Entreprenista

Bea Dixon struggled with bacterial vaginosis for almost a year and went to all kinds of doctors and products to heal it. It wasn’t until she connected with her late grandmother, whom she had never met, in a dream that she found her cure. Her grandmother gave her a recipe on a piece of paper and told her to memorize it, and when Bea woke up and made the formula, she found it was the miracle product...

Ashley Iaconetti got her Masters from Syracuse in broadcasting, but when she was cast on The Bachelor back in 2015 she didn’t know the show would turn her into one of the OG Instagram influencers and give her an audience that she’s still growing. Today, she’s built a business around her social following of over a million engaged fans by sharing raw and authentic moments in her life. She also co-ho...

Gregg Renfrew launched Beautycounter without any experience in the beauty industry but with a fierce desire to make clean beauty as accessible as possible. Today, with over 60,000 independent consultants, Beautycounter is taking the world of beauty by storm with locations on both coasts, and Gregg joins us to share the story of how it all started. Today, you’ll hear how Gregg started Beautycounter...

Allie Kelly began her career in construction and architectural engineering. When she made the decision to move to something she was more passionate about, she joined the marketing team at Stein Eriksen Lodge. Since then, she has held various marketing positions at Lionbridge, SnapApp, and Attivio. In 2016, she took the position of CMO at JazzHR as the only female executive in the room and was task...

Hilary Coles launched Hims & Hers when, after moving from Canada to the US, she discovered that navigating the healthcare system isn’t nearly as simple as it could be. Through the companies, she has helped destigmatize both physical and mental health issues. She built the two brands from the ground up, and through them she continues to make the experience of booking a doctor’s visit as accessible...

Julie Rice discovered her passion for makeup as a teen when she found the Clinique Counter at Nordstrom. She was trained at FIT and began working at a makeup counter, but when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis just five days before her wedding, she became attuned to the importance of health. She launched Inner Beauty, a clean cosmetics brand whose products are free of harmful chemicals. To...

Ashley Hearon-Smith and Keri Setaro have two things in common: they both have backgrounds in entertainment and they’re both hustlers. They met when they were recruited to play best friends for the Scary Mommy podcast and quickly became the real thing. Recently they started their current podcast, Momtourage, where they talk about the mom life. They’re also building a media company from the ground u...

Wende Zomnir began her career in marketing at the Leo Burnett Company. She loved it, but she hated the cold in Chicago. She moved to California where she continued working in marketing, but struggled to find fulfillment in her new job. She wanted to create and to be her own boss, so she started Urban Decay, where she set out to change how women look in makeup and brought her own spin to the world...

Crystal Etienne is a black female businesswoman and founder of Ruby Love: a femtech company that supports women living their best lives, even while on their period. She was relentless in pursuit of creating period-proof underwear and apparel that should never stop women from doing, being and going. She bootstrapped Ruby Love (formerly known as PantyProp) with an initial investment of $25,000 and l...

Michelle Cordeiro Grant is the founder and CEO of Lively, a lingerie and swimwear company. She studied finance but decided not to pursue it and joined the lingerie department of the Federated Merchandising Group. After discovering her love for the field, she became Director/Senior Merchant for Victoria’s Secret and, after deciding she didn’t want to have to choose between family and work, eventual...

Riana Lynn grew up in Chicago and, partway through graduate school, got interested in bringing more raw foods to her area. She had gotten into more general entrepreneurship in college, but healthy food is particularly important to her because a number of her family members suffer from chronic illnesses, which are much less common in regions where fresh and healthy food is the norm. She has founded...

Alli McCartney has spent her career climbing the corporate ladder in the male-dominated field of financial advising. She has held positions at both Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan Private Bank. Today, she’s the managing director at UBS. She devotes herself largely to destroying the taboo around talking about money, particularly the power dynamics it creates. Alli joins us today to give a female pers...

Michelle Shigemasa has been in the beauty industry for a long time, working for brands such as Smashbox and Bobbi Brown Cosmetics. Today, she’s the CEO of Murad, where she dedicates herself to promoting the wellbeing and confidence of women everywhere. Her latest victory has been the successful transition of the company from largely brick-and-mortar to largely online. In this episode Michelle join...

When Leslie Voorhees Means was looking for a wedding dress, she was disappointed to find outrageous prices and a relative lack of customization options. At the time, she worked in engineering and manufacturing. She wasn’t an entrepreneur, but she knew the problem needed a solution, so she stepped up to provide it. Today, Leslie and her husband are co-founders of Anomalie, an online wedding dress e...

Sashee Chandran didn’t start out as an entrepreneur. She started out as the daughter of Chinese and Sri Lankan immigrants and grew up steeped in tea culture. She went on to work for Ebay, but when her side hustle of selling loose leaf tea began to take off she made the decision to leave her job and pursue it full time. She had no experience in entrepreneurship, but, like the other obstacles that c...

The year has held a lot of surprises, some good and some bad. But one thing’s for sure: it was a year we’ll never forget. Today we reflect on 2020 and look forward towards 2021. We discuss the importance of staying positive in adversity and present tips for dealing with the unwanted and unexpected. We note how much entrepreneurship prepares you for surprises. We talk about our upcoming business ve...

Marissa Saporta and Jennifer Bernstein never dreamed of starting a company together. They had no background in entrepreneurship, but when the opportunity presented itself with the explosion of ecommerce, they decided to give it a try. They weren’t sorry. Today their company, Gorilla Commerce, has grown exponentially, providing home and pet products to people around the world. The company is even t...

Abigail Cook Stone always knew she wanted to build a company. She went to Columbia Business School, but eventually found that she wasn’t cut out for something involving heavy technical skills. After starting out as an art buyer for Ralph Lauren, she pursued a longtime passion: candle. Today, she’s the owner of the Otherland, a candle making startup whose mission it is to transport customers to ano...

Robyn Mermelstein started her career working in PR, but soon realized that she wanted to see more of the processes she was a part of. It’s been a long time since that realization, during which she’s held high level marketing roles in Bliss, Jurlique, the Hain Celestial Group, Babyganics, and, most recently, PM Pediatrics. She’s also raising two daughters. How has she done it? In today’s episode Ro...

Liana Douillet is the Chief Marketing Officer at Skillshare, an online learning community for creatives, inspiring millions of members who come together to find inspiration and take the next step in their creative journey. Previously the COO of Blockchain, she spent four years helping the company grow its revenue, expand into new product lines and geographies, and 10x its user base to over 40M. Li...

We often hear that “you are what you eat”, but in this episode with Dr. Casey Means, co-founder of Levels, we learn how your nutrition may be the most important key to achieving optimal health. Casey kicked off her career in medicine being a Head and Neck surgeon, and now is the co-founder of a digital health company that combines glucose monitors with intelligent software that helps your track an...

Halle Tecco is the CEO and Founder of Natalist, a company proudly ‘funded, founded, and led by moms’ specializing in fertility and pregnancy products. After graduating with a BS in Finance, she moved to Silicon Valley and in 2010 was a Business Development Manager for Apple, developing health and medical apps. The same year she also founded Rock Health, the first venture fund dedicated to digital...

Melissa Facchina is the Founder and CEO of Siddhi Operations, an outsourced operations firm devoted exclusively to providing knowledge, execution and support for emerging food & beverage brands. Melissa grew up in the food & beverage business and at 30, she left the family business to start her own company. A move to New York City saw her launch a business using her core skills in food and manufac...

JJ Ramberg is a tech entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Goodpods, a platform dedicated to recommending podcasts curated to your own particular interests and tastes. An MBA graduate from Stanford University, JJ was the national TV host of MSNBC’s second longest running program, Your Business - a program originally slated to run for 6 months and ran for 12 years! In the same period she launched her firs...

Jessica Rolph is the Cofounder and CEO of Lovevery, a new child development company helping parents feel confident they are making the most of each learning stage of their babies life experience. Equipped with an MBA in Management from Cornell University, in 2005 she Co-Founded the brand Happy Family, an impactful organic baby food company she, and her friend Shazi Visram, took from concept to meg...