MPW Next Gen 2022

Meena Harris, Founder and CEO, Phenomenal Media (joining virtually)
Interviewer: Michal Lev-Ram, FORTUNE


MPW Next Gen 2022 - Being Phenomenal

Conferences

Our next conversation is with an author, lawyer and entrepreneur whose career path and commitment to empowering women is distilled into the name of her values driven media company, phenomenal. I just love saying that word even Alright, Meena Harris founded her company with a mission focused on elevating the stories and talents of women and historically excluded communities, partnerships with entertainment, fashion and consumer goods companies followed. And as if that was not enough, the firm's magna Tony for co producing the best musical on broadway to share her insights on impacting culture through inspirational stories joining us virtually today. Please welcome Nina Harris, founder and Ceo of phenomenal media. Okay, Hi Nina. Hello, can you hear us? Okay? Can you hear me? We can hear you. We can hear you. Um, so first of all, I hope you're, I hope you're feeling better or that you feel better soon. I know you were supposed to be with us in person. I'm very sad not to be there in person that you can probably hear from my voice. I'm recovering. I will try not to cough through our time together, but I'm glad that we're able to make it happen. Yes, Thank thank you for doing this. Okay, so you're not here physically with us, but we want to know how you got here. Tell us about phenomenal and why and how you started this company. Yes, I have to say I use is the first time I'm doing a zoom where everyone else is not on zoom and there's a live audience. So a little awkward, but I'm gonna try to do here. I promise you they're really here. I have a background as a lawyer, as somebody who's been in the tech industry. And it was really the 2016 election that ended up being a big catalyst for me to make a shift. And even at that time I didn't quite know that it would become what today is phenomenal. Uh, can you hear me okay? There's a little bit of an echo. Yes, Okay. Um, and it was, I think for a lot of people right coming out of that election, a bit of a wake up call. Something that I think inspired a lot of people to speak up and speak out perhaps that they had before at the time, was toiling away at a law firm in Washington D. C. As a baby lawyer building lots of hours. And I had, you know, this idea to create a t shirt inspired by a poem by Maya Angelo um called phenomenal woman. And initially it was just a one month idea to raise money for women's organizations coming out of the election. And you know, to really just do my part to do anything right. Um, and that turned into a three month campaign, turned into a six month campaign, turned into, I'm gonna stop doing this after a year turned into three years and now here we are six years later and it is a values driven 360 degree media company. Uh, that is really about, you know, putting purpose first and for us, that means centering women and historically excluded communities and specifically in the medium of storytelling. Um, exciting time to be with you all and that it is exactly almost to the day a year from when we announce star expansion into content and entertainment and it's a great moment to sit back and realize all that we've accomplished in that year, how much to change just in that last year. Um, but you know, I think especially considering the theme of the conference today, um around, you know, realizing your power, um, that's something that I think about a lot in the work that we do as phenomenal, mainly in the context of systemic power, right? In terms of equity and access and visibility and um creating a platform for historically excluded voices. Um, but you know, the reason that I ultimately took this career path, this new career path, um having, as I said, you know, formerly a lawyer in the tech industry is that after working in those industries, which themselves are obviously huge centers of power, um, it became clear to me that no matter how much internal power you may have, uh, if the decision makers who actually have power in those rooms, I can't see it or worse are not willing to see it, then it doesn't mean much right. And um, so for me, it was really about, you know, wanting to make sure that the people who are in those rooms and, and ultimately the vision for phenomenal is specific change. Um, you know, to make sure that they don't all look the same. It's quite a basic, uh, you know, mandate that we have, right, that ultimately, um, knowing when people who bring different experiences and stories, um, can recognize that talent and the different frames of power, it's when we're actually able to, you know, change systems uh, for to make them more equitable. So that's really what's at the heart of the business. But I think, you know, it's, it's also about the themes of the conference of realizing that a lot of that is also internal, right? Um that all being said, we have to think about, you know, um finding our power and our purpose, which is what guides me and having faced that. Um, and so for me, when I think about the theme of realizing your power, it's really about power and purpose, right? Um, and and understand that we each have individual power to find that. Um, and you know, power without purpose is uh, you know, what we're seeing right now with Ellen and twitter, right? Um it's a lot of noise, a lot of people. Um, so I'm just really proud of the work that we're doing and I'm very grateful that I've been able to, you know, find a path that has allowed me to find passion and my purpose and find power in that. So, and there's obviously there's, there's been some progress, um, slow progress when it comes to representation in media and entertainment. We've seen a lot more attention to this, um, from a range of companies over the last few years. Do you feel like that's still something that is hard to convince or hard to sell? I mean, we just, I don't know who watched Wakanda Forever this last weekend, The biggest opening weekend of a November release, you know, 330 million box office ticket sales globally. Do you feel like you're still selling something that's hard to sell? Well, I would say speaking from personal experience, um, we're a year in, we're still very new at this, but we are very close to selling our first feature film. So I am optimistic. I'm hopeful at the same time. I think, you know, especially considering the uncertainty of this economy and looking at what's happening in the entertainment industry. Um, hearing a lot of folks saying things like, um, you know, the standards are higher now, and it's gonna be harder to do, you know, diversity. And the implicit message in that, of course, is that, um, when we were allowed to do those things, that the standards weren't as high. Right. Um, and so your question of, um, is it harder, is that still a priority? I'm certainly focused on that I'm certainly finding power in my purpose, right of, of continuing to fight for that. Um, and I think that's ultimately what I derived, you know, sort of, my, my vision and drive from, is understanding that that goal is um, still a lot of work to do that we have to do to, to work towards that, right? And it's it's much bigger than any one company or one movie, Right? And back to my point about systemic power. Um, but it is what, you know, gets me out of bed in the morning and still gives me hope in terms of, you know, really having confidence in a vision for something quite simple, which is a more equitable world in terms of storytelling where everyone has access to tell their stories to tell all of their stories, not to tell one story. Um, and uh, to find, you know, the nuances in that to, um, you know, to feel supported and not just like somebody's checking a diversity box, right? Um, it's really basic stuff that we're still fighting for. Um, but it's it's incredibly important and we know that in doing that and getting more of those folks in their rooms and changing those decision makers, right? They don't all look like white men who have historically been in power, that that makes more space for more stories to be told and that makes all of us better off, right? It's better for all of us. So, and just taking a step back, help us understand what in your eyes, it means to be a media company, a media startup in today's world, I know you just acquired a company called Seductress, would love to hear about that. And just what does it, what does it exactly mean to be a media company today? Yeah, I mean, that's a, you know, a big question, I'll tell you what it means for us, which is really about centering storytelling and centering the voices and experiences um and in terms of our mission of women and historically excluded communities and for us, um what I think is creative about what we're doing is that in some ways we are audience agnostic for us, that means that we care so much about a story and experience the storyteller that we want to get in front of any and all audiences we possibly can wherever they are, whether that is on a movie screen, whether that's on tv, whether that is in, you know, the theater industry, whether it's on a podcast, right? And so, um as a production company, we really pride ourselves in putting the creative and the creator first and um being nimble and being willing to take projects um to, you know, other content formats when the folks that are in power may tell us, you know, this is not such a good sitter and we just did a movie like that, right? We hear stuff like that all the time. Uh and for us it's like, all right, well, we'll be back, uh, and if you're not willing to make this into a tv show today, we're gonna go put it on stage and do it as a play tomorrow. And um, you know, really figure out how to just get that story in front of audiences. Right? And again, it's not just for us to tell our own stories, we know that these are better stories, there are more nuanced stories, the stories that all of us want to see and, and deserve to see. Uh, and, and it's really about, you know, finding audiences that we know will benefit from that and are open to that. Right? And, and, and talk a little bit about reductions and just sort of what your, what it is, why you acquired them. And are we going to be seeing you guys do more of that? Yeah, for sure. So I mean, the answer the question more from sort of a business perspective, um, we are a 3 60 media company and what that means is that, um, we, you know, when you talk about this sort of entertainment fly, will we have film and tv and theater, um, we're, you know, hopefully soon gonna be launching an audio business. Um, we have digital audiences through reductions through phenomenal, um, consumer products business, right? A brand that means something that has equity and so really, um, you know, leveraging all of those pieces of the fly, will that ultimately tie up into the mission driven brand. And we are um, when we talk about being a 3 60 media companies, so doctors in particular was um, you know, the strategy, there was um, many fold, but in terms of, you know, being a media company and focusing on audience and digital audiences, it was about original content and also looking at the medium. Um, and the tool of humor, right? And specifically in reduction in case, um, humor that appeals to a largely female and non binary, um, audience. Right? And understanding that back to the theme around realizing power. There's incredible power and human and humor to speak truth to power to talk about issues, um, in ways that you may not be able to do through a more sort of sincere, serious tone, which is what we have on the phenomenal side um, related, you know to that in terms of digital, it's also about building that, um, you know, e commerce business, which is something that we were originally known for. I mentioned that we started off as basically one t shirt almost six years ago, um, and have really built this 3 60 media company around that. And so it's about, um, you know, spanning our audiences and figuring out different ways of finding original specific content that will appeal to those different audience categories. Do you still sell a lot of t shirts, you broke up for a second. Do you still sell a lot of t shirts? We do still sell a lot of t shirts and reductions have lots of amazing new, different t shirts that are unlike anything you've seen from phenomenal, uh, encourage you to check out their shop. All right. Um, you uh, you had some, some really incredible uh, female role models in your life. Your aunt happens to be the vice president of the United States. Um, you've been surrounded by just very powerful women. Speaking of realizing your power, what's, what's something that you were told as a kid that you were told growing up that has stuck with you and that has helped shape you and the company you've built today. Um, a lot of things. Um, I feel very grateful to have grown up in a home that was really about, uh, you know, female ambition and realizing your power on a daily basis. I had a front row seat to that and it just was, as you said, it happens to be the case and it just happens to be the family I grew up and I feel very lucky for that. I would say, you know, first it be whoever you want to be and whatever you know, make whatever contribution you want to make in your own unique way. We all have power to do that, but do something right, have purpose in what you do. Uh, it was always a reminder that with privilege comes great responsibility and to show up for my community to fight for my community if I had any ounce of privilege to use that in ways that would be to make others better off. Right. And um, I grew up in uh in politics, I grew up, you know, on the Obama campaign, I I've been involved in that work my entire life. Um but what has been really just gratifying about my career to this day or two, you know, to date and getting to build this media company is realizing that there's power in doing in my own way uh and doing that in this case through media and it's been so special and exciting, just especially the last year, they said when we announced our expansion into content entertainment, um to see the power of that, right? And to see it coming to life. Um you've got t shirts, obviously digital content books, um feature film in the works. What, what do you see as sort of the next um organic extension for phenomenal right now, I'd like to take a nap. Um as you just mentioned, we have a lot going on and um, I would say, you know, on the one hand, we've been running really fast this year and doing a lot and on the other, um, I'm really proud of doing it well and really taking care of the projects that were entertaining projects in particular that we're developing. And for me, the next step is really about continuing to hone, you know, the y and the purpose and making sure that we're supporting the creatives and the, you know, creators that we're working with, and um, you know, sometimes that that does mean being, you know slower and more study and and coming back to the y and I'm really focused on that for next year in particular, um, after having had such a busy year and still having so many products in development, um I frankly cannot imagine thinking about anything else than what we're currently doing. So appreciate the question, but we have a lot on our plate. All right, well, we are gonna let you go take a nap. So, um I hope you feel better. Thank you for joining us, virtually, and hope to talk to you again soon when your voice is better. Thank you, Mina. Yes. Thank you for having me.

Andrea Hailey, Chief Executive Officer, Vote.org 
Carolyn Witte, Co-founder and CEO, Tia 
Moderator: Michal Lev-Ram, Editor-at-Large, FORTUNE; Co-chair, Fortune MPW Next Gen 

MPW Next Gen 2022 - The Power Of Women Voters

Andrea Hailey, Chief Executive Officer, Vote.org 
Carolyn Witte, Co-founder and CEO, Tia 
Moderator: Michal Lev-Ram, Editor-at-Large, FORTUNE

week. And one reason why I might be the fight for abortion rights. Um, as we know, in addition to a very important issue to many of us is also an economic issue. And so now we're here to talk about where do we go from here to members of the M. P. W. Next gen community, weigh in on the emerging political map as we drill down on the power of women voters, please welcome Andrea Hailey, chief executive officer of vote dot org and Caroline witty co founder and ceo tia for a conversation with fortunes from thank you have a seat. Okay, Andrea Caroline, thank you for being here with us. Um, I'm gonna just dive right in because there's a lot to talk about. Um Andrea following the recent elections, you were quoted saying women voters are forced to be reckoned with in the midterms. The biggest story of this election could be women voters who are poised to upset historical norms and determine the outcome in many states. So that's there's a lot there. Help us understand what you meant by that and just unpack for us some of what we did end up seeing from women voters in the recent midterm. Yes, well, first, thank you for having me and so wonderful to hear all of the amazing women that are here today. I was sitting backstage and just so impressive. Um, what we saw at vote dot org ahead of the elections when when roe v wade was overturned. We saw a 300% spike in voter registrations organically. So we knew something was coming and in 10 states, we saw over 500% spike. Um, and in one state, Kansas, we saw 1000% spike in registration. And the majority of these registrations were coming from women in particular young women. Um, so we knew that women were going to be a force to be reckoned with this midterm election. We just saw over 100 million people participate. Women make up a large portion of the people who participated. I think we had 10 million more women participate than men. That's the entire, you know, size of what like new york city. Um, so women were forced to be reckoned with in the entire campaign season. We kept hearing, well, will women care, will they show up, Will they not? And I think that the, the answer was just decisively given, um, Caroline, I'm gonna go to you. What what do you think in in hindsight now? Um, and actually maybe just explain what your company does real quick. I think every everybody's familiar with vote dot org. You guys all vote, raise your hand? Yeah, Okay, good Caroline. Can you just just explain real quick what your company does? Sure. So it's so great to be here. I'm Caroline would be the co founder and ceo of we are a care delivery company defining the new standard of care for women, uh, deliver comprehensive, the whole women's health care for women that's inclusive of abortion care. So we've been following this issue closely, uh really tracking what we do at Tia what we see our patients want, what women across the country want and how the link between women's health, women's rights, women's uh role in elections uh, is so, so important and excited to talk more about that. Yeah. And and so on that note, um, what do you think again in in in hindsight here? And I know there's some things are still being teased out here, but um, but in hindsight, what did the pundits and the polls get wrong when it comes to reproductive rights? Women voters and general voters, not just female voters? Yeah. So I think the pundits and the polls made the same mistake that uh is commonly made by those in government and those that work in healthcare, they failed to actually listen to women. Uh, it starts pretty basic. Uh, If they had listened to women, they would have known that for 76% of women in this country. We believe that abortion should be legal and then we should expand access. And I know this. Uh, my company knows this because we ran a national survey in the lead up to the elections that demonstrated this and we start, you know, building a new model of care by doing what other people aren't doing, which is actually listening to women. So for that reason, it wasn't surprising at all. Um what do you think? I mean, we we did get a preview by the way you mentioned Kansas, You know, this was just a little bit earlier. Um, we we saw not only the engagement, um, these incredibly high numbers of voters who turned out, but we also saw the outcome that it was overly, you know, voters overwhelmingly rejected an amendment that would have struck abortion protections in the state's constitution. What does that tell us going forward? I mean, I think at at this point, like, okay, pundits and polls like how do you think this is going to inform politicians going forward? So, a couple of things, I think we can learn from this. So first we saw that in every state where abortion was on the ballot, voters passed to keep it legal or expand access. So I think this is a really, really strong indication of something, again, that we've known for a long time that for the vast majority of americans, both women and men, we believe that abortion should be legal. And so I think we're going to see that trend at the state level, even in states like Kansas where you may not expect this uh, prove prove out, you know, in that same pattern. The second thing is it's not just about health care policies. The centris city of this issue can actually sway elections more broadly and we saw this in the way that women showed up and cast their votes for Senate candidates, governors, candidates, um, that represent uh, their views when it comes to abortion, reproductive health and healthcare more broadly in swing states like michigan pennsylvania and Arizona state or TSR thousands of patients And has just been a very restricted state when it comes to reproductive healthcare. We voted in the pro choice candidates at the Senate level and at the Governor's level. And so I think if we look at the results from last week's midterms and cast that forward to 2024, it's clear that candidates on both sides need to walk the talk, uh, and actually deliver on women's health care as a critical part of their agenda to get women's votes in the next election. Um, I want to get to any questions or comments from the audience. So please be thinking and I'll turn to you guys in just a second. But um, Andrea any anything on your and same same question. I think there's a through line here between um, the issues women care about and why women came out to vote this election cycle and um, basic american freedoms too much like reproductive rights, Uh, the right to vote and access to the ballot box that's supported by over 70% of the us population period. So really what we saw is that extreme extremism was also a motivation in places where, you know, in Georgia, let's say where you've had voter suppression laws that were passed in other states where voter suppression laws were passed. You saw people overcoming that overwhelmingly to get out and cast their ballot anyway, despite those. And I think it's um, I think we have to look at all of this is part of the same through line americans. If there's one thing americans really don't like it's having a fundamental right taken away or threatened. So I think that, um, I think when we look at our democracy and reproductive rights, um, they all kind of go hand in hand questions comments from the audience. Please raise your hand. We'll bring a microphone over to you. We've got one right over here coming to you. It's coming. If you could introduce yourself, please. Hi, my name is keisha. Um and I was on the hike with you. We had a good time. So it's very timely. I live in Atlanta Georgia. Um and it's been a very interesting place politically. We did get a strike down of the six week abortion ban today by Fulton County Superior judge. That's my county, I've been voting and um an activist. However, we also Stacey Abrams lost her race for governor. And if you look at the statistics for voters, uh, the the women voters in Georgia, the patterns look a little bit different and they're not all pro choice. And so I guess my question really is, I mean, I'm a liberal. I'll just put out their sign, I'm in public health. So, you know, I believe in it. But when you live in a state where you can see that across the spectrum of women voters, it's it's not purple, it's blue and red in Georgia. I guess my question or comment is what would you say in terms of being able to establish some common ground or middle ground in some of these states, where it's really kind of a polarizing issue and we saw a lot of women who were voting so that abortion would continue to be banned in the state based on their votes for the Senate were in a runoff based on their vote for governor and based on the fact that we've got a very, very red state government as well. I think there's a there's a double edged sword here. And while it's very clear that reproductive rights and abortion specifically drove women and men to the polls across the country with some nuances across states. As you've mentioned, There's a broader need and I think an important opportunity to shift the conversation from women's health as a single issue to care for 51% of the population. We are not a body part or a positive or negative pregnancy test and women care about a lot more than just abortion. And I think that's something else that has also been missed and wrongly reduced as a result of the central city of this conversation. And so I think in particular in states like Georgia where there is perhaps more polarization when it comes to abortion, it's critically important that we shift the conversation from women's health equals abortion to women's health. Uh care for half the population. That's mental, physical repre health care. How can we drive alignment around that? I can tell you that women are unified when it comes to their belief and desire to have mental health care coverage, improve maternal health care coverage, paid family leave, some of these other policy efforts. And I think it's important that we as voters and as policymakers, um find areas of alignment and shift the conversation around women's health more broadly because it's comprehensive women's health that's gonna enable women to be full and active members of our society, not just access to certain reproductive health care services. I think we see the same thing in democracy work where how we talk about these things and how we make sure that we are reaching out and sharing, you know, values with people instead of, you know, being against people instead trying to find commonality and common ground democracy for instance, um, polls incredibly low. Um, most people, I think it's something like 7% agree with democracy, but when you say access to the ballot box, It goes up to over, you know, 70%. So it's also sometimes semantics and what people really think about when they're thinking about um like to your point, women's health or when they're thinking about democracy. I always talk about democracy and couple that sentence with access to the ballot box, which is what democracy is, but people just have different connotations. So I think semantics sometimes become really important and to really deeply listen to each other. The 7% was what exactly people. There was a poll, did any of you see it? There was a poll in the New York times that came out and it said that Americans something around like Americans don't like democracy or that they don't believe in democracy. But how you phrase questions really matters. Um because people's concept of what a democracy is or what democracy means um is different. Some people across this country don't know exactly what we're talking about. When we say preserving democracy it's so important. But they sure know what you're talking about when you say you're right to access the ballot box, which everybody for the most part agrees with and wants to have a voice and in their local community. And so how we discuss things whether it's um abortion and women's health or democracy and access to the ballot box really does matter. Um and how we're communicating and you know, remembering that not just communicating to people specifically in this room, but you know, to people all across this nation, other questions or comments. Please raise your hand Elise. Come on. You always have something to say we've got one back there. If you could introduce yourself. Yes. Hi santa dolly RFK human rights um on the on the topic of sort of voting access. Um how are how are your organization's actually tackling that as an issue in order to uh dismantle some of the challenges that racial or ethnic voters have. If we look at the block of women as as a gender based voting block. Um how how do they have access to the ballot box? Just very curious around how you're, you're tackling that in your organization? Thanks. It's interesting. Um it depends on, you know, elections have different rules depending on the state year end state to state. They're all sorts of different factors that come into play. I'm from Indianapolis Indiana originally. And um in 2020 when I went to vote in Indianapolis, my team watched me get voters suppressed in real time. So I went out day one for early voting in Annapolis for over a million people had only opened five polling locations. There were seven hour lines. Like most americans. I had to go back to work. So I went back to work, I showed up the next day, there was still a seven hour line. I went back, I should have just said, don't you know who I am. I know. So ceo of votes at work. I started freaking out. They were like, listen, the ceo of vote dot org can't not vote, I'm trying, I'm getting out there. Um but you know, and in indiana, I was able to, you know, luckily the position I was in, I went on the news almost every single day and said I can't even vote what is happening here. They started opening up more polling locations after that. But we really, there are different ways that we tackle this issue. One is to reach out to voters and meet them where they are. I know somebody from WhatsApp is here. We built a boat with WhatsApp to reach latino voters to give information um in in real time if somebody has a question about voting, part of our belief is that everybody wants to participate, but that there are barriers that are standing in the way and part of and some of those barriers were able to lower just with our tools and technology, other barriers we have to lower by addressing it in the courts. We filed a lawsuit in federal court in texas um, over a voter suppression law and we were able to strike it down. Um it's up on appeal now and we've also filed a lawsuit in Georgia. Um, so we're we have to think in this day and age about how all of these different things or get out the vote efforts, our registration efforts, um the integrations with companies that we have. Um and plus you know voter information, how, how all of that comes together for a comprehensive picture of how we can address systematic issues and lower the barriers to voting. Got another question over here. I I just wanted to maybe push a little bit on. So I agree. And I can see how when roe v wade was overturned, a lot of women went to register to vote. But I wanted to push on the point that was made earlier about semantics because I didn't dig really deeply into the the exit polling data. But what you saw in terms of women vs men, if you look at the breakdown by age and if you look at the breakdown by race and then you look at how women voted. I'm almost wondering if the issue is not a semantic issue and whether there are women who are actually voting with party, irrespective of whether you talk about reproductive health or women's health or health for 50% of the population. And so how do we as women start to think about almost sort of dismantling this thought of voting behind party and really getting a lot of these women who went to register but registered and voted against us. How do we tackle that? Because I think we have a very big problem across age and across race and as women, we need to figure out how to bring that together for the good of all of us. Absolutely. I think when you know earlier talking about semantic part of what I was saying there is for a vote dot org where mostly 30 People 35 and under are using the platform. So um there what were what was really talking about is this difference in people's minds between what what does it mean to be in a democracy? Like what does democracy even matter? And what does it mean to have access to the ballot box? Because those, even those, those two things are the same. Um a lot of people don't connect the dots between them, but when you're talking about um voting along party lines, I would say that in truth there, depending on the age demographics of who you're talking about and where, you know, I think that it's notoriously famous that um when married women who are married to men tend to vote with their husbands, right? So thing single women can't vote in their own interests, then get people get married and they start to vote in in their husband's interest of time. There's more work to be done. I think um narrow actually had some information around um uh in the last presidential election cycle. People also looking at socio economic levels and saying, you know, there are a lot of women who um fought for things like equal pay and then people said, well, equal pay sounded elitist because I'm an hourly job and equal pay may be great if you're in a partner in a law firm, but that's not my situation. So I think it's also kind of listening to listening to those women as well to see what what are the things that are, you know, really driving your self interest. But I hear you on what you're saying. I don't believe that it's, you know, all across the board, I think that there are people who there's still a lot of work to be done around, what does it mean to be an empowered woman voting in your own self interest, not just in the interest of someone else. I was just layer in there that I think the single most important thing that we can do, whether you're in government or in health care or uh wherever, whatever you do is actually just listen to women at both as a group, understand where are we united, um and then where the the differences as you're calling out amongst age, race, ethnicity, uh you know, urban versus rural, there's lots of things that unite us and then there are points of difference as well. And I think what's been fundamentally missed by frankly politicians on within both parties is actually understanding the economic and political weight of women in this country and the central city of things from women's health, to women rights, to women's ability to participate fully in our society and we need to shift, you know, the government is built by and large by men or healthcare systems built by and large by men. And if we actually take a step back and say, let's listen to what real women want and understand that not based on party line and actually enact policies and service of what real women want. Then I think we have an opportunity to make real progress and connect those dots in more meaningful ways. Well, Caroline Andrea um Andrea Excuse me. Um thank you so much. We look forward to having you both of you back in 2024 and hopefully before there's lots more to talk about, thank you.

Deb Liu, President and CEO, Ancestry
Interviewer: Maria Aspan, FORTUNE

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Taking Back Your Power

MPW Next Gen 2022- Taking Back Your Power

I should point out we did not coordinate our house. That is absolutely true. Deb thank you so much for joining us and for being here today, it's great to be here. So you joined ancestry as Ceo about 18 months ago and since then you've not only been a ceo you also read a book Why now and why this book. You know I had I had just been thinking about this book for a long time. You know I have actually had an open door policy for eight years where people who need some code advice could call me and at around eight years I realized I had coached about 1000 women. It's gonna take me another eight years to talk to another 1000 women. And I decided I would write a book. So all the advice because there was a lot of themes that were very similar and so I put it all in the book and I hopefully that will increase the reach and scale of which you know a lot of the lessons that I learned the hard way. And I also talked to a couple of dozen women who also share their stories and their lessons as well. It struck me that it's it's a very practical guide and you acknowledge up front that the system is broken but that you know individuals can't necessarily change the system and you're trying to give advice for how to navigate within it. What like what led you to that conclusion? How do you sort of how do you sort of deal with the the imperfect larger and trying to get ahead yourself or help other women get ahead? Well, I heard that there was criticism of lean in like we shouldn't ask women to do more. We should fix the system. But my question is what do we do in the meantime? Because there's no magic wands. You know, the women who've been fighting for equality all these years, they had to live within the system for so long. And part of this book is to say, look, I see you I hear you for every 100 women, 100 men who are promoted to management, only 86 women are. But nobody tells those 14 women we didn't promote you because you're a woman And so you feel stuck. Maybe you feel like maybe something's wrong with me. You know, same thing for every you know, every person man who asked for a raise, 20% of them will get a raise and 15% of women will get a race. Nobody says the five women, it's just that's the way it is. But my my point of view is, you know, if you don't ask, you know, the probability is zero. So the difference between 15 and 20 is the system. The difference between zero and 15 is the power that we have and that's what what I talk about, take back your power. That's what I mean. You also you talked a lot about some of the personal challenges you've faced, including what struck me was you talked about what a source of strength growing up, your family was your community, you were your family was chinese american immigrants in the south in a town where you were very different from most other people. You felt bullied, you were bullied and um you also talk a bit about your church and how that was also a source of strength for you. But sometimes it created some problems like when you were gonna move across the country and your pastor was like why would your said your fiance or your husband, why would you move across the country for her job? So how do you how do you navigate structures that can be both a source of strength but also um a source of pain. You know, I grew up in a christian home, my parents were christian and raised us in the church and to this day we raised our family as christians as well. But one of the things is it was a very conservative church, especially evangelical churches in the south as many of you know, um Adhered to a certain type of comp carrion is um that says that, you know, men and women have complementary roles. A man should be the head of the household, the woman, you know, so they when we were in premarital counseling, they said to my then fiance, you know, why are you going across the country with Deb to get her? And I was getting my M. B. A. From stanford, I'm so excited to tell our counselors And the pastor said, you know to my husband, you have the lead career, she doesn't need a master's degree to stay at home. And it was really crushing for me because to think that your faith, that somebody who is a leader in your church says to you that your dreams are not worth living, that you know this is outside of what God's intention is for you and to be 24 years old and to hear that and then to say what if I'm doing something wrong. And I had to come to terms with that. And I went to talk to my then boyfriend who has not been my husband for 22 years and I said to him, you know, I just, I didn't know whether to be angry or sad and he said you know your name, Debra for a reason. And in the bible, Deborah is a woman who was the judge of all of Israel, which meant she was a leader and she was a leader written in the bible and he said, you know, God doesn't make mistakes. He didn't write a story about Deborah to say that there was a woman leader and therefore women should be leaders and you know, he talked about the proverbs, 31 woman and if you don't know that story, it's about a woman who is an entrepreneur, she's at home, she's a small business, this owner, she feeds her family, she takes care of so many things. And he said, you know, that's the faith that we have and so, you know, in life, I think there are moments that are that can be stumbling blocks as stepping stones. And for us, that was a transformative moment in our relationship, but also transformed relationship with how I thought about what women's leadership could mean both inside of the church and out. I should point out that you say you're an introvert now, speaking on stage two and 200 people, um have to become easier to become a deliberate extrovert. You know, I just think there's this huge bias in the workplace that we don't really talk about, which is this huge bias towards people who can speak on any topic any time, right? You can rip on things if you can show up to a meeting and speak. And by the way, men often do that in meetings. If you look at the amount of time men and women speak in meetings, men out speak women substantially. And so that hidden bias is something that we all have to face, and we have to decide what you gonna do about it. And for me, being an introvert worked for a long time until it stopped working and I had to decide what am I gonna do with it. And it was a journey for me to teach myself and I decided that speaking up is gonna be a skill that I was going to learn, I was gonna figure out exactly how to do it. I broke it down like every problem, I was a product manager for many years and I broke down the problem and I said, okay, what is my goal? How am I going to measure myself? How am I gonna, Great. And I really kind of work towards that and now I have a comfort level of city Here speaking to you, but that was not true, you know, 15, 20 years ago and I think it's been an evolutionary process. I do think that in the workplace we do have these biases, right? What if English is not your first language? What if you aren't comfortable speaking because you have a disability or you're differently abled? How do we think about actually being more inclusive and how we actually judge people and judge the quality of the work, that this is not the one skill and yet this is just the reality we are in today. I hope that that will change over a period of time. So a couple of years ago you decided to leave facebook after a long career there becoming one of the most senior product manager, female product managers there um to be ceo of a smaller, privately owned tech company. Um how do you feel about that decision today? You know, it's been an incredible journey. I had a wonderful time working at facebook mail meta and you know, but I think I realized that as I got more senior there, I got better at working there and I was having more impact and less learning and I think a lot of you will feel this right, you're learning and impacts are often against each other. So when you get better and better at your job, you're probably not challenging yourself and stretching yourself enough and taking a step back. You know, I remember just how hard it was for me to leave a place that I loved and somebody said to me, what are you gonna learn in the next two years that you haven't already learned and what are you gonna learn the new job in the next two years? And that was the pinching moment and I said, you know what, I want this, I want this opportunity to learn something completely different to see the world differently. And so that's what really kind of showed me that this was the next chapter for me. You know, the end of that chapter doesn't mean that that book is not a part of my life, it just means that you know, I'm going forward to something different with everything that's happened to facebook and at facebook now meta since you've left um, between increasing public scrutiny and criticism to the massive layoffs down last week, how do you um how do you feel about what facebook has evolved into since you since you joined? Well, I think that facebook and its properties WhatsApp in an instagram and messenger. They are such a vital part of our society and I think they can, they will continue to be. And I think that there's a lot of, you know, easy to criticize, but they're doing really important work keeping the world connected. And I think that that's an increasingly something that we should never underestimate. And so I have great fondness for my time. They're, they're incredible people still there really kind of making real change and I'm really excited about that. I do think that, you know, there's a lot happening in tech right now and there's a lot of scrutiny and that's something which is going to continue over a period of time. We're also, we're seeing layoffs across tech right now. Um, how, how are you thinking about this ancestry? What are you doing to prepare for the economic climate or react to the economic climate that we're in. I think the companies that prepare the best that really think hard about kind of where they want to go and what they need to do. Those are the ones who are going to come out stronger on the other side. We don't want to be too reactionary, but we also want to prepare for whatever to come. And I think that, you know, we're going to go through a period over the next 12 months that none of us can anticipate and you know, we have to actually prepare for what that's gonna be. I do think that the companies and say, you know what, this is an opportunity for us to look at efficiency effectiveness for us to think about how we want to situate our workforce, how we want flexible work to go. Those are the companies on the other side, 234 years from now, they're gonna be way stronger than those who said, you know, we're just gonna pull back really quickly or we're gonna swing too hard. I think that somewhere in there is the right path and each company needs to find that for themselves. You've talked about how ancestry you're doing a lot to sort of expand the audience and also expand um its status to make sure that it no longer um serves just a core of people who maybe came from or their ancestors came from Western europe. And to diversify the sources of data that you have. Can you tell us a little bit about where you are in that program? Yes. So part of what we're doing over and we started this kind of, when I joined about 18 months ago was really what we call ancestry for all, how do we make ancestry like, you know, 80% of people in America really interested in and across the world actually are interested in learning more about their family history, where their families come from and yet because of our historical relationships and our records, we are an amazing company. You know, if you come from a western european background, that's just the history of where we came. That's also the partnerships that we have with a lot of the archives and governments. But you know, it doesn't mean that the other people who for whom we don't have records, love their family any less, want to discover their family any less. So the work we've been doing is to get records from different, you know, different diverse regions as well as you know, DNA samples from from other regions to really help turn our product not just to be amazing discovery experience for those from Western europe, but across everybody who loves their family and wants to participate in it. And it's early in our journey. But I do think that that is gonna be the next chapter of where we're gonna go as a company ancestry is privately owned by Black Rock. How do you like business journalist here? Um how do you, how does that affect how you're able to navigate in this environment? And are you glad to be at a private company versus at a large, publicly treated? Well, I think in uncertain times, it's actually better to be a private company because you can't invest in the future and not worry quarter to quarter what you're answering for. We still do earnings calls, we still, you know, put our financial to the, the data is out there but more so you know, your expected, you're not setting expectations trying to beat those expectations. What you're trying to do is really run the business for the long term. And that's what's great about the model that we have is that you know, we're really investing in really revolutionizing and evolving our product towards, you know, different communities making our product from being too. We used to be a very solo activity. We want to make it more connected, bring it all the more user joining your content and you know, make it a family activity that you're doing not only with by yourself but with your family and sharing their discoveries and we can only do that because we don't have to every quarter say we need to hit this specific number or we need to make changes that has given us the freedom to really change the way we think about our products and invest in the product and technology area. I want to end by asking you a little bit about your time on a board on into its board and how that shaped your advocacy to get other women onto boards because I know you spent a lot of time on this. Um, what have you found to be the most effective arguments for championing other women on boards. Well first how I got on the board was that Cheryl Sandberg actually introduced me to brad smith is the Ceo, when I was a random director at facebook where there are hundreds of them and she said, you know, I want you to meet brad smith, he wants to learn about platform and payments. And I said, great. And then she said someday he might have a board seat as, and, and you can join his board. And I thought I'm nobody like I was kind of, you know, really far down the organization. Three years later she called me and she says brad has a position on his, would you like to interview? And at this point I was the GM of a pretty big area and I had risen in the organization and I interviewed and I got the role and what was very interesting was nobody ever called me about a board before into it. And then the week after it was announced, it was on that board every week. I had gotten a call or an email and I thought, okay, the whole system is broken if I wasn't good enough the week before, but the week after and I haven't done anything yet. I had shown up to one board meeting. Um, and then we did the announcement and you know, what is the difference between me the week before and the week after? Somebody validated me and so how do we pay that forward? I can't join aboard a week and there's such an opportunity for us to pay that forward. And by the way, this is the experience of all women on board. By the way, we get asked to be at every other board. And so I pulled together a board list, actually board list published today. I have like a recommended list of amazing women, board board members. And I send that to everybody who contact me. Like you don't need me, you need one of these people who are way better than me. And here's why. And I think sometimes you know, so it's it's the person who opens that door for you. Cheryl did that for me. I want to open that door for other people. And I think that's important work that we need to do is really pay it for because somebody was your sponsor. Somebody open that door. I hope to open that door for the next dozen two dozen people. Deb thank you so much. Thank you.

Allyson Felix, Olympic Gold Medalist, Track and Field, and Cofounder, Saysh 
Mary Beth Laughton, President and CEO, Athleta 
Interviewer: Emma Hinchliffe, FORTUNE


MPW Next Gen 2022 - Chasing Equity

Allyson Felix, Olympic Gold Medalist, Track and Field, and Cofounder, Saysh 
Mary Beth Laughton, President and CEO, Athleta 
Emma Hinchliffe, FORTUNE


MPW Next Gen 2022 - Chasing Equity


Alison mary Beth thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having us. Yeah. So Alison you recently retired from professional track and field, but not before coming back for one last race. Congratulations and congratulations on an incredible career. How are you feeling? Thank you. Um I feel really good. I feel like it hasn't fully set in yet. It's been a couple of months now, but I'm still, you know, still soaking it all up and I'm really excited for for what's next? Yeah. And you know, on that note, it's been about three years since you first signed with Athleta in that time you've released five collections with the brand. I think you're both wearing some athletic collection. Yes. Um you know, through that time, what have you learned about yourself about athletes? About athletes, sponsorships, About your fans? Oh my gosh, It's been such an incredible process. I mean, just being partnered with Athleta, I've been able to see how they do business and a business that's female lead. And um I've had a true seat at the table and I think more than anything, I've been empowered and I think that's a very rare thing to have happened. Um I have, I always say like there, I feel like they're like my big sister, you know, they have really just helped me grow in so many different ways and I've seen just a different way to do sponsorship. You know, they really support me holistically, you know, as an athlete, as a mother um as an activist and really to genuinely feel that and feel the support is something I've I've never had before. Yeah, let's talk about that a little more mary beth you started this partnership with Allison and you really approached the idea of athlete sponsorship in a way that most sponsors or any sponsors had not before. Um you know, how did you decide on that strategy and what were the differences that you really wanted to have and what your partnership with Allison would look like and the partnerships that followed? Yeah. You know, as Alison said, we definitely set out to flip the on the traditional sponsorship from the beginning and I think, you know, honestly it started with just who we partner with and you know else and obviously an amazing athlete, but so much more and really wanting to partner with, you know, people that really share our values and share, you know, the passion for our mission which is to ignite the limitless potential of women and girls and I think that comes so naturally to Alison and so, you know, even just how we choose partnership is different, but then, you know, how we approach the partnership I think is the real difference and to what Allison saying, you know, unlike maybe a traditional sponsorship where, you know, we're paying a partner to wear our clothes like this is so much more, it's about how do we create value together, like through the lens of our values and so, you know, we do um approach it in the way of like how do we support Alison of course as an athlete. Um but also as a mother of her daughter cami um as an entrepreneur with her new um um you know, business as an activist, you know, really around female athlete um rights and and just how do we partner with her in that holistic way? And I think there's been so many fun examples right through the years that we've been able to do together. I was just thinking of one that was more recent this summer where um we joined forces is you know, Allison Athleta and then and mother right the nonprofit and it was so cool because you know, we got to to offer free childcare at the USa track and field championships and that's something you're passionate about told us about and then we're able to help support that. And I think it's like supporting your passions is something we just get so much out of our customer gets so much out of, you know, it just feels so meaningful. And then I think it's it's things like just simple things like the contract, right? Like supporting you as a mother of of course you can bring Kemy with you on a travel, you know whenever you travel with us or you know, if you're pregnant, nothing changes in the contract, things like that that I think are meaningful. Um and just different than maybe how more traditional sponsorships have been set up. Yeah, there's a lot of points in there for us to circle back to. But first I want to ask you about how this strategy and this partnership approach has paid off for you in terms of sales and financial performance for Athleta. I mean it's no secret gap inc has struggled over the past year, but Athleta has often been seen as a bright spot within the company. You know, you're on track for about I think two billion in sales in 2024. So what role has elements like this partnership with Allison played in that? Yeah. You know, it can't come on like the exact specific sales, but I will say that it's been such an energy point for our brand. And I think the reason that it's um really been able to drive that is because people love Allison. They love the association with Athletic. I think they get it. That's why we're aligned makes so much sense. And I think they also love it because and Alison can talk to this, but she has a real seat at the table, right? Like designing the clothes, like everything we make really has her touch on it and I think the customer wants to support her and support um what athlete is doing and what we're doing together. And so it really has driven a lot of energy new customers. Um it's really been fun. Yeah. You know, Alison, as I mentioned on stage before we got up here, obviously your origin story in terms of how you came to this partnership with Athleta was about how your sponsorship deal with Nike ended and how you were treated during your pregnancy as you recovered from taking time off and even coming through a traumatic birth experience. You know, now that you've had more time to process that experience now that you're kind of have your official days on the, on the track behind you. You know, is there anything else you talked about it a lot? But you know, is there anything else you want to say to the decision makers at Nike who allowed that situation to happen? I think more than anything, I reflect on that time and I think about you know what a hardship it was and um kind of what a dark time in my life was at that point, but I think about the individuals that we were interacting with and they were all men and I think that if a woman was at the table we probably wouldn't have had the same outcome. And so I think, you know, it's not Nike this is an issue, you know, for so many different aspects of business is truly having a diverse group of individuals and a diverse um diverse thoughts and being able to support in so many different, so many different ways and I think that's truly the difference. Yeah. Um I'll come to the audience for questions in a moment if you have anything start thinking, but um, you know, through this new kind of partnership approach, what value do you think that brands that have not kind of taken this approach have missed out on? You know, sponsors like Nike have often been very focused on athletic performance and metrics and races and that sort of thing. Whereas it sounds like Athleta is really thinking about Allison and Simone biles is one of your partners as well. And the value they bring outside of their work in athletics as role models, as figures in broader culture, you know, what value have others missed out on? Yeah, I mean, to me, I feel like it's just the broader impact that we can have together, right. And, you know, rather than just the transaction of selling clothes, it's so much more than that. And I do think um the value we've been able to create, whether it's through the child care grants or through a lot of other, you know, things we've partnered on that actually impacts women and girls, you know, broadly in a huge way and, and athletes and women of all ages. And I think that is, you know, just missing out on that impact is probably what's happening because it's just so much broader than just selling the apparel. Yeah. Alison, what about you? What did Nike miss out on when they were paying attention to these other parts of your life. I think exactly as he said, you know, it's about so much more than just the performance, you know, and I think for a lot of athletes that is the focus obviously, you know, you want to have these amazing perf performances but there's all of these beautiful stories as well and they're powerful and they have impact and I think that, you know, as we think about success a lot of times it is, you know, just the pure dollars of it all, but what I love what's happening here with this partnership is that we're focused on impact, we're focused on change and um that's something that doesn't always come through on paper but we're seeing the effects of it. I mean when I think about what we've done in childcare and um talking to the athletes and the women who now they have an option to have a family while they're still competing and that's something I never really for myself, I always felt like I had to push it off till later and so now to see the younger athletes um having families being celebrated, it's just it's a whole new level and so um I think that's the value and that's what's really special. Yeah. Do you have any questions from the room for Allison or mary Beth Oh, I think we have one in the back so please go ahead and please introduce yourself. Hi, my name is Claire Bresnahan English, I am ceo of a nonprofit called New Leaders Council and earlier we were in a session about corporate activism and the topic of courageous leadership came up. So I think first of all, just incredible um applause to Alison for you, putting yourself on the line for women athletes, but also making a stand about birthing people across this country. So thank you. And so my question is about to both you and mary Beth about how do we as leaders here put ourselves on the line? How do we create more opportunities to make sure that we are using our positions of privilege to make sure that we are passing on um that privilege to other folks beyond ourselves. Thank you. Great question. Um well when you were talking, just one thought came to my head and just about how this partnership started and so I I wrote a new york times op ed and um Athleta actually read the op ed and that's how this organically came into existence. And it just reminds me that you have to think outside of the box, you have to do things differently and being courageous enough and brave enough to do that. You know, Athleta had never sponsored uh an athlete, you know, on the professional level before. Um and for them to take that step to me is huge and it shows that the leadership is forward thinking and not just staying in in this box that we've been in for so long. Yeah, I think that totally resonates with me too, I think back to the beginning of it and just the idea that we could rewrite the playbook, you know, we didn't have to go by the playbook, and I think being willing to do that together has been really just empowering, I think to both of us there, to the organization um more broadly, and I do think that one of the reasons maybe it's worked so well is because we've stayed, you know, aligned, I think both of us to our values so clearly and what we stand for and just being authentic to that, and I think that shows in in how we've partnered, what we've partnered on, it's all felt very natural and very aligned to what we stand for in our values, and I think that's also been just really key to um having our voice heard in an authentic way, very bad one, um you know, trend in this space over the past year is the changing rules around college athletes and C double A rules and what they're allowed to do with brands. Are you taking a look at the college level? That's something you're interested in? Yeah. You know, we're always, we're always thinking about other opportunities, I think um you know, nothing specific right now, but I will say that I don't one thing that I don't think will change is just making sure whatever partnerships we do um really do align with our values, so, you know, I don't see us partnering with someone who doesn't support, you know, our core values of women's empowerment, inclusivity, sustainability, like those are things that are just so core to the brand and um the partners have to be an extension of that, you know, authentically. So I think that will be always the first criteria for us. Yeah, I think we might have had another question in the room, Okay, we can come back, you know, do you think we're at a tipping point? I mean there's been so much happening for women, for mothers in sports and in athletics, has anything changed our things about to change? I think that we're seeing a lot of change. I think we have a lot of momentum as well, I mean I just think back the last couple of years and just um the amount of stories being told around athletes who are mothers um I love to see that and I love yeah, I love that now my daughter is going to grow up with these incredible examples of women. Um Well obviously Serena Williams is um a huge one who inspired me, you know as well. I mean we We're very close um going through the things at the same time, but um it's always nice to see someone doing it um Alex Morrigan, I think that there's a lot right now, a lot of women across a lot of different sports and I think about the W. N. B. A. And the examples there and so I just love that my daughter is going to see this and not just daughters, you know um that our kids will see what's happening and that things will be different totally. Yeah I agree. I feel like I feel fortunate to have my daughter is 11. We talk about our daughters and they've met before and it's just it's so cool that they are growing up in a world where um and hopefully brands like athletes are helping them feel confident in who they are and I think that's something that they do have more role models, you know at this point and I was just thinking about you know the partnership we did because you led this around um the last olympics where you know you flag to us, you're like hey women um often the female athletes that are moms have trouble with funding child care sometimes and then we were able to brainstorm together and through our power of she um grant program. We're like giving grants to these women and I think it actually is changing the game a bit right because they feel like they can do both effectively and we're seeing them be successful really. You know, I look back at, you know the women who got grants, I think of Elena my tailor and how successful she was during the winter olympics and my eyes were just open from my own experience of having a child and then figuring out like, okay how does this work? How do I go across the world, how do I bring a baby? How do I breastfeed? Like all of these things that I also think that the systems in place, there were not women who are thinking about these things, they were not the ones who were there when these systems were created and so kind of reworking some of those things and the things that we've done together have really have already started to have an impact Allison shoe brand called um I think we're both wearing and even take a look um and mary Beth Athleta invested in that company and sell station products in Athleta stores are on site and I believe you don't sell many non athletic products right in your stores, You know, why did you decide to make that investment? Obviously have a close relationship with Alison but beyond that relationship, what convinced you to back this company? Yeah, it was a really easy kind of natural decision I'd say because we do have the partnership we have and um to what else and opened up that is such a holistic partnership of just supporting her, you know, also as an entrepreneur and so it just felt like, oh wow, we can help support her in that aspect and it's also great for us because um it's a great product and it's you know fun to have it, you know, available through Athleta and so yeah, we became one of the first wholesale partners and it's been really fun just to see the brand takeoff and still so much more to come. Yeah. And what lessons are you taking from your athletic partnership as you become a founder and entrepreneur? I mean you mentioned the company kind of feels like a big sister. So how is that applying to? Absolutely, I mean, I just think back to our early days and I wouldn't have started without Athleta without them showing me how they do business and how they work with strong women and I think that our missions aligned so perfectly and um for women by women thinking that women deserve better and when we think about shoes, they haven't been made for women sneakers specifically and I had my own personal journey to find that out, but it's just been really, I said it before, but absolutely empowering and I think how rare is it that a company supports an athlete in this way and truly believes in them and offers that support. It's been just amazing. Yeah, reminds me of like I think our first meeting when we met each other like in the office and it was like a room full of women, right? Like women and we're all in it, you were giving your thoughts on the clothes and it's just it is this really empowering feeling of like women designing for women and um I love that there is that alignment between two and so it just makes so much sense. Yeah. What were some of the issues you had with your previous shoes you were wearing that? They were designed for women? Yeah, well, I mean once we dove into that industry um you know I learned that you know sneakers have been made off a lot which is a mold and it's been the mold of a man's foot used to wear make women's sneakers and I just thought I was just appalled by that like we how are we over? I mean I guess it shouldn't be that surprising because women are overlooked in a lot of industries but I was just like this has got to stop and so to put together an incredible team where we designed footwear that will fit the form of a female foot um it's just so x and it's it's more than just shoes, you know, it's about just better companies and companies that see women for their value and their worth and so I am so excited that I get to do this every single day and um get to have this amazing support as well. You know, you had a big moment when you were finishing up your professional career, you were able to wear your sneakers in your final races. Um we've talked about that before too, what that felt like, oh my gosh, I mean even like thinking back to Tokyo and making it back to the olympics after so much hardship and crossing the line and looking down and seeing you know these beautiful shoes that I was competing in. I mean it's something that I probably couldn't have even dreamt of and so it's been um I think the highlight of all of my olympic performances that moment and just what it represented. You know that I was able to show women you know that we can bet on ourselves and we can do things outside of the box in the non traditional way. And it was like the physical embodiment of So I love that moment. Really special. That's an amazing moment. Well what do you think we should look out for in the future? What's coming from station and Alison to Yeah I'm on the stage front. I mean we have an amazing attorney returns policy. We offer a new pair of shoes if you have our shoe and your foot changes due to pregnancy will give you a new pair of shoes. So we have more on that front coming a lot of new exciting designs and styles and um just continuing to um work to make things better for women. Well, thank you both so much for being here with us. It's great to hear from you

Johanna Faries, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Call of Duty
Kendra Johnson, Director, Global Head of Gaming Publishers, YouTube
Christina Wootton, Vice President, Global Partnerships, Roblox
Moderator: Terri Burns, Investor; Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm Tech

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Game On

Johanna Faries, General Manager, Call of Duty
Kendra Johnson, Global Head of Gaming Publishers, YouTube
Christina Wootton, VP, Global Partnerships, Roblox

Johanna Faries, General Manager, Call of Duty
Kendra Johnson, Director, Global Head of Gaming Publishers, YouTube
Christina Wootton, Vice President, Global Partnerships, Roblox
Terri Burns, Investor; Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm Tech

Johanna Faries, General Manager, Call of Duty
Kendra Johnson, Director, Global Head of Gaming Publishers, YouTube
Christina Wootton, Vice President, Global Partnerships, Roblox

Bijal Shah, Chief Experience Officer and Head of Platform, Guild Education
Lorraine “Lo” Stomski, Senior Vice President, Associate Learning and Leadership, Walmart 
Interviewer: Alexandra Sternlicht, FORTUNE 

MPW Next Gen 2022 - The New Learning Marketplace

Bijal Shah, Guild Education
Lorraine “Lo” Stomski, Walmart 
Alexandra Sternlicht, FORTUNE 

MPW Next Gen 2022 - The New Learning Marketplace


All right next up a new view on education facing the tightest labor labor market in decades and a growing skill shortage companies are learning the benefits of investing in the education and re skilling of their employees. We're about to hear from two women in the know about up skilling today's workforce, bijal Shah is the chief experience officer and head of platform at guild education, an education startup that connects higher ed programs with workers at corporations like Disney, walmart and Chipotle. Lorraine chomsky is senior vice president of associate learning and leadership at walmart, the company that sits at the top of our Fortune 500 list. They're joining us today for a conversation with Fortune tech reporter, Alexandra Stern lick. Please join me in welcoming them to the stage. Yeah. Um thank you so much for that intro Terry. I'm so excited to be here and be joined by beagle and low. We are going to try and take audience questions today. So, um think about that for my lovely panelists. So low Amazon announced that it's laying off 10,000 employees. We've seen similar reductions in force from other Fortune 500 companies as the Fortune One company. How did the investment that you've made into employees education via guild of fact, your layoff and recession strategy. Uh this is a great opening question. So, uh, well, did anybody listen to the walmart earnings call today? Nobody listened, but it was a good call today. So I'm very happy. It was a good call, but um, walmart is um we have really made a decision in investment. Last year we announced that we are investing a billion dollars um, in our education training and learning over the next five years and we are not wavering off of that. So we truly believe for those of you who don't know walmart, we are Yes, Fortune one, but we have 2.3 million associates across the globe, which is, yeah, it's massive. Yeah, just a few um, massive scale. And really for our education programs, we made another strategic decision to very much lean into our frontline workforce, um, and provide them access to opportunity and opportunity is education. It's a way that they can create a career and a pathway for themselves. So, um, we are very committed to that billion dollar investment and that does not waver. That's good to hear. So, and beat all, you know, guilt is one of the largest female funded, um, you know, I would say start up, it's no longer startup, it's got a $4.4 billion valuation, 643 million in funding from investors ranging from Oprah Winfrey to general catalyst um, per pitchbook as an enormous venture funded company or are you feeling any sort of squeeze either? Um, you know, it's always important for us to be mindful of how we spend the funding that we've received and our mission and our purpose is to drive um impact and economic opportunity for America's workforce. And so we are very much focused on that mission and ensuring that we're investing in the right things to make that happen. So in this time of economic tightening classes get dropped, how will you accommodate um, the needs of associate students who are grappling with the demands of hourly labor, childcare at home and then also getting degrees. Yeah, I can start. Um, we spend a lot of time. Low mentioned this in a panel that she was on earlier. Um, we understand the adult learner really well and how that correlates to being also a worker. Um, you're an adult learning worker and we spend a lot of time think about the resources and investments we need to make for that worker outside of just providing them educational programming and opportunities. And so, um, we provide things like coaching support to ensure that our members and our learners have access to someone to talk to. Um, and the ability to get the support they need to continue to try and balance their work lives with their education lives at the end of the day. Um, and I don't think that you can just do one part of it, which is throw out a set of programs and say great have at it. Um, I think that individuals need support, they need coaching. They need guidance either through the product or through our services in order to find the right opportunities and to really design a path that is for them, um, that they believe can happen and our partnership with guild was really important for us to help our front line associates because we've you live better you and for those of you who may be asking yourself live better you, where did that come from? Our purpose at walmart is to help people save money so they can live better so thus live better. You, we have become the largest up skilling platform. And what's unique about our partnership is that, you know, we piloted this um it's debt free education. So on day one, whether you are full time or part time associate um in the stores, you can sign up for L. B. U. And by the way it's not just about college credentials, we could have a whole other conversation about that. It's also available for India who want to um complete their high school education english as a second language. Um you can get a bachelor's degree but you can also go through a short form program. We took a look at that portfolio over the last couple of years and said Um how do we future proof our workforce, what are the skills and capabilities that we need for the future? We actually really curated um the offerings so that it aligned with that because we know where the future was going. So we have both a short term um focus but we're also trying to build the workforce for the future to sustain Walmart were 60 years old uh this year and we want to be around for another 100 60. Well, I think the signs are pointing to that, um the average skilled student is a 33 year old black woman, that is not the average student anywhere. Um Can you talk about the education needs of this population and how it's different from regular students and how you're servicing these learners? Yeah, I mean just uh you know, there's like a few things to think about the first is that they need more flexibility um than traditional education provides. They don't have the ability to um go to school between eight and five every day. Um Their schedules require the ability to have more modularity in them. Uh They are working during the daytime, sometimes at night, and so the ability to shift what that looks like is really important. They also are we have a lot of caretakers um and folks who are not only responsible for providing for themselves, but maybe for their families, either their Children or even seniors um in their household. And so making sure that we are ensuring that we provide that flexibility so that we fit into where they are and where they need to go. And the best way for for us to be able to do that is to ensure that our learning programs in our marketplace at the end of the day, cater to the adult working learner and that we provide flexible coursework, whether it's shorter form or longer form that we meet you where you are. So whether you need to finish your high school diploma or you're looking to get a cyber security certificate. We want to make sure we're covering the gamut of what our members need and ensuring that we're meeting them where they are. I'd love to open the floor now to audience questions. Does anyone have anything that they'd like to ask the panelists? That is absolutely fine. Um, because I have lots of questions for you guys. Um, so some critics of guild say that the programs um, enable low wages at corporation by and prevent workers from perhaps affording college or degrees. Otherwise, what do you say to that? I believe we need a new model for how we think about helping folks go back to school and I think career aligned programming is really essential and I believe that we're providing access and opportunity to a bunch of individuals who wouldn't have it otherwise. Um, when you think about the impact we're driving as well, low can talk about this a little bit more, but we are driving an increase in promotion rate, um, to new roles as well, A 2.4% or 32.4 times likelihood that someone will actually see a salary change and a salary increase. Um, once they participate in educational programming and our career opportunity platform. And so I think we can show the real impact with the data of what we're driving and I also believe that at the end of the day we have a responsibility to provide this type of opportunity to America's workforce and this year alone you have provided that opportunity to somewhere near 200,000. Um Associates of stores like walmart, Chipotle, like Disney and so on. Um in walmart alone you've had 100 89,000 walmart associates have enrolled in guild guild education programs Um which is an enormous amount of people, I mean that is just so large. Um 15,000 of these have graduated and 100 have shifted into corporate roles. Um that is again an enormous amount of people who are getting educated, who might not have ever been able to have this type of access if they didn't work at Walmart that said, you know that 89,000 to 15,000 is a big drop in my opinion. Um and you know, only 100 or in corporate jobs, so that seems kind of low, am I wrong? Can you talk a little bit about, I don't, I don't think corporate roles is the end, you know, is the end goal, It's about mobility opportunity to move into different jobs. We've had actually 5300 promotions and lateral transfers um so far with lb, you remember, were we started in 2018, so if you think about the adult learner in the time it takes to graduate and get a credential takes time. So 15,000. We actually um we actually really targeted 10, 10,000. We exceeded that to 15. Um We also did something really interesting last year which was, we started off by, It was a dollar a day. We wanted skin in the game for associates on day one again part time full time sign up. It will cost you a dollar a day. What we realized was that a dollar a day was a lot for many associates. We removed that we had a 66% jump in participation in L. Bu so remember on again on day one it costs nothing. This is not a tuition reimbursement, it's actually at no cost from day one. So those are the kind of things that we're doing. Um and we have, I mean obviously tons of, tons of stories um personal stories about people that are actually changed their world. We had associate Darren Robertson I talked about last time, but she's a great story about what's going on in this country which is, she started off as an hourly cashier. She like many of us, you know went right from high school to college and she started to accumulate debt life happened and she went through this process of like stopping and starting and it got to a point where she was like, I don't even know if college is for me and so when lb you came to life, she actually enrolled, she has her bachelor's degree and um she is now, she applied for, she was in an internship at our corporate office, our home office and she just landed a job as a, as a project analyst. So those are the stories, those are multiplier effects that we are going to continue to see and just to cover some stats. So an average adult learner takes eight years to complete a degree um to the point low made and um given where the walmart program is in particular, we have not hit eight years. Um and so I think it's really important to put the numbers that you have in context. The other thing I will tell you is that 70% we do a study, it's called the american worker Study. Um we pull a set a representative of the United States and get a better understanding of what their needs are. And one of the things that's really important to American workers, 70% of them say that they would like to stay at their current employer and they see themselves in 2-5 years. The biggest barrier to that is seeing opportunity. And so to lowest point, it's not about getting in into a corporate job, it's about helping you see the possibilities of where you could go next creating pathways so that you can actually embark on those opportunities so that over time you can see their career progression, you'd love to see at the employer that you're at and in fact, some of the other data points just to illustrate the power of this kind of program. We actually um did some analysis and r. L. Bu students are promoted at twice the rate of their colleagues and they leave four times less rate than their their colleagues. So there's a lot of stickiness there. Um People want to learn, they want to grow and I think this became really magnified during the pandemic when um we were, many of us were at home, our associates were the front line providing goods and services to all of you in this room. Hopefully that's that's the power of the program. Well, yeah, I mean it sounds very powerful. There's a lot of talk to about the evolving role of education and what it means, you know, um is the high, like what sort of disruption in the higher ed model for um students who get degrees, that actually means something to them. Can you guys talk about the role of evolving education and changing, You know, these sort of stodgy institutions that have existed for a very Long time. I'd love to share my I get very passionate about our, okay, I'll go check, we're in the same mindset, our vision at Walmart, we are obviously a microcosm of America 90% of you in this room live within 10 miles of a walmart. It is fully our belief that we are in a position where we can change what it means, what education means in this country. Um so I'm very excited about that possibility. I mean with all of the programs that we're offering pathways to an access opportunity, I think we have that um that opportunity and I agree with you that with the education system is very updated in this country. I also, just from a content perspective, you do see a shift. If you think about the content, you consume yourself, um we are getting to a place where people want to consume content and shorter forms and this is why shorter form programming is really important in terms of short form certifications, et cetera. That said, I do think we have a ton of work to do even across the workforce um to make sure we're make the shifts in the right way and I believe there's still power in the degree and so figuring out how those certifications can ladder up to a degree is something that's really important. Um I think that guilt and when we think about the role that we play, um in terms of making sure people are thinking about the long term while they're seeing short term game awesome. Well, the Tiktok ification of education, I like it. I know we have an audience question in the front row, if you could say your name to that would be great. Our employer is urgent. So many different types of how employers are thinking about new contemporary types of benefits that can be more flexible to match these of your employers, giving up your employees and your and your team and how that changes over time. Do you view guild primarily as an employee benefit? Do you view it as a professional development investment? I'm curious to hear how you view it in that landscape and when you're thinking about your overall benefit strategy, there also are things like insurance, there is fertility benefits, there are mental health, there are all sorts of contemporary benefits. And I'd love to just hear how you think about guilt in that context. So I'll just say I'm the learning expert so I won't begin to opine on those other areas. But what I would say about our partnership with guild is that they are our strategic partner in our upscaling strategy to prepare our associates for the workforce of the future. So the way that I look at learning within walmart is that we are preparing people through our walmart academy which is um you know our learning our learning teams for jobs that they're in today lb you is part of that and our partnership with guild is part of our um upscaling strategy to prepare our folks for the future. And then the third prong which we talked about earlier today is just the critical role that our managers have and developing and growing our talent. So we've leaned extremely heavily um into um upscaling our managers and preparing them for that, so that's, that's just from a learning perspective and one thing just to add on from a strategic perspective, um not only do we think about the program we offer in our programs we offer in our marketplace as part of the value, but the other thing that we help walmart do and other employers do is to take the on the job training that is happening and actually help translate it into credit for school. Um and so we spend it, we call it credit for X or credit for work um in this case, and that is an important part of what we do to help tie in because we believe that the learning you do on the job is equally, or maybe even sometimes more valuable than the learning that you might do in a classroom or on a zoom and we think it's really important that that gets incorporated into how we think about um designing the right pathways and programs for members and learners. So we're really out of time here, but in closing really quickly, um a lot of people in the room are, you know, either executives at large companies or they're looking to partner with large companies like walmart and guild, what do you see for the future of partnerships between large scale startups and large companies in the weeks and months to come as the economy continues to do a lot of things, I think it's uh, this may sound a little cliche, but you know, at walmart, we strongly believe that our people do make the difference. That goes back to our founder, Sam Walton. He was, you know, a treasure trove of quotes and he always talked about, you know, find great associates and you know, train them. They will be associates for life, we believe and were very different from a lot of other organizations that shall remain nameless. But we actually want our folks, our associates to stay with us. We want to build that career path with them. And I think you said it well in the research study, that that's what that's what people are looking for now. So unfortunately, that is all we have time for on a very tight schedule. But thank you so much. Thank you.

Gissou Nia, Human Rights Lawyer 
Interviewer: Alyse Nelson, President and CEO, Vital Voices Global Partnership

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Women Led Revolution In Iran

we're going to move on to a very important and timely topic. The death of an Iranian woman while in custody of the country's morality police triggered weeks of protests across Iran decrying the religious regime. Demonstrators have faced an increasingly violent response by state security forces. International activists are now taking the fight to the United Nations seeking to have Iran ejected from the U. N. Commission on the status of women. In our next interview, an international human rights lawyer lays out potential lovers to pressure the Iranian government to change its policies. Please welcome human rights lawyer interviewed by Elise nelson, the president and ceo of the Vital voices Global partnership. Good morning everyone. Um I'm so thrilled to be here and if we think about this topic it's I think so relevant for not only the theme right realizing our power nowhere in the world. Is that more on display than in Iran right now, where we are seeing women and girls, the average age of those arrested is 15. So women and girls not only as the spark but also as the engine um for this revolution that's going on there and that has led to solidarity protests around the world and today marks two months from the day that Masa Amini was um well died after a coma in you know after being in the custody of the morality police. So I'm so thrilled to be joined today by one of the world's leading experts on how we can um remove Iran from the commission on the status of women G Sania who is been an extraordinary partner to all of us at vital voices in this campaign, but before we get into that. So I wonder if you could give us a snapshot into Iran right now because obviously this is a country that's cut off from the world, even in a social media era. Um it's hard to get news that we can trust coming out of the country. Yeah, thank you Elise and thank you um to this conference for having me and focusing on this topic. So, um probably a lot of you in the audience have seen, you know, social media posts about what is happening in Iran or at least seen it somewhere in traditional media. Um but essentially this is a feminist uprising. Now the protests have spread to all 31 provinces in Iran. There have been almost 1000 recorded protests. And the significant thing is that this isn't an authoritarian state. So it's not like if we were organizing a protest here and we wouldn't necessarily need to worry about state security forces kill With bullets there these protesters are literally risking their life to talk about their demands for social change. There have been recurring protests in Iran since December 2017 with shortening spaces between each spate of protests. But the very significant thing about this current more than two months long protests is that it really came about because of the outrage around these restrictions on women. It came about because the people of Iran want respect for their basic human rights and dignity. And so it wasn't triggered because of economic considerations or because of water shortages or things that might have been relevant to the prior protests in the past. This is very much at its root a demand for social change and it's now being described as a revolution because with the prior protests, they would eventually peter out. State security forces would come and kill hundreds, if not thousands of people and the protests would end Now, people are in the streets and they're not going home despite the incredible risk. Um gen z is at the forefront of these protests. They were really out on the streets. A lot of people under the age of 25 were leading this and as we saw women and girls, even girls as young as 12, we're taking off their force to job that the state mandates that they wear a head covering um and basically saying death to the dictator, wow, wow! So in so many ways, what's happening in Iran is very much linked to what's happening in Afghanistan. What's happening even here in the United States, what's happening around the world, which is thinking about the fact that women are losing. We are losing if we haven't already lost that right of self determination, right to control our own bodies, our own lives, our own futures, our education, where we work, what we do, and can you talk a little bit about how women around the world have really stepped up um and supported this effort we and and and and I think the value and importance of that, we obviously came together with you um for freedoms, a number of other Iranian women leaders as well as women leaders from around the world. Nobel Laureates, former presidents, current current Heads of State um from Malala yusef side to descend Ardern to Hillary clinton to Oprah. Um And we put out a letter in the new york times. Full page spread in the sunday new york times. I think we have an image of it and that really said we we want the U. N. And Member States to remove the Islamic republic of Iran from the U. N. Commission on the status of women as Mahal said this is one of the most significant bodies um Within the U.N. but one of the most significant bodies where you know leaders and countries come together to look at the advancement and empowerment of women. So one why were they ever even on it in the first place? And why why would it be so historic to get them removed? Yeah. So they were the Islamic Republic of Iran was elected to this commission in 2021. And the thing is these are noncompetitive elections. So there are these different regional blocks at the U. N. They all advanced candidates. And then if there's no competition, everybody who's being advanced will get the open slots here. I think enough U. N. Member States and people who were part member States that were part of eco socks which is kind of the parent body to this this group that really dictates and governs the status of women's rights. Um I think they didn't care enough to come together and say let us encourage the ASia block which the Islamic Republic of Iran is part of to advance another candidate. They had Lebanon china Pakistan. A few candidates move forward. They could have recommended South Korea. They could have recommend there's another country. They could have really put their power behind doing that but it wasn't enough of a priority for them at the time. I think um what does need to happen now though is that the Islamic Republic needs to immediately be removed from the Commission on the status of women. They should have no leadership role in deciding what women's rights are globally and shaping those norms. Um The Islamic Republic is one of the only governments that mandates this sort of discriminatory gender framework to the extent that it does against women. If I was in Iran my testimony would be worth half that of a man in a courtroom. I would have very restricted rights when it comes to marriage, divorce custody, inheritance. I would be forced to cover my hair and wear loose clothing even if I didn't want to and the list goes on and on. Um so it's completely unacceptable. A lot of countries obviously have misogyny patriot. Those are global themes, but the Islamic Republic is definitely an outlier and that it's actually enshrined in their laws, so all of this is legal. Um and and that's very concerning now, what needs to happen is um the Islamic Republic started a four year term on this commission in March 2022. They absolutely need to be kicked off. But this is unprecedented. There has never been a member that has been removed from this commission in the past and there's never been any members that have been removed from any of the eight functional commissions that are part of the U. N. Economic and Social Council of which the CsW has one, but there's a first time for everything and they absolutely need to be king. And this letter definitely, you know, if it's signed by Oprah and Michelle Obama and Malala, it definitely turned attention to this issue. I think people around the world were surprised that the Islamic Republic would be on a commission at the U. N. Actually deciding what women's rights should look like. So we've gotten some very encouraging signs new Zealand Canada, the U. S. Government, the U. K. They have all announced that they intend to kick the I. R. I off the commission on the status of women and we need to make sure that they follow through with putting forward a resolution um to call for the formal removal. And so we'll make sure to do that and we hope to do that before the end of the year. And then we need what, half more than half of the votes 28 I believe of the 54 member states of the Eco stock would have to agree correct. So that's, you know, now it's the campaign and that would happen by when, Well, it could happen at any time. So last week, myself and some of the Iranian women signatories on the letter met with the president of her name is ambassador Story Eva we had a conversation with her, we delivered the letter to her and had a conversation. We've got an image of that as well, I think. Yeah. Um there we go. I think I'm not in there. But yeah, you were taking the photo but were there there was a conversation with her about when this would happen. And what's clear is that echo sauce doesn't need to have a regular meeting for their next regular meeting is in December seven for elections. But this can be done at any time. So it really just depends on the will of a country to want to invest in this and bring this forward. So when vital voices got engaged and I want to go out to all of you if you have questions, um we'd love to get your thoughts. So let me ask one more and then we'll go out to all of you. If you have if you have any questions, please be thinking about them. Um when we got engaged, one of the first things that we do, we work with women leaders around the world across 184 countries. We went out to our network and said, Okay, how can we be supportive? Because you know, you never want to do anything that could backfire our harm. Um and one of the greatest things that we heard was what all we need you to do is amplify our voices. Right? Retweet us repost talk about it. And there was also a feeling that there were not enough women leaders talking. And what was incredible is that as we went out and reached out to all these leaders who signed onto that letter. Now an additional 100,000 people have signed onto the letter to remove the I. R. I. From from the Commission on the status of women. But what was amazing is how quickly women wanted to sign on, which I thought was really interesting that they didn't ask who else has signed. It was like, yes, absolutely, I'm there. Why is that so important to a young woman right now? You know, in Iran probably coming home from a day of protests, why is it so important is that news getting in that things like this are happening. And really it's it's it's women supporting women, you know, the Vice President of the United States, obviously a woman tweeting about this really saying, you know, I'm going to play a leadership role. That was pretty huge talk about what that means inside the country. So it's really important. Um so Iran was an early adopter of the internet, I think they were the second country in the region to adopt the internet. There's a high level of internet penetration, there are disruptions of internet because the state is purposely cutting the internet off because they know that that's a way that people mobilized to protest obviously. Um but among the protesters, they're young girls, you know, 1920 21 they all have Tiktok accounts and it's just indistinguishable from any young person anywhere really. So the barrier between inside Iran and outside, Iran has actually gone away over the past decade, I'd say a decade ago, it was a lot more difficult for me to talk with people all over the country because I couldn't go inside the country and not be arrested. Um but now it's actually a lot easier despite these internet disruptions, everybody uses a VPN kind of circumvent the bands on different sites and they're pretty tech savvy. So they actually see what is going on outside and they're asking us to amplify this and I want to let everybody know that when you post and you share and you talk about it, it isn't this meaningless performative activism. It actually makes such a critical difference because the globe is crisis saturated right now. Um Ukraine Afghanistan reported food shortages. Climate crisis, there's a lot going on when there is a tension on Iran's women and girls actually elevates the priority level for the folks that I meet. So when I meet somebody in the government's foreign ministry or when I meet representatives of the U. N. Member State, it makes a difference to them and they know that they need to prioritize this file. So your shares are not meaningless. They're actually incredibly supporting these women and girls inside the country and those women and girls absolutely see what we're doing on the outside. Right. What what questions does anyone have in the minutes we have remaining. Yes. Sorry, coming to you with microphone, please introduce yourself. Hi, I'm Jacqueline Brown. Hi, I'm Jacqueline Brown from Workday. I have a question about the I understand the uh the protests and getting um ri off of this commission. How does that change the women's rights in this country by doing that. That's one question. And how do you protect the protesters out there in the meantime, as you go through this process? Yeah. So that's one strand of I would say a multi pronged strategy on how to help protesters on the inside of the country. There are so many different efforts to try to build an economic base for the protesters because a lot of the workers at oil refineries and whatnot are going on strike, but they can't necessarily afford to go on strike. Right? So there's that sort of like economic prom there are efforts to bring free and easy to access internet inside the country, can't give too many details on some of these things for reasons you might appreciate. But there are a lot of efforts to support the protesters and then there are the efforts that we can do from the outside that involve multilateral institutions like the U. N. So the thing about kicking the I. R. I. Off the Commission on the status of women is that the Islamic republic has used that body and that platform as a way to shape the norms from the inside. Their position is that women's place is only in the home and that we should only be in the domestic sphere. And so they hold a lot of side events at the U. N. In New york in Geneva and discuss this and I know it might sound a bit odd to us, but there are receptive ears across the world who say, yeah, you know, that's right, we kind of see the truth in that. So I think our aim is to ensure that they don't have a leadership position on a body that is influential in deciding what U. N. Women for example should work on the agency. Um but it's a separate effort from looking at how to support protesters in their daily effort to take to the streets and I should note that unfortunately there are more than 15,000 individuals who have now been arrested since the start of the protests two months ago. A lot of them are facing torture in custody. A lot of them are gonna be sentenced to long draconian sentences for nothing more than peaceful protest. And some of them are even being sentenced to execution and that's simply for exercising their freedom of expression, assembly and association. So we need to make noise for them and ensure that that doesn't happen. Thank you. Thank you for the very good question. Just I think in wrapping up um you can certainly all of you in this room you have power. You have voice, we need you to amplify the voices of these women. Um We need you to join this campaign. You can go to woman life freedom dot today or you can go to our website at vital Voices dot org. Sign on to the petition on our website. We also have content ready made content for you to post on your social media. Please do it. And what else can they do? So in these last minute or so what else can people do in this room to be supportive? Well if you're really motivated, you could write or tweet at R. U. N. Representatives or at secretary Blinken or at linda thomas Greenfield and say that you want the I R. I kicked off the commission on the Status of Women today. And if any of you live in other countries, please treat at your representatives as well. So that would help a lot. Great thank you and thank you so much. Thank you.

Sima Sistani, Chief Executive Officer, WeightWatchers
Interviewer: Emma Hinchliffe, FORTUNE


MPW Next Gen 2022 - Back To Basics

many brands had a bumpy ride during the pandemic and among them is weight watchers which struggled to manage the crucial digital pivot coming in hot as the firm's new Ceo Sima Sistani calling the calls the company the original social platform high praise from the woman who co founded social media phenomenon House Party. Do you all remember House party started the pandemic? Yes lots of happy hours on that. Um in our one on one conversation we're going to ask how weight watchers can blend the best of digital and I. R. L. Interactions to help people around the world better manage their weight and their fitness. Please welcome to the stage Sima Sistani, chief executive officer of weight watchers in conversation with my colleague Fortune senior writer Emma Hinchliffe Hi again everyone and thank you CMA so excited to have you here. I'm so excited to be here. Hello. So this is one of your first interviews since taking over as Ceo. And what is your first live interviews at least And you know why did you take this job and what have you been up to since March? That's a great question. And actually I want to start out by um mentioning the conversation that we just witnessed as a first generation Iranian. I cannot tell you how important that conversation is and for you to all amplify those voices and that actually brings me to why I joined weight Watchers from my mother she is um sorry I got emotional thinking about an emotional conversation. Uh so my mother she came here from Iran and they didn't expect to be here uh you know the revolution happened while she, they were effectively studying abroad, but she earned her PhD in food science. She actually graduated the same time that I graduated my undergrad degree and so um she's registered dietitian and wellness, nutrition has always been a part of my life and um when I had my first child, I gained £60 and I had a really hard time uh losing that weight and she was watching me do every fad that was out there and after like my third juice cleanse, she was just like, if you're not gonna listen to me then at least do weight watchers, it's science back, it's livable and I was like, okay, so I lost £60 on weight watchers and it really worked for me, I later developed a thyroid issue, I had a difficulty managing my way through that. I turned back to weight watchers again, but as a product person, I'll be honest, I wanted to throw my phone against the wall because I was just like, this isn't a digital first experience. Um uh but in 2020 as a house party was really taking off with the ambition of bringing empathy to online communication, I had an aha moment about how critical the support system and the connectivity between the members on weight watchers was to the success of the platform. And so that's when um and I would say, I didn't say the original social platform, I called it, the O. G. Social network. Um but that's truly what it is and it's bringing people together around a shared interest of weight loss, of health, of wellness. Uh they're showing up with their abilities and they're connecting with each other in these ways that are actually so much more empathetic and positive because they're behind a paywall and so that was a real unlock for me and I was introduced to the board at the time, I wasn't ready to leave house. Party things were moving in that direction, but I wanted to be a part of this company and the universe has a funny way of finding you because two years later they reached out with this opportunity and I jumped at the opportunity to continue my mission of trying to bring empathy to online communication and in this way through a community that's built around healthy habits. Yeah, that's quite the story and thank you so much for sharing that. That's amazing about your mother and thank you very proud of her and my father. Yes. Um so so you joined in March, what has your focus at weight watchers? So we I keep saying words about the original CAC which is community accountability and coaching for us. Those were the things that really helped weight watchers become a movement in the early days, but when Covid happened, 80% of our membership move to digital only. And so that means 80% of our members aren't experiencing our gold standards. That's been my focus is how do we retain, what is amazing about what we do? We've always been about science retaining the science back efficacy, the livability, but creating it in a digital first environment with an expression that that takes into consideration that most people are engaging with us on advice. And so, you know, we're doing that through being more data informed. We're doing that through putting the member for, we're doing that through evergreen innovation and a lot of things that come really natural through growth tech but are is a new muscle that we're flexing at weight watchers. Yeah. You know, so you've mentioned your experience at house party, you're the founder of that app you later thought acquired by Epic Games where you spent some time as an executive and now you've stepped into this role as the ceo of a public company. So you've been a founder executive post acquisition. And now Ceo of weight watchers in those three seats, very different roles. What have you learned from sitting in all three of those types of roles? That's a great question. Well, in the through line in all of those experiences has been about digitizing social connection. Whether, you know, I will say even before that at tumblr was about fandom. That house party was about video chat with Fortnite, It was about the social layer the third space. Um and and now it is about this community of healthy habits and in in each one of these roles, the most important thing to me is how we show up and live our values and I think that if you choose that and you choose your intention first, that breeds the outcome. And so, you know, one of the things that I love about how, what we're doing is that we do have the 60 years of heritage, we do have a team of phds that is completely new to me um that are keeping us foundational e honest, it isn't about move fast and break things, not when you're talking about people's livelihood, so that's a critical difference and making sure we infuse the right parts of tech but retain all of things that made us who we are for the last 60 years. So that's what I'm focused on and that really, I feel like showing up being mission driven, being purpose driven was true in every single one of those roles. Yeah, I'll come to everyone for questions in a moment. So if you have anything for sema, please start thinking. Um but you know, the conversation around health and weight is always evolving. You know, we have, we have some founders in the room, I think of some new companies focused on weight management and then of course there's kind of the growing popularity of the health at every size approach to health care medicine and just, you know, lifestyle. Um how do you think about that as you navigate the role of weight Watchers, not just your members, but in today's conversation is, you know, the Weight Watchers brand isn't out of step in any way with where the conversation is today around weight and health. I'm glad you asked because I think that body positivity is amazing, right? It liberated us all from the standards that were put on us by others and nobody wants that. But there's a false dichotomy that that we have to be at odds in that conversation. And and the the undercurrent in all of those conversations is shame, right? Shame for gaining weight, shame for losing weight, shame for loving the body. You're in shame for wanting to change the body that you're in. Who are we to judge? That was the point of body positivity is to love ourselves and accept ourselves no matter what our personal decisions are. And so I think that it's really important to be in this conversation and and to show up and say if this is something that you choose, we're here to support you and and that's what we're here to do is not put a judgment on it. I sit in workshops every day and all the bodies are different and all and the and the through line, there is what we're trying to with behavior change is we are preaching body acceptance. Body love. Um, were there to be a support system. It's the same finance. Honestly it's like a lot of us are privileged enough to have the upbringing and the education to understand how to manage money. That's not true for everybody. Some people need the support system of understanding how to build those healthy habits, how to manage their diet diet. Turn turned into a bad word. But it initially means, you know, satiety nutrition, how you eat. What are the habits? As I mentioned, my mother, she's a registered dietitian. Her PhD is in food science were for people who love food, we don't want to be about deprivation. We're just there to help with the behavior change in the science and to bring that support to people who do choose for them whether it's High cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, joint pain or maybe they just want to move through the world £20 lighter. If that's the choice that they made, we want to be there to provide a science-backed solution. Yeah. And how do you, you know, obviously for weight watchers, part of the goal of the businesses to attract new members and new users, you know, how do you bring those new members in which you know, is necessary for you as a ceo of a company without um, while you know, staying true to that mission of only bringing in people who already have this goal and already want to be there not putting that goal onto them. Yes. Well, and I think that's a big pivot and change from the way we've potentially shown up in the past. Um and there are definitely parts of our past that I'm not proud of, but we have worked really hard to change those um, those things and you know, the parts that are positive are that for 60 years we have been science fact, we have been um about supporting women. Are members are majority women, our team is majority women. My board is half women. My leadership team is half women. So so we want to be a part of that conversation and support people. And so when it comes to acquisition, um, I think we've relied too much on marketing to do that work for us versus the product to actually, you know, we have members who love us the NPS is really high and and to, you know, give people the tools again, this is about community building, to be able to go out and showcase that and bring people into their journey. And obviously there's a brand that is a part of that. Um but that's what I've been thinking about it, especially having built social networks in the past, nobody downloaded a social network because they saw an ad that told them to write it because you you heard it was a great experience, you you wanted to be there, you wanted, you wanted to support, you wanted to, you know, the connection and so those are things that we're thinking about in terms of how we change, but I do think we need to rely right now on the marketing, the brand too, Make sure people see that we are showing up in a different way, a more modern way. Yeah, and you know, obviously this is a transitional moment for weight watchers. Your stock is currently trading under $5, you know, why is that where investors have valued weight watchers right now? And is there anything you think they're missing? Look, I think that it's also important to remind people when they're looking at the stock price, we're a profitable company, um that is very different than, again, a lot of the growth tech that is out there, but what we haven't done is grow. And so that is what I think the market is waiting to see is are we going to do that? And the signs are there, the signs are there, it's a subscription based business. So when we look at membership and subscription, you know, there are a lot of headwinds for us to, to show that from a revenue perspective, but from a sign up trends perspective, we're already seeing those trends moving in the right direction and I'm confident that we will move to growth and uh, next year and that we're doing all of the right steps to get us there. But yeah, transformation takes time. Yeah, any questions for Sema. Oh, I think we have one over there, please, just introduce yourself. Hi Emma, my name is Windsor and I run a gen Z media company. So my audience is young women, teen girls college women. And as I think about a company like weight watchers, I'm curious how you think about interacting with your next generation of consumers and how you think about the impact we all know about insta graham and Tiktok and impacts on body image and young women, eating disorders etcetera. Um so how do you think about that demographic specifically? Because targeting young women is important for every brand that targets women, right? It's the next generation. But I'm curious about that particular and you're pretty active on Tiktok. I am oh, that was a secret. But yes, I do. In fact, I appreciate Tiktok because I think that people are more authentic there and and you know, part of the reason that I wanted to build house party was to be a more, you know, human way for people to connect. So they don't just know the right emoji but actual like facial connect connectedness and empathy. And so, um I do get really worried about the perception and the bodies and body image and all the aspiration that is associated with content that particularly young girls are receiving on these platforms. And so you know, actually this is one of the challenges is that we get lumped into even though we are science backed livable program that is literally about trying to help people do if they choose weight management if they need weight loss to do it in a healthy way. We're both into the pills, the snake oils, the potions. Um, and so what happens is things like uh conspiracies and and and you know, solutions that are that are deeply concerning are the ones that end up proliferating across social media. And so, um I think we have a responsibility to to be proud and loud in that conversation that um, you know, we too are about body acceptance and and and hopefully help young women build that confidence and um, and and show up in the conversation in a way that that supports the great work that is being done to shift culture so that it isn't about other standards, but about, you know what you choose for yourself. It's a really good question. It's a hard one to to solve and to think about, but I think that we're all seeing the impacts of that culture and it's really a proud moment for me as a woman to see how the conversation has evolved. I think we have one more question. Hi Whitney Magnuson Northwestern mutual. I was curious. I know a few years ago weight watchers went through a very fairly well publicized rebrand W W And I hear you again today talking about weight watchers and not w w so I'm curious about what the status of the brand is today and what you and the rest of the executive team learned from going through that transition. Yeah, so, Um, well I wasn't around when that transition happened, but certainly the learnings are there and I think that we are WW still that's our corporate entity. We're also weight watchers and there is so much legacy and heritage in who we've been. And we were started by a female founder. No, most people don't know that gene nice 60 years ago. I mean, she may have been one of the first women to take a company public. Uh and so there's a lot of pride in who who we've been and I think that um the move to w w was about building in a little bit more modernity, um and and trying to infuse more wellness into the brand and to put that out there and sort of with a stake in the ground. And so um that being said, yeah, we're both were weight watchers were w w but I really believe in us showing up authentically that's who we've been and the onus is on us to change the stigma associated with the word wait. And and so that's why I felt it was really important for us to also embrace the path and to be a part of changing to be responsible as Windsor asked earlier about how people think about that. Uh so so yeah, call us, you know, it's like coke or coca cola, great. Um so another topic that has always been a big passion point for you has been paid leave when you were at house party before the acquisition, you kind of lead this effort to improve the access to paid leave across silicon Valley, especially for early stage startups where there was almost none. Is that still a point of passion for you? And how are you approaching that issue today? Absolutely. And it's, it's actually um infuriating that still, since that time, I think we were talking in 2018, maybe 2019. Um, and still, since that time were one of the only countries that doesn't offer at a federal level paid parental leave policy. And so I think the onus is on the private sector to meet the gap. And I'm so grateful that I am in a position to help lead and do that. And we actually announced this week to our employees that we would be giving them six months paid leave. And that is for the birthing mom as well as the non birthing parents because gender equity and caregiving is critical as well. And we know that health outcomes. Yes, let's do it. That health outcomes, economic outcomes improve when you provide that bonding time when you provide that leave, uh, for both the, you know, Children, mothers, families and we're really excited to be able to do that. And also for our part time employees who are benefits eligible. So, um, you know, in the meantime we're going to continue to fight the good fight around the public policy and um and hopefully getting winning paid leave for all. But I hope other business leaders will will join me because this is actually a moment because of all of the cost cutting, because everything is happening. People are it's going in the opposite direction. People are pulling back on offering uh paid parental leave. And so, you know, we need to lean in at this moment. We need to give our our our parents the stability, the support that they need to be able to come back to work it for their mental health, for their economic health. And it's certainly for their family health. And I think we all the R. O. I. On that will be positive for everybody if we we all embrace um better forms of paid parental leave. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

Emilie Arel, President and CEO, Casper Sleep (joining virtually)
Interviewer: Emma HInchliffe, FORTUNE

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Forcing Ahead

the last few years have been difficult for many companies. We saw a change in consumer spending and engagement and Emily RL is no stranger to this. She's now at the helm of Casper once darling direct to consumer mattress startup that has gone from public to private in the last three years. Emily now faces her biggest challenge yet turning a profit. But how is she going to get there to profitability by selling mattresses to midwestern moms And I'm sure there's a lot more to her strategy. Of course. So we will hear all about it, joining us virtually today to discuss this turnaround plan. Please welcome Casper's president and Ceo Emily, R. L. And M. P. W. Next gen coach er Emma Hinchliffe. Hey good morning Emily and hi everyone. Good morning, how are you? Um Emily thank you so much for being with us. Um Yeah so I can be there in person but happy to be here. Yeah, so you've been navigating a lot at Casper and it's not necessarily been an easy time. You know, a mattress is a big ticket purchase that can be cut during a recession. So what's the state of the Casper business? Yeah. Look the last month, are we in November year has been pretty difficult in our business. Uh the mattress business and other big durable goods are good signal to upcoming recession or economic difficulty in consumer spending and so we really started to feel the pain in our business in Q4 last year. Um and it's been a tough tough year from a consumer spend standpoint. You don't need, everyone needs a mattress of course, but most of you in the room probably don't know how old your mattresses or when you bought it, you don't know when the seven or eight or nine years is up for the replacement cycle. And so those are the purchases that we see push off. And so it has been a tough year demand wise. Um, and we just announced that we want private last november. So the company has gone through a lot of change both in leadership and an ownership structure and with the consumer spending, but we are chugging along. Yeah. You know, you bring up a great point. You took over from Casper's founders after an unsuccessful I. P. O. Followed by that deal to go private. You know, how do you approach leading through so much turmoil in those challenges? Yeah. Look, I've been very lucky in my career to work for a lot of amazing people and side by side with amazing people throughout my time at Target at gap, old navy and private equity at amazon. And when I started at Casper almost three years ago, there were five pounders, all men, um, all in their twenties and thirties. And that was a very different leadership environment for me to learn to navigate through. We went public, we faced the supply chain crisis like everybody else and the founders began to leave the business and then phillips who was our ceo left in november when we announced we were going private. And so that's a, that's a lot of change internally for for a company, particularly when a lot of people who had been at the business a long time. The focus was not on profitability, it was on building a great sleep brand and that's what the founders did so brilliantly. Um, and there's also, and we need those people to found new amazing companies and pick new amazing ideas to really scale. And so I'm very happy with the team we have here now who are really operationalize, operationalize in the business in a different way. Yeah. You know, a focus for you is really motivating teams through that transition. So you've touched on this a little, but how do you motivate those teams when the goal shifts so drastically? Yeah, I mean look, I want my team to have fun at work, but I'm also like realistic, we're not going to be sort of hugging in the hallways every day and like high fiving, especially in the middle of what is a very tough economic environment. And so what I want for my team is that most days they're happy to get up and get on zoom or come into the office um that they understand what we're working towards. And I think for many of us women, we believe that our past, the ceo is to being a founder and there are many other past the ceo, I was never gonna be a founder, I'm too risk averse, I like somebody else saying my health insurance, but I'm good at operating a business and I think it's important that we all remember those are those two paths and so I think what I have is a great group of mostly women, I will say running a business and learning how to continue to fight every single day for market share. Yeah, I'd love to talk a little more about that. You know, you came up through Target and Gap inc and you know through those jobs you really kind of came to this conclusion that you were ready to be a Ceo, you've been a Ceo three times, but you were not interested in founding a business and we often hear from founders on this stage. So how did you kind of realize that about yourself and pursue that goal through that path? Yeah. You know I grew up in a family, we had a family business, I was working the minute I could count change and see above the counter at my dad's store and I'm very tall, so I was very young and I grew up in an entrepreneurial environment that it would have made sense for me to want to, you know figure something out on my own, just not my gig. I like big companies, I loved, I loved working at Target, I loved working at the gap, I mostly liked working at amazon and so through all these different places, I had to get to a point where I said, I'm gonna stop chasing the stories are here or maybe what feels shinier and do what I'm good at um and I think what I'm good at is helping people find their potential and helping teams work together towards a common goal. Yeah, I'll come to the audience for questions in a moment, so if you have any start thinking, Emily is kind of a straight shooter and tell it like it is, so take advantage of the opportunity, um but you know, you mentioned amazon uh specifically you were the Ceo of Quidsi, the former diapers dot com, so what did you learn from the ultimate failure of that business that you're applying to this moment? Yeah, I mean, look, I wouldn't call that business of failure, I think what we did, um I'm very proud of, I came in right after amazon acquired the business, the business was losing a lot of money and I had never been in a business before that was losing money. I'm coming from Target and the gap, like I didn't really understand what that meant. And so that was really a real life training and how to run a business and get a business too cash flow positive and that's important. I'm using those skills here now, but I think also that was like my training of what I'm doing at Casper is to take what was a founder led business that had a very different focus and transitioning into keeping some of that culture alive, but also building a business that can sustain itself. And ultimately we folded that business into amazon and that was the right decision for amazon proper. Um and I moved down from there. Yeah. Do we have any questions for Emily? No, okay, we'll come back. Um You know, so your strategy at Casper moving forward, we've talked about how originally Casper was kind of selling mattresses to this consumer. It was a new york city brand new Yorkers in the room. Probably remember when Casper advertising was all over the subways and you're really targeting kind of this male consumer often in the, often in their twenties, usually buying kind of like one mattress for their apartment. And now you've really shifted that strategy. Um talk about that, What is the new strategy for Casper that differs from that original model? Yeah. When I started almost two years ago and looked at what was happening in our consumer, over 70% of our sales were coming from men in their twenties and I don't, you know, I started to know there's lots of different ages here, but men in their twenties don't really have that much money and the families live in the summer. And so this market was not going to get us to where we needed to get to. And so we really started focusing on who actually makes the purchasing decisions in the family. We know it's mostly women and particularly as they're thinking about beds for their Children that for a second home, but for their primary bedroom et cetera. And so we made a big shift at that time to really, this was a very masculine brand, which is great. It was five men who started it um, to really start thinking more about lifestyle, to start thinking about what soft touches and we put around the mattress, how do we make the mattress aesthetically pleasing? Um, and we've shifted that dramatically. Majority of our purchasers are now women, we sell a lot more beds to women for their Children and for their primary home, we're a lot more focused in the suburbs. I'm from Minnesota originally and although I've lived in san Francisco and now live in new york. There are, there is lots of people in the middle and we were really ignoring all those people and so we're very focused on how do we grow our brand awareness where there are a lot of people with a lot of money to spend on mattresses. Yeah. You know, do you think that was a missed opportunity originally for Casper's original model that, you know, you mentioned it was a company founded by five men, they were marketing to people who they knew and understood was that a missed opportunity or was this just a transition that had to happen later. Look, I think it was the transmission. I mean I admired so much that the founders did. It's incredible to invent a new way, for example, the shop, but this does not happen very often. And now when hopefully you're all playing Casper, when the Casper arrives at your door, when you carry the box up your stairs or into the room, you don't even think twice about it. That was revolutionary eight years ago. So I think every business has to start somewhere and continue to evolve and that's what we're doing is continuing to evolve definitely. Okay. Anything for Emily. Oh, we have one over here. Please wait for the microphone and introduce yourself. Hi Emily. I'm the chief legal and compliance officer calm vault, which is a publicly traded data protection company. Um, as the market is starting to create a momentum to demand responsible and sustainable growth instead of growth at all costs. And while we all wait to see how long the market will demand that for whether it's a year or three or five years, how are you, how are you think About how your culture has to change to retain and motivate your talent because tech companies of, you know, two years ago, five years ago, 10 years ago in the culture is dramatically different when you have to be on a sustainable growth path. Thank you. Yes. This is a question. And a lot of what we have dealt with over the past year. It is very sexy and cool to grow 50% a year, but it's not that cool to lose like a ton of money while you're doing it anymore. That used to be fine. Not okay anymore. And what my team is focused on is how do we exactly like you said sustainably grow and right now with a very, we're in the worst mattress market in 26 years. So that was really super fun to take over in that market. But that's what we're dealing with. So right now, what we, we're up against us, how do we take market share and sometimes market share in an environment like this means we're not actually growing the top line, but we are outpacing our competitors. And I think for me as a leader, what we really have to do is put all this in context for our team because when you are used to see the line going like this, like that and it starts to go the other way, it's scary. And if you think about the majority of the people, you are leading on your team, the majority of people, I'm leading candidly, probably a lot of your financial backers that you're in a public company, if you're in a private company have never seen an economic environment like this And that can cause a lot of people nervous. A lot of people making irrational decisions, maybe doing something that for the short term are good for the long term by long term right now. I mean 12, 18 months are not good. I think you have to have a very steadfast constitution, um, stay calm and make sure you can keep the people around you calm because it is a very different environment to lead through anything else. Oh, I think we have one up here. We have to be popular. Oh wow. That was not the kid in high school. Hi, this is on a slim oval with insignia. Um, and in my experience, working with the companies who are turning around uh, to profitability, there is a momentum for also for you as a CEO or um, also for the team where you get tired, you burn out. How do you personally deal with that? How do you keep yourself inspired for the company and what do you do for your team because you alluded to that a little bit? Yeah, that's a fantastic question. Do I look tired? I uh, um, so I, somebody told me once that a Ceo is not a chief executive officer is the chief emotional officer. And I think about that every day and it is very true. And I think what all of us have to remember and what I try and do is, you know the on the airplane when they say put the mask on yourself before you put on your kids or someone sitting next to you? I think about that a lot because, and it's not selfish. And as women, we have a tendency to take it. I have two little kids. I'm raising them by myself as a tendency. We have, we think about what we have to take care of everyone else first. I have to make sure everybody else gets fed and I'll eat dinner at 9 30 while I'm watching White Lotus or whatever it is, it is important that every day you take a second, five minutes. That's why I'm happy to be back in the office most days, some time on the train sometime in your car to think about something else to Tiktok for 10 minutes and watch people stuck in their pantry, whatever it is that gets your mind out of things for a second and give you the space to sort of re engage and then honestly, why don't we say this all the time? But sometimes you just have to say no. And particularly with the reemergence after Covid it has been, I feel like there's been so much going on and we have private equity partners who want us at things all the time. And I've had to learn sometimes even though that dinner sounds really cool or I do want to meet that person for breakfast or I promise that person that would help them with whatever it is. Sometimes you just have to say no. And I think it's important that your team sees that from you. I think it's important when I had Covid the first time, it was important that my team. So I took a couple of days off and that I was respecting sort of the sickness. The team takes really big cues from you and it's important that we understand that. Yeah, I think we have one more question. We have a lot Sure, right, right there in the back. Hi, I'm Jamie Rooney, I'm also minnesotan and target alone. Um, so, you know, Casper's had this very public challenge, but a lot of direct to consumer companies are probably headed toward the same challenges a little later. What advice do you have for other director? Consumer companies that maybe aren't struggling quite yet, but are starting to see those signals to think about the next 12 months. Yeah. Uh, great question one, we have to start being more realistic, it is very easy to put a bunch of numbers in a model and be like, oh, well we're up 30% we get 50% more customers and the CPM on instagram go down by 40%. Yeah, that is easy, but it never actually happened. So I think, I think One is a leader, you have to be realistic and you have to be prepared for the downturn. So we're in the middle of budget season right now and my direction to my team is great. Okay, now show me down 20 down 30 down 40. And in these times we have to be prepared for what that looks like. I think the other thing is, and this goes to the question asked earlier, this is a big change in what makes a good company right now right? Like it used to be, who cares about how much money you made. Let's just look at the top of the P and L. And that's just not what makes a great company anymore. I tell my team all the time, we're not a nonprofit, that is not what we are doing here. This is a business where we need to make money. And I think it's important that you are clear with your team about what that means and are clear about that. It's going to be hard work and that you have the right people and the right lieutenants on your team who want to dig in and find the solution and and we had a lot of turn on my team um for that very reason because it's not easy and it is like the most also. So I think it's important, you just have the right team and they know what they're signing up for Emily. Um a lot of the women in this room are at the VP level which is a role you held for a very long time. A lot of businesses as well. What advice do you have for these executives, especially at this economic moment? Yeah, I think the VP level is the hardest level was the hardest level until I got the ceo because it's the level where now you're sort of on the other side of the line, you're on the leadership team now whatever that means that your company still that title is very meaningful and it means maybe people don't want you to stay at happy hour all night anymore. Big realization for me like oh they want me to leave, it's in a different place than you were before and I think in VP is where you really start learning, how do I connect with my team in a different way. How do I delegate smartly, how do I learn to audit, how do I set up mechanisms so that I can audit without micromanaging. And I think at the VP level it's a very important time and in this economic environment in your team is going to need a lot of support. And I think particularly if you're working virtually, you've got to find a way to check in with people because people are nervous. I mean if you're in new york like people are getting, you know 10,000 layoffs, we're learning about a week. People are nervous, they're anxious and maybe not about covid anymore, but now about other things and so I think it's important to just have these check ins, find ways to connect with your team, find ways to make sure that the leaders underneath you are doing that and communication is getting cascaded because communication even though you get sick of saying it over and over. I mean I get so sick of hearing my own voice like it's nauseating, but your team wants to hear from you and they want to know everything's gonna be okay and I think it's important to take the time to do that work. Thank you so much Emily for an amazing conversation.

Latashá Alcindor, Head of Community, Zora; Independent Artist 
Jaime Schmidt, Founder, Schmidt’s Naturals; Co-founder, Color Capital, BFF
Moderator: Alexandra Sternlicht, FORTUNE

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Your Decentralized Future Is Here: Web3, NFTs, And The Future Of Crypto

Latashá Alcindor, Head of Community, Zora
Jaime Schmidt, Founder, Schmidt’s Naturals; Co-founder, Color Capital, BFF
Moderator: Alexandra Sternlicht, FORTUNE

Most Powerful Women 2022 - Your Decentralized Future Is Here

Most Powerful Women 2022 - Your Decentralized Future Is Here: Web3, NFTs, And The Future Of Crypto

originally Web three technologies like N. F. T. S. Worth that, to support a new world of services. To disrupt the economics of the internet tokens with free recording artists from the dependency of their labels. But now, as crypto winter drops to an arctic level, freeze, how do founders of decentralized companies continue to execute on their value proposition? To discuss the challenges and emerging opportunities? Please welcome Latasha Alcindor or head of community at Zora and an independent artist herself. And Jamie Schmidt, the founder of Schmidt's Natural and co founder of Color Capital and BFF. So the objective of this panel is to talk about Web three and F. T. S. And decentralized finance. But as we've watched F. T. X. Crash and burn with potential legal implications. Um And Fortune 500 are laying off enormous number of employees. It seems like a call for stability um and restoring trust in institutions that are traditional rather than perhaps building new ones. Am I wrong? Can you guys talk about that? Yeah. Hey everyone, Jamie Schmidt founder BFF, anybody in here? BFF holder a chance. All right, a couple. Um We we started BFFs early this year um with the intention of educating around Web three. What does three mean? How is crypto play into that? How our community is important and all this. And what are the opportunities to connect with other people, enhance our career opportunities and potentially make money? Um We started um you know, with with youtube events, welcoming people into the space, just going over the basics lingo, um what what it all means. And so with that We gathered a brown, I don't want to get too deep into what we do, but look at that stage a bit. Um we gathered around 100,000 community members over the last several months. We're just excited to explore and to learn together um given the space now, you know, you mentioned there's some downfalls in crypto and a lot of drama in the last week or so. Um, but nothing has changed about our mission about what we think is the potential of this space. Um new career paths are opening up. We have the black chain, which is at the heart of everything. Cryptocurrency is part of that, but it's not everything. Um, I think right now what we need to focus on as founders of these projects is community building in relation building networking and just understanding the potential in all of this. We're still very, very early. Um and I think some of these, you know, these hiccups are are not in our favor, but they're also part of the process and I think it's really important for communities to understand that things will happen and there will be um, drama, there will be um, founders without the best intentions and there will be scams, right, That's all part of the learning process. And so together we're gonna get over it and we're gonna, you know, come up with opportunities that we think will be the benefit of all of us and, you know, the future of the internet. I completely agree with Jamie. Hi, I'm Latasha, I am founder of Zootopia, Head of Community and also an artist um with the F. T. X. Scam, I realized that one of the most important things to understand is that this is for the long term run. We're making a garden as we speak and with this garden will come some weeds and we're literally witnessing that right now. But the beauty of Web three is that it's much more than just crypto, right? We have an F. T. S. We have cows, we have communities growing throughout the whole space and within Zora, where I'm working right now, we're witnessing communities actually find sovereignty and autonomy and a home for themselves to really grow their economic fields. So I'm really hyped for that. Um so it's hearing guys talk about community and the work that you're doing. You know, we watched Sandbank and freed who is supposed to be the good guy in this world, turn out to be what's looking like a really bad guy as um a lot of companies and individuals will lose their life savings and fold as a result of his mismanagement of F. T. X. In your work. Um where can we look in crypto for a leader and for positivity was so much bad happening with FDX Falling. Yeah. The one thing I'm really excited about with Web three potential that creators are making a name for themselves. People who were under the radar before who never had opportunities are now in the spotlight, whether it's through their work as artists or their work as community builders or new entrepreneurs and there's so much inspiration and so much um goodwill out there amongst these groups and across the communities to and that's where I get really excited is not just within the Communities and files, but so much collaboration. And especially in the recent weeks where there is so much stress and turmoil like communities are coming together and saying like this is not going to define the space, this is not gonna, you know, paint the picture of what the potential web story really is. And so if you're asking, you know where to find these leaders, it's it's in the communities, it's going to the discourse, going to twitter um and find like the people that are leading these projects that are out to actually do good and community is great, but if you're someone with $100 and you're looking to grow what you're looking to invest it, um you know, and you're not an investor who has a lot to spare, why would you invest in a risky asset? Looking at the headlines and seeing this looks like, I might be, it might be a really fast way for my $100 to disappear. I think we're kind of skewing the picture too small, I think we got to look at the bigger picture of this. If someone is interested in investing in web three or N. F. T. S. Or anything of that sort F. T. X. Is not the only space and neither is any of these crypto space is there's so much more to grow. And so if I was an investor who only had $100 I would probably invest it into something that I truly believe in into. Something that really speaks to my heart. Work and stay there for the long term because I know it's going to grow. So I e if there is an artist within the web space that really is building something that's going to shift music or shift where we're going with industry, I'm probably going to invest my money on that because there's a bigger world out there that's going to grow from there. I think it's it's important to know also that in FPs can mean so many different things. There's art just just strictly art, you know, on the on the Blockchain. Um There's access to communities which the two of us are talking about. We both have these large communities of people and you have an N. F. T. Or a token that grants you access to these communities. They're also N. F. T. S. That can be used in the consumer space for example. Um You'll see a lot of brands and I can just announce something this week. Um Where they're N. F. T. S. Will unlock special access as a customer. And so I think it's important to understand that N. F. T. Means many many things. Um You know when you say $100 like that maybe for some if you buy $100 token to unlock access to your community for example. And the relationship that you that you make in their price is right. And so it's a very it's a very personal undertaking in purchase. Say I'd love to open it up to audience questions. Does anyone have anything for a Panelist? One third. Hi I'm Windsor and I work with brands um help them with their gente marketing strategies. Where are the biggest opportunities for consumer brands with N. F. T. S in particular. I'd love I'd love to take that. I actually grew a consumer brand um in my past life called smith Natural. And um I see big potential with Web three and N. F. T. S. For consumer brands um namely the opportunity for consumer research. So for example if a brand would offer a token that token grants access to research groups right? Consumer insights groups um Where you're offering feedback on the product before the general public has the opportunity to chime in or its access to maybe an exclusive event or limited edition products that only you as the holder can gain access to. Um I think loyalty programs are the obvious answer to think about Starbucks example. Um And the cool thing is like a lot of people say, okay well this already existing Web two right? I already have this loyalty program like how is this different? Um The key is that it's something that you can buy and sell and so if you have ownership of this token and you have these access to these brands when you grow tired of it or no longer fits your lifestyle then you go and sell it. So there's value in that in itself. And so the potential across consumer I think is really really huge and you know we've only just begun to scratch the surface there. I'd also say collaboration key. I think there's a beautiful opportunity for consumer brands and communities and like artists or developers to really collaborate in this take before we didn't really have those opportunities because they were usually gate kept. But now with this open space with decentralization and web three we're really witnessing collaboration between brands and artists really coming 1 to 1. I think also you know something that I think about N. F. T. S. They did seem there was this giant, you know people selling these paintings these N. F. T. S. For you know $70 million that did seem to really um coincide with a very frothy economy and now as we're an economic downturn, where do you see the role of N. F. T. S. Changing and evolving. I can take that over. Um I think what's going to happen now is that we're going to find more math, adoption um Now that the costs are lower to get into web three through music, N. F. T. S. Or R. N. F. T. S. Et cetera. And with options like Zora offering which is a buy now option which usually makes the costs lower for N. F. T. More people are going to be excited to get into it and involved. Um So I think what we're going to witness is different folks coming in. Um And not just the crypto bro average we're gonna witness more by pop communities, more marginalized communities, find the space, decide what they want to do with the space and build something that will benefit more people. And that's why both of our communities were started. Exactly you mentioned $70 million T or whatever. Um that's where a lot of the 50s first came into the picture was like this huge tickets, you know digital collectibles that was an ape or a board punk or whatever. It might be a clipboard punk like or four date. Um We saw the opportunity to change that, right? And just like it doesn't have to be a high ticket item that's like completely like you know not attainable for a lot of people. And so um yeah it was all about access I think for a lot of us um we wanted to make sure that our communities, communities that looked like me and women and everybody really have this opportunity to grow something of their own. It was all about ownership. It was all about control and I think that's still at the ethos of this. So do you think, um that what's happening now will affect equity and inclusion in these spaces? I think it's an opportunity to come together and say we don't tolerate this and it's, but you know, they're they're bad players in every industry, sadly. Um, and the fact that, you know, this is just coming to the surface now. It's just an indicator of like human behavior, you know, and it sucks, but it's more like incentive to show that there are, you know, good, good builders out there with with great intentions and um just more incentive to make a change. Yeah. What I'm hoping is going to highlight the better for people doing things. Um, and really show up for the communities like BFFs like Zootopia that are showing up for the people to really build something that's equitable and carry and have hard work. But understanding reality that there are risks, but as I mentioned earlier, like that's an important part of any new technology is that knowing like yes, there will be risks as leaders and looking at this risk knowing that this risk exists. Um how are you changing your approach to make sure that your communities are scam, free education, education is at the root of it, Making sure that the community understands the risk, making sure that the community understands how they could fall into scams. Um making sure that we're offering as much like education as possible. Um And really diverse education as well. Not just how to mention N. F. T. But what is marketing, what is pushing it, what is you know getting with the right communities etcetera etcetera and understanding the mental health implications of it all to and being realistic like hey like some people in our community might be struggling right now because they're overwhelmed. They're confused, they're personally impacted financially by this. And so just recognizing that like some people might be hurting and just more in front of you know connect with your communities and what do you think the role is of regulators as they continue to come and very fast into uh N. F. T. And D. Five spaces. I mean it's important I think that there's a lot of work to be done and like I feel bad people in that position because it's like you know it's a lot. But yeah I think obviously regulation is going to be key. I think I also think that it's really important that regulation that does come in really regulate on the proper calls. Um Often times when we have regulations, we witness it really limit communities that don't need to be limited and actually benefit communities that don't need to be benefit off of it. So I'm hoping that the regulation that comes in, we're witnessing like actual regulations being played and not like a trump situation and all those kind of things. So, you know, we want to see actual regulation happen and not just the same communities being harmed by it. Are there any other questions from the audience that we can address in the back? Hi Maureen Brown. Um I'm curious from your experience what you've witnessed um in the N. F. T. Space or particularly with consumer brands who have tried to play in this space. I'm very interested in this as well, you know, with our business, but I would love to hear some of the pitfalls maybe like where has it gone wrong as someone who's just kind of trying to understand the market. I don't fully understand like what are the pitfalls and what what do people mess up when entering that space? Yeah, I think one of the pitfalls is lack of collaboration with the community that is already in web three. Oftentimes consumer brands will come in because they're a big name and think that they're going to do well and it doesn't work like that you actually have to consider the community that is already standing there, really connect with the artist community, the developer community that investor community and show that you actually care about what's happening in web three a lot of times I've seen it over and over again where a company will come in there like I have this brilliant N. F. T. And really come in for the cash grab and they don't get it because they didn't connect with the community in the first place. And I think a lot of brands especially last year when there was so much hype and just jumped in too quickly without enough forethought because they wanted to be part of the scene, right? And they were worried about staying competitive. And so I think the bear market is a blessing in that sense is that it forces brands to slow down and really think about what they're offering and to make sure that what they're offering if you're offering an N. F. T. Like what is it providing that otherwise couldn't write without the Blockchain technology. So making sure that you know you're actually offering something special that you know otherwise wouldn't be possible. We're almost out of time. So in closing um I know we have a lot of crypto investors in this community and people who are looking to get involved in crypto with all that's going on. What is the one thing that people should keep in mind to be smart about their investments? I'd say I mean like the obvious like D. Y. O. R. Like do your own research obviously don't you know invest what you can't afford. Um making sure that you know when you're taking advice from people that are people that you trust and just you know, maybe pausing before you click the button and um, and you know, find maybe just a couple of it in terms of like 50 communities, for example, like find a couple that just really feel good and that complement your lifestyle and try not to invest in everything. Yeah, I would totally agree with the sentiment of finding community that is key. I really believe that if I didn't find the communities that I was in today, I wouldn't have been the artist that I am in Web three and now I'm one of the most profitable music artists in Web three, um, which is such an amazing feat just because of the communities that are there. And so find your community, find the people that you connect with and really want to build with and then go from there and start small. Okay, well don't start a crypto exchange. Amazing. Thank you so much for your time. This has been a wonderful conversation. I really appreciate it.

Andrea Albright, Executive Vice President, Walmart Sourcing
Interviewer: Maria Aspan, FORTUNE

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Sourcing Sustainably

Danielle Cohen-Shohet, Founder and CEO, GlossGenius 
Leah Cohen-Shohet, Chief Business Officer, GlossGenius
Moderator: Alexandra Sternlicht, FORTUNE

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Beauty Business-In-A-Box

now on to another corner of the intersection of tech and retail. If you run a spa studio or Salon Gloss genius wants to be your business in a box, a vertical software stack to help you streamline and organize your operations. Small business owners are listening and the numbers are adding up. Gloss Genius has 40,000 customers and transactions worth $2 billion dollars each year. We'll ask the identical twin sisters who run the firm about their plans for expansion and how Gloss genius encourages economic mobility for women and underserved communities, please welcome glass geniuses. Founder and Ceo Daniel Cohen show it and and their chief business officer, Leah Cohen show it for a conversation with Fortune tech reporter, Alexandra Stern like thank you, Hello again. Well, so this is a first for me, um, to be on the stage with identical twin co founders. Um, and as fun as that is, you guys have a very serious business. So you've raised $44 million at 100 and $16 million valuation for glass genius making you some of the highest funded female founders alive. Can you talk about the implications of this? Defin. And the updated number is actually higher than 160 360. So I guess that I know it's exciting. Yeah. Um, you know, I think they say with, with a lot of responsibility, um, comes the opportunity to have a lot of impact and that's been one of the most rewarding parts of the journey so far and I'm excited to unpack a lot of that. I would agree. Um, we're on a big mission, I think we're off to a really exciting start, but we have plans for a lot more. So the beauty salon space is a really interesting one because it's one of just, it's just a finger in the handful of industries that have not been disrupted by a major player, like an amazon or like it's really run by small business for, by women and um, who are independent operators. Do you think that there's going to be a future where we're gonna see tech disruption and more, um, you know, franchises in the space? It's a good question. Uh, if you look at the data currently, it's actually moving the other way where there's so much more fragmentation happening in the space, the non employer um, area of the market is growing two times faster as the payroll focused area of the market. And so if you look to where, you know, kind of that data points to, I really believe there's going to be even more fragmentation. What I think we're also going to see is as there's more fragmentation, what opportunities do we have to give more power to any of these business owners um, collectively, together through software and, and that's what I'm really excited about being able to enable and continue to be a part of. Yeah, I think the other thing I would add that is franchises you go for for the brand and I think what's special about what we're building is we're enabling all of these non employers individuals, independent businesses to be the brand, clients have relationships directly with them. So part of the software stack is giving them back power so they build the brand and they attract and retain their own set of clients as opposed to relying on the franchises. So speaking of, you know, this is a space where there are a lot of immigrants, there are a lot of women, um and for them about investment can be deadly. It can force them to close their doors. So how do you convince them to implement gloss genius and maybe perhaps an overview of what exactly gloss genius does for the unfamiliar. Yeah, So let me start with the overview and then um we'll get into specifics about how we can help business owners implement it and how we make that as easy as possible for them. Um basically what we do, you know, when we were introduced is a vertical software payments company. If you're familiar with the company like toast service, titan pro core, we do that. But for salons and studios and we're focused on helping a very quickly fragmenting area of the market be independently owned and operated side of the market. Um, basically manage their whole entire back office through software and these business owners have critical pain points across scheduling, booking payments, client relationship management, inventory management expenses and the list goes on. Um because running a small business is really hard. They have very little help um and yet they have a dream and a passion and they very altruistic, you know, kind of inclination to just continue to focus on the client experience and that's where we come in. How do we help all of them succeed and abstract so much of their back office so they can keep focusing on what they love doing and ultimately succeeding. And I think if you, you know, look at how we're helping business owners implement, um that's part of that's part of what's very special. Um and it comes back to something we really believe in, which is how do we break down barriers and and enable more and more access to technology for small business owners that traditionally have been underserved by technology. Um they've had a lot of bad experiences with technology and the business side of things, The good news is on the consumer side, they're getting more and more experience and excited about technology, you know, whether it's with social media or um different types of chats and and things they can do. And so if you combine the experience we've had with the business, the experience they have as consumers, you're starting from a backdrop of their curiosity being there to adopt more technology and given that now what we have to do is make it as easy as possible um for them and we do a whole bunch of things with concierge and on boarding and helping them transfer data and getting set up and um ultimately helping them succeed with the software that is um the secret part of of getting them to love technology. Yeah, the only thing I would add to that is we have a lot of different paths to being a really entrepreneurial business owner, so some come, they graduate and they want to start their business glass geniuses there, we help them start run grow their business, some have been developing relationships with clients for five years and they're ready to go out on their own, some have been out on their own and they're ready to expand and glass genius has a variety of those business owners and services those use cases and I think point it's all about how do we help them succeed for where they are in their journey on achieving their entrepreneurial dreams? Okay, so I have to ask you guys how have twinning helped or hurt you, they say twinning is winning. Um so I think it's been a true gift and especially when I think about the company growing quickly and the extreme amount of trust you need and other executives that you work with, it's been great to work you know alongside leah and that helps us go to new heights and I think the fact that her and I both are able to challenge each other and complement each other in certain areas um has been something that I value significantly. Yeah. Finding complementarity with who you work with is really key. So in my case Daniel is a creative visionary. She's always thinking about what we should be doing 234 years out and I have a very different skill set. So that's something where we're able to bring those two together. Um so that's definitely a winning use cases. Uh we have disagreements as you'd expect with other of your colleagues, so just because we're twins doesn't mean we have, you know, exact same opinion. I think more than anything, we have different opinions, but there's definitely a long term alignment between us. Um and you know, perhaps it helps you win business over a lot of really big players. I mean you're in the enterprise space that is very crowded. It's very well funded. How do you think that you've beat out big players to win business? Yeah, So let me, let me jump in. I think first is focused on our customer. These are independent businesses. They have desires dreams to start run and grow their business and be incredibly successful in this space. And glass genius has uniquely focused on this class of entrepreneur. Um you know, I think diving in what's different about us and how we've grown so quickly grab market share. So a couple of things first is a lot of the approaches to software in this space have been about commoditize ng small businesses and that every small business has the same brand, Every small business gets, you know, to compete with each other against the vector that matters the least for them on these marketplaces. We've been really focused on, how do we provide them a suite of tools that help them be successful, help them scale their time run better operations so that ultimately they can do what they love. And I think that's been key to a lot of new customers coming on board as well as breeding more entrepreneurs in this space that are ready to start and grow their own business. I think I'll take that a little bit further when it comes to being really customer centric. I think it's just really about understanding them. And if you look at some of the solutions that we've gotten out there, we're the only company that's put out these really quirky, colorful, cool card readers. Um but why, because I say in the beauty industry, beauty matters and when you're dealing with highly creative professionals that are, you know, helping their own clients reach, you know, kind of their ideal identity, we as a software company need to show up and help our own customers reach their identity to for their business. Um, and so that's an example, but I think it just basically speaks to like understanding customers and what I'm always surprised about in this industry, there's so few female run businesses. And yet on the software side and yet most of the business owners, small business owners in the space are, you know, kind of females actually, and I think it's no surprise that there is a female run founded company like glass genius that's been able to understand customers so well here and get solutions out for them that they love to. Um you know, in kind of the backdrop we're in, you've had a lot of success so far. Are you worried about layoffs and the current economic economic condition fluctuating stock market, um demise of crypto? Has it affected lost genius? Are you putting us, you know, a moat to try and protect yourself? So I think you always have to think about the macro and as a ceo it's really important to be aware of the world around you because that's the context you're growing your business in. I have a few thoughts here. The first is um, our industry is really resilient historically. If you look across time, the beauty wellness sector has been resilient, there's um, you know, clients that have a lot of demand to spend on some of these smaller things such as beauty wellness experiences and services that do drive a lot of value in their everyday lives. Um you know, I think the second is if you think about the space we're in and the products we have there is it's very clear to see value that we drive to businesses. And so my view has always been let's focus on the fundamentals and drive a lot of value to businesses and in some way creating a software company that's easy to understand. You know, it's not hard to believe that there's business owners out there that want to focus on the creative side of things and yet have trouble running the business side and how software can help. And um I think that's a strong card now and you know, kind of this era were in. Um and then the third thing I would say is just capital efficiency. The company has mattered so much in the beginning of the company's journey. We were primarily bootstrapped and revenue finance. And I think having that experience from the beginning has made us ultra focused on efficiency and some of the fundamentals that really matter and that D. N. A. I think has helped us think very creatively about navigating different environments, whether it was covid 19 or even this macro backdrop we're in right now that I believe will help us create an even stronger, better business. And we always have to be focused on delivering value to customers and making sure every single person at the company is doing, um whatever it takes to be driving the most value, because it also goes back to our mission, we have a mission of empowering entrepreneurship and um if we're not taking and seizing the opportunity, then we're not fulfilling our mission as as much as we could be. Yeah, I would add, we get the benefit of looking at what's happening on the business side and also at the consumer side. So Danielle mentioned what happens typically in a recession. I'm sure we've probably heard about this, but it's a, the concept of the lipstick effect were more likely to spend on lower cost luxury goods, um, than something higher priced and it could be a little bit, you know, more discretionary. So beauty and wellness continues to be really resilient I think will continue to see probably a plethora of new services that get to be adapted for this economy. Um, we already see a bunch of add ons and you know, smaller kind of trims, things that are happening in our industry that are probably reflective, but overall we're really excited about how consumer side continues to invest in beauty and wellness routines. Self care is a big investment. Um, and we're expecting that to continue pace. Does anyone in the audience have a question that they'd like to ask these wonderful panelists? Yeah. Hi, I'm Caroline, I'm the president of Color Health. Um, I'm really curious what your go to market motion looks like when you're selling to tens of thousands of small businesses that already have some technology reservations. I'm curious how do you reach them? How are you financing that? Yeah, that's a great question. So first of all our industry Daniel mentioned all the fragmentation in our industry and that's probably a pretty unique challenge for us, You know, choosing the software that's going to run their business is no easy decision. So, um, you know, first and foremost Danielle has always been about investing in the product and I think it's really important that no matter what we do, we come to market with a really good prop, we get that out to a single customer, a group of customers, and that spreads a lot of word of mouth and goodwill. Um we've grown a lot in the early days, so word of mouth referrals that continues to be a key channel for us to acquire. Um, partners and affiliates are a really important part of the way we grow as well. And of course every company is invested in a traditional marketing stack. And we're also doing that as well. Social media has been really important for us. And if you look at the business owners in our space, a lot of them are in social media, they discover things on social media for their business. And that's been interesting for us to be a part of the conversation. And, and when you think about our business owners, what we've done uniquely is tailored our go to market to the way these business owners also are. And think, and so what do I mean by that one example is our go to market is very visual and that's why we do a lot of things on social media, If you think about the industry, we're in, we're working with, um, businesses and business owners that are highly visual people. And so the challenge is how do you align your go to market motion and some of the collateral in a way that also reflects the way business owners operate. And I think that's what we've been able to do really well. And it starts in social media. And then, as we mentioned, it carries in a lot of other places outside of the product. And you know, it's been great to see that there's business owners that talk about the company, but you also need to make sure about other things outside of go to market to are really working. And so like what is that customer service and success? Um, we've invested a lot in customer service and success because we know that the experience doesn't just stop with discovering our product. It also basically continues on through the customer journey with our product and um, different points in time that business owners have with our company have been a very important channel for us to continue word of mouth and continue referral growth with our existing base. We're almost out of time here. So, glass genius has had a lot of practice so far. You've got a lot of great momentum. What can we expect to see from glass genius in the next five years, 10 years there's this quote I really like and it's um, what you aim at determines what you see and when I think about glossy nous into the future, we're building something really big. We're tackling a very big industry um made up of a lot of small businesses were helping small businesses think really big Ron really big operations. And um, I think the change we've seen in the market structure in this industry is really just the beginning of um what software can start to enable and further even more. What I'm really excited to do more of with the company is, in some way, something similar to what our customers have been able to do is like, um, you know, they've worked very closely with the valued relationships they have, and that's the basis of monetization. And as a software company, I think you have the same opportunity with your own customers. Every customer is a relationship. And if you approach it that way, you, you know, kind of take a step back and you can think, well, what else can we do to further the relationship And the most successful relationships are symbiotic. Um and so what are we gonna do to help business owners more successful? And I think software, particularly the vertical software space is going to become even more powerful, even more nuanced. Um, and even more creative for business owners to do bigger and bigger and bigger things. And um, I think we'll play a very important role in that. Yeah, we've just scratched the surface of vertical software. So when I think about things we can do, you know, time is their limiting factor. How can we help them scale with the same amount of time? How can we help them build greater businesses? And again, as I mentioned, we use this expression helping small businesses run big operations. So in five years I'd love for each of these small businesses to feel like a big fortune 500 company, you know, I'll share one customer anecdote, which which always gets me going. But there was there was a customer that posted on social and she was remarking about the success she's had running her own business and she said, I now feel like I'm the ceo of a fortune 500 company. So I think when when we look at success in five years it would be that all of these entrepreneurs in this, in this sort of industry category of entrepreneurship, um really feels like they're the Ceo and empowered to run their own business no matter how small it is, awesome. Thank you so much, guys, thank you

Lacy Lew Nguyen Wright, Executive Director, Hillman Grad Foundation 
Interviewer: Michal Lev-Ram, FORTUNE

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Equalizing Entertainment

Jessamyn Stanley, Leading Wellness Thought-leader; Co-founder, The Underbelly; Author, Every Body Yoga and Yoke My Yoga of Self-Acceptance
Interviewer: Michal Lev-Ram, FORTUNE

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Embracing The Moment

Jessamyn Stanley, Leading Wellness Thought-leader; Co-founder
Interviewer: Michal Lev-Ram, FORTUNE

we're gonna get you guys moving literally in just a minute here by the way, in this next session. So stay tuned Alright. In its current westernized form, yoga can often be summed up by three words, expensive, thin and white. There is widespread perception, right or wrong amplified by social media that this ancient practice is for affluent people in more curated surroundings. Encounter point, Jessamyn Stanley embodies the yoga tenet of living without judgment. Her yoga classes podcast and books encourage people to come as they are, to accept themselves as they are. We are thrilled to have this proclaimed Beyonce of yoga with us today to talk about her shame, eradicating work and living in the moment. Please welcome my guest Justin and Stanley to the next stage. I always come with a have a seat, have a seat. Okay, so I'm gonna ask you first, just you know, I gave a few words there about what you do and and and the podcast in the book and everything, but how do you describe yourself and your career and what you do? You know, I say that I'm a yoga teacher, but ultimately I'm a yoga practitioner. I show up in my practice because it is my medicine. I came to yoga through depression when I was in graduate school, I was going through the change of life that happens for all of us, where you're like, who am I is this really what I need to be doing? And yoga really offered me a space where it was okay to just be myself. I did not see anyone who looked like me, quite frankly, I was frequently the only fat person in class, usually the only black person, it was a deeply alienating experience for me, but what it gave me was the confidence to really look within myself and see that there's always power there, but I started sharing my yoga practice on social media because I wanted to connect with other practitioners, but more than anything, what happened was that I had people be like, I didn't know fat people could do yoga and I was just like, why do you think fat people can't do yoga? Fat people do all kinds of things all the time. Thank you. Yes, so I was like, we just have a visibility issue truly, we just need to show ourselves more and ultimately, my community, the underbelly was formed from that space. I wanted there to be a place where what is different about you is celebrated. That is what we champion. That is what we lift up. I think that a lot of the wellness industry is about changing yourself and about trying to fit into a mold, but instead of trying to like really change every piece of yourself, what would happen if each of us looked at our pain points as our greatest sources of strength. So the underbelly is a place where it's okay to just be yourself and it's okay to let your light shine. I love the name. Um we have a picture that I want to show. Um No, you knew about this. Don't worry, we didn't when you were five years old. No, I'm kidding. No, but if we could please show the photo, which hopefully there we go. Okay, so tell us about just like what do you want, what do you hope? What do you want to convey? And I know you're very you're very much about visual and you're all over instagram and you know, you just do this beautiful, just what do you want to convey visually to the world? You know, honestly, what I'm conveying is that if I can do this, you can do this too, because when I first start practicing yoga, I literally could not sit comfortably with my legs crossed, like I could not, I feel like the most common thing I hear is I can't touch my toes, meaning either. I cannot do that at all. But when you see a really complex yoga posture, really what you're seeing is triumph over difficulty. Like it's really seeing someone look within themselves go to the hardest place, what you're seeing is my turmoil. You are seeing my trauma, you're seeing me work through it and if you can see that you can see yourself because everyone in here has experienced that everyone is working through and working with some of the hardest pieces of this life and we spend so much of our lives trying to cover it up and trying to pretend like it's not happening when actually it is the source of everything, it is the greatest source of strength. All right, I'm gonna ask you about something. We cannot show a photo of this, but tell me about naked yoga. Oh, okay, great. Yeah. You know, we can't show that right now. Um So naked yoga has actually been a huge part of my yoga practice um since at the beginning and it is a huge part of how I've come to accept my body. Really looking at it. Really looking at all the pieces that I was told that I should hate. But um I started I wanted to share that with more people because I think that because we hide our bodies underneath clothes and especially if you're fat, you spend so much of your life trying to like find the right angle and like what sweater is gonna cover this part of my body. So having a space where you can actually just let that go and you don't have to worry about what other people think of your fat rolls and your thighs and all of that, that is a place of such immense power that if each of us is able to tap into that individually, how can we impact this global landscape. So and actually, if I can be like totally frank with you, part of why I wanted to start sharing a naked yoga practice on only fans was that I had had so much of my social media content hidden and and I have been blocked on quite a few platforms for things that I was like, I don't really think that this is that big of a deal. But what I noticed when I post something that is really different and and complex is that it always has a really positive impact on people and that there are always people who are like, I never saw somebody who looked like me. I never, I didn't know it was okay to love my body. And I'm like, if we can think about not just how each of us individually will see that, but how our Children will see that and then the world that they can live in and how they can start to just not even worry about some of this body stuff that the rest of us are gonna be carrying for the rest of our lives, I think that we can see long term generational change show of hands by the way, how many of you practice naked yoga? No, you have some converts to coming. It's coming. It's I know that, you know, so many of us are taught that we should be fundamentally ashamed of our bodies and you know, honestly, I don't even think that that's a bad place to start. I think that's a really fertile ground for growth and I think that if you can practice it at home by yourself, it's not about showing the world Yeah, just practicing it at home by yourself and and seeing how strong it makes you feel and how powerful it really makes a huge difference in your life. Um I it's good segway. I wanted to ask you to have this term wellness curious, what does that mean? Exactly, and what advice do you have for people who are wellness curious totally, I think of all of us as being wellness curious and wellness is such a buzzy word right now and I feel like to the point where it's like what is wellness? How can I find this? And I think that all of us were just trying to be well, you're trying to be well, especially now in a world where chaos is just mounting day after day being able to come back to yourself and just say, hey who am I, what do I need? What practices make me feel good. And seeing that wellness is not just in, it's not just a yoga practice, it's not just bubble bath sometimes. Wellness is not spending time with people who make you feel bad about yourself sometimes wellness is just taking a moment to breathe when otherwise you might want to slap somebody, you know, like it's really just actually listening to the voice that lives inside you and that is something that all too often we are taught to quiet, don't listen to the voice inside yourself, look outwards, but the leadership that comes from listening to that is I've said this a million times, but it is powerful and it makes long term change regardless of what you actually do with your life. So you don't have to commit to like practicing yoga every day or taking a bubble bath every saturday, like semantics, what's most important is that you value yourself, that you see that the light that lives within you is important and that that is, that's why the care needs to happen um questions for gentlemen, please just raise your hand and we will come to you. Um I want to ask you about social media because speaking of wellness um that can have all sorts of negative implications. Um there's a lot of toxicity out there and a lot of positivity too, and I know you use it to express yourself to build your brand, to put your message out there of positivity um but how do you also balance it with with your own personal wellness, what works for you? You know, I have to tell you social media is one of my happy places and I think that this is like a weird thing to say right now because it is seen, it is it can be so toxic and so negative, but I was a very introverted kid and for me it was really important to have a place where I could actually make friends with people and I could be open and to this day that is how I think of social media, but it is the place where friendships are built and where community is made, and I think that frankly, for all businesses, that's a really helpful framing that if you think of it as the place where community is held and where love can be fostered, that's really the point of making the content, um something that has been really interesting to me is that if you are deeply authentic and are really honest with yourself and share that with other people, it inspires them to do the same thing. So that's another piece of the social media puzzle for me is how can me just letting my authentic truth shine sharing my true real yoga practice, no matter how politically incorrect it is, no matter how messy it looks, no matter how hard it is to digest, who am I encouraging to do the same thing and the response is incredible. I mean, people leave relationships, get new jobs, start new practices all because you saw one person practice a yoga posture on social media. So I think that seeing myself as a part of a bigger community and also seeing myself as a part of a legacy. You know, I think about my grandmother and I think about my aunts and I think about people who, you know, they really they had to put their head down so that I can do what I do, and I think their light is shining through me. How can my existence be really the crowning achievement of their lives to It's interesting you you brought up the fact that wellness is so often focused or the idea we have of it is that it's it's trying to change something and you obviously a lot of what you're about is self acceptance and and loving yourself. Um how do you so how how do you actually define wellness to people who practice with you and and to what your what is wellness to you and we're gonna stretch in a minute, by the way, so be ready. You know, I think of wellness as being anything that makes you feel good, anything that feels good and that is a wide spectrum. And I think that often when we talk about wellness, it's about your physical body, but the physical body is just see it is just the outward expression of whatever is happening inside yourself, and not just what's happening, like the parts of your physical body that are unseen, but talking about mental health and having a really honest conversation about that. And the fact that all of us struggle with mental health, that I think that is a part of the human experience is to actually grapple with the different parts of yourself. And to me, wellness is not about finding a happy place or about an ending point, it's about accepting that negativity is a part of it, that sadness is a part of it through grief. We experience the greatest parts of this life and it's only through experiencing the darkest, deepest parts of it. So wellness is not just you know those things that make you feel like energized and positive, it's accepting that there are parts that make you feel less than two. But that that's where the strength comes from, that's where the endurance comes from and that's how we can become better community members and really accept that true leadership comes through adversity. Okay, so hopefully this is not going to be like a moment of collective suffering here but I hope but but we would love for you to get everybody to stand up, do whatever you want them to do and lead us in a stretch because I think we're all ready for it please. Yes, if you want to stand, please do if you don't want to stand. I feel you literally, every part of this can be done seated. But yeah, just inhale your arms up and overhead really and feel that the energy is coming from the very base of yourself. So if you're seated, you're rooting into your core. If you're standing, you're rooting into your feet and reach up through each fingertip, reach up and open and start to bring your arms back behind you a little bit and you start to feel some tension, you're gonna be like Justin men, I do not feel like doing this anymore. I don't like it, that's cool, lean into something that makes you feel hatred extend through your inner elbows. Yeah, that's right. And then let your arms come even further back behind you, open your chest up. Yes, y'all very nice. Let your head fall back, it gets scary here, you're leaning into the fear and then let the arms come down by your sides. Now do me a favor, take your right hand, your middle finger and your ring finger, whatever feels good, stick it in your left ear and let your palm come to the side of your head. This is my like, middle of the day, Y'all know how there's that part of the day where you're just like they have tried me and I cannot go further. This is the move. Let feel like there's a weight on your right elbow and then drop your right elbow over to the side. Ha ha feel that stretch start from the inside of your left ear and then it pulls down to your left shoulder and then drop your left fingertips down. You can shake them out a little bit, release your jaw and you can let your finger slide out of your ear and just let your palm melt against the side of your head. You can close your eyes here and I started to do this like share hip thing where my hips poke out to the side, try to bring the weight into your left hip also, hmm. Very nice, spread through your toes. One more breath like this and then bring your right hand to the right side of your head and just gently push your head back into place. Okay supposed to pop, let's do it again on the other side. And if you feel a pop, it's all good, it's all good. Lean into the sensation, there's a weight on that left elbow, drop your elbow down. Mhm. So you start to feel it inside your ear and then it comes down your right shoulder and then that's the place where you can just let your right arm go, shake it up, shake out your fingertips. Uh huh. And you can close your eyes here and you're not trying to find silence. You're not trying to let the chaos go. You're trying to welcome it all in your fear is a part of who you are, The chaos is necessary, you are necessary. And then bring your left hand to the left side of your head, gently push your head back into place and then just take a moment here, close your eyes, the arms drop down, relax your shoulders, let your whole body get very very soft. If it feels good and true and authentic to you. You can bring one palm over your heart if it feels true, bring the other palm over your heart and bow your gaze down. Tune into yourself to the power of this light. Your contradictions are there on purpose. Your scars are your glory. You were made for this and then bring your gaze up. When you're ready, blink your eyes open. Have a wonderful day. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. I don't I don't think I've ever closed my eyes during an interview first time for everything. That's right. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Y'all have a good day.

Prama Bhatt, Chief Digital Officer, Ulta Beauty
Raina Moskowitz, Chief Operating Officer, Etsy
Interviewer: Maria Aspan, FORTUNE 


MPW Next Gen 2022 - Bright Spots In Retail

between the pandemic advancements in technology and the way the world has changed in general. It's safe to say that consumer behavior has dramatically transformed many retailers are warning investors of stock dips and consumer decline. And while this is true for most companies were going to sit down with two retail leaders who are successfully navigating this very tricky market prom a bat, chief digital officer at Ulta Beauty uses a human first design approach that has resulted in significant growth for the retailer. And Raina Moskovitz is the chief operating officer of sc where she leads the company's strategy to unlock new growth and revenue driving opportunities over the last few years has seen a great expansion in its customer base along with a large number of repeat buyers. So what's in the special sauce for both of these retailers here to discuss these business opportunities? Please welcome prom a and Raina for a conversation with fortunes Maria aspen. So we realized that you're all stretched and also we're all that's standing between you and lunch are sitting between you and lunch. So we're gonna try to keep the fun. Yeah, I don't know how we follow follow the stretching routine. Well, let's talk about makeup and makers. What is Um, what is your secret sauce? You know, we, we heard today that US retail sales were up 1.3% and that was like stronger than expected. So in this terrible and grinding retail environment. Um how have you both kind of broken through? Uh, well, I think one retail has been um, is always dynamic. The pandemic probably just heightens the level of dynamism um and uh you know, really responding I think and understanding needs of our members, our consumers, our guests that are um are beauty enthusiasts and uh following the signals they're sending in terms of their different needs they had. Even through the phase of the pandemic, uh through the pandemic, it could have been a. D. I. Y. Phase, it could have been a self care phase, and some of these phases weren't phases at all, they fundamentally altered. Um You know, the way we think about the beauty journey. So I would say for us um really paying attention, listening and learning uh not only to the data but directly from our member base and responding to those needs um has helped us continue to be resilient and uh and innovate uh through the pandemic and post pandemic For Etsy. Our mission is to keep commerce human and we're a platform that connects nearly 90 million consumers with over five million creative entrepreneurs around the world. And we have over 100 million items for sale on sc. And so for us it's really about creating a differentiated experience. So much of retail and e commerce has been defined by, you know, how cheap is something, how quickly can it arrive and as few quick as possible. And there is uh and leading to a lot of commoditization and there's a role for that of course. Um But I think what's really allowed us to grow and thrive is by offering something that's different and a really personalized and human shopping experience. Um mama, I bought makeup for the first time in a few, like in a year for this conference, like how I want to celebrate that. Me too, very excited about my new lipstick. But as we are in this sort of quasi post pandemic return to work, return to travel environment, How do you see that playing out for all to see customer base in your business? Yeah. You know, beauty is a very personal category. And even through those storms that we talked about with the pandemic, uh the role it serves in the lives of our consumer base. We really talk about our brand purpose being about bringing um you know, the possibilities to life through the power of beauty. But really beauty on your own terms. Um Beauty is self expression. Beauty is self care. Beauty is empowerment. Um and we really see uh you know that resonating well um and keeping that relationship with beauty alive because it's because it is so personal. Um So we've seen strong returns um coming out of 2020 you might have heard some terms like the lipstick effect or uh you know, maybe you weren't wearing uh weren't doing the same routine when you were on zoom calls, but you know, I don't know about you guys, I got tired of looking at myself all the time um on those calls and uh so, you know, finding new routines, um so I would say that's uh something that we definitely see in terms of the way we think about the beauty journey and the response and the way we see the behavior of beauty enthusiasts. The last thing I'll leave you is this intersection and I heard a lot of it uh through the conference, which is beauty and wellness and really making sure that when we talk about beauty, we're not talking about it superficially as something on the outside. Um we are really talking about whatever it means um from an inside out perspective or however each each individual defines uh you know, beauty for for themselves. So that intersection with beauty and wellness um is also something we see resonating and something that we think is here to stay. Uh one more question on the beauty industry in general. Of course, we saw the Estee lauder announcement planned deal to take over tom ford um for $2.8 billion. How do you see that reshaping the competitive landscape? Well, you know, um we have really great relationships with our brand partners um and uh each of our key brand partners, our portfolio of brands across hair, skin and makeup across price points. Um and we really love that about our assortment and are offering bringing a lot of diversity and inclusion uh to meeting the needs from a value perspective to uh you know, to prestige perspective. So you'll find everything from master prestige. And so when we think about those relationships with our consumers and we think about those relationships with our brand partners uh you know the more robust of a brand portfolio we have so we can serve the needs of every beauty enthusiasts in the way that they see fit across the categories that we have across the price points that we have. Um And including um as we bring, you know, we have services in every one of our stores. So the stronger our brand partnerships, the stronger our brand portfolio, the more we're meeting the needs of more beauty enthusiasts. I know I want to go back to what you were saying about sort of the patients of the S. C. Customer especially as we're approaching the holiday season. Um Do you feel like customer and consumer behavior has shifted given all of the sort of delays in the supply chain that we sort of all lived through for everything from peloton bikes to toilet paper in the past few years. So you know what's unique about our business model is we've been incredibly resilient and have not faced those types of supply chain issues. So again as I mentioned, we have over 100 million items for sale from over five million creative entrepreneurs and our business models able to adapt and when you shop on Etsy you're buying directly from the maker. So the item you're purchasing is not passing through uh, you know, a long supply chain, It's not passing through a lot of different handoffs, causing delays. And I think um you know, really the most incredible example that we saw this was in april 2020 when the CDC came out and said, you know, they recommended wearing masks and retailers scrambled. You know, no one was making masks. And literally overnight our sellers started, you know, who were, who were selling wedding dresses, who were selling sweaters, whatever whatever they were they pivoted and they were able to meet an incredible surge in demand for face masks. And so that was that was a really incredible moment just given the backdrop of the pandemic and our sellers rising to the challenge. But I think it really demonstrates the resilience and flexibility of our model too. Both respond to big moments and supply chain opportunity and and also to shifting trends and consumer behaviors. So, you know, I think again, it's and it's why he's been able to meet the needs of our consumers because our sellers are able to respond to trends. And I think, as you mentioned earlier, we're also in a moment where consumers are open to trying new things and building new habits. And so as he's also an incredible place to discover new items and to discover new brands. I want to open it up to questions in a minute. But um just to follow up on that, uh what are you seeing from consumer behavior right now? Like what are, what are we interested in? Yeah. So you know, first of all consumers have more options than they've had in a very long time. And so that means e commerce, but also as you said, we can now thank goodness to go out to dinner and we can travel and so there's a lot um that we have to compete against in terms of what consumers are looking for and how they want to spend their money, but what we are seeing is people are creating, people are ready to um to celebrate a little bit even with everything going on. So in terms of trends, you know, we're seeing Hot Pink has been very much trending um throughout the year. People are looking for vibrant art and um and jewelry and um and just festive moments. So we see that people are looking to gather this holiday season, and so they're looking for um for decor and and opportunities to really make their gatherings more festive. Uh Do we have questions in the room? We'll bring a mic over to you 1/2. Hi, I'm Jacqueline Brown with Workday and I'm so excited to have the two of you here. I'm curious about the fc business model, how does it differ from, let's say the the Ebay business model or some of those other business models where they have platforms where entrepreneurs get to sell their products. Sure, so C is a global e commerce marketplace and we connect buyers who are looking to purchase from independent artists and makers and so there are a lot of similarities but we really focused on unique handmade goods and also vintage goods. Um So we're different from other resellers or re commerce and also from Ebay, you know, who has cars and electronics and other things. So really our core businesses around home and living, jewelry, accessories, um some other categories that focus more on handmade and unique items. Got a question over here, Thank you kelly, Robin, transformational management consultant with insignia. Um We deal a lot in innovation, so I'm curious what both of you have to say about what you see in innovation and transformation in each of the companies and brands that you represent for for us. C and an area that we're really focused on is around Discovery. And so, you know, it's amazing that we have so many items for sale on Etsy, but it's also overwhelming and um it leads to a lot of tyranny of choice when you're shopping and you're trying to narrow down what you're looking for. And also sometimes you don't quite know how to describe what you're looking for. And so we're really innovating in areas around search and Discovery to make it easier to find what you're looking for, whether it's through um new image search functionality or through video. Um we're really experimenting a lot here to make it a delightful experience. Um it's you know if you're browsing but also helping you to narrow down the results even faster. Um so that's that's certainly an area that we are really trying to lead and innovate in. Um one I would just second the fact that I was one of those buyers that went to, etc, and bought a face mask, I don't know how many others did, but thank you for for that. Um from an innovation perspective, you know, we've been on a journey to continue to kind of bridge physical and digital experiences and be relevant at different moments along the beauty journey from an innovation perspective we picked a few areas and technologies that we think enable the kinds of beauty experiences that can be differentiated that are differentiated because they're grounded in data and insights, but they're also very personal and human. A little bit of the theme that you that you heard from Raina. So those areas for us um are around uh leveraging ai and intelligence around personalization and I know personalization is a word that gets thrown out a lot in different ways, but you know, really being able to insert yourself in the e commerce journey with an appropriate quiz or or you know, a beauty tips or tool that makes sense. Um uh if you spend any time on our Ulta beauty app um we have a glam lab a virtual try on capability for makeup for hair for lashes. I mean lashes are a thing, I don't know how many of you, I haven't gotten to the point where I'm, I'm wearing lashes, I'll just be truth be told on that. But our our our member base and our consumers lashes are a big trend and to be able to virtually try on a whole host of styles related to lashes um before you buy is just, you know, a friction reducer as well as a little bit of fun, you know, which is what all this is. A, so that's just one area we've been focused on, we've also been focused on taking that same kind of virtual Tryon. If you think about your mobile device and the camera and augmenting your face essentially you're augmenting your hair, coloring, your hair styling, trying a different style, you can use that same technology to augment your store environment. And so how do we make discovery of product in our store using your own mobile device, Whether it be easy ways to bring views or how twos are quick, get ready with me there. Uh, you know, educational tips as your, as your browsing our store. So I would say for us, you know, when we think about innovation, we're thinking about data driven experiences but that really intersect in a human way and that's all the need, uh whether it's virtual try on, we have a personalized skin analysis. Um and these other augmented experiences when you're in our physical stores hire me. I'm Denise from Deloitte. And personally probably I've contributed to your market growth at Ulta with my many part of the reason I shop at also is because you have such a wide range of products by and for women of color. Can you talk a little bit about your journey around supplier diversity and where you see yourself going? Yeah, that's a great question. We're really proud about the fact that we live in an industry in a space that uh really embraces diversity and inclusion and uh and beauty for all. Uh and we believe it's our responsibility to continue to drive um diversity inclusion, build community. Uh and uh we've been more intention. Uh in 2021 we committed to the 15% pledge um in terms of ensuring that we're allowing for appropriate representation and allocation of space within um within our um product portfolio. Uh this year we committed $50 million to continue to drive uh diversity and inclusion. Some of the areas that were, you know, investing um specifically about $10 million on brand marketing related uh to supporting our black led brands are black founded brands are black owned brands. And that's a very specific commitment. We've also made a $25 million dollar commitment across uh driving engagement and marketing activities across multicultural platforms so ensuring that representation um and appropriate. You know, uh fairness is definitely our focus um and also other programs that are more strategic, like an accelerator through our music program where we're really building relationships with very small um and upstart brands that are emerging. So those are a few examples of how we think about diversity and inclusion related to kind of what we're bringing to the marketplace. But I would say, you know, part of the journey that we're on, and while we're so proud, we know there's so much more to do, which is ensuring that the way we think about, you know, our team members, the way we think about every single business process, uh you know, it is at the core of our brand purpose and D. N. A. But making sure we're really being intentional in it. Being, you know, literally linked to everything we do every single day from an operating process perspective is something maybe behind the scenes that doesn't have the visibility of an investment, but something that's equally important to us. Can I ask you to, because he has a slightly different business model, but I'm curious how you're thinking about this behind the scenes. Absolutely. So, so, first I love just thinking about it starts with who you hire and your workforce and how you get work done. And so I love that foundational E and F. C. Has focused on diverse of our employee base for many years and have made a lot of progress there when you have more diverse teams that leads to better products that leads to better decisions. And so that's been the Foundation over the past few years. We've also established several public diversity goals around our marketplace as well. And so we've been also very intentional about our marketing efforts and how do we make sure that S. C. Is a diverse, inclusive and equitable place to both shop and sell. And so we think about both sides, and so a lot of it is in our marketing, um the skin tones that we feature when you come to the site, we think about the merchandise that we promote, um and and um and making sure that that is diverse again, featuring black owned shops, latin owned shops, a p I community shops. And so we also have a mission to focus on um on communities that don't have access to bringing their goods online. And so we have an uplift Makers Fund that enables communities to bring their goods online. We launched an afghan refugee collective um campaign this year. And so bringing those makers goods online has been a great opportunity as well. And so again, lots more to do. But we're sort of laying the Foundation and making public commitments as well to progress just one Well, go ahead, I'm afraid that we are out of time, but I think this is both. Um this is a really these are two really great bright spots to end on. So, thank you both so much for joining us and please join me in, thanking our panelists. Thanks for having me.

Chiney Ogwumike, WNBA Star; ESPN Host, Commentator and Analyst (joining virtually)
Interviewer: Michal Lev-Ram, FORTUNE

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Calling The Shots

we've already had a very packed day of dynamic conversations. So let's keep it going. We've got an afternoon full of exciting sessions including conversations with olympic athletes, Hollywood mavens and a leader from the Space force. But first we turn to the W. N. B. A. You might think that being a player for the L. A. Sparks wouldn't leave much time for other activities, but not for our next guest who is also a commentator with ESPN and she recently signed a new deal with the broadcast network and that's not all shiny. Yeogu McKay has also led voting rights initiatives and campaigned for a more equitable treatment of female college athletes. She's a real force to be reckoned with and we are here for it. We'll bring in China who will talk about her plans for a media company aimed at combating systemic inequality inspired by her mother saying small drops of water make a mighty ocean joining us virtually today. Please welcome Shania glue McKay for a conversation with fortunes nickel nickel. Thank you. Hi, how are you? I'm doing well, nice to see everyone here virtually nice to have you with. Okay, so I have no idea where you are. It looks like an ESPN studio. Right, yep, I am live in ESPN. We just wrapped NBA today and I'm about to host NBA countdown in about an hour and so like normally I would have driven up to hang out with you guys, but I'm in between shifts nonetheless, hyped to be here. Well, we, we are excited to have you with us virtually as well. Um, and I'm actually gonna start out asking you not about basketball in the W. N. B. A. But about pickleball show of hands, how many of you have played or regularly play pickleball? You have. Yeah quite a few people. I don't know if you can see the people in the room today, but a few hands went out here. So yeah you should raise your hand to write your you're a believer. Um You co founded the Women's International Pickleball Association. Why? Yeah, I know that sounds a little wild, sounds a little wild but it's really it's the fastest growing sport right now in America and the story behind it is that about two years ago and it's a sport that really exploded during the pandemic based on the social distancing but also just people falling in love with it because we had more time and being outside was a good thing. My agent Allison Gaylor and her family, it literally pickleball has transformed their lives so much so that for her stepdad's I think 70 70 or 71st birthday uh they have like they had a pickleball paddle like shirt t shirts, it was crazy and I was like this is something special, something that you have pros competing at the highest level but then anybody can play it. But most importantly the reason why I really wanted to join and help amplify the voices of pickleball players, particularly women is because it's a sport that is dominated by women, women that deserve their risk effect as pros and also just like being able to get on the foundation of making sure if this sport continues to expand which it potentially could become an olympic sport that we have, the diversity, the inclusion, the opportunity and like have that real foundation that I've learned from serving as vice president currently on the W. M. V. P. R. Players Association. How having an equitable foundation especially at the beginning of the sport is so important in making sure that those for women are guaranteed. So I'm playing pickleball in my free time. It's so much fun and they always say if you just heard about pickleball, guess what you're gonna be playing it sooner than later. So, Alright, okay, so for the rest of you, okay, let's talk basketball now more specifically, um the most recent W NBA season was the most watched in 14 years, viewership jumping 16% from the year before. What do you think accounts for this growth? First of all, men lie, Women never lie and the numbers never lie as well always knew about that. But those numbers don't lie when it comes to women's sports and as someone that has literally benefited from having a seat at the table on a platform, um that really helps create opportunities for young women to like have a voice, I think with women's sports, it's all about exposure and an investment and we've seen when companies invest in women's sports and increase that exposure. I mean we deliver one of my favorite friends who's also a part of our agency is Crystal Dunn and you think about how this was the first time the NWSL championship game was in the prime time and to get there, she scored a game winning goal for the Portland thorns. Yeah, I've become a fan, I've been a fan of Crystal forever, but like a fan of this moment, the exposure that women's sports have, once you get us there, once you see it, everyone will come. And so I think it really starts with that opportunity for women, for people to fall in love as you guys feel like I'm literally on set. So you might see in the background, it's having that platform for people to fall in love with the game. Because oftentimes as A W N. B. A players, I tend to get like those trolls sometimes on twitter, people that think they know the W. N. B. A game and they stereotype or game, even though they have not really engaged in it. And so when people see your energy in real time, like if I'm walking down the street, people like, oh, you tall or, oh, you know, you play for the spark, you work on ESPN the energy in real life is so different than what the perceptions of women's sport is. And so by increasing that exposure, we break down those barriers and I've seen it happen in real time. And so I feel like the media, the platforms, the conversation, social media owning your own narrative has really changed the game for women in sports. Talk a little bit about also, I mean, you mentioned some of the platforms, obviously you're you're on an ESPN set here, ESPN has played a very critical role in your career and and and you know more broadly obviously, but you're also seeing a lot of leagues including the W N. B. A spark deals with amazon's with different streaming services. How big of a role does that play? Also these new platforms and these new deals and spreading uh the access to different viewers. Yeah, one, this is America and two, I'm an athlete and we love competition, competition brings out the best in us and so having different platforms that are trying to do different, cutting edge things. I mean, like today I'm hosting, I came in starting off this year as an analyst, but now positioning us as women in different places, that might be unexpected. But then guess what, we can deliver those are the small testaments and like, you know, alluded to the small drops of water that make a mighty ocean that turn the ties and so when I think about over all the different platforms, I think the most important platform is the one, especially as women, the platform, we own ownership is everything because you get to create and dictate your own story, the way you see it fit. And so the more places where women exist and I'm always going to like preaching for the women, but shut up the male allies in the crowd as well. Um, but like whenever you have these platforms where you have women existing in unexpected spaces, but we we know that our failure tends to get magnified, so we stay on point. That's what continues those small little access abilities. That's what sort of turns the tide and changes the notion. So I always tell people like it's not the biggest things that make the splash, like our game is here or there. It's like how does that one athlete be able to brand themselves in a way that's authentic to themselves? And if we continue that mindset in every space that we're in, it's going to continue to propel the women's game forward. So the brand, the branding of not just the league, the teams, but the individual players, it's so important and we are starting to see more and more of those stories coming out. Um we had Allyson Felix on stage yesterday, you know, just these really incredible stories, talk a little bit about how you you have an incredible story yourself, your sister. Like how how do you think athletes, female athletes are embracing this moment, wow, that's like a million dollar question. That's like, it's the existence of our lives. You mentioned, my sisters and for me, sports is truly a sisterhood, I am one of four girls born and raised in cypress texas. My older sister, I mean just straight bad at, I hope that's appropriate. Hopefully it's okay. Can you say the best thing she is my teammate on the Los Angeles part and with her, it's always been this idea. Not like as women, we have to be uh, you know, competitive instead as women, let's be collaborative. I learned that at home with my sisters because everything she did, whether it's become a number one pick in the W. B. A. Go to stanford University, she didn't say anything, you know, I can do, you know anything you can do, I can do better. No, it's anything I can do you can do to turn it. And so that's that mindset that I think has really transformed the way I see women owning their brands. Just saying that we're stronger together. We're collaborative. I'm a part of amazing league. The W. N. B. A. 144 awesome, amazing women a competitive league. It's hard to get the job, but when push up, We stand true. We're not new to this, we are true to everything that we say and do and represent for our communities and so that collective, we saw what happened in 2020 when we stood together and we're a couple t shirts that helped change the trajectory of our country, you know, um with the election and so just using our collective voices, I've learned that through sisterhood in many different ways from home to the hardwood. Even now we're my great teammate is malika Andrews here at ESPN, you know, we're both young and have this amazing opportunity, We love the game, but we also understand there's a lot at stake for us because we know that there is so much more work to be done. So we're on the same team and I love that essence of what we're seeing with sisterhood that just is universal within the sports world and even the corporate world and beyond, by the way, any questions for me, please raise your hand, we can bring a microphone, she'll be able to hear you. Um I wanted to ask you about equal pay player salaries. Um that's obviously been a really big topic in the last few years. Um can you talk about just the progress here? Like, yes viewership is up, engagement is up among the fans. Does that mean there's also been equal progress made on the pay side for female athletes, W N. B. A. You notice this one here won't let me be great. So I keep within it behind, but at times, I feel like especially because we often times are getting compared to the men when it comes to our progress at times we feel like we are victims of that comparison. And I always tell people because a lot of times when people want to talk about WB issues, we are compared to the other league, the reality is on our own. We are the longest free standing, the WB in particular, the freestanding women's sports league ever. And that is an accomplishment. In 2020 we ratified a new C. B. A. Which is a collective bargaining agreement basically the way that we, the frameworks in which our league and the players operate. And that agreement was deemed not just a win for women in basketball or women in sports, but women in the workplace overall, we doubled our salaries where a lot of people always want to say, oh, you know, one player on an NBA team can get the whole salary of an entire W. M. B. A team. Like we don't even talk about that because we know we double our salaries and it's not easy. Everyone knows here in the workplace to go in and negotiate and double your salary strides are being made. We had so many great benefits for our athletes that are just fantastic. And also mothers, um, you know, we have, what is it called fertilization benefits, meaning like if you're a mother and you're doing family pants planning, you can have, you know, egg fertilization, you can get adoption, you can have all these, you know, trigger points in your contracts where if you serve seven years, you get paid maternity leave. You know, there's so many great things that were hidden within that C. B. A. That gets lost in the sauce because a lot of times people just want to talk about those headlines that are misinformed and so for women, I think we're really excited about where we are. And I keep going back to Crystal Dunn because I was following her ivy stories. The U. S. Women's national team has been a huge advocate for just women overall. They just had their equal pay party that looks lit by the way, I think that. And um they were celebrating this moment in which they did not just talk the talk about advocating for others, but they walked the walk in one of the highest level. Now, I know there's been a couple recent matches that have been, but we all know our women are on top of the best. But I say all this to just give this idea that like women's sports, the time is now to invest, the time is now to care because we're on the trajectory upwards. You know, the cool thing about our game and our sport and our business is that there's room, you can't really say that so much about other leads to the degree that we have within the women's game. So as you can tell like this stuff gets me worked up. Speaking of growth by the way, there are a lot of cities across the us that do not have A W. N. B. A. Team a lot. I mean why does the bay Area, I can, I'm sure you all live in cities that you know some of you are in cities that don't have a W. N. B. A team, what what's being done there? I mean, is there we have great commissioner in Cathy Engelbert and she is cautiously optimistic about our plans to expand. Now you mentioned two things that were like, we're trying to take jabs at me one day area, I went to stanford, I know, so I grew up in the bay and so having a team there, we know it will go crazy. So that's the fingers crossed right there and then to born and raised in Houston texas. Can we bring comments back? I don't cities that they have circles, but like to me growing up, I thought immediately examples of women doing things and you know, literally laying the foundation for the opportunities that I benefit from right now. So, absolutely, I think expansion is in the cards and like quite frankly this is selfish for me, this league is hard. We got 12 teams. 12 players could be a starter somewhere else. We will expand and spread the wealth because the game is in such a competitive place that we know that there are so many top players that are missing out on opportunities because we only have 12 teams. So I'm excited about that, hopefully in the years to come. All right, all right, I'm looking forward to it in the Bay Area. So let me know. Um I wanna, this is a pivot here, but I do want to ask you about Brittney Griner and um, I know that the W. N. B. A. Um the players, I mean like you mentioned in the last few years, we have seen just amazing activism out of the league, out of individual players collect coming together um, to make things happen and bring about change. Tell us a little bit if you can about just what you all are trying to do uh, to bring Brittany home. Look, two things we are trying to trust the process because we know we have the right systems in place and we're trusting the right advisors to advocate with a sense of urgency to bring her home. And then two, we're trying to uplift her name wherever we can. So, for example, a good example, here is ESPN if there is a news or an update or the way that we can say her name in a greater standing, like the everyday context of sports, we do that. We mentioned it because we need to apply pressure to the system, Brittany is someone that I've known since I was about like health, like probably about 12, 13 years old. She's from Houston texas, she went to Nimitz high school, I will never forget um starting to fall in love with the game with my big sister Mecca and watching the local news back home in Houston I think KPRC or something like that. And there was this feature on this young, phenomenal young player that could dunk and she was just banging and she was probably what 13 years old and ever since then we got to know B. G. We got my family in particular are her dad and my dad's friends and so to watch her really ascend to the highest of heights, go to Baylor and then you know, win a national championship, go to phoenix and be a top players and all those things happen. She is our sister literally our sister, the world of women's basketball we're connected because oftentimes we might play against each other in the W M. B. A. But we also play overseas. So your teammates with people that are not expected if you just traditionally follow games the game in the US. So everyone has a deep connection with her and it literally pains are hard every day to see that day count go up. I think we're at like was it to 60 something to 70 something like and the news that also was difficult was like the transference to a penal colony where we know that the situation there is much more dire, like it is absolutely heartbreaking. So the most we can do is continue to say her name and to apply pressure respectfully and to trust the process that hopefully soon be g will be back with us because no one, no one wants to ever be in that circumstance and if we have the capability to bring her home like that is that is weighing on the hearts of us, no matter where we go, thank you for that. Um I know that that this whole situation has also helped put some shed some light on just the fact that a lot of W. N. B. A. Players have had to go abroad in order to make money. Do you think that this is something that will continue? Um Do you think that maybe not as much because pay is improving? Well certain experiences in certain places probably will not continue, but a lot of times our players do enjoy the opportunity to go get better. I mean our teams urge players in the offseason because we play from May to october. So oftentimes coaches will say young players go play overseas in finding those skills for next season, but we want to always have the ability to have options. If you don't want to play, you shouldn't feel like you have to pay to play over there because of financial necessity. Um So like my big sister Mecca, I've visited her, she played in Russia for I believe four years, my sister played in Guangdong china. I played in Hunan china and I also played in Italy and we love those experiences because you get to travel and see the world. You know players are competing in Euroleague getting to ping pong between countries. It's a it's a dream honestly, but at the end of the day we want it to be a choice, we don't want to feel like it's an obligation and that you're putting your body through and also mind body and spirit through situations that you're not you're not necessarily like otherwise would have chosen to do so I think overseas will absolutely, you know the international game is healthy but certain areas based on the experiences that we've seen most recently I think are probably going to be off limits. Okay well we need to we do need to wrap. I wish we could keep talking to you because it is really fun to talk to you so but we are just, I'm so looking forward to what else you do and especially on the pickleball side so thank you so much, I'm gonna pull up. Please come next time. Thank you

Colonel Heather Bogstie, Senior Materiel Leader, Resilient Missile Warning, Tracking, and Defense Acquisition Delta, United States Space Force
Interviewer: Maria Aspan, FORTUNE

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Let’s Talk Space Force - Launching Into Year Three With Colonel Bogstie

Colonel Heather Bogstie, Senior Materiel Leader, United States Space Force
Interviewer: Maria Aspan, FORTUNE

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Let’s Talk Space Force

three years ago the newest branch of the US Armed forces was formed the U. S. Space Force charged with defending U. S. Interests in space from adversaries on Earth and in orbit. Think kind of like Starfleet but it's actually in real life. Right, okay. We are really really excited to have with us today. Colonel Heather bog sty of the U. S. S. S. To talk about how she manages this new frontier of defense. From technology innovations to navigating complex geopolitical issues. Please welcome Colonel Heather bog styx. Senior material leader Resilient missile morning tracking and defense acquisition, Delta of the United States Space Force for a conversation with Fortune. Senior writer Maria aspen. Colonel Bugsy, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me. Getting any startup off the ground is a big endeavor. Getting a startup military agency off the ground amid a fair amount of jokes and a netflix comedy series um must have been a pretty big task. Can you tell us three years in what the reality is of Space Force and what you're working on? Absolutely. So my perception is that our perspective is that the Space Force has actually been a long time coming. When I joined the Air Force in 1998 I joined to do space acquisitions, which is what I get to do now. Um There's a community of us that have been doing space in the Air Force for a long time. And so um the transition of the Space force in terms of the missions that we're accomplishing are largely still the same. We're just in a different service and we actually are now being prioritized as such amongst the other services to um, fund our systems and a more strategic manner moving forward. Um, the cultural aspect of this space, the force has been a lot of fun to deal with. I personally love watching the shows. I think they're, they're a hoot. Um, uh, it's fun to see how people think the Space force is and should be just similar to how, you know, Doctors watch Grey's Anatomy. They're probably kind of laugh a little bit at it. We do the same thing. Um, you know, I think a lot of us are inherently space nerds. We've all all grown up on Star Wars and Star trek and, and you know, all these other sci fi shows that are out there. We just love them. Uh, knowing that that's not really the reality today, but there might be some interesting components of that. That could be our vision for the future. So, um, culturally, I think it's been a lot of fun. Um, we have had to kind of do a little bit of marketing on the, the show Space Force a little bit just to make sure that, um, we all know it is serious, serious service. There is a threat out there that were actively working towards defeating here. Um, it's not just fun and games, We have mission systems that we are, are fielding in different manners because the adversarial threat coming out as much faster these days. Um, and it's required us to pivot how we acquire our weapons systems in the future. Tell us a little bit more. So you said you work on space acquisitions. Um, you have a very impressive title that I cannot entirely explain. Could you tell us a little bit more about the work that you do and what specifically you focus on? Sure. So a senior material leader is um, a step up in program management for an Air Force Space Force officer and acquisitions. Um, Generally your coded to a different type of career field within the service. Um, it's one in acquisitions, which is the career field where we build our weapons systems. So we work a lot with our contractors to assess uh, schedule, risk, cost performance, um, on our different systems to ensure that we can feel them and hand that capability over to the war fighter for operations. So in general, we start off as a program manager. Um, when you have demonstrated a certain level of leadership abilities, you get uh promoted to what's called a material Leader. So there's a lot fewer of those opportunities that are out there. And then um, once you have proven success in leadership as a material leader, uh, you get boarded again too, be a senior material Leader, which is what I am now. And so I have a number of different programs within my, my organization, in the Space Force. Our organizations are called Deltas. So I am in charge of an acquisition Delta. So we acquire systems and it's basically a conglomeration of different programs and uh, the mission set that um, I'm I'm leading is resilient missile warning, missile tracking, missile defense mission area. So, um, it's in a mission area that we call missile warning. Um, right now we have had the luxury of being dominant in space from a missile warning perspective. Um, but we are knowing now that our adversaries, specifically China and Russia are developing new weapon capabilities that are um, coming at us much faster, more rapidly. Um, the capabilities are doing things that we haven't seen before. They're more maneuverable and less predictable. And so we need to build systems that can track uh, those hypersonic glide vehicles in a much better manner. So the systems that were acquiring in my specific acquisition, Delta is focused on uh, fielding uh, systems that are going to be tracking uh, those hypersonic glide vehicles. Russia and china. I mean from a, from a civilian perspective, from a business perspective and economic perspective, we've certainly seen um, a lot of reason to be concerned. We were just hearing about Brittany Grenier, we've seen Russia's invasion of Ukraine. How are you thinking about both of those countries? And what are you doing and threats that they pose? And what are you working on at Space force to help defend our country. There's a number of capabilities, not just in the hypersonic glide vehicle area that we are tracking in terms of new capabilities that Russia and china are fielding, there's other things that they are putting on orbit that are very concerning to us and we want to ensure that we have the appropriate Western systems that can appropriately respond if those systems were being used. What we're really focusing on is as they feel these new demonstration capabilities, what is their intent behind them? And that's what we're really trying to ensure that we can counter is uh, if they were to actually exercise that intent. So switching gears a little bit and I want to open it up to questions in a minute. But um, again, for from a business perspective, you know, before, before we saw billionaires buying social media networks, we saw billionaires racing each other into space and there's been a big expansion of commercial interest in space. How does that affect what you're working on if at all? It absolutely does. And we want to leverage the commercial capabilities as much as possible um, in the Department of Defense, we are stewards of taxpayer dollars. So we have to be very judicious on how we spend your money um, and, and fielding the weapons systems that help protect you all. Um, we have to be very, a little bit more risk adverse than we'd like to be um, to ensure that we get these capabilities on orbit, but if we can leverage what the commercial companies are doing, um if they put more of those capabilities on orbit, if they improve the access to space through their launch vehicles, then it drives the cost down overall. And so what we're really trying to leverage and capitalize on is all of the commercial industry and growth that we're seeing right now use those um, those commercial parts and capabilities as much as possible so that we can field our systems quicker, more responsive and at a better price point. Are there any questions? I think everybody's still possibly in a post lunch coma. Okay. See one. Hi, my name is Claire present an english. I'm ceo of a group called New Leaders Council. I'm actually really curious. We'll first have to say thank you for your service and um curious about after your year in your career in the military, has this been an opportunity to really feel like an entrepreneur? Um in terms of also the background in government, it's not usually the place that's perceived as a place where you get to be creative and really innovative and explore. And I'm curious about if you can talk to us how this new role and um launching our has helped, I guess unleash that new part of your career. No, I'm super great question. Thank you. I'm super stoked to be in the current position I'm in right now. My previous job, I also got to work in some of the innovation and prototyping space and you had mentioned even before Maria that it's kind of like a startup in a sense and it is, you know, that we're only three years in. So the Space Force's new, we're trying to figure ourselves out as an organization. Um, you know, we're trying to figure out what our culture is. We just, we just got a Space force song that was recently released, We're working on uniforms. Um, a number of things. We're onto our second Chief of Space Operations right now, which is really exciting. General Raymond just retired and now we have General Saltzman who took over. So we're starting to mature and we're starting to grow that culture. And it's really exciting, you know, at this point in my career to um be able to influence a little bit of, of what that service is gonna look like long term. Um, when we talk about new capabilities and bringing them on board, it's also really exciting time to um, the way that I'm currently acquiring, um, my missile warning missile tracking system right now is in a different way. So we are absolutely looking at new ways that we can feel our systems, we had the luxury of fielding a satellite once every 10 years because we didn't have that threat coming at us. And now that it's coming more frequently, we really want to be sure that we can get inside that threat loop and feel systems in a, in a 2 to 3 year cycle. So having that launch access to space is really important in driving down that cost. Um, using all of those commercial lessons learned and commercial parts from industry to help drive down the cost, build smaller satellites, get technology on orbit and a more frequent basis. That's very important to what we're doing right now. So we're really truly pivoting our architecture and missile warning and missile tracking towards bringing in some of that innovation that we're seeing from, from commercial industry. Um, in addition, I get to start my, my acquisition Delta itself is brand new because this is a first time that we're fielding a system this way it space systems command and uh, that in itself has been like a startup. Uh, so we're trying to find people, uh, you know, across civilians, military contractors to help uh, build up our organizations. So we have the appropriate resources are trying to find spaces for us to sit. Um, we're trying to establish our own culture as well. So what kind of office things do we want to do to help continue, inspire and and grow our organization, our own culture within the greater space force culture. So it's very exciting time. Um, I'm very glad that I'm, I'm here right now, uh, capitalizing on all the space innovation that we're seeing and I get to start new organizations and really set a new and interest foundation for the future. Can I ask you to talk a little bit too just about, I mean, so full disclosure, sci fi nerd. I went to space camp, I wanted to be an astronaut growing up, so it's very cool to interview you and to see that you can actually do work in something called the Space Force. How did you first get interested in space and what sort of got you into this role? Funny you mentioned it. Um, so first of all, my father was in the army, so I grew up in the service, I know what it means to serve. Um might I have a very long family heritage of service. So um, I knew that was very important to me. Um second of all, I actually got to go to space camp as well and I was hooked after my first, uh, my first week there, um I ended up going back to space camp an additional five times. I was lucky I lived in the Atlanta area, so I had access to Huntsville Alabama, which is where space camp was. And then I went to school in Auburn, which was right up right down the street. Uh, so I got to be a counselor at space camp and give back, I love space camp. Uh, not, not to say I'm doing a plug, but you know, nobody's asking me to do this, but this is a truly inspired me though. I don't think I would be here without the service of my family and um, and without that inspiring catalyst of space camp to really show that space successful to everyone. You don't have to be a rocket scientist, you don't have to be an engineer, There's so many roles and jobs within space, whether you work for Nasa or the government that you can, or a commercial industry partner that you can serve space and help promote what's going on in the space renaissance that we're seeing right now. So you're also, um, you're you're working, you're high up in the military, you're high up in the aerospace industry, both fields not exactly known necessarily for their gender diversity. Um, what's changed over the course of your career, has it gotten any better? And what are you working on to make it better for others? It's interesting. I think it's still a work in progress, to be honest. Um, as I have moved up in the ranks, obviously there's fewer and fewer of of women that I'm seeing a smaller peer group right now, we're looking at overall in the space force, 29% are women. Um, as colonels in the space force, there's only about 14% that are are women. Um, so it's still a pretty small number. Um, and I think we have room to grow, but I'm really optimistic about Space force because I think it's doing a fantastic job of looking across the board at how to be more inclusive how to you know incorporate diversity in what we're doing. Um there's different teams of initiatives going on. One in particular women's initiative team that has really helped improve standards for family leave care telework policies, uniform standards that we had to deal with from the 60s that now we're finally coming into the 2000s. It's great. Um And you know a number of issues that don't just affect women but also affect men and parents and families moving forward. So I'm really optimistic that the Space Force is really looking at a whole person because um we're small service and we need to retain as much talent as we can and being accommodating towards some of these personal issues. Uh It's really gonna be helpful for us moving forward in terms of retaining that talent. What have been some of the other challenges of just getting this agency off the ground and turning it into a full fledged um military agency? I'm lucky that we're a little immune from all the machinations happening in D. C. But I hear about it here on the west coast. Um I would say a lot of it has to do with some policy um Just trying to break through how do you set up a whole new service? They haven't done this since 1946. The latest service was the Air Force that came out of the Army and so um standing up a new service in itself, they had to go through a number of legal questions and and work through some paths. Um The service is set up in three field commands. So we have the Space Operations Command which is called First Love It. Um and that's where the true war fighters are, the operators of our systems are. They sit and they operate the spacecraft at different locations across the world. Um So they're part of the second field command is called Starcom. They get cool name too. Uh they're in charge of tests and and training. So all of our training that we do as officers will come and and enlisted troops will come through Starcom. Um and then we work at Space Systems Command, we don't get the cool name, but we get the cool place. We're in Los Angeles. So our headquarters there with a number of units across the United States. And so I think as we've been setting up these field commands, there's been some nuances and challenges on, you know, how to move personnel over from the Air Force system to the Space force system. It's not impossible, but um they're still doing some work towards that. Um But another really exciting point that um that we're working on is bringing in inter service transfers. So we are actually bringing in members, not just from the Air Force, which is where most of us came from, but from the army, the Navy and the marines and so bringing in those folks, um, we're super happy to have them. They're amazing assets because they really bring that warfighter perspective to um, the systems that were acquiring. Um, but you know, just kind of the machinations of moving from one organization to another. Just mostly administration, I would say it's kind of the biggest challenge. Red tape is universal, right? In terms of mission performance though. I mean we're still getting the mission done. And so that has never changed again as we cut away from the Air Force into the Space Force. Um, we are still able to procure the systems that we have always been trying to procure. So Colonel Boxy, thank you so much. We hope to have you back for a future space force birthday to care more about your progress. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Janet Evans, Chief Athlete Officer, LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games
Interviewer: Michal Lev-Ram, FORTUNE

MPW Next Gen 2022 - On Track: 2028 Olympics Los Angeles

In 2028. Los Angeles is set to host the Summer Olympics for the third time. So you can't say they haven't had the practice Together with the Paralympic Games, the city will host 15,000 athletes competing in over 800 events spread across 75 venues. We will get an update on the, on the preparations from Janet Evans, a three time olympic champion who is at the heart of the L. A. 28 organizing committee. Please welcome Janet Evans Chief Athlete Officer of the L. A. 28 Olympic and Paralympic Games for a conversation with Fortunes Graham. Thank you. Okay, I get all of the like super champion badass athletes today. I don't know what Allison was here yesterday and Felix was here yesterday and we had a W. N. B. A. Player and a yoga master. And so um I'm very, very inspired. Um I want to start Janet just by having you explain a little bit to us about, you know about your medals and your background as an athlete yourself. But what exactly does it mean to be the chief athlete officer for L. A. 28. Um, so I was a swimmer in the olympics a long time ago, my first Games were in 88 I swam in 1992 and 96. Um in that interim, I I worked a little bit with the Atlanta organizing committee um to um as the bid committee and then um as Atlanta hosted the 96 Games, which also swam at, so I had some experience um working with bringing the olympics home to the United States of America. So when the city of Los Angeles decided they wanted to bid? Um case and our chairman and Mayor Garcetti, mayor of L. A. Um you know Casey came to me and said we need an athlete, we'd love to have a female athlete, um someone who has a little experience with the bid process which is basically convincing the international olympic committee um why your city should host the Games. Um So went through the bid process with the city of L. A. Um talking a lot about what L. A. Has to offer, which is basically a no build olympics and paralympic games. Um you know, you think of the embarrassment of riches that Los Angeles has with our incredible stadiums and facilities. Um So once we won the right to host the Games in 2028 I was renamed as the chief athlete officer. So in our daily um you know, work of delivering the olympic and paralympic games to Los Angeles athletes are key stakeholders. The games don't take place without our athletes. And so my role and my team's role is to ensure that athletes really are kind of central to the decisions that are being made, whether they're commercial decisions or venue decisions, you know, everything fun and basic from what is their food gonna taste like to what are their bed's gonna look like or what, but are they going to be on um to more specific things like, you know, where are we thinking is the best place to put swimming or where is the best place to put this in that. So if you think about an organizing committee or any sporting event that's planning, you know, a large scale mass event um with athletes, it's very important to have, you know, an athlete representative and voice their to ensure proper delivery of the games take us and I know this is super comp and is a multi year process, but take us a little bit behind the scenes in the into the bidding process because I this is an area that I do not understand at all. So since you've had so much experience with it, what happens behind closed doors? Yeah, it's actually very interesting and the L. A. Bid um we had a great team, it was a small team. So like I said eric Garcetti, he like he's about to leave office but he likes to say on his first day as mayor of Los Angeles, he sent a letter to the International olympic committee um asking to be considered to host the Games. Um ultimately our olympic committee, the U. S. Olympic and paralympic committee gave that right to boston. Um In about 2014 boston ultimately passed the torch to us because they didn't want to try to afford and uh and we said about bidding and so um Mayor Garcetti asked Casey to be our chairman and Casey for any of you? Um that no, you know, a sports media um you know owns Wasserman Sports media group. So very dialed in with sports in Los Angeles. Um so Casey, the mayor and I set about trying to convince the international olympic committee um and to some extent, the paralympic committee that Los Angeles was a place to host the Games. So, you know, we spent about 18 months traveling the world meeting with IOC members. Uh the IOC is comprised of just over 100 members. They're ultimately the individuals who vote on where the next olympics and paralympic games will be. Uh so we spent 18 months following these IOC members around the world, meeting with them, talking to them about what games would look like for our athletes, um what our costs would be, which in Los Angeles are low because like I said, we don't have anything to build. Um and ultimately we were bidding on 2020 for um the race came down to Los Angeles and paris paris was looking at the 100th anniversary of their last Games, which was 1920 for 2020 for um it started to look a little sideways for us in the sense that paris was is amazing. It's the 100th anniversary, most IOC members, the european, they love paris and I've actually a really cute story as we were meeting with an IOC member from archery and he said, well where you gonna put archery? And we said we're gonna put in the Sepulveda basin. We have this great facility and we're just gonna be beautiful and he said well paris is putting archery at Versailles and we were like well um anyway so the basin right? And so um so kind of became clear to us that we couldn't trump paris. Um and so the mayor in case we ended up negotiating with the IOC to um bring the games to L. A. In 28 without actually bidding. Um bids tend to be expensive. They take a lot of time. Um So we had an unprecedented runway, we were announced as the winners of the 28 games in 2017. Um So we've had we will have had 11 years um to plan our games and facilities are already built. So we've spent, so what are you guys doing? So now we are we are doing a lot of great things. Um One thing that the IOC did was they we are now the stewards of 100 and $60 million that they um you know we are putting into, it's their money that we're putting into youth sports in the city of Los Angeles. So we are um giving every child in Los Angeles the right to um play sports park and recs for a low cost, very low cost. So we're introducing sport to young people. Um We're doing a lot of community events were we are planning on delivering our games? There is infrastructure that needs to be built and planned? Um, I work on athlete team. Um, in terms of um, programming for athletes. How do we help athletes before, after and during the games? We have some great programming. So we're busy and we're close to finding out. I know you are. And one of the things that you've done, um that you're in the process of reviewing, I guess there are proposals for nine shortlisted sports for that are under consideration. I mean, we've seen some new ones enter, you know, surfing and others um, in recent years. Um, she brought up pickleball earlier. I understand it's actually not consideration. It's not and and you're not the first to ask. So it is a great sport. I played it this weekend. Right? So I was in the desert with my family. Um, so to be considered to be a new sport, you have to have a federation. So the IOC sits here. The federation sit underneath it. Um, and a federation that is well established, that has doping policy, anti doping policies for their athletes. Um, there's a lot of that going on in pickle, but you never know, right? So, it's um, it just needs a little more time. I think it can do it. It just needs a little little, we just need to mature a little bit. So, so what are the, I mean, can you say, which sports you are looking at the new entrance? So the nine sports were looking. So, so every organizing committee is allowed to think about adding a few sports to their to their agenda. Right. And so for us it comes down to cost complexity, like where is this sport gonna be? And we're gonna have to use an arena. Right? Howard ticket sales going to look for this sport? Right. So there's a lot that goes into the consideration. So the nine sports and I hope I can just get them off the top of my head. It's um squash, lacrosse, cricket, kickboxing, breakdancing, which is in paris um flag football. Um Okay, now I've lost track because um okay, anyway, um that's good. That's good. It's good. I think you gave us enough of a flavor there. That's very exciting. Um so you mentioned also um the no, the no build part. Okay. And that there is existing infrastructure. Um that's a really interesting way of thinking about the olympics and I know there's a big push for that. There's been a lot of criticism on the cost that it takes to to do this for a city to do this. Um What I mean, is there a in what ways I guess are you really trying to forge a new path for a more sustainable, environmentally friendly, economically viable and successful olympics because we have not seen that in recent years and I will say this is one thing athletes really care about and from my seat where I said, we talk about what are the ocean's gonna look for, like for athletes who are swimming and canoeing and paddling in them. Right. What what are are the levels of heat and smog gonna be like for the our runners in the marathon? So on that sustainability side, we do think a lot about that. Um, you know, but the great news about Los Angeles is we're not building things and and you think about, you know, these these buildings that are building these these arenas and and then they just sit there if you look at the example of the Rio olympics and at the end of the day, while olympics and paralympics are expensive to host a lot of the lion's share of the money comes in building these facilities and sometimes they become white elephants. And so, you know, it's interesting when we were bidding, going back to the bid and we would present to the IOC our plan so far stadium wasn't even part of that yet. Right. And so so far was announced to be built towards the end of our bidding process. Um you know, and then the intuit dome is being built next to it for the clippers to play basketball. Um and, and so I think that was one of the things that is so appealing about Los Angeles for the games. And I think it's a it's a new type of games. Um, and it can be a blueprint, if you will for for subsequent organizing committees? Um, we don't, we like to say that we're kind of, you know, adapting the olympics around our city versus changing the city for the olympics and the paralympic games. So, um, the great thing about Los Angeles is our athletes will come, the Spectators will come, the fans will come, they'll watch opening ceremonies at so fi stadium and, you know, five weeks later the RAMs will be playing in it. Right? And so we just borrow it. We, we use their infrastructure, we use their people that work in the stadiums and then we give it right back. And I think it's, it's a really great model and we're hoping that subsequent organizing committees do it. Any questions for Janice? We've got one over here. We'll bring a microphone over to you and if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself. Thank you. Hi, sorry. From left. Um, oh, sorry, apologies. I think I speak for many of us, but I think you have the coolest job. I'm a little envious as a former athlete as well. Um, I have two questions and all good if you can't answer the second because I think it's a bit sensitive, but in the first one, you talked about Mayor, Mayor Garcetti, um, being really adamant about this being may be part of his legacy, if you think about what he was hoping to accomplish with this coming to Los Angeles, what are maybe some of your success metrics at the end of the day, you talked a lot about cost and which is really cool because again, as a european, I remember growing up in Athens this like debacle in a way uh, along with Rio and a few others. And so what are your like key success metrics? And it doesn't have to be just dollar signs and things like that. Um so that's the first one. And then if you can comment on what's happening with Qatar with the upcoming world, you know, soccer cup, that would be really interesting for me to hear yours. Thank you. That's on my list of questions. You beat me to it. It's a terrific question. So hopefully you can answer both of them. Um as far as Mayor Garcetti, it's I've spent many years now listening to him speak about Los Angeles and why he wanted to bring the game back and um he and both he and Casey and I was also at opening ceremonies, I was 12 in 1984. Um talk about the magic that came to Los Angeles. Um and talk about the magic that Los Angeles still feels about the olympic games and, and to know this will be our first olympic games and paralympic games, it's our third olympic. But first paralympic, which in and of itself, the paralympic games holds such an opportunity um for disability awareness for these amazing paralympic athletes. So I think there's there's a harkening back to Los Angeles um in 84 the magic that was sprinkled around our city and the lives that have changed and the positivity that it brought and we run into people now who say I remember and I still have my grandma still has a uniform and my mom was a volunteer and and I think remembering that, but also understanding this is a new era. And so we don't we don't lean into the legacy of 84. We want to create our own new legacy, which is how do we help our community? How do we inspire young people who how do we educate people? And the thing for me about the olympics and paralympics is not all these people that watch it are going to be olympians or paralympians, but they're going to be inspired by it. So, a metric for success for me is did we leave Los Angeles a better place in our community? Um what experience did the athletes have? Right, and I think, and it can be a little bit of of the Qatar question if you will. So my what keeps me up at night is that the athletes come to Los Angeles and they haven't experienced That allows them to look back on their games experience in Los Angeles and say this was the most amazing experience of my life I went to three Olympic games, I lived in a village 20 days each time. So I spent roughly 60 days of my life in an Olympic village. I don't remember any of it because it's so fast and you're you're competing and there's all these things and you're shuffled in and out. And so I talked to athletes every day which does make my job cool. I get to meet with athletes from all over the world and I wanna understand what they want out of their olympics and paralympics. They want their friends and families there. Um They want to remember it better. They want to own some of their own pictures. They um they wanna have a T shirt that doesn't cost $80 right? Because we're talking global. We have athletes coming from all over the world and so me success is giving these athletes opportunities um above and beyond. Just simply being in the olympic village for 20 days. How do we talk about um giving them educational opportunities and career transition, transition opportunities. Um you know, as for the Qatar World Cup, I really haven't followed enough to to comment on it. We are very separate from from from um that organization, but I will say what I want for the athletes going there is an experience um that is positive for them. That's what we want, other questions. Got one over here. Hi Lynn Bresnahan with zero. Um I am a southern California native and so love to hear that we're talking about established infrastructure in terms of the arenas. But as anyone who's probably tried to cross the 105 at four p.m. On a friday afternoon, I think our transportation infrastructure does leave a lot to be desired. And so I'd love to hear more about that. And how you guys are thinking about that. When you think about the influx of visitors, athletes, their family, Spectators, how are we gonna handle that? As someone who trying to drive in that area or or or L. A. X with all of that. And you keep hearing that um, you know, the people mover, the monorail is coming in time for the olympic and paralympic games, which is true. Um, so there have been, you know, there is infrastructure that is coming. Um, we are planet sports parks. So we have um, the downtown sports parks, we have think of all the venues that are downtown from USC and the colosseum and the Galen center up into the, the convention center, crypto dot com former staples center. Right, So these are all sports parks for us. That's the sports park. We have the dignity health center used to be home depot center, then StubHub center. That's a sport park for us. Right? So that's where we have um, rugby, tennis, field hockey, cycling for the velodrome. So the transportation, no one will be driving to those. It will all be public transportation to those area and dignity. Health is actually the only we call it the south based sports park is the only sports park that doesn't have public transportation to that sports park. So every other sports park we have a Valley sports park. Um We have the village at U. C. L. A. Um which is a big infrastructure piece that we don't have to build a billion dollar village. Our athletes will live at U. C. L. A, which hosts, you know, students every day so they know how to feed them and bathe them and clothe them and transport them. Right? And so um so they'll have the infrastructure will be there to bring Spectators there. Um There will also be olympic lanes. Um that's for the athletes which I worry about is basically a carpool lane for athletes getting to and from most of them will be in the village at U. C. L. A. To their venues. And You know, having done this for many years now, I always hear, Oh my gosh, the traffic and I'm old enough right? The traffic in 84 was so great. Right, are you gonna do that again? And yes that's our wish. And there were things that 84 did that were really revolutionary. They didn't have any deliveries during the day. So no trucks were allowed to deliver anything. All deliveries. I forget the hours during the 84 Games were from 11 a.m. P. M. To like five a.m. So you took all the trucks off the road. So there's things that will be happening that I think will ease some of the some of the congestion alright it's too cliche to end a conversation about the olympics coming to L. A. With a note of traffic. So I'm gonna just ask you super super quick. Um We all work on long term projects. This is crazy long Like how do you pump yourself up to get to the finish line? Yeah, well I think one thing Casey, our chairman has always said is um you know we had 11 years were like 11 years right? Everything will like what are we doing right? And he always said the one thing you want at the end of this is more time and you know we are doing well, we are progressing um but I think for me me um my motivation and what keeps me motivated is like I said, I speak to athletes every day and I don't just get to speak to american athletes. I get to speak from athletes, athletes from all over the world and understand their needs and understand what they want. So my head is always spinning with, we're gonna try to do this, we're gonna do that and some of it sticks and some of it doesn't but every day and every, you know month and every quarter and every year my team is you know coming up with programming and thinking about athletes and so The time has passed quickly, and I think I always say I would have a big ball of wine on the last day of the Paralympics and sit down and ask the athletes how the experience was. I hope you get at least a glass of wine at some point between before 2028, I think a lot. Thank you so much. My pleasure. Thank you.

Lucy Guo, Chief Executive Officer, Passes; Co-founder, Scale AI 
Daniella Pierson, Founder and CEO, Newsette; Co-founder and Co-CEO, Wondermind
Moderator: Terri Burns, Investor; Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm Tech

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Founders: Breaking Barriers

Lucy Guo, Passes; Scale AI 
Daniella Pierson, Newsette; Wondermind
Terri Burns, Fortune Brainstorm Tech

Lucy Guo, Chief Executive Officer, Passes; Co-founder, Scale AI 
Daniella Pierson, Founder and CEO, Newsette; Co-founder and Co-CEO, Wondermind
Terri Burns, Investor; Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm Tech

today's event and the M. P. W. Community encourages us to embrace responsibility and opportunity as we realize our power. Our next guest embody this with their professional and personal journeys, lucy grow is chief executive officer of passes. Uh, she became a coder at the right age of seven in middle school, lucy created one of the first twitter bots, but it wasn't until she was at y Combinator that she had the idea of merging machine learning with people. The result was scale ai a multibillion dollar company today. Daniella Pearson is founder and ceo of new Set. She started a newsletter focused on female centric content as a sophomore in college rather than follow the traditional path into publishing. She built new set into a million dollar company. Lucy and Daniella joined us today to talk about how they broke barriers with innovative ideas, personal drive and much more. Please welcome them to the stage together with fortune brainstorm tech. Co chair terry Burns lucy, Daniella. Hello, how are you both doing today? I'm excited to see you again after aspen. Yes, we were at brainstorm tech. Fortune brainstorm tech just a couple months ago. I'm super excited to chat. I know that you guys know each other, our new friends, There's lots to dig into today. So let's just go ahead and jump in the description for today's panel reads, being told they couldn't do something was all it took for these founders to find a different way of achieving their goals. So I want to jump straight into that. Can each of you tell us about a time you were told you couldn't do something and how you use that as motivation maybe Danielle we can start with you. Okay I've been told many times so let me choose one story. Um I was told in college I was a bad student so um I'm actually labeled the dumb twin because I have an identical twin sister who looks exactly like me except she was the best student in her class and she went to U. Penn, I went to bu and while I was at the U. I started my first company, the new set which now is valued at $200 million and I'm really proud of that because we never took any VC funding. And my only other partner is my immigrant mother from Colombia, so I was able to make her a millionaire in the process. Um But while I was building that company, I not only had O. C. D. A. D. H. D. Depression was like a bad student, I was basically a poster child for like someone not to believe in. Uh So all of my professors did not believe in me. Um And I actually failed the entrepreneur project. Yeah and it was because and I had a call with the dean the other day because now they want me to be their commencement speaker which is so funny because I literally got a letter from the previous dean saying if you don't get your ship together you're going to be kicked out one semester before graduation, so I barely passed that stage and now I guess I'm gonna speak on it and in front of all the professor excited me. But anyways, the crazy thing about the entrepreneurship project was we were in a group of eight people where I don't know about you guys, I've never heard of anybody start a company with eight people and then it was peer reviewed and so basically one person had to fail and I got to be that person. Uh so it just shows you how, you know, school isn't everything. So I was a bad student, but I was told by everybody, not only the people in that group, uh by my teachers, by the dean who said that they were going to kick me out of college if I, you know, didn't jump through all these hoops um because I didn't pass, you know what they thought success looked like at the school, and now I'm lucky enough to be going back not only to speak at the commencement, but also to help them um put together a program that is more holistic and more real stick for entrepreneurs because they also told me I'm the most successful entrepreneur that's graduated there in like 20 years. So, okay, what a comeback story that is, we are looking forward to that, that commencement speech for sure. Oh yeah, I'm gonna like turn around and be like, I know what you did lucy, what about you? Yeah, I think I've always just been a really rebellious child and my parents never really believed in me. Um Not because they're like bad parents, but because my little brother was just significantly smarter than me, like you skipped six grades in math, was taking a peek at Bc in sixth grade. Um Total genius. So all kind of started when um I wanted to take an electrical engineering course in high school at Carnegie Mellon Summer classes, and my parents told me you can't be an engineer because you you are a woman. And that blew my mind because my mom actually got her graduate degree in electrical engineering, but her argument was that she was the only person in class, so I secretly switched to e after they forced me to change out of it and they found out like while we were at Carnegie Mellon and started screaming at me in front of the entire dome of students that I was going to fail, kind of embarrassing. Um but I felt the need to prove them wrong, so I ended up doing really well in the course and and then the professor at cmu ended up writing me a recommendation letter and I was just really lazy with college applications, so um I knew I would get in because of that and I did. Um and then the second time was when I dropped out of college, I got the thiel Fellowship and yet again, they're like, hey, you're never going to succeed, you really think you can run a company. Uh And I was like, yeah, like I ran a bunch of online businesses when I was younger in like middle school, high school, elementary school and I made a good amount of money from it And uh they just were not happy. They viewed it as like a sign of disrespect that I was doing that. So I ended up not talking to me for like, I want to say good, like 2-3 years. Um in between I ended up getting a job at like snapping cora and getting paid extremely well for my age. So they start talking to me and then when I decided to quit trying to quit to go start a company, I got into y Combinator, I got VC funding. Uh they again stopped talking to me and they like pulled my cellphone, health insurance, etcetera. So I was like really alone but it was the desire to prove them wrong, but also to be able to make them proud because like even though they stopped talking to me the entire time I realized that uh they immigrated from china and gave up everything they had known to give their kids a better future and I wanted to like return that favor and part of that was like proving them wrong and making myself uber successful. So I'm really happy to say that like, now I can provide for my family and they're proud again and talking to me, That's great. A lot of themes here. Yes, we can definitely clap for that. A lot of familial themes here, educational themes, there's kind of a through line with both of your stories, which I very much appreciate. Exactly, oh my God, this is claire power trip, we literally just like 24 hours ago and we're like, your parents didn't believe in you either. Well, one thing that you guys did do a bit differently lucy, you have previously raised venture funding and as you mentioned, Daniella, you did not raise venture funding for the new set of which I am a subscriber um I'm really curious to know why did you choose to not go to VC route if you did um if that was an intentional decision and what advice would you give to folks who maybe are trying to figure out what Models might make the most sense for their business. Yeah, I would love to say that I turned down every VC and that's the reason why I didn't have VC funding, but it was because basically I like 22 when I moved to New York, it was about three years into my business, I got meetings, you know, with incredible VCS, I had a meeting with one of the most notable VCS, like the guy, you know with his name on the building um and I ended up having a meeting and he, essentially, the entire time I was talking, he was laughing and I was like, what's so funny? And he goes, you remind me of my granddaughter, and I was like, oh, that's great, she must be so successful, whatever. And then his face just dropped and he was like, no, she actually talks way too fast and is not successful, and I was like, I literally was like, am I like, like in a dream right now, like, or a nightmare? Um and I literally got up, I was like, okay, thank you very much, got in the elevator and literally says Vcs, I'm just gonna build it my way. Um and I know a lot of people have had really great experiences with VCS, so that's the reason why I didn't raise because no one would give me any money and I decided I was spending too much time trying to get the money. So instead of, you know, uh you know, a few years ago knew that made a million dollars instead of raising that a million dollars and convincing maybe two or three people, I had to convince thousands of people because I got a million dollars through advertising. And so it actually was a really great lesson and it took longer, it's going to be, you know, eight years in the news that um in january and we did, you know, 40 million last year um with eight figures of profit, which is profit is crazy, you know, in the media world especially uh and we grew an agency out of it during the pandemic. So that's really what catapulted our growth. Um So we were able to fund our growth with money and I didn't even think about taking my own money out of the business, you know, and paying myself until I was like oh wait there's a lot left. Um And now I'm very lucky that I get to invest in other female founded companies and really, you know, be able to empower people who were not empowered like myself but I am a hypocrite because I have a new company called Wonder Mind um with Selena Gomez and Mandy tv and we raised money at $100 million valuation when it was just the three of us in an idea um Serena Williams, her venture funds um led the rays. And so I have now raised money. Okay, so now I'm appreciative that I had time to do both, but truly if I would have had the money, you know what, for the first venture, I probably would have spent it on things that didn't, not, not, you know, in in a way that didn't make sense, but just like there were so many things that I had to do and I failed small, whereas if I had all that money, I would have failed big and it could taken me out. And so because I had 100% control of my company, I was able to continue going even when things like shitty things happened, whatever, I don't think I have that luxury now with wonder mines um so yeah any advice I would really give is I was lucky enough to have three years in college where I didn't have to worry about getting myself food, having a place to live because I love, I was in college and my parents were you know generous enough to pay for that, that's the ultimate gift they gave me and I knew okay these are the only three years in my life because I was a sophomore that I am never going to like I don't have any responsibilities except to be a good student and I guess party and make friends. Second part did not have and I would love to because of business but I just, maybe it was weird, but I but I took all of that time that I knew I didn't have to have a job and I created a job for myself because I knew nobody was gonna hire me to be able to build that business and then again use that revenue to grow it. Yes, but but I was lucky again, I had three years where I didn't have a family to support, I don't have to have a job able to hyper focus and on what it was in the building you see, I want to hear a little bit more um about your perspective. You have raised venture funding. Um And you're also currently working on passes right now. So I'm curious to hear about both your new company. What is it? Um And what are your what's your sort of perspective on raising venture funding and how that can impact the future of your business, yep. So my thing is that if you're a founder and you're able to build a M. V. P. You should do that. And if you can even get traction before the M. V. P. Before you raise funding, that's normal because it is I think it's possible to raise funding. But you're talking about very different valuations like a $3 million valuation. If you don't have an M. V. P. Versus like a $50 million valuation. If you do have an M. V. P. $400 million $100 million valuation. Nothing. So yeah I've been a little scared to raise $100 million valuation salesperson. Yeah. Yeah I am a hypocrite because I ended up raising VC funding for my second venture even though I have told pretty much every single founder not to do so until they have a little bit of traction. Uh My excuse is that I got a very good valuation ended up raising out of $50 million valuation. Um With no deck, no product and I didn't take a meeting that all kind of happened in 48 hours. Um And then my new company, I'm working on the web through creator economy. Um Think of like web three Patreon penthouse only fans. Um But like very focused on on adult content. Um And I'm like very excited to help creators really be able to own their fan because there's such a problem with creators essentially like losing full control. If they accidentally have copyright music playing in the background, they accidentally swear word etcetera and suddenly they lose their account, they lose all their income potential. Um And that's like their whole life being right now and have a lot of friends going through this where they've either lost their social media platforms or they're like one warning away from getting banned and it constantly stresses them out every single day. I also just think overall platforms take away too much. A lot of my friends are twitch streamers and now they've gone from like a 10 20% rev share to 50% and they're not happy about it. Um And then just I think there's like long term income earning potential with royalty fees etcetera. Like one thing I like to say is like art is a really good example where artists art isn't worth that much until they die and then um when they die, their families don't get the benefits of their artwork increasing in value. Whereas now like they get the percentage to their like trust funds or whatever while they're alive. Great. Um I want to take a moment just to see if there are any questions in the audience. You can take this conversation lots of places, but just wanted to see any questions. Looks like we have one question way in the back there. If you want to wait just a second to get a microphone, hey, I'm Danielle. Great Panel girls. This was awesome. And the question I have for you is given the experiences you've had personally and how that's greatly impacted the way you see your businesses. How has that impacted the way you work with other people at your company specifically around core values? Yeah, So one thing I'm doing differently this time around is um I think that in our first company there was definitely like we overworked people significantly and I'm not saying I'm not like overworking people per se, but definitely just being a little more empathetic and making the work environment more fun. I think it's naturally more fun because of instead of enterprise sales now, um we get to work with creators, which um my company loves, like I'll invite creators over to the office and we'll be jamming and working while having conversations on the side, which is actually product feedback. So it's a fun little loop. Um and it's something I've learned also it's just like we talked about this, but I'm very, very bad at building a remote culture. Um I haven't really figured it out yet, I think this could be because of my first company, it was all in person and we were able to communicate efficiently and I was remote for maybe the last 1 to 2 months and I'm forcing everyone to move back in person because I do, I think that like within a small company, it's incredibly important to have that fast communication loop and I like props to people who figure it out, I'm like how to have that mis communication loop without miscommunication remote, but I, like, I met the founder have not figured it out. Um well that's a great question and thank you for asking and you have a great name, uh Danielle, I'm Daniella also an identical twin chatting about, she is, oh, they're also both badasses, uh that's your identical twins name is Alex then that's ultra weird, but anyways, that's my twin, not yours. Uh so when I started off, I like to say that there were three people working at my company, me, myself and I um and we all just did everything from the sucking chief janitor officer to the ceo to the sales person because I had the luxury of hiring people and that was actually a really good thing because I had never had a job before, so how did I know how to manage anyone, I didn't, and so when I finally started making revenue, when we finally launched revenue, I made $25,000 the very first month and I was like Okay I can do this, I'm gonna start hiring like you know paid interns and then assistant whatever. And I slowly learned that because of my age I was 22 at the time I would hire people that were you know a 10 years older than me and not be respected and I because I was almost overly nice um and almost like so grateful that they wanted to work with me even though I was paying them um and not paying myself. And so I really have evolved as a leader as the news that has grown and now it's like you know 50 people and by the end of the year we're gonna have over 100 people between the two organizations. Um What has been very um I guess I opening is that I I always felt bad with my um team members to ever have anyone work after like six six p.m. Just because I I just thought you know if you have a good work life balance, I've never had anybody work during a weekend. I mean maybe some people have like by their themselves but I like get mad at them. And that's very weird because as you said like you know in most high growing companies or fast growing companies like it's like 24 7 I just haven't really had that. Um I guess working style and I think that it's paid off in dividends because people have their weekends, they have time um after, you know, work to do their thing and so they come refreshed and they like just really own the day and really just show up as their best selves. I also have a mental health company now so I don't think I could get away with, you know, working people to the bone and we have mental health days, et cetera. But I think it's more about uh it's it's more about the, I've evolved as a leader knowing that I can say I did something wrong or I was wrong in a meeting or maybe I, you know, uh this morning I was with my C. 00. And my co Ceo. Um for wonder mind, I was just really really stressed out and I like took it out on them and I immediately apologized after and so I think it's being mature enough to take accountability when you're wrong that, that, I mean I just had so much stuff. I have a hp bouncing off of that though. I think that was a really bad micromanager before and now I delegate more and I trust people a lot more, like I trust off the bat and that also makes them happier and get put them in the best place to do their best work empowers teams to do the best that they can Daniella lucy, thank you so much. I really appreciate you guys taking the time today. I wish we could keep chatting. We are at time now, but super excited to see what you both continue to do. Thank you so much.

Meena Flynn, Co-head, Global Private Wealth Management, Goldman Sachs 
Jaclyn Rice Nelson, Co-founder and General Partner, Coalition Operators
Moderator: Terri Burns, Investor; Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm Tech

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Wealth Generation

Meena Flynn, Goldman Sachs 
Jaclyn Rice Nelson, Coalition Operators
Terri Burns, Fortune Brainstorm Tech

Meena Flynn, Co-head, Global Private Wealth Management, Goldman Sachs 
Jaclyn Rice Nelson, Co-founder and General Partner, Coalition Operators
Terri Burns, Investor; Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm Tech

throughout today. We've heard from innovative entrepreneurs and inspiring leaders as they discussed, how they built and managed a diverse set of businesses. The capital accumulation is impressive, but how do we ensure that we pass it on to future generations. These questions could not be more timely given the widespread economic turmoil, rising inflation and interest rates and the looming prospect of a recession. How will we pass on the wealth up next? We'll discuss a number of investing strategies to generate long term wealth and how to invest for social impact. Please welcome Mina Flynn, co head of global private wealth management at Goldman Sachs and Jaclyn Reiss nelson, co founder and general partner of coalition operator. Welcome welcome. Hi Meena. Hi Jacqueline. How you guys doing so Good. 100%. So let's cut straight to the chase. I'm sure everyone here has been looking at their investment accounts over the last few weeks and months and crying at least I certainly have. What opportunity are we facing right now given the current market climate and therefore how should we all behave in terms of wealth creation? You can start with you. Sure. Sure. Um yes, all of us have been crying because I think the only things that have worked in this market over the last year are carbs and carbon. So um energy and agriculture and despite um usually where equity markets and fixed income act adversely. Um, it's been a year where both equities and fixed income have declined and have declined materially. And the reason um, is really the known unknowns is what uh, you know, we're focused on. And that would be recession, that would be the central bank increasing interest rates to a point that does put us in recession to offset inflation and then also geopolitical concerns. So given that backdrop, um our perspective is that in the US we're actually not going to see a recession, that's not where consensus is consensus is that we are definitely going to see one, but even if we do see one, our view is that growth is going to be relatively anemic. Um but it won't be that substantial from a downtrend perspective, because if you think about the components of inflation, it's really been wage inflation, it's been rental inflation and it's been supply chain, supply chains are normalizing there's a huge supply of apartments that are coming um that are coming on the market and you've actually got a job market that is uh cooling. And so we do think inflation is going to come down um from relatively high levels right now. So with that backdrop, um I would recommend staying invested if you are invested in us equities and doing that in a diversified manner. And the reason why is because most of clients, despite the move that we've had this year, most of our clients are still sitting on gains is I would assume many of you are, if you have been investing for quite some time and there's really a significant after tax consequence of selling, it's also impossible to time markets. And so let me just give you a stat on that. If you were invested in the equity market, the SNP for the last five years, the market would have returned roughly 12% per year, 12% per year. If you were out of the market on the 50 best days, you would have earned negative 15%. And so whether we do a recession, we don't do a recession. If you are in a diversified us focused portfolio, we recommend staying invested for incremental capital. I think fixed income is finally attractive. You finally have an alternative from a risk perspective and so high grade fixed income, if you have the opportunity to do alternative investments and invest in companies such as Jackie's, I would, I would make those investments and then also um from an equity perspective, um take, you know, called take a 6-18 month approach and add exposure to the markets relatively systematically over that time period. The more risk risk conscious, you are make that over a long time longer time period, the less risk averse, you are doing that over a shorter time period. Oh, um, sorry, um, I love you already, because first of all, you already told me there's not a recession and now you're getting the investors, so this is the best channel ever. I think first of all, that's amazing news. Um and I think the way I kind of thought about things is similar in the sense that there is a portfolio that you're optimizing and I think what you're guiding on is how to optimize with your cash, which is amazing. Hopefully many of us have a lot of that. Um and then in addition the other two assets that you definitely have are your time and your expertise and that's really where I sort of think about building a portfolio for your career and in this moment that becomes even more important because even if we're not heading for a recession, which I sincerely hope we are now not the things that used to be risky like startups are now even riskier and the things that used to feel safe, like working at google or amazon or meta no longer do with them like laying off tens of thousands of people per week. Um and so how do you really think about balancing the portfolio of time and energy that you have and where can you really poor that? Um And this is how I manage my career as well. I am the Ceo co founder and Ceo of a company called Tribe ai we are a network of top machine learning engineers and data scientists, you can kind of think of it as a kind of talent agency or matchmaker for top Ai talent to companies who really need this type of talent. Um and then in addition I started a fund called coalition um and we invest in early stage tech companies, some of them are in the room, we have Christina from a quest and Rebecca from little otter. Um, we have someone from santa as well. Um, so really, really cool companies. Um, but then in addition we've built this model to get women onto cap tables, top venture backed companies at scale. And the reason I believe this really matters is because, um, while this is not a tech centric thing, um, there is, and I really believe that will continue to be dramatic wealth creation opportunities happening in tech over the next generations. And I have a very, I get to be the scandalous person on the panel and have a very shameless Agenda to make a lot of women very wealthy. Um, and that, and that is not always happening today. Um, so if you look at recent acquisitions and exits companies like sigma, um, that sold for $20 billion. I see nodding heads already to adobe. There wasn't one woman on the cap table. Yeah, gas. So that doesn't mean that there were no women who benefited from that. But my gosh, there's so many people who became exorbitantly wealthy. Um, and a very small percentage of those are going to be women. Um, and so this is the thing that a coalition, we really want to change. We are only going to be one piece of the problem, but starting to think about how you can spend your time kind of in fractional ways and lend your expertise in exchange for equity is really, I think where I've been focused, I want to double down on this point because as as you mentioned, women are poised to control more assets than ever before in the coming years. What about this moment is unique in particular to the female investor base? How should the female investor base really be thinking about having access to these types of opportunities? Um, thinking about their own portfolios and our own portfolios and risk assessments of wealth wealth generation. So, um, just in terms of females controlling more wealth, um, we anticipate the amount of wealth that females are going to manage to double um, into 2030. Um, and so roughly right now women control a third of us household wealth. We think that's gonna again more than double. Why is that? Um one is you have aging baby boomers. The first, um you know, women tend to marry five years older and they tend to outlive men by two years. And so the first wealth transition goes from the patriarch to the matriarch. Second, you have more women that are making decisions for their household financial decisions. And third, just Jackie mentioned, you have more women making money. So those are the reasons why women are going to be controlling many, you know, more assets going forward. Um the first thing I would say is just don't be passive about it if your name is on that statement that financial statement get involved, ask the questions and that's what I found that I really enjoyed when working with our female clients is that they are not ashamed to ask anything. Um And and it's also you know, I would say that they're not necessarily more risk averse. Like I think sometimes women get tagged with being more risk averse, they're just really more risk aware. And in terms of how they you know, if if I was qualitatively going to say what is a different investing trend of women versus men, I would say that women really want to invest to propel their communities further. And so if you think about E. S. G. It's really the s is where I found most of our female clients focused, how can I help, you know, from a housing affordability from an education perspective, how can I help propel markets, communities etcetera ford and make money at the same time. And in many ways they are giving their money from a philanthropic perspective in the same way they're investing and you no longer need sub optimal returns when you're investing in this fashion. It's really interesting. Um I even just start with trends across people. Um The reality is that people tend to invest in their networks. Um it's just easier who do you know um who's next to you, who's sort of telling you about whatever it is, whether it's crypto hopefully not F. T. X. Um but you know, you're you're sort of learning from the people around you. Um and for better and largely for worse people tend to to spend time in homogeneous groups. Um and so that means that they end up investing in people who look a lot like them. Now. That has been a problem historically, when the people who have largely been check writers or founders that have gotten funding have been men or angel investors. So people who make money from companies like Sigma, then go on to pour that money back into the ecosystem into people who look like them. Now, the thing I get really excited about is that the people who are amassing wealth are changing. And so now we get to pour that money back into people who look like us who look like people in this room um and support the next generation of female entrepreneurs, of GPS adventure funds of executives of large fortune 500 companies, we saw many of them today and over the past few days. Um And I think that that is why this is a really exciting moment. And tipping point and that to me is why wealth matters, it's because then we can pour it into communities and fuel a future that we all believe and I want to see. Um and when I just look at coalition as a microcosm of that, there are four of us, we are all founders and operators ourselves, we are all women. Um, and we have no explicit uh, sort of charter or mandate to invest in women. Um, but our goal is truly just to generate as much financial return as we can. So we are just a pure investment venture fund. Um, and yet when we pulled the numbers, we saw that 68 percent of the founding teams we invested in had a woman or a person of color on the founding team. And so it's just to highlight that, um, there are incredible opportunities out there to generate huge returns and also, you know, invest in the s which is communities of people who can go on to do incredible things. Any questions from the audience right there? Yeah. Hey there, Whitney Magnuson. I have seen some research saying that millennials and now gen z following are largely trying to retire at earlier ages than ever. Early retirement being a key motivator. Now, some of that might be kind of wishful Thinking at some point. But what, what advice would you have that may differ from kind of traditional portfolio management or things for uh, individuals who are trying to pursue something other than a 40-year working lifetime. So I'm happy to start. So at first day save and invest as much as possible and as I said, stay invested as well. And let me just expand on that a little bit. What we see as being the worst, worst, um, wealth destructor. It's a permanent loss in somebody's portfolio. How do you get a permanent loss? You get a permanent loss because you're too conservative and you can't keep up with inflation. So your whole portfolio is in bonds that is not going to help you retire on the other end of the spectrum. You are invested in a very concentrated position. That as you know some work very well, some have idiosyncratic experiences or you are in a portfolio where when you do look at it, you can't sleep and you sell at the wrong time, right? Or you take on leverage whatever it might be. So how can I save as much as I can right now to invest and have those compounding returns in a way that is diversified and has a growth aspect to, it is not too conservative that allows me to sleep well and grow that over time. So I think Nina is going to be the true expert here. I might just take this in a slightly different twist, which is that prior to the panel we were chatting um what if we, you know had life changing outcomes, what would we do in our lives? We got deep before the panel um and uh and I think we both kind of came to, we actually love what we're doing, we would probably be doing the same thing. We just might be doing a little less of it or like a lot less of it um and having a little bit more time freedom, flexibility um and so I I sort of share that as an alternative because there are now are so many more ways to work on a fractional basis work sort of not just in traditional part time, which means you work full time and get paid for part time, but actually like really work you know for designated amounts of time and get paid really really well for your expertise rather than in your time for the value you create and produce. Um And this is very much what I focus on that tribe for data scientists and engineers. Um but there are there are many other ways to do this um and you know that might not be the sort of like laying on the beach retirement that everyone has in mind. Um but I think finding ways to have a little bit of the best of both worlds is probably a little bit more where where I orient I want to go back to um this concept of risk and how to really think about um risk averse versus risk aware what might prevent folks from ultimately facing their wealth generation or preservation goal. Um and how should folks consider risk? What's what's what's your advice in terms of how people should really think about that? So I I think about it again as as a permanent loss and you don't want to experience a permanent loss and so you need to have a portfolio that is diversified enough that will outpace inflation and by the way inflation for this room is not the C. P. I. Inflation for this room is actually higher because if you look at medical costs, if you look at college, you know education, you look at the shoes, it's 1.5 times inflation actually, Especially it's literally I'm not even joking, there's an index that's called the clue we index. It's the cost of living extremely well index and it's 1.5 times. So if inflation is 10%, it's 15% on an after tax basis, you have to make 15% to break event. Right? So the biggest thing like I said is avoiding a permanent loss. Um and so it's keeping up with inflation but also you know, not extending yourself to the point where you're not um where you're not comfortable. So I think of it again, going back to sort of career philosophy is um when you're earlier in your career, the best thing you can do is be head down all in on your job really. The only currency you have is your ability to outwork everyone else when you get more senior. Um It's actually quite the opposite. It's why we're all here. Um You get tremendous benefit from looking up um from getting, you know more perspectives experience or across across a range of industries companies um just different exposure to groups of people, um, and ideas. And I think one of the biggest risks for, for women is staying heads down as you get to the more senior levels or trying to really break into these more senior levels. Um, Deb Deb lieu of ancestry spoke about how Cheryl Sandberg opened the door to board positions for her. Um, and how, uh, you know, that overnight, you know, changed roles she was eligible for. Um Now that's fantastic, but that, that's probably not a solution at scale. Um Well, while she's doing incredible work, um, and and I think that this is something that, that we felt personally mentioned, there are four of us, we each have had careers and startups raised over a billion dollars collectively, uh for those companies, we've had jobs inventor and yet that we all came to investing personally very late. Um, and when we did, we realized that none of our female peers were participating. Um and all of our male peers were. Um and this is really, I think the missed opportunity for for everyone in this room, um these are the people who then go on to have more influence on our system, um, and also more wealth generation opportunities. Um, and I think that when we really think about what, what, what's one tangible thing you can do, um it's to really seek out some of these opportunities, whether it's investing advising, um, you know, joining groups like I know chief is here, um, and really getting that exposure exactly your point around, um, not looking down, not looking down, but looking up. I think it's a great note to end on. Thank you both. Mina Jacqueline. You both have been wonderful. Thank you.

Sarah Harden, Chief Executive Officer, Hello Sunshine
Moderator: Emma Hinchliffe, FORTUNE

MPW Next Gen 2022

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Being Phenomenal

Latest video

Meena Harris, Founder and CEO, Phenomenal Media (joining virtually) Interviewer: Michal Lev-Ram, FORTUNE

Videos (21 videos)

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Being Phenomenal

MPW Next Gen 2022 - The Power Of Women Voters

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Taking Back Your Power

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Chasing Equity

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Game On

MPW Next Gen 2022 - The New Learning Marketplace

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Women Led Revolution In Iran

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Back To Basics

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Forcing Ahead

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Your Decentralized Future Is Here: Web3, NFTs, And The Future Of Crypto

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Sourcing Sustainably

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Beauty Business-In-A-Box

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Equalizing Entertainment

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Embracing The Moment

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Bright Spots In Retail

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Calling The Shots

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Let’s Talk Space Force - Launching Into Year Three With Colonel Bogstie

MPW Next Gen 2022 - On Track: 2028 Olympics Los Angeles

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Founders: Breaking Barriers

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Wealth Generation

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Purpose-Driven Storytelling