She Leads with Carly

Ossa (Fredricsson) Fisher is the President of Aurora – a self-driving technology company now valued ~$9Bn. Beyond her incredible professional pedigree leading up to Aurora (ie Bain & Company, Goldman Sachs, Match Group, Istation), there are a few things that stuck out to me about Ossa. First, she lives in the future. Each new endeavor she took on in her professional career was fed by an underlying inflection at play. She went to Match Group because the future of dating was online. She went to Aurora because a fully autonomous world on the road is inevitable. Here are some of my favorite takeaways from my She Leads with Carly episode with Ossa: 1️⃣ Decision-Making Formula Take yourself out of the present. Think of your 80-yr old self. What would she say? Would she regret it if you did or didn't do it? 2️⃣ You're Never Ready to Have Kids Women often aim to establish a strong career footing before having kids (ie. make Partner). You'll never feel ready, so don't wait until you're older *bc* of your career aspirations. Thoughts? 2️⃣ Rewire From a "Them" to an "Us In your early career, it's easy to distance yourself from leadership. If you want to rise up, take control of your professional journey. A good first step is to deeply understand leadership decisions. Start to transfer mentally from a "them" to an "us I'm really proud of this episode with Ossa. It was incredibly refreshing to learn from her as she takes us from her childhood growing up in Sweden to studying at Yale University, Stanford University Graduate School of Business and then onto a truly badass career. Thanks, Ossa! Link in comments to the full episode! 👇

The latest She Leads with Carly episode with Maureen F. – Co-Founder and CEO of 10x Emmy award-winning interactive animation studio, Baobab Studios is arguably my most jam-packed one I've ever done. Maureen is so raw and unequivocally herself. Here are some of my favorite takeaways: 1️⃣ If you pretend to be someone you're not for a long enough time, you slowly become that person. Know what you're willing to do to achieve X. It may not be worth it. 2️⃣ Stanford students (+ those from prestigious universities) make shitty interns. Don't think it's beneath you. Be happy you got the job that thousands of others want too. Maureen: "I want the person who's just happy and shuts up, is excited to do the work and makes themselves indispensable." 3️⃣ The dissonance of being a founder: outwardly - supreme confidence, inwardly - insecure overachiever. 4️⃣ Fundraising: practice your pitch in the early days with VCs you are less excited about. By the time you talk to your top ones, your refined and iterated pitch will be ready. 5️⃣ Power of Mentors! Maureen gratefully mentions her mentors and champions as she reflects on her career. I wanted to give them a shoutout as well - Anne Raimondi, Tim LeTourneau, Mark Pincus, Sonia Wong, Vicki Dobbs Beck, Tashana Landray and so many more!!! This aspect of the episode may have been my favorite. It's clear that winning takes a village. It's never a solo journey. Thank you, Maureen F. for sharing your incredible story and special shoutout to Holly Liu for making it happen! Link to the full episode in the comments below 👇

Ep. 134: Lara Cohen | Marketing Exec, Linktree Lara leads all things marketing, partnerships, business development and communications at Linktree, a platform that allows creators to build personalized landing pages with multiple links to all of their content. Before joining Linktree, Lara spent a decade at Twitter (now known as X), where she served as Global VP of Partners & Marketing. In her early days at Twitter, she was the Head of Entertainment and Lifestyle Partnerships, where she shaped and redefined Twitter’s narrative for talent and entertainment partners. One of her standout achievements in this role was spearheading the iconic activation of Ellen DeGeneres’ selfie at the 2014 Oscars. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Rochester and began her career as Editorial Director at Us Weekly back when it was owned by Wenner Media. 🎧Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4de3kAj 🎧Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3zkhDW5  sheleadspod.com

Ep. 132: Ali Bonar | Co-Founder & CEO, Oat Haus Ali is the Co-Founder and CEO of Oat Haus, the first-ever spreadable granola. Think the texture of nut butter, but the warm, familiar taste of granola. She founded Oat Haus back in 2018 as it was part of her recovery journey from disordered eating. She searched high and low for a nut-free spread that resonated with her, but couldn't find one. She came up with the idea to create one out of oats, and Granola Butter was born! Now, Oat Haus is sold at over 5000 retailers across the country, including Whole Foods Market, Publix Super Markets, Amazon, and Target. All of this earned her a much deserved 2024 @EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Prior to Oat Haus, she thought she would be a doctor. She studied pre-med at the University of California, Berkeley, earning a bachelors degree in nutritional sciences. While she ultimately decided not to become a doctor, she did continue in digital health for a few years, working in marketing at Doximity - the largest medical network. 🎧 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3T6bfbw 🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4dFX0Cq

Ep. 131: Camilla Matias| Chief Operating Officer, Brex Camilla is the Chief Operating Officer of Brex, a financial technology company that provides a range of financial services tailored to startups and other businesses. Camilla started at Brex as the Head and VP of Finance before transitioning into the operations side as the SVP of Global Operations before becoming the COO. Prior to Brex, Camilla worked at Kraft Heinz, one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world - starting as a Finance Analyst to becoming the Director of Finance in just under 3 years and she also worked in private equity and portfolio management in Brazil. Camilla earned her Bachelors degree in Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering from Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica - ITA, one of the most respected and top universities based in Brazil specializing in Aerospace Science and Engineering. She was one of only 6 women in her graduating class of 120 people. 🎧 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4dwnE0K 🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3AvCR3s

Ep. 130: Lauren Chew | Founder & CEO, Love + Chew Brands Lauren is is the Founder and CEO of Love and Chew Brands, a company that manufactures and distributes tasty protein cookies that are clean-label and guilt-free - with a mission to be the leader in the plant-based dessert category and to inspire ppl to enjoy healthier and more sustainable treats. Love + Chew products are on the shelves of over 2,000 stores including Sprouts, Costco, Whole Foods Market, and Amazon, reaching millions of consumers across the US. Before founding Love+Chew, Lauren worked in the sustainable energy technology space – in an energy storage startup called Stem and at Tesla, in business development, operations and sales roles. Lauren earned her Bachelors degree in Sociology, International Studies and Mandarin from the University of California San Diego.   🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4ch1ttK 🎧 Spotify:https://spoti.fi/4datqVB  ▶️ https://bit.ly/3WAmGcC sheleadspod.com

Ep. 129: Elena Gomez | Chief Financial Officer, Toast Elena is the Chief Financial Officer of Toast, the cloud-based, end-to-end technology platform purpose-built for the entire restaurant community - a public company now valued close to $15Bn. With more than 30 years of experience in leading large global organizations, Elena’s expertise ranges from scaling and building SaaS businesses into multi-billion organizations and building and leading large-scale operational teams.  Before joining Toast, Elena has held senior roles in finance working as the VP of Finance at Charles Schwab, SVP of Finance and Strategy at Salesforce and the Chief Financial Officer at Zendesk, where she helped scale the company to over $1 billion in annual revenue. Beyond operating, Elena is an investor and sits on the board of PagerDuty. She is also the chair of the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business Board, serving as the first woman to serve in this role; Berkeley is also where she earned her Bachelors degree in Accounting. 🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3SwwClU 🎧 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4fu2f9C ▶️ https://lnkd.in/gy4x-UK7 sheleadspod.com

Ep. 128: Jessica Holton | Co-Founder & CEO, Ours Jessica is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ours, a virtual couples therapy and premarital counseling platform with a mission to make couples therapy more accessible, destigmatized and designed for young, modern couples. Beyond Ours, Jessica also founded Access Distributed to help students at non-target recruiting schools land internships in finance and she also founded BLAZE Skincare, a personalized skincare brand. However, Jessica’s career started in finance. She received her Bachelors in accounting and finance from Georgetown University, and then started her professional career as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley and The Carlyle Group before receiving her MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. 🎧 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/45LiSJx 🎧 Apple Pod: https://apple.co/45Jk14l sheleadspod.com

Ep. 127: Audrey Micay Wisch | Co-Founder & CEO, Curious Cardinals Audrey is the Founder and CEO of Curious Cardinals, an edtech company committed to empowering K-12 students to discover and pursue their passions with the guidance of college mentors. Audrey started Curious Cardinals as a freshman at Stanford University, where she was pursuing a Bachelors degree in History. Just one year later, the COVID pandemic hit and Audrey ultimately decided to take a leave of absence from Stanford to pursue Curious Cardinals full time. Today, Curious Cardinals is a global community of over 500 top college students mentoring kids across the globe. Audrey has spoken on CNN, the Today Show and in Forbes to share her vision to create a community of lifelong learners and doers. She was also recognized in the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 Education and Youngest category. 🎧 Apple Pod: https://apple.co/3VDxDKX 🎧Spotify: https://spoti.fi/45tUV9x sheleadspod.com

Ep. 126: Jenna Kerner | Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Harper Wilde Jenna is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Harper Wilde, the DTC brand disrupting the $16 billion dollar intimate apparel industry with its mission to take the B.S. out of Bra Shopping. Jenna and the brand have been recognized as Forbes 30 Under 30 and Inc. Top 100 Female Founders as well as has been featured in Vogue, the New York Times, The Today Show, Good Morning America and many more. Jenna received her B.A. in Biological Sciences and Economics from Cornell University and her MBA from The Wharton School, where she met her co-founder, Jane Fisher, and together began working on bringing Harper Wilde to life. Prior to Harper Wilde, as you will soon learn, Jenna worked as a consultant at Deloitte for 4 years as well as at digital health startups in a product management role. Her passion for healthcare and biology stemmed largely from her upbringing, coming from a family of physicians. 🎧 Apple Pod: https://apple.co/3VdHXbm 🎧Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3ViOeme ▶️ https://lnkd.in/gVk9SM39 sheleadspod.com