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Laura Modi: Welcome back to she Pivots. I'm Laura Modi.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Welcome back to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk
Emily Tisch Sussman: with women who dare to pivot out of one career
Emily Tisch Sussman: and into something new and explore how their personal lives
Emily Tisch Sussman: impact these decisions. I'm your host Emily Tisch Sussman. Today
Emily Tisch Sussman: we're sitting down with Laura Mody, the CEO and co
Emily Tisch Sussman: founder of Bobbie, a woman who not only transformed her
Emily Tisch Sussman: own struggle into a groundbreaking business, but is actively working
Emily Tisch Sussman: to shift an entire conversation, one that so many women
Emily Tisch Sussman: have felt deeply, but often in silence.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Laura was just.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Like so many new moms, eager, exhausted, and determined to
Emily Tisch Sussman: do everything quote right, and for so many, the right
Emily Tisch Sussman: way is often presented as one thing breastfeeding. Bobby is
Emily Tisch Sussman: a company that's redefining what it means to feed our babies.
Emily Tisch Sussman: It is the first FDA approved organic baby formula that
Emily Tisch Sussman: is a go to choice for millions of parents.
Emily Tisch Sussman: But before Laura built Bobby.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Into a household name in infant formula, she had a
Emily Tisch Sussman: decade long career in tech, from Google to Airbnb.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Laura left behind her successful career to solve for a
Emily Tisch Sussman: problem that she herself experienced, and admittedly I did too.
Emily Tisch Sussman: In fact, this conversation was deeply personal for me. As
Emily Tisch Sussman: a mother of three, I also struggled with breastfeeding my
Emily Tisch Sussman: first child and was met with an overwhelming sense of
Emily Tisch Sussman: guilt and self doubt. Society had conditioned me to believe
Emily Tisch Sussman: that anything less than exclusively breastfeeding was a failure, and
Emily Tisch Sussman: I internalized that pressure. I remember feeling like I had to.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Justify my choice to use formula, as if I was
Emily Tisch Sussman: letting my baby down.
Emily Tisch Sussman: It took time and.
Emily Tisch Sussman: My experience with my other children to fully embrace that
Emily Tisch Sussman: feeding my baby in a way that worked for both
Emily Tisch Sussman: of us was not only okay, but the best decision
Emily Tisch Sussman: for my mental health. That's why Laura's work with Bobby
Emily Tisch Sussman: is so inspiring. She didn't just want to create a
Emily Tisch Sussman: better formula, She wanted to create a better conversation, one
Emily Tisch Sussman: where moms could make the best choice for their families,
Emily Tisch Sussman: without guilt, without judgment, and with full confidence that their
Emily Tisch Sussman: babies were getting the nutrition they needed. Laura is considered
Emily Tisch Sussman: one of the leaders of our time. In fact, Time
Emily Tisch Sussman: magazine honored her as Woman of the Year. She is
Emily Tisch Sussman: a force to be reckoned with, and in this episode,
Emily Tisch Sussman: we're going to talk about how she left behind her
Emily Tisch Sussman: career at Airbnb and turned her personal struggle into purpose
Emily Tisch Sussman: by founding Bobby. Laura's story is the perfect example of
Emily Tisch Sussman: how our most personal moments.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Lead to monumental pivots that can not only change our lives,
Emily Tisch Sussman: but thousands of others. Let's jump right in.
Laura Modi: I am Laura Mody, I am the CEO of Bobby
Laura Modi: and I'm Organic infant formula.
Emily Tisch Sussman: You are from Ireland, I am What was it like
Emily Tisch Sussman: to grow up? How many siblings do you have?
Laura Modi: Was it city country? It tell us about it. It
Laura Modi: was deep country from the west of Ireland, a little
Laura Modi: town called Westport in Mayo. I am the eldest of five,
Laura Modi: which actually is a relatively small family. My dad is
Laura Modi: one of thirteen, so even within the area there'd be
Laura Modi: a lot of kids, a lot of cousins. Grew up
Laura Modi: with forty eight first cousins around the area. It was
Laura Modi: a quintessential Ireland upbringing. And are you the oldest of
Laura Modi: all of the children? Oh so well, out of all
Laura Modi: the cousins, I would be higher up. I think I'm
Laura Modi: like eight of the forty eight, But I am the fifth,
Laura Modi: I'm the eldest of the five kids at home, and
Laura Modi: then you also need to be the role model child
Laura Modi: as well, right, you know it's the eldest you are
Laura Modi: in many ways. The experiment for is the school going
Laura Modi: to work? You know, whatever trial and error the parents
Laura Modi: wanted to have, like it was on you. Yeah, and
Laura Modi: if it worked, then the rest followed. So like I
Laura Modi: was the first to go to boarding school and it worked,
Laura Modi: so all the other four after me followed.
Emily Tisch Sussman: So your family had a business, your father was an entrepreneur.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Were you always involved in it was entrepreneurship kind of
Emily Tisch Sussman: in the in the blood of the family, like in
Emily Tisch Sussman: the family culture. Yeah, it's funny.
Laura Modi: You never grow up thinking this is in the blood ever,
Laura Modi: you know, like you're just at the dinner table and
Laura Modi: you're always having conversations whether it's about risk or decision
Laura Modi: making or to be honest, you're just consuming through osmosis
Laura Modi: the ups and downs of what he's going through. So
Laura Modi: at the time you never know it until you reach
Laura Modi: a certain age and then you go, that's what that
Laura Modi: was about, and you know it's just part of your
Laura Modi: every day and you don't, like I said, you really
Laura Modi: don't realize the benefits of it until you're in it yourself.
Laura Modi: Was it truly a family business? Like?
Emily Tisch Sussman: Were his siblings involved? Was your mom involved? The kids
Emily Tisch Sussman: get involved?
Laura Modi: It was a family business with regards to him and
Laura Modi: his two brothers, so there was thirteen kids. It was
Laura Modi: third generation, so it's been passed on and it's obviously
Laura Modi: evolved through multiple ways through every generation being passed down.
Laura Modi: And now I want to say there is six of
Laura Modi: between the cousins and my siblings who are now back
Laura Modi: in the business involved as well.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Wow, did you have a vision of what it would
Emily Tisch Sussman: be like to be a grown up? Like did you
Emily Tisch Sussman: think that you would grow up and be in the
Emily Tisch Sussman: business or do the opposite, like, did you have a
Emily Tisch Sussman: vision of what you thought it would be like?
Laura Modi: God, do we ever have a vision of what we're
Laura Modi: like as a grown up? I know, and no, I
Laura Modi: don't think I ever had a vision of being in
Laura Modi: the business. I think there was always just an assumption
Laura Modi: that one day you will come back, and I never
Laura Modi: thought otherwise until I left the country and it was
Laura Modi: a few years after leaving Arland and I thought, I
Laura Modi: don't know if I'm ever going to return. Wow.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Yeah, what about it made you think that you wouldn't return.
Laura Modi: You know. I think it was the first moment of
Laura Modi: also just realizing I also can choose my own path
Laura Modi: and forge my own way. And I was making decisions
Laura Modi: and joining companies and doing things that were probably so
Laura Modi: distant from the family business. You know. The family business
Laura Modi: makes construction, clothing, ppe clothing, really sexy stuff, you know,
Laura Modi: like hard hats and I've vins jackets, but very different
Laura Modi: from the technology world that I had entered in Silicon Valley.
Laura Modi: So I just grew further and further from I think
Laura Modi: the core job itself, and I just loved the adrenaline
Laura Modi: of starting new things and trying new things and disrupting,
Laura Modi: you know, And then obviously evolved to a place where
Laura Modi: I had children and they were American.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Right, So when you took the first job outside of
Emily Tisch Sussman: the family business, was the first job Google, that's like
Emily Tisch Sussman: quite a first job. That's a big deal.
Laura Modi: The first job was Google, And you're right, it was
Laura Modi: a big job. I remember applying for it out in California.
Laura Modi: I felt like such a dream.
Emily Tisch Sussman: But Ireland's a big tech hub, right, Yeah, Ireland's a
Emily Tisch Sussman: big tech tech cup and they have a big Google
Emily Tisch Sussman: office there in Dublin too, just getting built out at
Emily Tisch Sussman: the time.
Laura Modi: And yeah, I applied for a job out in America.
Laura Modi: It felt dreamy and you didn't think twice really about it.
Laura Modi: You do it, you go through the interview process. I
Laura Modi: actually decided not to tell my parents I was applying
Laura Modi: for it, because you know, you just don't know where
Laura Modi: it's going to go. Go through the interview process. Anyway,
Laura Modi: I get the job, and I'll never forget going out
Laura Modi: for dinner at my parents in Dublin and my dad
Laura Modi: just putting pressure on me, say I'm like, you know,
Laura Modi: college is coming to you know, you got to figure
Laura Modi: out what you're going to be doing. And I remember
Laura Modi: saying like, okay, how am I going to break the
Laura Modi: news like I am going to move to America. And
Laura Modi: I don't know how I said it. I think I
Laura Modi: casually said, you know, you guys should come out for Christmas,
Laura Modi: come visit me out a in America. And he just
Laura Modi: turned to me and he's like, sorry, what are you saying?
Laura Modi: And yeah, I got the job out in California and
Laura Modi: moved out there pretty promptly, And in my mind I
Laura Modi: kept thinking, I will go for a year, I'll go
Laura Modi: for a year or two, get.
Laura Modi: Some experience, and I'll come back. And that was it.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Soon Laura was on a plane all the way to California.
Emily Tisch Sussman: I want you to put yourself back in the mid
Emily Tisch Sussman: two thousands, while most companies still had their fax number
Emily Tisch Sussman: on their business cards and we were just beginning to
Emily Tisch Sussman: use tech, Google was making waves. They are in offices,
Emily Tisch Sussman: ping pong tables, flexible hours, They were changing the game,
Emily Tisch Sussman: and Laura was at the heart of it.
Laura Modi: I mean it was electric. It was, you know, landing
Laura Modi: a dream job. You I mean, they had a rule
Laura Modi: internally where you get to spend like eighty percent on
Laura Modi: your core job and then twenty percent really ideating and
Laura Modi: working in other functions or working on these side projects.
Laura Modi: They allowed you to be an entrepreneur within the business
Laura Modi: and obviously a lot of different perks and benefits that
Laura Modi: were incredible at the time back in Silicon Valley. I mean,
Laura Modi: the whole thing was really just a dream. It was
Laura Modi: phenomen and I was there for four years. I learned
Laura Modi: a lot. I was with exceptionally brilliant people. I mean truly,
Laura Modi: and I say this all the time, like I pinched
Laura Modi: myself every day. It was I am so lucky to
Laura Modi: be here. How did I get here? You're constantly trying
Laura Modi: to prove your value, But I never took it for granted.
Laura Modi: It was an exceptional experience.
Emily Tisch Sussman: So what were some of the entrepreneurial things you did
Emily Tisch Sussman: when you were at Google?
Laura Modi: I mean there was you know, there was like side
Laura Modi: projects that would come in from actually universities or even
Laura Modi: small government type stuff, and it was like ideating on
Laura Modi: new ways of driving efficiencies or new processes. I mean
Laura Modi: there wasn't It wasn't like coming up with any like
Laura Modi: radically new business in the company. It was just being
Laura Modi: able to work on something different or even campaigns on
Laura Modi: how to be able to promote something. But I was
Laura Modi: still relatively junior, so I was more plugged into other
Laura Modi: people's areas.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Yeah, but it was great. Yeah, but that's super interesting,
Emily Tisch Sussman: and I feel I can give you a little bit
Emily Tisch Sussman: of a taste of different fields, like a different field
Emily Tisch Sussman: or a different function. Yeah, because what department were you
Emily Tisch Sussman: actually working in? So I worked on the Google Finance
Emily Tisch Sussman: product so op slash product management, and it was I mean,
Emily Tisch Sussman: I don't know how much how many times I've shared
Emily Tisch Sussman: this or not, but I would stare at financial information
Emily Tisch Sussman: every day essentially the stock.
Laura Modi: Market, and over time, after staring at it for so long,
Laura Modi: I became quite tapped into what was doing well, why
Laura Modi: things were doing well. I found myself day trading, which
Laura Modi: also advice for no one to ever do unless you
Laura Modi: really really get to like focus on this and you
Laura Modi: are trained enough on it. But I actually became almost
Laura Modi: like addicted to the stock market, like in the job,
Laura Modi: and it was if I felt like entering an old
Laura Modi: boys club learning about the lingo of the stock market
Laura Modi: to watch trades, and I found myself like deep in
Laura Modi: these like subreddits of the world, no like truly, And
Laura Modi: I also I think gained a major appreciation for just
Laura Modi: investing as well, and the fact that women overall have
Laura Modi: been left out of this world. And like I said,
Laura Modi: in Old Boys Club, it has become this thing we're
Laura Modi: just like men in general knew and understood it a
Laura Modi: lot more. But the closer I got to the nucleus
Laura Modi: of it, I realized it's actually not that complicated. It
Laura Modi: just had become this world where men have predominantly spent
Laura Modi: their time understanding and investing and playing in the stock
Laura Modi: market and women hadn't. And it's not about understanding it.
Laura Modi: It was more about just like your innate ability to
Laura Modi: understand what you think might do well, how you gain
Laura Modi: that research and understanding. Anyway, women are amazing.
Emily Tisch Sussman: At We're going to take a short break and when
Emily Tisch Sussman: we come back, Laura tells us about her first mini
Emily Tisch Sussman: pivot out of the comfort of Google and into the
Emily Tisch Sussman: unknown of a very famous startup. When I talk to
Emily Tisch Sussman: women who want to make a pivot, there is often
Emily Tisch Sussman: a hesitation of leaving a comfortable job.
Emily Tisch Sussman: So how did you end up? Were you ready? I mean,
Emily Tisch Sussman: you loved the experience of Google so much. Were you
Emily Tisch Sussman: ready to move on? How did the next opportunity come
Emily Tisch Sussman: up
Emily Tisch Sussman: Were you looking?
Laura Modi: Oh, this is a fun story. Speaking of the stock market,
Laura Modi: I a lot of my team was here in New
Laura Modi: York and I was out in the Berry. So the
Laura Modi: engineering team was here and I would come out every
Laura Modi: so often and we would do a lot of plugins
Laura Modi: with the New York Stock Exchange or the NASDAC, and
Laura Modi: I was out for some work trip. I don't know
Laura Modi: what was going on in the city at the time,
Laura Modi: but it was very hard to book hotels, and you know,
Laura Modi: for everything that Google offered, you know, there was still
Laura Modi: a travel limit to how which you could book? And
Laura Modi: I'll never forget someone turning to me and they said, well,
Laura Modi: if you can't find a hotel, why don't you just
Laura Modi: book an airbed and breakfast. It's like, what the hell
Laura Modi: is an arabed breakfast? And I looked it up and
Laura Modi: I was floored. I mean floored. I remember that feeling
Laura Modi: of being like, who the hell came up with this concept?
Laura Modi: Are you telling me I can stay in like a
Laura Modi: real apartment, like someone's home in the middle of New
Laura Modi: York City? And I did. I booked a two bed
Laura Modi: apartment in Soho where I was like working here for
Laura Modi: the week. I was typically staying at like I don't know,
Laura Modi: the Hilton, and you're going through a typical work experience,
Laura Modi: you know, going back to your hotel late at night
Laura Modi: and then into the office in the morning. Anyway, I
Laura Modi: called my friends back in Dublin. I was like, guys,
Laura Modi: I have an apartment in New York City for a week. Anyway,
Laura Modi: they were on the first flight out and they met
Laura Modi: me at the apartment and I did my work thing,
Laura Modi: going in out of the office every day, and we
Laura Modi: would come home in the evening and we would like
Laura Modi: cook food and we would live in New York City
Laura Modi: life and at the kid you not. At the end
Laura Modi: of that trip, I remember being like, I have to
Laura Modi: work for this company, and that feeling of just knowing
Laura Modi: you know what you want, or you have that light
Laura Modi: or trigger inside you that says, this is going to
Laura Modi: be big.
Laura Modi: This is going to be huge. I need to be
Laura Modi: part of whatever this is. Yeah, what was it about
Laura Modi: it that made you say I have to work with
Laura Modi: this company? Okay, going back to be Irisha. Just the
Laura Modi: hospitality of it all. I mean, the fact that you
Laura Modi: could truly.
Laura Modi: Just live in someone else's home and community and removing
Laura Modi: that like stranger feeling. It's just the idea that you
Laura Modi: could bring community together in a close way like that
Laura Modi: and stay in a stranger's bed. That idea just blew
Laura Modi: my mind. And you know, growing up in a country
Laura Modi: where hospitality is its currency, be in bees and community
Laura Modi: and family, people don't like call to say they're showing up.
Laura Modi: They just show up. They knock on your door. The
Laura Modi: US walk in that is. That's how I grew up
Laura Modi: and I found you know, in many ways, I think
Laura Modi: Airbnb pushing on this kind of next wave of belonging
Laura Modi: in community in a texture of in way the whole
Laura Modi: thing was just phenomenal. And then I also, to be honest,
Laura Modi: I think the investor in me was also going, hold on,
Laura Modi: hospitality is a huge business, and they are like truly
Laura Modi: disrupting it from the ground up in a really unique way.
Laura Modi: And remember this was also at a time where on
Laura Modi: the back of two thousand and seven two thousand and
Laura Modi: eight crisis, you're looking at this going, actually, people can
Laura Modi: earn a living on this, like this makes a lot
Laura Modi: of sense. So the investor in me was quickly doing
Laura Modi: the calculation to realize this could be massive if done right,
Laura Modi: and I want to be part of that. I'll never
Laura Modi: forget though, going through the interview process and you know,
Laura Modi: deciding I'm going to leave Google and go join this
Laura Modi: and I say Airben and Breakfast because it was called
Laura Modi: Airben and Breakfast at the time, and they were popping
Laura Modi: up in the news here and there for like, you know,
Laura Modi: there was a few things going wrong in the company.
Laura Modi: And anyway, I'll never forget calling home and telling my
Laura Modi: dad that I'm going to leave Google join this company,
Laura Modi: and the response he was like, hold on a second,
Laura Modi: you're telling me that you were going to leave Google.
Laura Modi: And you're going to start at B and B. It's like, nope,
Laura Modi: that's not what I'm doing. It's like it sounds like
Laura Modi: you are like nope, but I remember having to explain
Laura Modi: the concept over and over and they just they couldn't
Laura Modi: get their head around. It just didn't make sense. And
Laura Modi: you know, there was a lot of are you sure
Laura Modi: this is crazy? But ultimately it got to like I
Laura Modi: trust you if this makes sense, like you know, good luck,
Laura Modi: good riddance, let's see how it goes, and very irish
Laura Modi: like yep, sure, not quite sure, but okay, I'm behind you.
Laura Modi: And it wasn't that long after where all of a sudden,
Laura Modi: Airbnb was in every country, every town, every village, all
Laura Modi: across the world. And then you know, the parents' script
Laura Modi: flipped from you know, she's lost her mind leaving good
Laura Modi: Google too she knew, yeah, yeah, she all made sense.
Laura Modi: And when you had this revelation like this is the
Laura Modi: company that I want to be involved with, how did
Laura Modi: you literally take the step. I think that many of
Laura Modi: us have had the feeling of, oh, I wish I
Laura Modi: could be involved in this, but we don't often know
Laura Modi: how to actually take the step to find them. Did
Laura Modi: you just like look online for their job openings, Like
Laura Modi: how did you actually connect with them? That's exactly it
Laura Modi: found found a job opening.
Laura Modi: Also, remember thinking there wasn't really an appropriate job that
Laura Modi: really quite made sense. So I just applied to any
Laura Modi: and I remember reaching out and they pulled me in
Laura Modi: for an interview. And even during the interview process, there
Laura Modi: were people in the interview process who were like, are
Laura Modi: you sure you want to leave Google for this? I
Laura Modi: was like, well, I'm not quite sure. Now didn't make
Laura Modi: you question it a little bit, but I needed something new,
Laura Modi: and I think that was always in me. There was
Laura Modi: that desire or spark for for always wanting to do
Laura Modi: something new. Yeah, I really wanted to be there. I
Laura Modi: really believed in the concept. So no, I just I
Laura Modi: reached out for some random role and then it just
Laura Modi: turned into one interview after another, and I think I've
Laura Modi: reached out to also one of the founders on Twitter.
Laura Modi: I was like, I applied for a job. I really
Laura Modi: want this, Yeah, And it was pretty swift.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Actually, I did have a question about the role that
Emily Tisch Sussman: you went into because it wasn't like an exact next
Emily Tisch Sussman: step from the role that you had at Google.
Laura Modi: I mean, Airbnb was a genius at hiring. Now in hindsight,
Laura Modi: they looked for people who had deep, deep passion to
Laura Modi: want to be there and people that they knew were
Laura Modi: smart enough and hungry enough and a depth obviously, you know,
Laura Modi: I mean early on, I sho'll say like, generalists make
Laura Modi: the world go around, and for an early small company,
Laura Modi: they do because there wasn't a month or a quarter
Laura Modi: where every single person wasn't wearing multiple hats, and you
Laura Modi: had to because so fast, you know. So I joined
Laura Modi: technically in the world of operations, but over the course
Laura Modi: of maybe the first year, I was leading growing and
Laura Modi: scaling customer service operations, to growing call centers, to going
Laura Modi: back to Europe and opening up offices, to trying to
Laura Modi: reduce our contact rate from you know, bookings versus customer
Laura Modi: service tickets. You are thrown into whatever the business needs.
Laura Modi: And besides of some very few specialized roles, most people
Laura Modi: were generalists. Again, now running and on my own business,
Laura Modi: I can see that I can see that need. It's
Laura Modi: really important, and it is those two things are the
Laura Modi: most important, which is if you don't have the passion
Laura Modi: and desire and hunger to be there also with that
Laura Modi: owner founder mindset, then you're not willing to roll with
Laura Modi: the punches.
Laura Modi: You know.
Laura Modi: You got to be there so like truly with that
Laura Modi: feeling of like you want to see this succeed just
Laura Modi: as much as the founders do. And now I see
Laura Modi: how important that is.
Laura Modi: And there was a different a change in the positioning
Laura Modi: while you were there right that at first it was
Laura Modi: really thought it was a tech platform, and then you
Laura Modi: started to change the thinking about what the actual product was.
Laura Modi: Oh, I love you asked this question. So one of
Laura Modi: my all time favorite mentors idols, Chip Conley. He is
Laura Modi: a hospitality guru. He grew the joa devive hotel chain
Laura Modi: and Chip came into a fireside chat with the company
Laura Modi: one day and really just speak to the world of hospitality.
Laura Modi: And we decided to bring him on board as like
Laura Modi: a part time reading guru and leader in the business.
Laura Modi: And I was assigned to work closely with him to
Laura Modi: really figure out how we were going to scale and
Laura Modi: operationalize hospitality. And I'll never forget. I actually remember very
Laura Modi: vividly what room I was sitting in at the office
Laura Modi: and we were having a conversation about the product, and
Laura Modi: people in the room they were talking about the product product.
Laura Modi: This and we got to change the product, or like
Laura Modi: there's bugs in the product, and you know, what are
Laura Modi: the features of the product. And he's sitting there like
Laura Modi: glazing over on this conversation. Anyway, the meeting ends and
Laura Modi: he pulls me aside and he's like, they keep talking
Laura Modi: about the product without the Irish accent. And he's like,
Laura Modi: what do they mean? And I was like, well, you
Laura Modi: know the technology. And I pull up you know, airbnb
Laura Modi: dot com and I look at the homepage. He's like,
Laura Modi: isn't the product the host? Isn't the product the person
Laura Modi: who is giving the experience of hospitality and opening up
Laura Modi: their home and keeping it clean and providing a memorable experience.
Laura Modi: Isn't that the product? And it was like a light
Laura Modi: going off. It's like, oh my god, you were absolutely right.
Laura Modi: People are not buying or using Airbnb because the button
Laura Modi: felt amazing to click on, or because it was such
Laura Modi: an easy purchasing experience, Like that is your path to
Laura Modi: great acquisition. Yes, it's your path to great discovery, but
Laura Modi: that's not why people use it. And that mentality and
Laura Modi: that triggering and you know, full credit to Chip for
Laura Modi: really triggering that idea in the company. It then became
Laura Modi: our mission to filter this across the whole business. Though,
Laura Modi: if we could get that mentality to realize that we
Laura Modi: need to make sure that every single experience across multi
Laura Modi: million millions of homes all across this world, all have
Laura Modi: to be able to provide a unique and credible experience
Laura Modi: that matches expectations. That is the product, and it did,
Laura Modi: it changed, and it's It's one piece of advice. I
Laura Modi: mean to be fair in life, but for a lot
Laura Modi: of early companies to really know what you stand for,
Laura Modi: know why people are coming to, know your why, and
Laura Modi: not to lose it because it's very easy just to
Laura Modi: wake up and do your day to day and get
Laura Modi: lost in the day to day operations of the business.
Laura Modi: But then if you zoom out, you have to remember
Laura Modi: that at the end of the day, people are coming
Laura Modi: to you for one very particular reason. Know your why.
Emily Tisch Sussman: After the break, we dive into Laura's personal experience that
Emily Tisch Sussman: ultimately led her to start Bobby and how she's fighting
Emily Tisch Sussman: on the front lines to change the way we think
Emily Tisch Sussman: about formula feeding.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Okay, so let's bring in your personal here. You were
Emily Tisch Sussman: at Airbnb for many years.
Laura Modi: Well, it was at Airbnb when my now husband, then stranger,
Laura Modi: had joined the company, and it was actually at a
Laura Modi: company happy hour late on a Friday night, and he
Laura Modi: was going through the consideration phase of joining and any
Laura Modi: he was invited to the happy hour and we got
Laura Modi: talking at the bar, and he we went on a
Laura Modi: date or two, and I think, deep down I was like, oh, please,
Laura Modi: don't join the company. But then he did join the company,
Laura Modi: and we worked and dated together for the next two years.
Laura Modi: I want to say.
Laura Modi: Anyway, the source of it is was getting serious enough.
Laura Modi: He ultimately ended up leaving, and then just as he left,
Laura Modi: we got engaged. I stayed and then very quickly because
Laura Modi: I'm Irish, got pregnant and was having my first kid,
Laura Modi: and I was still at Airbnb, still loving my career,
Laura Modi: still in a position where I thought I'm going to
Laura Modi: go take leave and then I'm going to come back,
Laura Modi: and everything changed.
Emily Tisch Sussman: It's important to note at the time, not only was
Emily Tisch Sussman: Laura working for a fast paced startup, her husband was
Emily Tisch Sussman: also a founder.
Laura Modi: So yeah, he had started his company on the outside.
Laura Modi: I was still at Airbnb, and we had our first daughter,
Laura Modi: and you know, first kidd, it's I mean, it's like
Laura Modi: a honeymoon. You're enjoying every part of it. It's great
Laura Modi: you're able to do it fairly easy with one kid. Bosh,
Laura Modi: what I on think I had been fully prepared for
Laura Modi: I knew I wasn't fully prepared for was how much
Laura Modi: reality did not match expectations for a lot of the
Laura Modi: really fundamental parts of having a child. And actually, to
Laura Modi: bring it back to ship Conley, an equation that he
Laura Modi: used to always use was that disappointment equals expectations minus
Laura Modi: reality consumer.
Laura Modi: That can apply on a lot of context, a lot
Laura Modi: of context. And I went into motherhood and one of
Laura Modi: those first things that I expected I would do and
Laura Modi: that I expected would work, that I expected the skies
Laura Modi: would open up, was going to be around how I
Laura Modi: fed my daughter and Irish Catholic woman. I thought, I'm
Laura Modi: going to walk in here and I'm going to be
Laura Modi: up to breasted turn It's going to be beautiful. And
Laura Modi: reality was just not that at all. I mean, I God,
Laura Modi: I like even have PTSD thinking back to it now,
Laura Modi: because I mean, if I had gotten the help, if
Laura Modi: I had lactation support around me, you know, early on,
Laura Modi: but no, I just the latch wasn't right. It just
Laura Modi: wasn't working. It led to mastitis horrible. You know, my
Laura Modi: my nipples were bleeding and bruised and blistered and I
Laura Modi: ultimately couldn't get milk out. And this was a few
Laura Modi: days in and I did. I had a fabulous alactation consultant.
Laura Modi: She actually came to my house and she's like, you
Laura Modi: need to turn to formula, like it's you need to
Laura Modi: give your breasts a few days break. We need to
Laura Modi: like work on this back up. This one will work,
Laura Modi: this one. We went through the whole thing, and I
Laura Modi: remember just thinking, man, I was completely unprepared for that.
Laura Modi: And yeah, I found myself then turning to formula.
Laura Modi: And had you thought specifically did you do actually contemplated breastfeeding,
Laura Modi: Like I just didn't think about it. I felt like
Laura Modi: they told me to breastfeeding, so I did, but I didn't.
Laura Modi: That's a great question. No, Yeah, No, I just felt
Laura Modi: like people told me I was supposed to do it. No,
Laura Modi: I just assumed I would. Yeah, and I just assumed
Laura Modi: it would work. But I didn't go through any steps
Laura Modi: to go. Let me make sure I'm prepared for this.
Laura Modi: Let me make sure that i'm I have the support
Laura Modi: around me, I have a lactation consultant, I can call
Laura Modi: I'm mentally prepared for the ups and downs, and I mean, honestly,
Laura Modi: even the physical the physical pain was something no one
Laura Modi: had ever talked about, yeah, at all.
Laura Modi: So I was very taken back, very And it was
Laura Modi: one of those first moments because obviously you start feeding
Laura Modi: in the hospital, and it was one of those moments
Laura Modi: being like, oh man, this is the first part of
Laura Modi: motherhood that I feel completely in the dark on and
Laura Modi: completely unprepared for.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Laura and I are about the same age, and as
Emily Tisch Sussman: she was talking through all of this, I couldn't help
Emily Tisch Sussman: but feel those old feelings bubble up inside of me.
Emily Tisch Sussman: It's like she was speaking directly about my experience. I
Emily Tisch Sussman: remember that guilt and the doubt that started to become
Emily Tisch Sussman: about so much more than breastfeeding. It was about my
Emily Tisch Sussman: ability to be a mother, to care for my child,
Emily Tisch Sussman: that I was somehow doing a bad job, and I
Emily Tisch Sussman: think really terrified me that I felt like, I'm definitely
Emily Tisch Sussman: doing this very badly, Like it's not going well.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Can I keep a child alive? Like can I do
Emily Tisch Sussman: any of the parts?
Laura Modi: And that's exactly it. If this is meant to be
Laura Modi: one of the most easy, beautiful pieces of the job,
Laura Modi: that is you start questioning yourself. Yeah, and that guilt
Laura Modi: starts to come in where you're going, well, if I can't,
Laura Modi: am I failing her? Am I failing motherhood? Am I failing?
Laura Modi: You know? I'm just failing? And it's that it plays
Laura Modi: on you and I hear it all the time with mothers,
Laura Modi: which is, even if they do get their supply up
Laura Modi: and it ends up working, you go through the early
Laura Modi: days of questioning like are you able to do this?
Laura Modi: Not just feeding, but are you able to take on
Laura Modi: motherhood at large? Becomes a big question. But I also
Laura Modi: remember that feeling taking me back where I had gone
Laura Modi: through all of these moments in my life and my career,
Laura Modi: where I could stare at the unknown and I could
Laura Modi: still find myself in a confident position I can do this.
Laura Modi: I had enough kind of mental strength to be able
Laura Modi: to push through any unknowns. That was my life. In
Laura Modi: many ways, it became my identity. So to be in
Laura Modi: a position where I was now the most vulnerable mom
Laura Modi: woman I had ever been in my life, that emotion
Laura Modi: took me back.
Emily Tisch Sussman: It's like who am I?
Laura Modi: That identity crisis of questioning yourself and feeling guilty to
Laura Modi: the point where you're making up a bottle. You're on
Laura Modi: your way to the park to meet with your mom.
Laura Modi: Friends you know are successfully breastfeeding and it's beautiful and
Laura Modi: it's going great for them, and you're looking at the
Laura Modi: formula in your bossy and you're like, will this pass
Laura Modi: his breast moment because you don't want to have the conversation.
Laura Modi: You don't want to get the sigh, you don't want
Laura Modi: to get the I'm sorry, and yeah, the emotions are real.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Often our guests cry on this show, but this is
Emily Tisch Sussman: the first time that I've cried on the show, Emily,
Emily Tisch Sussman: because that was exactly what I felt that my whole
Emily Tisch Sussman: identity was being really good in like really good in
Emily Tisch Sussman: conflict and really good finding a path forward through something
Emily Tisch Sussman: I didn't know and I couldn't find a path forward,
Emily Tisch Sussman: and it was so much bigger than just breastfeeding. Was like,
Emily Tisch Sussman: I can't figure out how to take care of this
Emily Tisch Sussman: baby that it really hits.
Laura Modi: It does, and to think about let's get back to
Laura Modi: the joys of parenting. You have just created the most precious,
Laura Modi: most beautiful thing that you will ever have in life.
Laura Modi: Like your heart explodes in ways that you had just
Laura Modi: never ever, ever experienced, and the fact that you are
Laura Modi: now not able to fully enjoy that exploding heart and
Laura Modi: moment enjoy because you're also taking on the conflict of
Laura Modi: failing her, failing you, failing society, and all these expectations
Laura Modi: like that's unfair. This is a very special moment in time.
Laura Modi: You should be enjoying every aspect of this without having
Laura Modi: to take on all the guilts that comes with it
Laura Modi: as well.
Laura Modi: And obviously, I mean, we co down a rabbit hole
Laura Modi: on this topic, but you zoom out. And I've spent
Laura Modi: a lot of time studying where does that guilt come from?
Laura Modi: Why is there so much pressure, or where does it
Laura Modi: come from in society? And I don't think it is
Laura Modi: and I truly believe this. I don't think it's that
Laura Modi: your friend or someone who gave that sigh, that person's
Laura Modi: not judging, they're not They truly want the best for you,
Laura Modi: they want the best of the baby. They're not going
Laura Modi: to bed that night going hm, I can't believe she's
Laura Modi: feeding her baby formula. They're not. They're moving on. But
Laura Modi: we have just built ourselves in society to believe that
Laura Modi: there is one way two feet of baby and that's
Laura Modi: what's best. That has just been a societal message over
Laura Modi: and over and because of that, everyone around us and
Laura Modi: sometimes it's, like I said, they're definitely not judging. It
Laura Modi: could be a pediatrician, it could be the person who's
Laura Modi: introducing you back to the office. It's just their natural
Laura Modi: instinct is just to have a reaction to the fact
Laura Modi: that you may not be doing what society has put
Laura Modi: on a pedestal that is it. So now we're all
Laura Modi: battling with the internal judgment in guilt, but that person
Laura Modi: has already moved on. They're not thinking about it, they're
Laura Modi: certainly not judging. And then the bigger question becomes in,
Laura Modi: especially for a brand like Bobby, and we're trying to
Laura Modi: shift that narrative, which is, how do you shift the
Laura Modi: societal narrative that even though breast might be considered best,
Laura Modi: that what's best is really whatever that personal situation or
Laura Modi: dynamic is, and how you change that message.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Laura didn't arrive at that incredibly helpful and encouraging message
Emily Tisch Sussman: quite so easily. She first went to the store to
Emily Tisch Sussman: find formula for her newborn baby and was mortified at
Emily Tisch Sussman: what she found, and slowly between all the diapers and
Emily Tisch Sussman: sleepless nights. She started to put the pieces together. We
Emily Tisch Sussman: as a society, we are sorely behind the ball when
Emily Tisch Sussman: it came to healthy, nutritious formula options. That here's the
Emily Tisch Sussman: key point. Parents felt confident buying for their baby.
Laura Modi: It's also funny, there's this assumption that I with my
Laura Modi: first child. I was in the pharmacy and I saw
Laura Modi: the product, and there's an assumption. Then I was like, Aha,
Laura Modi: I'm going to go start a formula company. No, no,
Laura Modi: I was.
Emily Tisch Sussman: I was quite impressed you were thinking about anything.
Laura Modi: I don't know. Five days in, I was still like
Laura Modi: in that emotional guilts and roller coaster. I was forty
Laura Modi: pounds overweight, I was exhausted. I was like, who the
Laura Modi: hell am I this is ever gonna work? And No,
Laura Modi: it was like they were all little like steps towards
Laura Modi: It's what I call my PhD at the time in
Laura Modi: this market, industry and product where then I got home
Laura Modi: when I read the back of the label, and then
Laura Modi: I went on Google. Then I'm in the middle of
Laura Modi: the night and I'm in my subreddits and I'm consuming.
Laura Modi: I'm consuming and consuming, and that goes on for the
Laura Modi: next year. Even while I returned back to Airbnb after leave,
Laura Modi: and that was another moment. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Laura Modi: You were telling me that the same government who says, hey, mom,
Laura Modi: you should breastfeed for six months is also the same
Laura Modi: government who's not giving us the paid leave to do so.
Laura Modi: Everywhere I went, I was having these little epiphanies for
Laura Modi: what needed to change, from the product to the message,
Laura Modi: to policies across the board. And I was two weeks
Laura Modi: pregnant with my second child, and it was at that
Laura Modi: point I peed on the stick it said I was pregnant.
Laura Modi: I turned to my husband, I said, I'm going to
Laura Modi: start a formula company and there will be a better
Laura Modi: formula on the market by the time I had this baby.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Went to market immediately making waves.
Speaker 6: Well, there's a new style of organic formula called Bobby,
Speaker 6: and it is changing the industry. Bobby had more than
Speaker 6: eighteen million dollars in sales in its first year and
Speaker 6: it is the fastest growing infant formula to enter the
Speaker 6: American market in decades.
Speaker 7: Founder of Bobby, it's the first and only USDA certified
Speaker 7: organic baby formula manufactured right here in the US. Bobby
Speaker 7: It's named after her daughter's word for Bottle was founded
Speaker 7: in twenty eighteen after Modi realized the only baby formulas
Speaker 7: available in stores contained ingredients that she would not even
Speaker 7: feed herself.
Emily Tisch Sussman: So you had the initial hurdle of saying, I have
Emily Tisch Sussman: the answer to this problem, but you had an additional
Emily Tisch Sussman: hurdle of convincing everyone that there should be a solution, right,
Emily Tisch Sussman: because we have this societal problem that everyone thinks you're
Emily Tisch Sussman: just supposed to recue that you have.
Laura Modi: My God, I've PTSD does say that, I know that
Laura Modi: was exactly right. But let's start with the fact that
Laura Modi: I was seven and a half months pregnant and I
Laura Modi: was waddling around Silicon Valley meeting one investor after another.
Laura Modi: And you know, I also PSA say like, not every
Laura Modi: investor is made equal, you know, they all look at
Laura Modi: problems and solutions very differently. But yeah, I was walking
Laura Modi: into a predominantly male culture who had predominantly been investing
Laura Modi: in technology, and just even CpG in general wasn't as
Laura Modi: it just wasn't as predominant as tech. But here's what
Laura Modi: really hit me when I went to go pitch the problem.
Laura Modi: One of the challenges I had was being seven and
Laura Modi: a half months pregnant. It was very hard for investors
Laura Modi: not to look at me as a mom that had
Laura Modi: a problem she wanted to solve for herself, versus an
Laura Modi: entrepreneur who saw a really big opportunity. And I felt
Laura Modi: that you got the questions. They're looking at your stomach,
Laura Modi: they're questioning the why behind this, and you're trying to
Laura Modi: get them to focus on the bigger picture. But it's
Laura Modi: an emotional and extremely personal product. It's an extremely personal problem.
Laura Modi: So if someone on the other side doesn't see the
Laura Modi: problem with current formulas or ways of messaging and a
Laura Modi: narrative that needs to change, it's very hard to break through,
Laura Modi: very hard. And yes, because of societal problem, there was
Laura Modi: really only a small percentage of them that the message
Laura Modi: landed for. Did you find that there was one thing
Laura Modi: in particular that broke through. I think when you're looking
Laura Modi: to change or disrupt an industry, usually when it's predominantly
Laura Modi: owned by a few players. So in this situation, the
Laura Modi: infant formula market for decades was a duoptly and that duoptly,
Laura Modi: you know, the same formula that you yourself probably consumed
Laura Modi: as a child was the same one you remind for
Laura Modi: your and no matter how much you believe in the
Laura Modi: change or not, or this is the product that you
Laura Modi: want to back, it was hard to deny that this
Laura Modi: was a product in industry that hadn't changed in fourty
Laura Modi: plus years.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Bobby redefined what formula was and not without bumps in
Emily Tisch Sussman: the road. Early on in the business, the FDA came
Emily Tisch Sussman: knocking and it required Laura to think on her feet.
Speaker 7: It's not easy to go about FDA approval for anything.
Speaker 7: I mean, you didn't just start a company. You started
Speaker 7: a company that has to go through a lot of
Speaker 7: regulatory processes.
Laura Modi: What was it like to learn those.
Speaker 5: We actually got FDA greenrit a year ago, but we
Speaker 5: spent that last year sourcing ingredients from partners that have
Speaker 5: the same level of expectations and high quality standards.
Speaker 6: That we do.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Then the formula shortage crisis happened and Bobby once again
Emily Tisch Sussman: was staring down a huge problem. But in true Laura fashion,
Emily Tisch Sussman: she turned what could've been a low point into one
Emily Tisch Sussman: of her most savvy business decisions yet, her decision to
Emily Tisch Sussman: buy a manufacturing plant.
Laura Modi: I'm one year into the market and I woke up
Laura Modi: to the President of the United States on the news
Laura Modi: basically saying that America wasn't able to feed babies. We
Laura Modi: had hit an infant formula crisis in this country. Think
Laura Modi: about that. For forty plus years, this industry had really
Laura Modi: never been in the news. No one ever talked about it.
Laura Modi: In fact, they were looking for the exit any time
Laura Modi: anyone spoke about infant formula. And now it's all over
Laura Modi: the news. It was the second most talked about news
Laura Modi: item outside of the Ukraine War. And it's true, America
Laura Modi: wasn't resilient enough because of a lack of manufacturing it
Laura Modi: had in this country, the lack of choice, the duopoly,
Laura Modi: the concentration. We were not resilient enough to sustain a crisis.
Laura Modi: And in that moment, I remember thinking, Wow, on one side,
Laura Modi: I am sitting here and I'm watching the news, but
Laura Modi: this is my industry. I am leading and in many
Laura Modi: ways what I hope to be trailblazing and disrupting this market.
Laura Modi: And this is the moment. It's in crisis, and you
Laura Modi: have a choice in that moment, and I remember thinking
Laura Modi: it was like, Okay, so we can either take a
Laura Modi: step back and we can watch this on the sidelines
Laura Modi: and see how it pans out, or we can actually
Laura Modi: be part of this change, and you're right, only being
Laura Modi: like one and a half years into actually being in
Laura Modi: the market, it wasn't a very natural thing to go
Laura Modi: and we should go buy manufacturing. You usually find that
Laura Modi: a decade or two after a company has been in existence.
Laura Modi: But it was one of those things I couldn't. I
Laura Modi: went to bed every night going I know there needs
Laura Modi: to be more manufacturing, and I strongly believe that Bobby's
Laura Modi: going to be around in a big legacy company in
Laura Modi: the future. We need to make this move now and
Laura Modi: we can be part of the resiliency this country needs.
Laura Modi: And I also I think like deep down then as
Laura Modi: a mother also having American babies and everything in me,
Laura Modi: I was like, we should get to a place where
Laura Modi: America is able to make high quality infant formula and
Laura Modi: feed it to its own American babies. We should be
Laura Modi: proud of the food that we were able to make
Laura Modi: for our babies. And it was just a big personal mission.
Laura Modi: How did you really take those steps? Like did you
Laura Modi: go out back to your funders and say, I know
Laura Modi: that you funded us for Xemount, but I need, you know,
Laura Modi: ten times more than that, because I'm buying a factory. Yes, great, Yeah, great,
Laura Modi: I mean that was a bitch. Yes, there was also
Laura Modi: swallowing a little bit of like there was some humility
Laura Modi: as well in it, because it was it wasn't that
Laura Modi: long before it I was like, we don't need to
Laura Modi: buy manufacturing. No, we don't need to do that. You know,
Laura Modi: there's enough manufacturing. We'll be fine. And then to get
Laura Modi: to the place I was like, no, actually there's not.
Laura Modi: And I also need to be malleable enough to be
Laura Modi: able to change or pivot my decision for what I
Laura Modi: believe is right and what needs to happen. And that
Laura Modi: has also become a huge entrepreneurial learning on how important
Laura Modi: it is even in the job to also be able
Laura Modi: to build a plan and a direction towards a vision,
Laura Modi: but know that sometimes your plan and direction are going
Laura Modi: to have to change. And when a market changes like
Laura Modi: that is your moment to also say, like, how does
Laura Modi: your plan change to address it?
Laura Modi: What is it going to have ten thousand million more questions?
Laura Modi: What is something that happened? It can be something we
Laura Modi: talked about is being totally different that at the time
Laura Modi: you felt like was a real low, but now in
Laura Modi: hindsight you see it as having really launched you into
Laura Modi: the position that you are now, I'm going to regulated place,
Laura Modi: So there's a lot of lows and uncertainties when you
Laura Modi: are heavily regulated. I mean one of them was, you know,
Laura Modi: the FDA. The FDA showed up early on during a
Laura Modi: pilot of of Bobby and they questioned our product and
Laura Modi: direction and they really really forced a major shift in
Laura Modi: the business, Like we had to pull back our existing product,
Laura Modi: We had to spend time reformulating manufacturing here in the US,
Laura Modi: adjusting our supply chain. It took me back probably a
Laura Modi: year or two, and it felt like a low at
Laura Modi: the time. And yeah, I think you said it perfectly.
Laura Modi: Now I look back and I think, no, that was
Laura Modi: one of the best experiences and also catapulted us to
Laura Modi: where we are.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Do you think you'll pivot again?
Laura Modi: Absolutely absolutely. I think there will be pivots within Bobby
Laura Modi: as a company. I think there'll be pivots in my
Laura Modi: own life, my career, I hope. So, I mean, life
Laura Modi: without pivots is what's it living for?
Laura Modi: You know?
Laura Modi: Absolutely?
Emily Tisch Sussman: Thank you so much, Laura, thanks for coming on. It's
Emily Tisch Sussman: been such an interesting conversation. I really really enjoyed it.
Laura Modi: I've loved it. I mean, we could get into like
Laura Modi: three seasons of this. Let me just keep going.
Laura Modi: I know, like, do you want a whole season? Like?
Laura Modi: We have so much want to talk about.
Laura Modi: I'm sorry for making you cry. No, no, I felt
Laura Modi: very scene good.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Laura lives with her beautiful family and is still growing
Emily Tisch Sussman: Bobby and working to change the narrative around formula feeding
Emily Tisch Sussman: and making huge headway. I might add so that one
Emily Tisch Sussman: day the next generation hopefully won't have to feel the
Emily Tisch Sussman: same pressures and guilt we felt.
Emily Tisch Sussman: To stay up to.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Date with Laura, you can follow her on Instagram at
Emily Tisch Sussman: Laura Mody.
Emily Tisch Sussman: Thanks for listening to this episode of she Pivots. I
Emily Tisch Sussman: hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, leave us
Emily Tisch Sussman: a rating and tell your friends about us. To learn
Emily Tisch Sussman: more about our guests, follow us on Instagram at she
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Emily Tisch Sussman: you can get exclusive behind the scenes content on our
Emily Tisch Sussman: website at she pivots thepodcast dot com. Special thanks to
Emily Tisch Sussman: the she pivots team, Executive producer Emily eda Velosik, Associate
Emily Tisch Sussman: producer and social media connoisseur Hannah Cousins, Research director, Christine Dickinson,
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