33voices

Alexa Buckley, Sarah Pierson, and Jenna discuss how Margaux is creating staple shoes for every part of a woman’s life. The founders share their decision to take the leap after hearing Sheryl Sandberg ask: What would you do if you weren’t afraid? and the challenges of founding the company right after college, especially partnering with a manufacturer; Their best tips are not to acknowledge perceived differences, keep persisting, and have a credible advocate - whether it’s an advisor, investor, or team

Leila Janah and Jenna discuss the Give Work philosophy of shifting the view of people in poverty as those who need aid to equal producers and participants in the global economy. Leila shares how the future of work will require everyone to be an entrepreneur and how Samasource is training people to be competitive in the digital world. We discuss launching and building her skincare company LXMI with a Give Work mentality, incorporating as a B Corporation, the power of supply chain, and why we need to shift fr

Mike Natenshon, Adam Lynch, and Jenna discuss the evolution of Marine Layer from Mike trying to recreate the comfort of his favorite college t-shirt to the company’s expansion into 33 profitable stores. Mike and Adam reflect on memories from the early days, including purchasing their 1969 VW van as their delivery truck, hand-delivering orders to Levi’s, and improvising when they received an order of sweatshirts without any neck holes. We then chat about their experiential retail philosophy, Marine Layer

Kevin Thau and Jenna discuss how he tries to manufacture serendipity as a VC at Spark Capital. Kevin shares key lessons on how to explain your product with teaching moments when you’re pioneering a new market, the importance and challenge of being disciplined with your product roadmap, and why “more”- money, products, or people - doesn’t solve problems. We also chat about how to resist the reflex to react to a current situation like a past one, why there is no one-size-fits-all model to successfully

Valerie Macaulay, Meredith Melling, Molly Howard and Jenna discuss La Ligne’s mission to empower women to look, feel, and be confident in themselves. The founders chat about building a next generation fashion brand, emphasize the importance of rooting La Ligne in community and inclusivity, and touch on their collaborations with brands like Cuyana, Rockets of Awesome, and Jennifer Fisher Jewelry. We dive into lessons learned from their interview series La Bande including, coming to work with a full heart e

Raegan Moya-Jones and Jenna discuss aden+anais' founding story and how Raegan got the business to $1 million in revenue while working full time at The Economist and building the business after putting her daughters to bed between 8:30 p.m. to 3 a.m.. We chat about the realities of launching a business, including surviving the exhaustion, how startups influence personal relationships and the way Raegan accepted and approached this. Raegan opens up about co-founder partnerships, shares an exercise to truly st

Manish Chandra and Jenna discuss Poshmark’s newest product Poshmark Stylist Match: the first ever voice-enabled social styling engine. We chat about the journey from personally recruiting their first 800 customers to working closely with a community of 3 million seller stylists who spend an average of 25 minutes a day on Poshmark. Manish walks us through the state of social commerce and how the team views Poshmark “as a new kind of social mall that brings communities of people across the country togethe

Bianca Gates, Marisa Sharkey, and Jenna chat about the text that kicked off Birdies and how they launched their first collection by the holidays (including storing their first set of inventory at Marisa's house!). Bianca and Marisa explain how they got in touch with their first manufacturer and what production partners are looking for before working with a startup. Bianca shares a helpful tactic to get to know your network in order to leverage it: Every day between work and home stop and have a conversation

Susan Tynan and Jenna discuss how Framebridge is making framing as simple and cost-effective as it’s ever been and the team’s goal to give everyone who sees something beautiful the opportunity to relive the moment. Susan discusses the scaling challenges of distinguishing what you will never change and what you have to change in order to grow. At Framebridge one value always reigns: “Each one is the only one — because for our customers it is.” We chat about how Framebridge navigated blowing past an

Tammy Sun and Jenna discuss how companies are currently offering fertility care benefits and the ways Carrot is helping them customize programs to offer their employees. Tammy emphasizes that fertility care is a fundamental part of human healthcare not solely women’s healthcare and shares Carrot’s hope that fertility benefits become synonymous to other healthcare benefits, like vision and dental. We walk through tactics for companies to approach and implement fertility benefits at their companies and ho

Josh Grau and Jenna discuss how Wealthfront is utilizing storytelling and design thinking to infuse humor, empowerment, and reliability into our relationship with our personal finances. Josh rewinds to some pivotal moments from his six years at Twitter including building and launching Moments, The Arab Spring, learning that the Turkish Prime Minister restricted access to Twitter (while they were toasting the launch in Turkey!) and how it revealed and amplified their duty to champion free speech. We chat abo

Ashley Fieglein Johnson and Jenna discuss how Wealthfront is like a GPS for our financial lives and the team’s mission to ensure that everyone has access to sophisticated financial advice — It shouldn’t be reserved for the wealthy. We discuss Ashley’s work advocating for women to invest, the importance of developing an ‘escape hatch’ to create financial freedom and set yourself up to capitalize on opportunities to create wealth, as well as the financial advice she wishes she would have received

Jennifer Chong and Jenna discuss how Linjer bootstrapped the business, working without employees for three years, and the tactics behind their million dollar crowdfunding campaigns. Jenn’s best piece of advice: "Cultivate a solid list of 1,000 people who really care about what you are doing before you launch. Crowdfunding campaigns are about momentum. You have to launch with a bang." Jenn shares how they survived an early manufacturing disaster, how they evaluate partners now - when possible always m

Livio Bisterzo and Jenna discuss the future of food - the entire middle of the store is ripe for disruption - and why personalization is the future of tomorrow’s most successful food brands. Livio walks us through Hippeas commitment to giving back and consistently strengthening their supply chain, why he still receives every email that comes through the site, and the vision fueling the company’s rapid ascent; Build a brand that’s representative of a $100 million company even if you’re just launching

Ben Cogan, Jesse Horwitz, and Jenna discuss how Hubble utilized Facebook Ads to build buzz, validate their product, and use the data to raise their first round of venture capital. Ben and Jesse dissect some of the key levers behind Hubble’s early success including: diversifying their marketing channels to safeguard their customer acquisition strategy and creating their first TV ads, designing their brand to resonate with consumers outside of the early adopter tech community, scaling their c