When the global Covid-19 pandemic hit, Airbnb’s core business all-but ground to a halt. It lost 80 percent of business in eight weeks. The company’s co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky explains in candid conversation with host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin precisely how he restructured the company’s teams, and put the company on one radically simplified calendar-based product-launch plan, and then released it all to the world…as the 6,000-person global business prepared for its IPO. And today, Chesky is getting back to his roots, and is listing a bedroom in his own home on Airbnb.

When the U.S. baby formula shortage hit, Bobbie was still a startup, scaling its own operations and customer-base. But it had to make its most important decision: How to answer that crisis for its own customers. It decided to stop growing, in favor of serving its existing subscribers. Turns out: It wasn’t the first crisis the young startup had overcome. Host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviewed Bobbie co-founder and CEO Laura Modi about how she made that extremely challenging decision–and how she built a company of parents, by parents–with world-class benefits for employees.

Nina Vaca is the chairperson and CEO of Pinnacle Group, an IT and staffing firm based in Dallas, which has grown so fast it has made the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies thirteen times. It was named the fastest-growing woman-owned business in the United States by the Women Presidents Organization in 2015–when her company crossed a billion dollars in revenue, and again in 2018. Nina founded it 25 years ago, when she was just out of college, with just $300. In part, it seemed natural: he’d been schooled in entrepreneurship by her family, which emigrated from Ecuador when she was little. She tells host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin what she’s learned about entrepreneurship along the way–and takes a bird’s eye view on what’s changed, and what hasn’t.

Bill Shufelt was a trader at a hedge fund who got tired of drinking. It was doing nothing for his performance at work–or while trail running. So he decided to start a non-alcoholic craft brewery. Not that anyone else believed in his mission. He tells host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin how he struggled for years to find a co-founder, and met with 120 investors before putting together enough money to start his own brewing facility–because no other brewery wanted to work with him. Now, his company, Athletic Brewing, is growing so fast it has been struggling to meet demand in the $109 billion craft brewery industry's fastest growing segment. Athletic Brewing grew 13,071 percent over the past three years, making it the 26th fastest growing company in the United States, as recognized by the Inc. 5000.

His company grew 1,131 percent over the past three years–and he realizes that kind of fast pace isn’t for everybody, even with an important mission in mind. Xiao Wang in 2017 had founded Boundless Immigration, a Seattle-based tech company that helps individuals and families navigate immigration paperwork and processes through data, and through its online platform. Today its process has a 99 percent success rate, and the company has helped more than 70,000 individuals file for green cards or citizenship. To keep growing at its rate, Xiao maintains an “adapt and evolve” strategy, and realizes that perfection is sometimes the enemy of progress. He tells host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin that his company’s culture of fast-growth and constant change isn’t for everyone–just like black licorice. 

After the birth of her second daughter, she began feeling marginalized in the workplace–even though she was a seven-figure sales exec. Stephanie Nadi Olson felt the drive to create a legacy for herself and for her daughters–and named her new flexible-employment community We Are Rosie after her youngest. That was 2018, and since, the company has grown to a platform with 17,000 flexible workers signed up, more than 60 full time employees, and a three-year growth rate of 2,267 percent. We Are Rosie is No. 232 on the 2022 Inc. 5000. Host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin speaks with Olso about her vision for the future of work, and how she built a truly inclusive, diverse workforce.

Jesslyn Rollins’s dad created a product in secret. She brought it to the masses. What would it take for him to let her run the company? Christine Lagorio-Chafkin speaks to the CEO of the electrolyte beverage company, Biolyte, that saw a remarkable three-year growth rate of 1,052 percent. The first in our season series exploring the stories behind fascinating companies that made the 2022 Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing businesses.

In this flashback episode, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks with Rosie Mattio, founder and CEO of Mattio Communications, about saying yes and taking a risk on a burgeoning industry.

(Original Air Date: Sept 13, 2021)

Being chief executive doesn’t mean doing everything–or, necessarily, being good at every little thing your company does. In “What I Don’t Know,” What I Know host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin asks founders to explain a skill or task they just aren’t good at. Maybe it’s the first thing they delegated once they hired staff–or something they would like to get off their plate. On this week’s bonus episode, Shivani Siroya, the founder and CEO of Tala, talks about her relationship with being the face of her company–and all the publicity that comes along with it. She doesn’t love public speaking; she’d rather be heads-down solving a problem. But, she says, she’s found a silver lining.

Shivani Siroya had worked in microfinance around the world for major banks–and saw a lot of structural issues with lending to unbanked or non-traditional entrepreneurs in small doses. Before launching her own company to fix those, she went back to school–and also worked in Kenya, for the UN Population Fund. It was there she began lending her own money to small-business owners–and learned firsthand how to establish trust in lending. When she founded Tala in 2013, she also learned the value of risk–or, as she calls it, “taking the first risk.” She explains to host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin how the company took many audacious leaps through its growth to 6 million customers–including one that shook Tala to its core during the pandemic. 

Being chief executive doesn’t mean doing everything–or, necessarily, being good at every little thing your company does. In “What I Don’t Know,” What I Know host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin asks founders to explain a skill or task they just aren’t good at. Maybe it’s the first thing they delegated once they hired staff–or something they would like to get off their plate.

On this week’s bonus episode, Alex West Steinman says: “People look at a business like ours or see the category of businesses like ours, like the Riveter and The Wing, and they go, ‘oh, like, they're really good at social media!’” No so, says Steinman, the co-founder and CEO of The Coven, a co-working and collaboration membership space in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. She admits social media is not her strong suit. She doesn’t like keeping up with the algorithmic changes, or processing things via social networks’ endless scroll of content. Her takeaway: What’s good for the business might not be good for any given individual.

The past few years have been catastrophic for many coworking spaces. WeWork’s dramatic crash was the most well known–but spaces created by and for women, too, hit walls due to pandemic lockdowns and leadership crises. But in Minneapolis, there was a holdout. It’s called The Coven, and it is a coworking space with virtual and in-person memberships, designed to be inclusive and welcoming to all types of entrepreneurs, creatives, and workers. Host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin spoke with The Coven’s co-founder and CEO, Alex West Steinman, about how she and three friends launched their idea with backing from their community–and precisely how she built a sturdy business that withheld the pressures of the pandemic and the George Floyd protests, with a little help from that very community she nurtured.

Since he was a grade-schooler, Stu Landesberg dreamed–as odd as it sounds–of starting a sustainable home-products company. When he founded it, in 2012, he called it ePantry, and it didn’t exactly soar. Investors were lukewarm–and customers hard to come by. But with a rebrand and reshaped strategy in 2016, Grove Collaborative started finding lots of eco-minded consumers online and over social media. This year, as the San Francisco-based company turned 10 years old, it was valued at $1.5 billion. In June, it went public with help from a Richard Branson-backed SPAC. Host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin speaks with Landesberg about his journey, from struggling to keep the lights on to running a public company with hundreds of employees–and his promise to the future to be entirely plastic-free by 2025.

Amy Errett might be a natural leader, and an expert team-builder–but she wasn’t always a founder. She spent her early career in banking and investment companies, before turning to venture capital. But once she was at the table with startup founders, making decisions on who deserved funding infusions…she realized she wanted to be not in her seat…but rather, the CEO’s seat. She founded Madison Reed in 2013 out of San Francisco as a hair-color subscription brand. She’s grown it–even as the pandemic shut down 12 beauty bars she’d opened across the country–to a company that has raised more than $220 million, in part from Jay-Z’s Marcy Ventures. Now, she has her sights set on opening 20 more stores in 2022, and hiring up to 800 people. Amy spoke to host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin about her rich career and her thoughts on leading growing organizations through big changes–including navigating the unknown, seeing around corners, and helping large teams make dramatic shifts.

When Michael Horvath, the co-founder and CEO of Strava, meets with employees, he doesn’t just start saying what he’s thinking. Instead, the first thing out of his mouth is: “what’s on your mind?” His company, Strava, is an app that serves 100 million athletes, to help motivate their movement, connect them with a community, and improve their safety. And these days, it’s a company of more than 400 people–which has both informed, and necessitated, Michael’s leadership style–which is a lot about listening, and letting employees grow into their passions and skills.

By the time he teamed up with Harvard geneticist George Church to found Colossal Biosciences, Ben Lamm had founded, built, and sold five companies. This one would be the most audacious yet: Its goal is to create disruptive conservation technologies, including, to de-extinct the woolly mammoth. Yes, it is actively working to edit elephant genes to create a cold-hearty herbivore to help decelerate melting of the arctic permafrost, and, thus, prevent release of 600 tons of carbon a year. It’s also working with existing species-conservation efforts globally–and hopes to apply its technology to save animal populations from going extinct. But with the audacious mission comes a lot of questions–and many critics. Lamm told host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin that he learns more from his detractors than from his supporters–and he welcomes both hearing from them, and, in a couple cases, he’s actually hired them to work with him.

He and his co-founder dreamed up their company over an unconventional Thanksgiving dinner in Shanghai. In 2009, they launched Full Circle, a line of sustainable household goods–and set out to change consumer perception about “eco” products. Today, they run three brands, including Full Circle, For Good, a line of household disposables, like compostable bags, and Soma, a line of filtration, pitchers, and bottles. He spoke with host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin about building a sustainable supply chain, bootstrapping his business from the start, and why his companies’ giving-back pledges of profits are so meaningful to their teams.

If there was a super-simple way to tweak the whole way you think about an experience…would you do it? Serial entrepreneur Toni Ko, the woman behind NYX Cosmetics, Perverse Sunglasses, and, most recently, Bespoke Beauty Brands, explains to host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin how she changes her wording to change her perspective.

Her family emigrated from Korea when she was 13 years old, and serial entrepreneur Toni Ko has since founded three different–each totally fascinating–companies. Her first, NYX Cosmetics, made $4 million in its first year, and, within a decade, was in beauty aisles of Target nationwide. But with growth, came some sacrifices–and, within years, she sold it to L’Oreal for a reported $500 million. A non-compete agreement meant Ko was locked out of the beauty industry for five years, a time during which she learned some of her most important life and entrepreneurial lessons–including how to stop worrying and focus on finding simple solutions to her own complex problems. Host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin explores with Ko how she coped with selling her company, what she created (sunglasses company Perverse) in the meantime, and how she’s back with a new company that’s creating brand new cosmetics in partnership with influencers, celebrities, and designers. It’s called Bespoke Beauty Brands, and for Toni, building it came with its own new learning curve.

There’s Silicon Valley’s playbook…and then there’s Trinity Mouzon Wofford’s radical bootstrapping. The founder of Golde, the maker of superfood powders that can be blended to make lattes or facemasks, and which is sold at Target and Goop, as well as direct-to-consumer. Trinity explains how she built her company herself, mixing turmeric lattes in her kitchen, and pounding the pavement of New York City trying to get her self-designed pouches of blends onto cafe shelves. As a super-small, scrappy, brand, growth was happening naturally–online, and off–and the level of control she had over it was not something she wanted to give up. Trinity tells host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin about how she reacted when investors came calling–and when major retailers proposed deals. 

Growing up in New Jersey, Payal Kadakia found a passion for Indian dance. As an adult living in New York City, she founded her own dance troupe, Sa Dance. But when it came to finding fitness classes, she was at a loss. She created a boutique-class-search-engine–which went through many, many, iterations, before becoming the $1 billion company ClassPass. Christine Lagorio-Chafkin speaks with Payal about all the ups and downs along the way to building one of New York City’s unicorns–and her difficult decision to step back from the CEO role she’d held for so long in 2017. Along the way, she learned to not hide her feelings, or her passions, in the workplace–and instead, bring her full self to her job.

The founder and CEO of self-driving car company Cruise has finally done it: His company’s robo-taxis are picking up passengers in San Francisco. It’s been almost a decade since he founded his company with the audacious vision to take on Google and create autonomous driving vehicles. He and cofounder Dan Kan pursued that vision–one small step at a time. He spoke with host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin about his lifelong passion for robotics, the “leap of faith” he took when deciding to sell Cruise to GM, and leading a company of more than 1,000 people–plus, how the driverless taxi experiment is going in San Francisco.

The Golden Globe Award-winning actress is also a three-time founder of companies. More than a decade ago, she launched Fabletics, the membership-model activewear brand, and more recently, she’s launched King St. Vodka and wellness-supplement brand In Bloom. But before becoming an entrepreneur, Hudson did plenty of endorsement deals–and wanted more out of them than just being a salesperson. She thought: “What happens if I bet on myself?” and began taking a stake–and an active role in–the companies she chose to work with. In a wide-ranging and candid conversation with host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin, she explains how she builds missions of sustainability and wellness into her brands, and how she thinks about democratizing high-end products, which sometimes becomes a game of tight margins.

On this week’s episode of Woman Inc., I sat down with Tala Akhavan, COO of Pietra, a platform that makes it possible to launch the brand you've always dreamt of. Tala, a former Uber executive, joined the creator economy platform with the mission to democratize access for female entrepreneurship via the platform’s capabilities.  

As a first time mother, Tala talked about the struggle of wanting to give her all to motherhood as well as her professional trajectory. While giving birth in the height of the pandemic, she made the uncharacteristic choice to not return to her secure job at Uber when her maternity leave ended. Leaving to become a full-time, stay-at-home mom, Tala experienced first hand that current workplace models and policies are not structured to support women who seek fulfillment in both areas. 

There has been a spike in female entrepreneurship coming out of the pandemic, but at present, there is little transparency across markets to launch a product in a financially feasible and time efficient manner. Tala discusses her role as a COO who followers a value-first philosophy and how she thinks through major decisions. 

After the recording stopped, Tala told me something that I believe is incredibly powerful. She told me that when she was offered the role at Pietra, she was actually offered the same role at a different company for double the salary. She turned it down because they weren’t as accommodating to her musts of being able to be a present mom. I share this, with her blessing, because I believe that is the definition of being in your worth, and as Tala mentions, holding the line.

Make sure to tune in to hear the full story and subscribe to Woman Inc. so that you never miss an episode. Now, let's get over to my conversation with Tala.

By: 

Jenna Todey, Host of Woman Inc.

The author of The Awesome Human Project and CEO of Happier is a natural at public speaking. Known for her TED talks and corporate speaking engagements, as well as coaching, she’s not one to usually experience stage fright. But she does have a secret to calming nerves before large speaking engagements, which she explains to host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin. First: Don’t tell yourself not to be nervous. Second: Do tell yourself this one key thing.

Stacey Abrams is known as a politician, a lawyer, and a voting rights activist. Her voter rights organizing in Georgia has been credited with increasing turnout in the state, including during the 2020 presidential election, in which President Biden narrowly won Georgia. Abrams is also a three-time founder–and author of three New York Times bestsellers. In her latest book (Level Up: Rise Above the Hidden Forces Holding Your Business Back), she puts together the lessons she’s learned in business–along with her co-founder Lara Hodgson. Host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks with Abrams and Hodgson about what they’ve learned along the way to founding three companies together.

The five-time founder and author of Happier and The Awesome Human Project is known both for her public speaking and her research into what truly makes us happy. But when she was building her last company, she herself was anything but happy. Instead, she was prioritizing everything and everyone aside from herself–and that led to her spiraling into a really dark place. She speaks to host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin about how she learned to rebuild her emotional health–and what other founders can learn about emotional fitness being a key to keeping their company healthy, too.

The bestselling author and business advisor Daniel Pink has written about everything from human motivation to the powerful negative emotion, regret. He has lots of ideas. The one for his latest book, The Power of Regret, How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward, came to him while he was already contracted to write an entirely different book. How does he keep track of his ideas? He explains his system to our host, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin.

The bestselling author didn’t intend to write about the powerful negative emotion, regret, but then he experienced it himself and dug in. He explains to host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin what his worldwide study on regret illuminated–and how it has a place in your company, both culturally, and in the way leaders connect on a personal level.

The co-founder and CEO of Eventbrite is a visual thinker. She tells Christine Lagorio-Chafkin how she uses her abilities to visualize data points to solve problems or find places to innovate within her online event-ticketing company.

She co-founded the event-ticket site Eventbrite in 2006, took the role of CEO 10 years later, and then did what few women leaders have done: took her company public. Then, the pandemic hit–and with live events canceled globally, she stared into a terrifying future. Julia Hartz explains to host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin how she led her team through a harrowing crisis, as well as her unique view of company culture as “more of a living, breathing organism than a bug stuck in amber.” She explains that workplace culture can’t be stuck in time–nor can it always be happy or pleasant. But it can be strong, and self-healing and help workplaces get through even the toughest times.

The founder and CEO of Lively left Victoria’s Secret–and took it on with her inclusive intimates brand. These days, she does a lot of media and big meetings, and her secret to preparing is to not overdo it. She explains to Christine Lagorio-Chafkin. 

In order to launch her intimates and loungewear brand, Lively, Michelle Cordiero Grant decided to do everything a little differently. In fact, some of her strategy turned convention on its head. She built up a community of fans and advocates before she had a product to sell–and made several other counterintuitive business decisions along the way to an $85 million acquisition very early in her startup’s life. She explains her motivations, inspirations, and the company’s turning points to host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin.

The co-founder and President of LTK, the influencer-shopping ecosystem, Amber Venz Box, works with a personal assistant. But that hasn’t always been seamless, she tells Christine Lagorio-Chafkin. Her simple collaboration tool was right under her nose.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks with Amber Venz Box--co-founder and president of LTK--about being an introvert, founding a company with her significant other, and the power of delegating.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks with Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia and chairman of Vayner X.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin continues her conversation with Ryan Breslow and asks him about how he interviews potential employees.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks with the founder and CEO of the company that ranked No. 64 the 2021 Inc. 5000, Ryan Breslow. The company is called Bolt, and it is one-click checkout for retailers. Ryan started Bolt in 2014 as an offshoot of his cryptocurrency research at Stanford, and after years of product development and fundraising and slow growth, the company has hit an inflection point and is growing wildly, with over 10 million shoppers on the Bolt network.

Welcome to Business Brainstorm Podcast. Today's guest is Stephen Mathai Davis. Diversifying our investment might be easy in hindsight, but understanding the benefits and caveats requires an expert of Stephen's caliber. With his relentless pursuit of finding new investment themes, this intriguing episode is a must-listen for people interested in investments! You are going to love this episode.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks with Michael Dell about how to secure a huge customer in this segment of What I Know BEST.

Business brainstorm with the top entrepreneurial minds in the world. Hear scaling and growth tips, leader and management tactics, and big business ideas of how to create ultra-successful companies. Hosted by Andrew Medal, founder of creative digital agency Agent Beta.

In this episode, Eric talks with the director of the Shorenstein Center and the Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice of Press, Politics and Public Policy, Nancy Gibbs.

One of America’s best-known entrepreneurs, Michael Dell, founded his eponymous company out of a University of Texas dorm room. More than three decades later, he’s led his company through multiple transformations, including taking it private, and taking on $50 billion in debt to complete a major acquisition. Dell Technologies is in a new phase of its life--and Dell explains his leadership philosophies that have shaped it all in his new book, Play Nice But Win. Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews him about the early growth of his computer company, how his thinking and actions as a leader have changed over the years, and how he’d advise entrepreneurs to reconceptualize their risk-taking.

Our new segment, What I Know Best, hones in on a superpower of the founders and thought leaders from our biweekly, longform interviews. This week, Kim Lewis, the CEO and cofounder of CurlMix, explains how to sell anything, when face to face with a potential customer.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks with Kim and Tim Lewis, founders of Curl Mix, about their circuitous funding journey and landing at No. 93 on the 2021 Inc. 5000 after attaining more than 4,000 percent growth over the past three years.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks with Rosie Mattio, founder and CEO of Mattio Communications, about saying yes and taking a risk on a burgeoning industry.

The world of business leadership has shifted dramatically in the past few years – from stockholder capitalism to stakeholder. A higher purpose is what businesses need to be about and companies need to take a stand on societal issues.

There’s one big problem though: today’s leaders weren’t trained for this new world. There was no class for this in business school. In some ways, it’s the wild west – a new frontier with no map. And C-suiters are struggling to find the way forward.

As a result, there’s a vacuum in purpose leadership. Company purpose is often toothless and company social activism backfires.

How do CEOs navigate this new terrain? How do CHROs build this new culture of leadership into the employee experience? How do CMOs build purpose effectively into their brand?

What do Millennials think about purpose? Do they actually buy and work for companies and brands that have activated purpose? Is this a real thing? And what should leaders know about this important generation? 

We’ve invited a couple of Millennials to chat about it. Fast Company’s Social Media Producer Christina Royster and Fast Company’s Associate Editor Yasmin Gagne from the podcast, Hit the Ground Running, are here to share their opinions and ideas about what purpose means to them.

Corporations feel like they have to take on social issues, but as we’ve been discussing, doing so isn’t easy.

Recent research from RepTrak found that 36 percent of consumers have "felt betrayed" by what a company stands for, and 47 percent have stopped doing business with the company as a result. 63 percent prefer to do business with companies that "stand for a purpose that reflects their values and beliefs, and will avoid those that do not."

We sat down with Laura Lane, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at UPS, who had some great food for thought on the topic.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks with Evan Horowitz and Geoffrey Goldberg, founders of the Los Angeles-based brand-marketing firm Movers+Shakers. Movers+Shakers is #78 on the 2021 Inc. 5000 list.

To celebrate the launch of the 2021 Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest growing private companies, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews the co-founder and chief executive of Carbon Health, the startup aiming to make health-care more accessible and affordable--and which earned the No. 2 spot on the Inc. 5000 list with $45 million in 2020 revenue and an astounding 39,734 percent three-year growth rate.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to John Christakos and Maurice Blanks--two of the three founders of Blu Dot Furniture--about how they used their design thinking to build a business.

​​When she had the idea for an organization to elevate women in leadership roles and entrepreneurship, Cate Luzio didn’t even intend to start a company. Three years later, she’s built Luminary, a thousands-strong networking and career-coaching company that’s weathered the pandemic--and taken the opportunity to expand digitally and globally. She tells Christine Lagorio-Chafkin about the challenges she faced, and what she’s learned along the way.

On this episode, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews Sarah LaFleur, founder and CEO of womenswear brand M.M. LeFleur.

Garry Tan is known for his investments in Coinbase and Instacart--but before cofounding and managing his fund, Initialized Capital, he was a partner at Y Combinator, where he advised more than 700 startups. He’d been down that road before--founding two of his own companies. Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews Tan--now a thought-leader with a popular YouTube channel, about his journey from food-insecurity in the Bay Area to student to founder to investor, and what he’s learned along the way to shaking up venture capital and managing the flow of early-stage money to young companies.

We’ve been thinking a lot about how companies responded to recent social events and wanted to dig into it some more on today’s episode.

What's at the heart of it? What are companies going to do to show they have a point of view, that it's not all talk and they are doing something meaningful for everyday people?

Ryan Petersen founded Flexport in 2013, when he decided to break into and transform part of the global-shipping industry by bringing reliable data and tracking to even the smallest companies. Now he has more than $1 billion in revenue and 2200 employees globally--and the industry is facing an unprecedented challenge in the wake of the pandemic. Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews Petersen about what he’s learned this year--and through the early chaotic days of scaling his company fast--about finding a balance between too much order and too much disorder when starting up.

On today's episode, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews Sallie Krawcheck. Sallie is the co-founder and CEO of Elle-evest, the digital financial advisor that focuses on the money needs of women. She founded it in 2016, after spending decades as an analyst and executive on Wall Street.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews Fawn Weaver, the CEO and founder of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey, bestselling author, and serial entrepreneur, about how she built her brand and company after setting out to tell the remarkable story of Nearest Green, the first known African-American master distiller and man who taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews Melissa Bernstein, the co-founder of $500 million toy company Melissa & Doug and the author of a new book about mental health, LifeLines, about her own journey to building a company while suffering from depression.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks with Ashley Mills and Mark Mullett, the founders of Obé Fitness, about how the former adversaries founded their company--and how when the pandemic hit they reacted with creativity, sending the company into a period of wild growth.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Matthew Inman and Elan Lee--founders of Exploding Kittens--about how they founded their company, when to give up on a potentially good idea, and the $1 million dollar meow.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews the founder of Crowned Marketing and Communications about how she turned $500 in pageant winnings into a thriving company that advises big brands on inclusive marketing. She’s also an expert on Gen Z, who has researched their consumption habits for her book FutureProof: The Blueprint for Building a Brand Gen Z and Millennials Love.

Christina Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Jack Dangermond, co-founder of ESRI, about starting his business with little over $1000 in personal savings and turning that into a billion dollar, privately held business.

Part 2 of Christine Lagorio-Chafkin's conversation with Jim Collins.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks with Jim Collins--author of best selling books Good to Great and Built To Last--about his three decades of research and writing about the skills and practices that make strong, lasting companies

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Eric Kinariwala--founder and CEO of Capsule--about disrupting the prescription drug industry.

A look back at some of the best moments of the year on What I Know

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin speaks with Blake Mycoskie, the serial entrepreneur best known for founding Toms Shoes, about the inspiration behind Toms' giving model, plus his mental-health struggles and the revelation that led to his new company, Madefor.

On today's episode, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Phil Libin, the serial entrepreneur and investor known for co-founding Evernote, about starting what he's learned since starting his fifth company, Mmhmm. They also delve into the ills of the social-media ecosystem, and why Libin says he'll never touch an indirect-funding model again.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Daina Trout, co-founder and CEO of Health-Ade Kombucha, about starting a company with her husband and best friend, running a company during the pandemic, and managing relationships with investors.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Matthew Prince, co-founder of Cloudflare, about transparency as leader, election security and how his company has grown over the past decade.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Steve Huffman, founder and CEO of Reddit, about the rise of the community The_Donald, political disinformation online, and running a 700-person company through this pandemic.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to tennis star Maria Sharapova about starting a company while in the midst of an entirely different career, finding balance in the pandemic, and her passions for design and branding.

On today's episode, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Supergoop! founder, Holly Thaggard, about changing perceptions around a product, taking every meeting you can and how building her company over the past thirteen years.

On today's episode, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Melissa Ben-Ishay, founder and CEO of Baked by Melissa, about tiny cupcakes, combatting imposter syndrome and stepping into the role of CEO at her company.

On today's episode, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market. They discuss company culture, learning from mistakes and his new book Conscious Leadership: Elevating Humanity Through Business.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Scott Svenson--co-founder, chairman and CEO of MOD Pizza--about the purpose behind his company’s existence and balancing that motivating mission with fiscal sustainability.

In this episode, Jim Damian talks to our host, Cameron Albert-Deitch, about his Book Smart pick, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World by Ashley Goodall and Marcus Buckingham

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Rich Kleiman, co-founder of Thirty Five Ventures, about his partnership with NBA superstar Kevin Durant, his time at Roc Nation, and how to break out of complacency.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Michael Acton Smith, co-founder and co-CEO of Calm, about executing on the day-to-day work of starting a business, serial entrepreneurship and digital monsters.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Neil Blumenthal, co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, about mitigating risk, preparing for business after COVID-19 and a food dehydrator informercial that sparked Neil's entrepreneurial spirit as a child.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Sandra Oh Lin, founder and CEO of KiwiCo, and leadership during COVID-19,

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Tariq Farid, CEO and Founder of Edible Arrangements

The founder of the iconic clothing brand Eileen Fisher built a company rooted in creative values and radical simplicity of design. Over the years, the vision frayed--especially when she became less involved in maintaining it. She explains to Christine Lagorio-Chafkin how she found her voice and is using it to bring her brand back to its roots while calling on the industry to adopt sustainability

Zola CEO and co-founder Shan-Lyn Ma speaks with Christine Lagorio-Chafkin about why building and fortifying her vision for a wedding-registry company took four years. Only then was it time to branch out into new products and services.

Julia Cheek, founder and CEO of Everlywell, talks to Christine Lagorio-Chafkin about being a first time entrepreneur, facing uncertainty and believing in your ideas even when no one else does.

You can subscribe to What I Know on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

Inc. Magazine presents What I Know. Please enjoy this first episode with astronaut Scott Kelly. To hear more of What I Know, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

The best business leaders make a point of staying a step ahead of the competition. Despite the crisis we face today, there is no time to sit back and hope for the best. This is the time for leaders to plan and execute on the strategies and tactics that will not only keep their businesses afloat, but will provide a blueprint for success.

In this episode, host Shannon LaNier speaks to Robert Herjavec, founder and CEO of Herjavec group and star of ABC’s Shark Tank, about what the post-world might look like and the steps smart leaders must be taking immediately in order to prosper in what will be a vastly different business landscape.

Strong leadership skills have never been more important. While many leaders are panicking or giving up, the best leaders are keeping their businesses alive and poised to thrive again by communicating effectively with their employees and keeping cool in the face of extreme adversity. There’s no getting around the fact that many of the decisions business leaders will be making in the weeks and months to come will be difficult ones. 

In this episode, host Shannon LaNier discusses leadership behaviors through the pillars of honesty, transparency and resiliency with Robert Herjavec, founder and CEO of Herjavec group and star of ABC’s Shark Tank.

The Inc. staff discusses what comes next for small businesses. Plus: A startup that's solving supermarkets' problems.

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On this episode of Small Biz Challenge: Where We Grow From Here, host Shannon LaNier talks to Robert Herjavec-- Founder and CEO of the Herjavec group and star of ABC’s Shark Tank -- about creative ways to manage cash flow during this difficult time. Robert provides practical advice for finding the funding to make payroll, keep the supply chain intact, and keep the doors open and the lights on.

Inc. staffers discuss what it's like to be on lockdown with your business partner, plus the latest on the chaotic loan application process.

This is a time of harsh realities for small business owners. Decisions have to be made to survive and these decisions need to be made immediately. In this custom podcast from The UPS Store, Shannon LaNier talks to Robert Herjavec-- Founder and CEO of the Herjavec group and star of ABC’s Shark Tank -- about the crucial steps a small business owner should be taking.

Inc. staffers discuss Everlywell, a startup making by-mail testing kits. Plus, the latest on small business loans--and how to avoid getting scammed.

Inc. writers and editors discuss what businesses can do to stay afloat in the age of coronavirus.

The Inc. team checks in with businesses around the country. Plus: How one founder survived her brush with death, then made the pitch of a lifetime.

Now introducing Inc. Book Smart, a new podcast where we highlight the books beloved by well-known founders and entrepreneurs. Check out the first two episodes with titles recommended by Elon Musk and Warren Buffett.

Host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Editor-at-Large, Burt Helm, and Features Editor, Diana Ransom, about their stories in the March/April edition of Inc. Magazine.

Ways businesses small and large are working to mitigate the risks for their employees and customers. Plus: Inside the funding ecosystem for woman-founded companies and the Joe behind Trader Joe’s.