The Partner Ship Podcast

In our final episode of the season, we welcome Alexa Buckley and Sarah Pierson, former college roommates who co-founded direct-to-consumer footwear brand Margaux in 2015, just a year after they graduated from Harvard. Neither Alexa nor Sarah — who met their freshman year at a cab stand — had plans to get into retail, but they felt a calling to create the perfect, classic ballet flat, and the rest, as they say, has been history. Eventually, they expanded into new categories: Their cult-favorite heel has become especially popular, complete with a 1,000-person wait list. Tune in to learn how they've excelled the brick-and-mortar game, and what they advise brands looking to nail down their authentic visual identity.

Real-life married couple Jacqueline and Scot Tatelman launched STATE Bags — a certified B-Corp with a business model balancing profit and giving back — together in 2013. Originally created under the "one-for-one" model with just three backpack styles, the brand has since transitioned to more partnership-based give-back work. And in the seven years since its launch, STATE has donated more than 200,000 bags while also contributing 20% of gross profits to combat the most challenging issues of our time, from mass incarceration’s impact on kids to the Flint water crisis. In this season's penultimate episode, Jacqueline and Scot share their most realistic practices for businesses committed to using their platform for good.

You may know Mandana Dayani from her past lives as a lawyer, talent agent or branding expert, but today, we're chatting with her about I am a voter., the nonpartisan movement she founded to create a cultural shift around voting and civic engagement. Mandana has been politically involved for as long as she can remember, but in 2017, while watching coverage of the Unite the Right rally from Charlottesville, something snapped: How could she affect civic change by increasing voter turnout? That fall, I am a voter. was born to rebrand voting by empowering young and first-time voters to make their voices heard. Listen up for Mandana's advice on how political and social entrepreneurs can best find their own authentic voice — and use it to make a difference.

JB Osborne and Emily Heyward co-founded branding company Red Antler together in Brooklyn way back when, in 2007. In the past 14 years, Red Antler has established itself as the go-to brand-building company for startups and scale-ups, having helped shape everything from visual identity to packaging design for some of today’s most ubiquitous companies like Casper, Allbirds, Hinge, ThredUp and of course, our favorite, Levain Bakery. Red Antler is so predominant, in fact, that "Fast Company" famously called it "a cult brand whisperer." Emily literally wrote the book on the matter: It’s called "Obsessed: Building a Brand People Love From Day One," and it came out last summer. Tune in to learn more what they look for in the next big direct-to-consumer business, and what's next for Red Antler in its next 14 years.

Today, we're speaking with Jenny Dembrow and Ebonie Simpson, co-executive directors of New York City's The Lower Eastside Girls Club. Girls Club was first founded in 1996 as a means to address the historic lack of services available to girls and young women on the Lower East Side, and today, the organization and physical community space connects girls and young women to healthy and successful futures. Before Jenny and Ebonie worked as executive directors together, Jenny was the very first Girls Club intern in 1996, and Ebonie was her intern 14 years later. We're especially excited to welcome them as Girl Club is now celebrating its 25th anniversary.

In 2009, Connie Matisse was working at a farmer's market in North Carolina when she met her now-husband Alex Matisse, who had just finished an apprenticeship and set out on his own to make pottery. They fell in love, and what manifested — aside from a decade-plus-long relationship — was East Fork Pottery, a direct-to-consumer phenomenon with a mission to bring traditional American craft to a new generation of consumers. In 2013, Connie and Alex expanded their business to bring on their potter friend John, who now serves as CFO. In this latest episode of The Partner Ship, East Fork Pottery's co-founding team join us to discuss how they've scaled their business with heart and transparency, all while "doing the work" personally.

When Shelcy and Christy Joseph got their start making fashion videos on YouTube, the multi-talented Haitian sisters weren't quite full-fledged influencers, yet alone entrepreneurs. But things changed when the pair moved to New York City in 2010 went on to launch their widely-followed Instagram platform, @NYCxClothes, to bring more authenticity, diversity and inclusivity to the world of influencing. Last July, Shelcy and Christy launched the natural next chapter of their business with NYCxStudio, a creative agency and physical content creation space born out of their desire to help companies find meaningful ways to partner with creators of color. Tune in to learn more about how Shelcy and Christy maintain work-family boundaries, what they believe to be the future of influencing and how they've gone about bringing their business to the next level.

Like most great business ideas, Honeyfund's big lightbulb moment was born out of something personal, when Sara and her now-ex-husband were planning their honeymoon. They kept running into the same issue: Why wasn't there a crowdfunding wedding registry that catered to couples wanting an experience over household items? So they made their own, which inspired what later became Honeyfund, the number-one honeymoon and wedding registry app. Since its launch in 2006, Honeyfund has funded one million couples, with more than $640 million in gifts from 6 million givers. On this brand-new episode, Sara joins us to share how she made it all happen — and what happens when a partnership breaks up.

Season 2 kicks off with a special conversation with Vanessa and Kim Pham, first-generation Vietnamese American sisters who launched their food brand, Omsom, which offers high-quality, taste-tested Asian meal starter kits, last spring. As the daughters of Vietnamese refugees, Vanessa and Kim grew up at their family's kitchen counter, where food was a love language and later, became a way to re-engage with their identities as women of color. Tune in to learn about how they've transitioned their past lives in startups and consulting into CPG gold, all while showing non-Asian Americans what it means for the category to be done right.

The new season of The Partner Ship is here! Join our hosts, longtime business partners in media relations agency JBC Jennifer Bett Meyer and Melissa Duren Conner, as they welcome a whole new crew of like-minded co-founders for more no-B.S. conversations about this buzzy, new consumer world.