She Leads with Carly

At Floodgate, we talk a lot about inflections when looking at early-stage companies. What is an external change event that will create the potential for radical change in how people think, feel and act? For Ali Bonar, it all came down to a core change: the rise of oat milk. Suddenly, oat milk soared in popularity – in stock at every coffee shop. *Ali's thought: If they could make a milk out of oats, why not make a spread out of oats?* CUE: Oat Haus, the first ever spreadable granola butter. The genesis of Oat Haus also came from Ali's personal experience in her recovery from disordered eating. While she tried to bring nuts back into her diet, it was too hard. The nut-free spreads weren't cutting it for her either. Alongside her cofounders, Eric Katz and Ari Schraer, they were the ultimate trifecta – each bringing a different set of superpowers into building Oat Haus. Now, with incredible varieties and flavors – you can find Oat Haus in over 5K retailers across the country, including Whole Foods Market, Target, Amazon, and more! I know I say this a lot, but I love this episode with Ali Bonar on She Leads with Carly. Her vulnerability in sharing about her eating disorder, the lessons she learned in her recovery journey (hint: therapy helped tremendously), the ups and downs of building a CPG company, and so much more. Thank you, Ali! Link to the full episode in the comments 👇

No one at Brex likely knows that their Chief Operating Officer, Camilla Matias, can code 💻. In fact, she's been coding since she was 12 years old. Not only that, she earned a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from the top Military and Aerospace Science and Engineering schools in Brazil. She was one of only 6 women in her graduating class of 120 people. Math (and financial models) came naturally to her. So she started her career in finance – working at Kraft Heinz and rising up to Director of Finance in just 3 years. Fast forward a few more years, she's now leading Operations at Brex as the COO. She discovered untapped superpowers that lend itself to being a great COO: aligning cross-functional teams, making quick decisions without all of the information, motivating her team, ensuring there's a plan A, plan B, and even a plan C. I really enjoyed my chat with Camilla Matias on my podcast, She Leads! Beyond her incredible story, we also chat about handling rejection, the cultural differences from Brazil to America (hint: it's pretty odd we plan social dinners weeks in advance), and the early career lessons she takes with her today.. and a LOT more! Thanks Camilla – this one's a fun one – I laugh quite a bit.

Key Don't's if you start a CPG company: 1️⃣ Don't ask your friends and family if they like your product. They can lie. Ask strangers. 2️⃣ Don't waste money on printed packing in the early days. First, discover your call-outs – why are your customers buying your product? You may need to rebrand and repackage anyways. So stick to labels. 3️⃣ Don't burn bridges. Relationships are super important in this industry. It's a small group. You'll see them at trade shows. Lauren Chew founded Love + Chew Brands as a side hustle. After physically going door-to-door, she soon learned where her healthy, vegan and gluten free cookies can thrive. 🍪 Hint: not in a bodega. She had some bumps on the road (COVID effect, sales went to 0 👇), but has persevered to build out this incredible and unique brand. We talk about so much! One of my favorite nuggets: Moms make incredible hires. They take multi-tasking to a whole new level. Thank you for coming on She Leads with Carly, Lauren! Link to the full episode in the comments.

If you've been to a restaurant, there's a pretty high chance you've paid for your meal using Toast technology. Today, Toast is valued close to $15bn. Elena Gomez is the Chief Financial Officer at Toast. Before Toast, she was the CFO at Zendesk for 5 years. Safe to say, Elena knows a thing or two of leading technology companies - financially and strategically. I was lucky to have her on the latest She Leads with Carly episode. We talk about: 🦸♀️ Top 3 superpowers all CFOs must have (Really, all C-suite execs) ⚖️ 'Work-life balance' (KEY: know which are your glass balls vs. rubber balls 🤹♀️) ✋ Self-advocacy + navigating imposter syndrome, especially when entering a new company as an exec leader ...and more! Take a listen – link to the episode in the comments! Elena Gomez - thank you for coming on the pod!

Founder Hot Take: "I love fundraising." - Jessica Holton Most founders (understandably) don't enjoy fundraising. It detracts from doing what they actually enjoy – building their company. However, Jessica actually enjoys it. It may be because the early fundraising of her relationship wellness company, Ours, is in the past. But regardless, she sees a lot of positive opportunities in the process. We chat about two simple tips to approach fundraising: 1️⃣ Convince yourself that you’re excited to fundraise. Change the narrative in your mind that you *want* to be there. Try to tap into the initial excitement you have for building your company - the purpose. 2️⃣ Mentally prepare for many no’s. You don't need to go into the conversation expecting a "no", but expect it to be a longer process. Once you get one yes, things start to roll. Beyond fundraising, we chat about: 🎒 Decision process of going to business school (key: no one's ever regretted going, but have a purpose for what you want to get out of it.) 🧩 Co-Founder key traits: Kindness + Communication + Trust 👫 De-stigmatizing couples therapy and founding Ours (personal stories included) ...and so much more! Thanks Jessica for coming on She Leads with Carly – so many great lessons in this one. Link to the full episode in the comments👇

'If anything, Stanford University made me feel further drawn away from entrepreneurship initially." - Audrey Micay Wisch Founding a company at Stanford is very much 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑜. It exudes success. It guarantees freedom. It's sexy. Are the underlying motivations skewed? Perhaps. One year into completing her Stanford degree, Audrey Micay Wisch and her peers were sent home due to COVID. While her 10-year plan to become the next Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a bit shaken up, Audrey took this as a new opportunity. She discovered the power of mentoring and the value it brings when young students are taught by someone they aspire to be - in topics that aren't the conventional ones taught in school (ie: criminal justice or aerospace). Curious Cardinals was created. It was clear they had struck a chord, reaching upwards of $750K in revenue with just her and her cofounder Alec Katz leading. Her intuition told her to continue down this path and drop out of Stanford (despite her original perception of Stanford founders). Why? Because she received incredible advice from Emily White – "Listen to your whispers. If you don't, they become screams." I love this She Leads with Carly episode with Audrey. We chat about all things founding, dropping out of Stanford, the challenges and realities of building a company for the first time and so much more. Thanks Audrey for coming on the pod – the optimism in which you lead your life is incredibly inspiring. Link to the full episode in the comments👇

Jenna Kerner had a habit of self-selecting herself out of things. In other words, you are your biggest roadblock. In Jenna's MBA class at The Wharton School, her group had to select a CEO. While Jenna knew she should volunteer, a more powerful thought crept in: someone else would be better for the job. Fast forward a couple years, she's now the CEO of Harper Wilde with Jane Fisher (the *only* CEO from that group btw). It's quite easy for us to convince ourselves why we shouldn't do something rather than why we should. I had an incredible conversation in the latest She Leads with Carly with Jenna Kerner. Founders, there are many tangible lessons in this one. We chat about: 💰 Pitching Harper Wilde, an intimate apparel co, to mostly male VCs (and key lessons learned in storytelling) 👥 The greatest learning curve and scariest part in the early days - Hiring 💪 The power of resilience in founding a company and more! Take a listen – link to the episode in the comments 👇 Jenna – thank you for coming on She Leads!

You can't 𝑠𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 your inner critic, but you can 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒆𝒕 it. Subtle yet important nuance. Don't need to look much farther than the title of Gracie Gold's memoir: "Outofshapeworthlessloser: A Memoir of Figure Skating, F*cking Up, and Figuring It Out" to know she struggled with quieting her inner critic. To the public, Gracie Gold is an effervescent Olympic figure skater who medaled and shined on the national and world stage, representing the 🇺🇸. Off the rink, Gracie suffered deeply from depression, anxiety, and an eating disorder. Eating was calculus - as she put it - as she counted every morsel that went into her body. Ultimately, a conversation with Gracie's team doctor ended up saving her life. In the latest She Leads with Carly episode, I was lucky to chat with her. We talk about: ⛸️ The mindset and competitiveness needed to excel as an elite figure skater 🪞 The societal pressures on body image engrained in sport – highly applicable to all athletes 💚 Gracie's fight for her life in coming out of a deep depression while maintaining the perfect Golden Girl image👇 🤫 Quieting your inner critic ...and so much more. Please share with anyone who you think would benefit from hearing Gracie's vulnerability in her own mental health crisis. Athletes especially, this one will resonate. Links to the episode in the comments. sheleadspod.com

Raegan Moya-Jones got fired as the CEO of her own company. Thankfully, she didn't sign an NDA. She couldn't allow herself to stay silent and have other entrepreneurs make the same mistake she did. I had one of the most honest and raw conversations with the incredible Raegan Moya-Jones on She Leads with Carly. Raegan's journey in founding a $100M global baby lifestyle business in aden + anais had its ups and downs. The two biggest bumps in the road? 1️⃣ Irreparable co-founder breakup (and losing her cofounder as a friend in the process) 2️⃣ Being fired as the CEO of her own company Founders – at any stage – I am confident you will take something from this conversation. We talk about: 🤝 choosing the right co-founder and investor 🏗️ maintaining culture while scaling + hiring 📺 getting out of a mental and depressive rut in times of true pain (key: change the channel👇) and more! Take a listen – link to the episode in the comments! Raegan – thank you for coming on She Leads and sharing your incredible story.