Behind Her Empire

Lele Sadoughi is the founder of her namesake accessories brand, Lele Sadoughi. Lele had over a decade of experience in the fashion industry before beginning her entrepreneurial journey, allowing her to give us meaningful insight into how she has built her own successful brand. Breaking into the industry with few connections (well before the world of emailing CVs), Lele has had endless opportunitie...

Hillary Peterson is the founder of True Botanicals, a clean skincare brand on a mission to deliver nontoxic and sustainable products.  After giving birth to beautiful twins, Hillary was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. A life-changing moment that got her invested in her health in every possible way. After extensive research, she soon discovered that the beauty care products she used were full o...

After dropping out of high school and trying to forge her own path in the world, serial entrepreneur and world-renowned celebrity makeup artist Jeanine Lobell fell in love with cosmetics. Thanks to her try-anything attitude and strong work ethic, she quickly moved up the ranks to work on famous faces like Nicole Kidman and Natalie Portman for the covers of Vogue and Vanity Fair . When Jeanine foun...

Jesse Draper is the Founding Partner of Halogen Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage investing in consumer tech companies led by female and co-ed teams. With women making up to 80 percent of household purchasing decisions, Jesse and her team are betting big on early-stage, female-founded companies with billion-dollar potential. Jesse is a fourth generation venture capitalist as...

Suneera Madhani is the co-founder and CEO of Stax, an innovative tech company that radically simplifies the payment ecosystem. After graduating from college, Suneera decided to work at a consumer goods company and after three years she realized that the corporate world wasn’t for her. She was later recruited by a payment-processing company, and it was then she realized she wanted to do someone on...

In this week’s episode, we’re mixing things up again! We’re doing a brand new behind-the-scenes podcast on my journey as an entrepreneur and podcast host! So this week, just like I’ve done before, I’ve handed over the mic to my husband, Dhru Purohit, who’s graciously stepping into the role of host. Our first behind-the-scenes episode was one of my most listened-to episodes of all time so I’m hopin...

Logan Hollowell is the designer, founder and CEO of Logan Hollowell Jewelry. Logan started with little more than a dream board, some affirmations, and the right mindset and manifested her way to a jewelry empire. Her jewelry is a cult favorite and has been spotted on the likes of Rihanna, Jennifer Lawrence, Meghan Markle, and Jessica Alba, among others.  Today she joins us to share her i...

Lisa Odenweller is the Founder and CEO of Kroma Wellness, a functional superfood nutrition company. Lisa entered the wellness space in 2011 upon founding Beaming Wellness, an organic superfood café concept with locations throughout Southern California. The brand quickly attracted a cult following and was a leader in the healthy grab-&-go food category. After exiting Beaming in 2018, Lisa had a...

Karen Young is the Founder and CEO of Oui the People, a body care brand designed to make you feel great in your own skin.  Karen has always been a problem solver, but one problem plagued her for years - debilitating razor burn which held her back from wearing many of her favorite skirts or shorts that showed her legs. In 2014, while working as an executive for Estee Lauder, Keren suffered a p...

Mona Vand is a wellness expert and pharmacist turned entrepreneur who is passionate about making the world a healthier place. After six years of studying, and only a short few weeks of work as a pharmacist, Mona quickly realized that she was in the completely wrong career. While medication and supplements can be part of the equation for leading a healthy life, Mona believes that food is the key fo...

Candace Nelson is a serial entrepreneur and a New York Times bestselling author.  Candace is well-known for co-founding Sprinkles Cupcakes, the world’s first cupcake bakery and ATM, and most recently, Pizzana, a fast-growing chain of award-winning pizzerias. She is also an expert in turning one’s passion into a profitable business and has a book launching on November 8th called Sweet Suc...

Kaisa Keranen (also known as KaisaFit) is the founder of Just Move, a company dedicated to changing people’s lives by showing them that movement isn’t always about weight loss and appearance but rather overall health. Having suffered from depression since the age of 13, Kaisa found movement to be a tool for survival and when she injured herself in college, she knew she needed to figure out ho...

In this week's episode, we're re-airing one of our top episodes with the lovely Noura Sakkijha, co-founder and CEO of Mejuri, a fine jewelry brand that introduces handcrafted, everyday jewelry without the traditional retail markups. Looking from the outside in, entering the jewelry market can seem like a daunting endeavor. Not only is it seemingly saturated, but it’s also exceptionally expensive....

Nicole Wegman is the Founder and CEO of Ring Concierge, the jewelry company making luxury accessible to the masses.   It was Nicole’s own engagement journey that opened her eyes to the void in the market for a more affordable, personal engagement ring shopping experience. At that time, she couldn’t find any brand or company that she connected with. Despite never having worked in the jewelry i...

Neha Kumar is a serial entrepreneur and investor. She’s the co-founder of Maie Wines, a California-made wine company focused on single-serve wine, and co-founder of New Money Ventures, a consumer fund and brand studio focused on empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs.   Beyond her reputable banking career, Neha has worked at several startups over the years and, most recently, se...

Rooshy Roy is the co-founder and CEO of Aavrani, a premium skincare company inspired by India's ancient beauty rituals. As a first generation Indian-American, Rooshy would often make her own skincare with her mom, who showed her how to harness the power of raw ingredients—like turmeric & raw honey—to maintain beautiful skin. As an adult searching for an easier way to access those transformativ...

Samia Gore is the founder and CEO of Body Complete Rx, a plant-based health and wellness nutritional supplement brand. After giving birth to her fourth child, Samia was on a weight loss journey and was looking for natural, organic alternatives to help jumpstart her healthier lifestyle. She was sharing all her personal routines and tips online, and after building a large community of like-minded pe...

This week, we’re mixing things up! In this behind-the-scenes Behind Her Empire episode, we take a look at our very own Yasmin Nouri’s journey as a podcast host and first-time entrepreneur. Yasmin’s husband, Dhru Purohit, graciously steps into the role of host to talk to her about the origin story of Behind Her Empire and why she decided to start the podcast. You’ll gain some insight into the...

Starting a business is always a risk, particularly if you’re forfeiting a stable career trajectory to do so. Our guest today is living proof that pursuing your passions pays off. Natalie Mackey is the founder and CEO of clean makeup and skincare brand, Winky Lux. Natalie took the bold leap of leaving her career in finance to start her own business (which came from a “failed” idea) and Winky Lux ha...

We’re back to new episodes starting this week (yay!) and we’re beyond excited to have the lovely Cayli Cavaco Reck, skincare entrepreneur and founder/CEO of Knockout Beauty, a full-service beauty business that is focused on conscious beauty for the modern-minded.  Cayli has always been always dealing with some kind of skin issue throughout her life. As a teenager, Cayli struggled with acne an...

MaryRuth Ghiyam is the founder & CEO of MaryRuth Organics, a family-friendly wellness brand offering over 130 high-quality, vegan, non-GMO vitamins and supplements.  MaryRuth began her personal journey into the health and wellness space after the unexpected passing of her brother and her father, as well as her mother’s diagnosis of two benign brain tumors. While working as a health coach...

Payal Kadakia is the founder of ClassPass, the revolutionary fitness and wellness platform which provides people access to the best boutique fitness classes, gyms, and wellness experiences around the world. Prior to its acquisition by MindBody in October 2021, ClassPass was valued at over a billion dollars, with members logging more than 100 million workouts across 30,000 partner studios in over 3...

Jane Wurwand is the Founder and Chief Visionary of Dermalogica, the number one professional skincare brand in the world. At the young age of 24, Jane immigrated to California and saw a distinct lack of continuing education with skin therapists in the US. Without a college degree or network, she set out to launch her own skin therapy education with only $14,000 in a small classroom in Los Angeles....

Loren Ridinger is the Co-Founder of internet retailing giants, Shop. Com and Market America. Although Loren is now recognized as an internet mogul who has changed the face of the beauty and e-commerce industries over the past two decades, her life started with very humble beginnings. She moved to Greensboro, NC at a young age, worked in retail when she was sixteen, and at eighteen, Loren and her h...

Dr. Sara Gottfried is a World-Renowned Physician, Hormone Expert, Speaker, and 4x New York Times Best Selling Author. Dr. Gottfried’s interview marks the start of our first podcast in the world of health and wellness. One of the biggest myths that women have on their path to building their empire is that they have to sacrifice their health in order to be successful. This couldn't be further from t...