“You can't over prepare for what you're about to embark on. And all the things that happen or all the things that go wrong, you know, they're going to happen. It's part of the journey.”

“The qualities that are most important are perseverance and resilience.”

• How growing up in the south with a large family, and hard working parents taught her a lot about starting a business and working hard
• Why Pree says that college taught her to think and how her studies and internships in law, politics, and storytelling led her non-traditionally down an entrepreneurial path
• How her time working with Emily’s List after college taught her not just about political campaigns, but also how to fundraise, how to launch campaigns, how to market, and even how to deal with failure
• How politics is actually what brought her out to Silicon Valley and where she learned her strengths and her passions and how they could come together in entrepreneurship
• Why she went to business school and how she then got a job at a startup hardware company which taught her everything about building a hardware technology startup from the ground up
• What led to the idea to starting Preemadonna and why she thought it was important to build a fun and smart experience for Gen Z, specifically
• What brought her to China where she gained a lot of market research and a good prototype to start with
• What Pree has learned about leadership and how she continues to pursue her passion to empower girls and women 
• What fundraising has been like for Preemadonna and what lessons have already been learned through the process
• What is next for Preemadonna and what advice Pree has for other founders and entrepreneurs

PREEMADONNA.com

“College taught me how to think and how to construct arguments and in some ways to tell a story about those arguments, which actually leads us down the path to entrepreneurship in a nontraditional way.”

“I wouldn't say there was one aha moment where I was like, "I'm going to build this device to decorate my nails, and I'm going to start Preemadonna." I would say I started to see all of these interesting moments come together for me.”

“I like to say we're going to be an eight year overnight success story. I incorporated the company in 2013 in my apartment, in stealth, with no money, and I filed our first provisional patent in August of 2013.”

“If you can take it and still have a smile on your face, like the next day, you don't get bitter. No one wants to invest in a bitter entrepreneur.”

“I believe that Preemadonna is that company and is that entity that is going to really power creative expression through really fun, interactive hardware and software experiences that are really going to power this audience of Gen Z young women. And I have learned that, like, I am just a vehicle for that.”

“I think I was far more impatient in the beginning. But now having worked on this for so many years, you get more patient.”

“I pitched over a thousand people to date. Over a thousand investors, both angels, bigger funds, smaller funds. And we really kind of built a network of investors.”

“Our mission is to really power creativity. And we think the creativity market is actually a one hundred and thirty five billion dollar market that spans multiple categories.”

“The reason my company isn't named Nailbot is because we have a bigger vision. And our vision is how do we delight and really make our customers so joyful with really unique experiences? And the nail is really the gateway to the body. That's how I look at it.”

“I would say just start small, get something going. Hack a prototype. There's nothing more powerful than a show and tell.”

• How Remi’s childhood was very unique and what life was like for her as a kid, including her obsession with freckles for as long as she can remember
• What brought her from wanting to be an orthodontist to then becoming an architect/interior designer before becoming a Founder/CEO and what other jobs and internships were learning experiences in between
• What it was like to walk through both a failed Kickstarter and being publicly mocked by Jimmy Kimmel when she was trying to launch the first iteration of Freck
• What she learned about taking on investors and how she was able to recover and move forward after a terrible experience with her first investors
• What happened when Remi focused hard for six months, gave it everything she had, brought on a business partner, and starting partnering with Instagram influencers in her marketing strategy
• How fundraising the second time around went for Remi and her business partner, Des, and what advice she has for others who are starting the fundraising process
• What’s next for Freck Beauty and what advice Remi has for those with an idea who are wanting to build a company and see their idea come to life

FreckBeauty.com

“You're able to find purpose in your work, regardless, and you're able to push the limits for yourself if you want to. And that's why I've definitely held in my career now.” 

“I always want our packaging to be like your vanity brag. More importantly than that, I want the end customer to feel represented... Your bathroom is your space. And I want our packaging to reflect that.”

“I went back to the drawing board, completely reinvented the product, which is what it is now. But yeah, definitely it's hard.”

“I was like, I'm giving myself six months and I'm going to hit it for six months. And I'm going to try everything I can… And in six months, if it's not changed, I'll walk from it, and it'll be a great learning experience. I'll be proud of myself either way. But then it took off.”

“When you're finding your business partner, especially if you're an early start up, find someone who really fills your holes, so you can balance each other out.”

“Start fundraising when you do not need to fundraise. Keep that leverage. You need the time to be able to analyze and feel yourself out and find the right fit for you as opposed to having a rush for cash flow reasons.”

“Find people who are so much smarter than you and are so much more dialed into their vertical and let them speak to you as a CEO.” 

“I think that my strongest skill actually as a manager is just putting people at ease and reminding everybody of the vision and why we're here and what our end goal is. And not to get wrapped up in little day to day annoyances that everybody has, whether you're in a startup or, you know, an established company.”

“Stick with yourself, know what you're doing, and if you are a new Founder, take the time to figure that out. Don't back yourself into a corner where you feel like you have to make decisions in a rush.”

• How her time working in politics taught her a lot, it also showed her that she was not made for politics
• What led her to a free ride to Harvard Business School, which she eventually quit in order to join a group of friends in New York City who were working on a start up
• How her time in tech led her to work on what we now know as Clear and how it was a pivotal moment 
• Why that love of human exchange as a creator and entrepreneur and also the desire to help people with their health journey led her to start SmartyPants with her husband 
• How they built their team at SmartyPants and why they did things differently than some potential investors thought they should
• How they grew organically and quickly using Amazon to sell their one SKU, when they knew they were truly on to something big, and how they handled their rapid growth
• What lessons Courtney shares regarding going into retail and why they did it the way they did, which really worked out well
• What advice she has for other Founders and anyone operating a company regarding healthy company culture, keeping family life healthy, and challenging the way things have been in the business world 

Shop.SmartyPantsVitamins.com

“I started getting these emails, and I was transformed by that moment of the human exchange because I'd been in tech for my career, at that point for ten years, and I'd never made a thing that a person uses.”

“If you could be a part of someone's health journey and also be a part of that human exchange that sounded really cool and really hard. And I like really hard.”

“We realized that we had kind of stumbled into a better solution that addressed all the things that got in the way of people taking their vitamins consistently and therefore getting the benefit. And that was really the aha moment.”

“The most important thing is do not try to get into a ton of doors, do a test in a small set of doors so that you can do online marketing for this. You can zip code target those people online, really let them know about your brand before they see you in the store. And you yourself can find out if it works.”

“You're sad because it's so a part of you and you worked so hard and you guys are collaborating, creating, co-creating this life together and doing all that. But also you love it so much that you want it to have the future it deserves. And I'm not the best custodian of that future.”

“The magic really is about the process. It's not about the endpoint.”

“Magic is you're out on the skinny branches. You don't know what's going to happen, but you have an instinct and a vision and a feeling and a drive and a commitment to doing what you're doing come what may. And that come what may is the part that makes it fun.”

“I'm going to fully be who I am, but I also don't have to solve every problem right now.”

“I now know what my contribution is, which makes me less intrusive when I don't have a contribution to make, but also willing to stand in my conviction when I have a contribution to make.”

“I do not want people working more than an eight hour day. Because I want them to have lives and be fulfilled people and have creative minds and go to museums and have time to see the world and be a fully contributing, breathing human being.”

“That moment was seminal for me because it taught me a lot of humility about stop acting like it is just you, because, by the way, it's not.”

• How growing up in Maine and having strong influences in her life led her to appreciate nature and also know from a young age that she liked to lead others
• What she learned during her two years teaching high school english with Teach For America and why she took a job in the business world after that with McMaster-Carr where she received invaluable experience in management
• What got her interested in the food and beverage industry, why she went to business school, and what brought her to intern at General Mills
• What brought Eliza to turning down a job opportunity to finding her mission in creating herbal products that could make a difference in people's lives
• How the first year of creating, branding, and selling her initial product taught her what she needed to change and helped her better understand what consumers would want, how to market it, and how to pitch to retailers and investors
• What challenges she had to face and overcome in the beginning of launching Sunwink and what she and her team learned from them
• How fundraising went for her and her Co-Founder, why she recommends having a Co-Founder, and what questions she recommends asking as a Founder
• Why she believes rest is so important and how authenticity within her organization has led to a stronger and healthier company culture that can work well together
• What’s next for Sunwink and where you can find their products and continue to watch them grow for years to come

Sunwink.com

“The culture of your organization is really important, arguably a lot more than what you're making and selling. The people that make up that team and what it feels like to go to work every day are, I think, a big player in how successful you'll be.”

“In a way, you're only as good as the people around you. And...the more you can get out of your own way and really put strong people around you and empower them, the better your team will be for it.”

“If I can get the taste better and if I can get the packaging better to grab people's attention to want to try to taste it, there's something about this category that I'm getting feedback on that people are really interested in.”

“The word Sunwink, to me, evokes joy and cheerfulness, and that's what I hope people take away from the product, too. So I think there's a feeling you get from the word.”

“The things that I've learned in the process and continue to take with me are to really fight against undervaluing yourself.”

“If an investor asks you something, and you're not ready to share that kind of information, you can say, "I'm not comfortable sharing that right now." And that's OK.”

“The best thing you can do is just piece out the conversations. If someone's really interested, you're going to have multiple conversations. You don't have to share all the details in the first 10 minutes of the call. The details should really start to come out in call two and call three. There's a buildup.”

“You have to rest. And it's the hardest thing. I'm constantly in an argument with myself about this, but like you have got to give yourself moments where you step away.”

“I think the sooner you can be honest with yourself about what your end goal is with your company, like what are you trying to build? Have that dialog with yourself and keep checking in. Because the sooner you can do that, I think the smarter you will be about making decisions along the way.”

“I always tell people, if you're thinking about doing it and you would look back in a couple of years and regret not doing it… You don't have another choice, because if you don't do it, you'll regret it.”

• How growing up in a family of doctors led to a real appreciation for nurses and doctors throughout her life
• What made her want to leave the small town in which she grew up and be in New York or LA, travel to Europe, and be a part of the world in some meaningful way
• How the desire to do things better has always been present throughout Louisa’s life
• Why she started a yoga clothing company after college and why she went into finance after that, instead of continuing to build her first company
• What her time in the finance world was like and what companies she got to see and work with and observe and learn from and why that shaped her even more to pursue a better way for consumers
• What happened with Claire’s that sparked the idea and created the curiosity for Louisa to innovate in a space that needed change and needed a better way and how her research, coupled with encouragement from her husband and a good friend got her started on the path to creating Rowan
• Where the idea for the name, Rowan, came from and why it fits so well with the brand’s mission and passion for this seminal moment of ear piercing
• What great advice she has on hiring and how she strives to create a healthy and positive team culture throughout the company
• Why she has found fundraising to be so beneficial, not just from the obvious raising of funds involved, but also for the clarity of goals and buy in from the team that it requires in order for it to be successful
• How Louisa led her team to take the challenge of COVID and turn it into a huge opportunity to expand into hundreds of Target stores and why that is a huge win for Rowan
• What kind of routine helps her stay patient, focused, and able to handle the demands of being a mother and a CEO

HeyRowan.com

“This is a seminal moment. This is a really important moment. It was an opportunity to have a moment with a friend or a parent or even with yourself. And don't we want to have great moments and remember them if we can? Because ultimately in life, that's what we look back on.”

“I think that is for us one of the really exciting things about building this business is that we're creating this moment and then we want to be a brand that remains true to that customer for the rest of her or his life.”

“I wanted to bring something that was accessible, but that was better and that was safer. And I also really liked the idea of creating a new work opportunity for nurses.”

“I think as a CEO, my most important job is to make sure that we are taking care of. So what does that mean? First of all, that we have access to growth capital and great support from an ideas standpoint, et cetera, but that I'm building a really good team.

“When you have employees and partners and teammates that feel ownership over what they're doing, there's a sense of joy and pride when things work, but a sense of accountability when they don't.”

“it's important to listen to understand and not to respond in interviews. So I really do try to ask a lot of questions and then I really do try to listen.”

“What is inefficient is after the multiple interviews done by different folks on the team to still have outstanding questions. It should be that you circle back and say, "Had an hour with this person, but here are the three things that I was left wondering about. Please make sure to ask them.’"

“The fundraising experience requires you to get your house in order. And it is not possible to do it alone well. You need your team involved because they need to buy into the projections that you are building out and talking about.”

“Your network is infinitely larger if you have great investors who also have large networks who are very interested in your success, not only because they know you and like you, but because they've actually invested in your business.”

“It is really helpful if you can get someone to give you really good feedback. And to not let it weigh down, but to try to learn from it.” 

“You have to keep a piece of you because you're constantly giving so much of yourself.” 

“Whatever system you have in place is absolutely perfect to yield the outcome that it's yielding. So if you're not getting the right answer, then something about the process that you have in place needs to change.”

• How his parents’ marriage was an arranged marriage, what brought them from India to the US, and what life in the Bay area was like as a kid
• Why he moved from an aspiring professional baseball player in college to an investment banker, working first as an intern at Union Bank of Switzerland and then working at the famous Donaldson, Lufkin, and Jenrette investment bank after college
• How after spending time in venture capital, then back to private equity, Neeraj wanted to become an business operator himself
• How a month consulting gig with TrueCar turned into seven and a half years and a huge opportunity to understand the inside of a business and how to thrive as a business operator
• What came about for him to become the CMO at TrueCar, furthering his career path to learn yet another aspect of a company that would help him later as a CEO
• What advice Neeraj has for leaders when it comes to working with different personalities and styles of responses to management, and why he’s learned to delegate over the years
• How he looks at recruiting and what he looks for when he is interviewing to hire key positions within the company
• How he took a step from his time at TrueCar to become the CEO of Byte and what special moment helped him realize the impact and importance of this company in the world
• Why he believes that a good leader delegates and lets others do their job, laying down ego, and thinking about the growth and health of the company with each decision he makes

byteme.com

“You're not going to build a great business unless you recruit great people and let them be. My job is to recruit great people. And when they need my help, I give them my help.”

“One thing that I've noticed is that CEOs and entrepreneurs and executives or whatever it is should constantly be showing their employees that they're in it, like they're deeply in it.” 

“Show the people that you're really caring about what they're doing.”

“One of the most important jobs for a CEO after they reach a certain stage is recruiting, if not the most important.”

“Your mind is always expanding and always thirsting for more knowledge, as long as you're willing to give it the opportunity.” 

“I want to grow this business, and I want to grow this brand to the most accessible and most affordable oral care brand in the world."

“If you're afraid to open your mouth, you're never going to find your voice.”

“We're changing people's lives. And so that has been the most powerful thing that I've gone through over the last year to understand how important what we're doing is for the world.”

“It might take a little bit longer because you're building from the bottom up rather than the top down. But you'll go there the right way because if you start to grow very fast, your experience is always there to save you.”

“I've seen this with early stage entrepreneurs. Stay healthy. Stay balanced. Because, you know, you can give 18, 19 hours a day for your work. And then if you ignore what's at home and you ignore that, it'll come back to bite you.”

“That's one thing I've learned is recruit great people and let them do their jobs.”

• How her best friend’s sickness in college led to a search for a better and safer way to use good household products and foods without the chemicals and perfumes and harmful ingredients that are in so many conventional products
• What Kelly and Allison did after graduating college that totally changed both of their lives and is now also changing the lives of Branch Basics consumers
• Why Kelly and Allison’s Co-Founder, who is also Allison’s Aunt Marilee, has been an incredible resource and consultant and asset in product development for the company
• How the three of them launched a website with a company store and discovered helpful content to deciding that they needed to build a brand
• How they had an opportunity to join an incubator program at the University of Virginia, which led to them meeting their future CEO, which led to a million dollar friends and family round
• Why a huge and hard lesson learned led to a stronger company and why doing the right thing was so important even though it was oftentimes difficult
• How they have been able to stay genuine throughout the whole process of building this company and why it’s ok to learn as you go
• What advice Kelly has for aspiring entrepreneurs who have a great idea and want to start a business

BranchBasics.com

“This whole experience has now led Marilee to be such an amazing asset to product formulation for us because we won't compromise on certain things because we know how it affects the chemically sensitive.”

“Our goal was how can we get Marilee's brain on the internet? It was not, how do we start a company to sell this product or that product? We had no business background.”

“Cleaning is an easier habit or easier product to change. You're not addicted to your cleaning products. It's not as hard to change as food, and it's not as expensive as an infrared sauna. And it makes such a huge impact on your air quality and your health immediately.”

“Our goal when we first launched our brand was to position it in a way that consumers would understand, so we made sure our spray bottles and our labels on that made sense to easily use it with the concentrate without having to get a measuring spoon out or figure out a ratio.”

“We were not going to go back out with something unless we knew it worked and it was actually really safe. Because even if something is safe, if it doesn't work people are going to end up resorting back to the toxic cleaners.”

“I think you figure it out as you go. I mean, I kind of like the fact that we didn't go to business school because we didn't think inside certain boxes or parameters, and we just kind of got creative and figured out as we went. And we stayed genuine to what felt right.”

“We want to be truth tellers. We want to not have a product that we're just trying to spin in a way to sell to you. We want to empower you to become your own better product advocate.”

“No one would willingly say, yeah, put these poisons in my products, yet we buy them every day because we trust that whatever is on the shelf is safe. And sadly, yes, we have to be educated.” 

“I think too often you can overanalyze and talk things to death and want things to look perfect or be perfect. Just start doing it and iterate along the way, and go in with the mindset of like, you're always going to be improving, you're always going to be testing and learning and making improvements. So don't let perfection hold you back from just getting started.”

• How having a love for building things was evident from an early age and continues to be a strong part of who Coulter is and the kind of entrepreneur he is
• Why his time at Cornell studying mechanical engineering became a great foundation for learning how to understand something and how to characterize it and see how it works, which is helpful now with plant science
• How his time building parts for high end cars, interning in photography, and working with a design agency taught him valuable lessons and also gave him even more experience as an entrepreneur
• How Coulter and his wife founded Quinn Foods, built it for ten years, with his wife still leading that successfully in the snack industry
• What led to his discovery that there is a much needed upgrade for healthy lawn care options, why this would be impacting, and what he was going to do about it
• How he used surveys and conversations with homeowners and potential buyers to learn what the needs were, how they could meet those needs, and what was effective in marketing, pricing, etc
• What fundraising was like and how unique his experience was with some great funds that have been a huge asset to Sunday
• What Coulter has learned as a leader, what advice he shares with others starting a business, and what is next for Sunday

GetSunday.com

“For me, it's about making things, and that stream is continuous from when I was old enough to use my hands all the way till now. And so that's the kind of entrepreneur I am.”

“When you have an entire team all feeling passion for something and all wanting to succeed at the same level, and there's that shared motivation, that's an unstoppable force.”

“I think one of the fundamental things I learned is that your confidence drives confidence in people you're with, and it's a slippery slope. Once you start to lose that and display your lack of comfort and confidence, that spreads like fire.”

“Our backyards are actually our third largest crop by land area. There's 40 million acres of yards. So it's tied with wheat. And that's ten times more than all the organic farms combined. So if you're thinking about the impact on agricultural scale, this is a huge piece of it.” 

“When you look at the kind of cultural practices on lawn care and property care, there's so far out of date. A managed law in the US gets something like five times more pesticides per acre than an industrial farm.”

“No matter what, Sunday what's going to happen, and we were going to fight for it and find the people that believed in it and just keep going and make it work.”

“I would say prepare for it to be difficult. Something I tell not every employee because I think might scare everybody off, but everybody comes in at a higher level, is that there's going to be times where the smartest move is to quit and we're not going to. We're going to keep going.” 

• How growing up in an Italian family, getting to go to Italy in the summers, and loving fashion as a child and young adult led Marisa to believe that the fashion industry is where she belonged
• How she ended up in marketing after moving to New York post college to pursue a career as a fashion writer and why she decided to stay in marketing
• Why her time at Anomaly under an incredible boss and mentor helped her learn the industry of advertising and branding and gave her a strong foundation and a confident awareness of where she fit within that space, and funny enough it was in the beverage branding space
• Why her time in strategy at 360i gave her a lot of opportunities to hone her people management skills, which have become critical to her success with what she is doing now
• How Marisa and her team came up with the name United Sodas of America and why they wanted to start this company in the first place
• How their press strategy created such momentum and success at their launch, even though they launched in May of 2020, literally in the midst of a pandemic
• Why actually selling out of the product within the first three months led to bringing production in-house for a time, what they hope to see in the future as the company scales, and why they are currently blissfully self-funded
• What challenges come with building a business in the midst of a pandemic and why compassionate leadership is critical as everyone is re learning how to balance life, work, and the world around them
• Why their retail strategy is helping them get in front of the right people at the right time, and how it is successfully working out for them as a DTC brand
• What business advice Marisa has for aspiring entrepreneurs and operators of brands and also what to expect soon from United Sodas of America

unitedsodas.com

“If you can make it work with the people that you work with and if you can learn from the best person you know, then that makes it all worthwhile.” 

“It doesn't matter what we're working on, we'll find a way to make the work incredible if we’re with the right people on the right team.”

“My mentality is when you're somebody's manager, you're building a team, like you're responsible for their work, but you're really responsible for making sure that they're in the right mindset to do their work. And that includes the right environment.”

“When you hire someone, when you manage someone, know as much as you can about what they prefer to do and what they want and where they want to be going. As long as you can guide people to where they want to be going, even if that's outside of your company or above your own title, that's going to be good for you and for them.”

“The inclination to want to do a beverage, a soda space beverage, whatever that was, mixed with the strikingness of the name really set us down the path of what we ended up creating visually, brand wise, everything.”

“We're not a brand that's trying to satisfy every soda drinker. The Mountain Dew drinker, the hardcore Mountain Dew drinker, for example, might not be the person for us.”

“I'm a big believer in that if you do something interesting and make something beautiful, press will care.”

“Timing is really important. So making sure everything launches, at least in the same flight of days, can really create a huge difference and maintain momentum.”

“I'm a big believer in developing a brand strategy at the same time as looking at the visuals.”

“We are re-learning how to do life at the same time that we are building a company and, you know, managing that for my own personal self, whatever, being sensitive to the employees that I have and making sure that the excitement and the momentum of the brand isn't crushing their spirits and is rather raising their spirits is really, really a fine balance.” 

“You have to have a kind of like a willing naiveté, I think, to be an entrepreneur. If you know too much about the industry that you're about to disrupt, you won't disrupt it.”

“Consumers always call the shots. So if you launch DTC, and consumers and press and celebrities and whoever else is buying your brand talks about it and says, "This is what we want. This is what we love," distributors will get it. And so will retailers. And so other buyers.”