As the first Black woman to raise over $1M in funding for a food and beverage company, Denise is a champion of inclusivity that extends way past her primary business interests. She partners with HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) to expand access to opportunities in her sector, and she partners nationally with No Kid Hungry to support food stability and equality. In between all of that, she found time to share her journey with us, including hot takes on learning from entrepreneurs, picking investors who align with your vision, and investing in the change you want to see.

Denise’s Bio:

Denise is the Founder and CEO of Partake Foods, a natural food company that was inspired by her daughter’s experience with food allergies. Launched in 2017, Partake’s first product — delicious, better for you, allergy-friendly cookies — can now be found in more than 8,000 retailers including Target, Trader Joe’s, Kroger, and Whole Foods Market.
Denise is the first Black woman to raise more than $1 Million publicly for a CPG food startup. To date, the company has raised over $7.5M from investors including HER, Rihanna, CircleUp Growth Partners, FF2032 and Marcy Venture Partners.
Prior to launching Partake, Denise spent a decade in consumer packaged goods at various Fortune 100 companies, most recently as the Director of National Sales for Coca-Cola’s Venturing & Emerging Brands division. She lives in New York City with her husband, Jeremy, and daughter, Vivienne. She graduated with her BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MBA from Arizona State University.

Pulling from his experience at Microsoft, Etsy, Johannes Leonardo, and McCann Worldgroup, Brandon shares stories and examples that demonstrate the deep value of leading with empathy. He shares why being human-centric means ‘thinking outside the brand’, encourages us to reflect on who our real customers are, recounts how Etsy stayed true to their mission during their IPO, and reveals a fantastic definition of what it means to be gutsy.

Brandon’s Bio

Brandon describes his career as brand strategist as working “at the intersection of strategy, technology, and psychology” which enables him to make an impact by pairing the digital experience with an understanding of human behavior. Brandon has helped to transform some of the world’s leading companies as well as launch them.

In perhaps our most empathy-forward discussion yet, Lauren Wang shares her inspiring story about how, after suffering for 15 years with infections from menstrual products, she decided to change the status quo, not just for herself, but for menstruators everywhere. Listen in to discover her obstacle-strewn path to success, her challenges in moving from D2C to mainstream retail, and, fascinatingly, how she convinced people who don’t menstruate to put their money behind her and her product.

Lauren’s Bio

Lauren Schulte Wang launched The Flex Co. in 2016, with the dream of transforming the lives of people with periods. After suffering from chronic infections for 15 years related to tampon use, it dawned on Lauren that it was time to change the status-quo. She set out to create period products that were more innovative, sustainable, and made for the 21st century.

Lauren frequently speaks on women’s health and entrepreneurship, and has been featured in TechCrunch, The New Yorker, WIRED, The Washington Post, and NPR.

Lauren is a member of YPO and a graduate of Y Combinator, and she gives back to her startup roots by mentoring entrepreneurs through both organizations, as well as with the Norrsken Foundation. Prior to founding The Flex Co., Lauren spent over a decade marketing leading consumer brands for companies including Coca-Cola, Upwork, and IBM, and advocating for issues she’s passionate about. She was the first in her family to graduate college, working full-time to earn her business degree from Georgia State University.

You’re going to laugh a lot and learn a lot in this wild conversation with Kristin Luck, who was once fired from Dairy Mart before going on to build and scale three technology companies with private equity backed exits! Listen in to discover how a now leading kombucha brand disrupted the market through an empathetic approach, why it takes guts to grow and scale a business, the importance of having a strong brand evangelist, and why, with 85% of purchase decisions being made by women, the investment community could benefit greatly from having more women in senior roles.

Kristin’s Bio

Kristin Luck is known for building innovative technology led companies that scale quickly through non-traditional sales and marketing techniques.

She serves as an advisor and growth strategist to a slew of cutting-edge marketing and analytics technology and services firms through her growth strategy and M&A advisory firm, ScaleHouse. She is a founder focused on helping fellow founders and executive teams scale and monetize their businesses and works frequently with firms in international markets to execute their entry into the U.S.

Kristin has consistently driven triple digit YOY performance improvement to leading marketing tech and services firms including The Harris Poll, Voxpopme, CanvsAI and SightX. Her work has been recognized in both the commercial (Fast Company, Forbes) and academic press (Research World, Journal of Brand Strategy) where she explores emerging marketing and growth strategy trends. She is consistently ranked as one of the top 100 sales and branding experts to follow on social media.

In this unique episode we take a look at how an innovative investment firm is using a blend of technology and human experience to help entrepreneurs stand behind their bold ideas and pioneer new paths.

Jess and Karen show how being grounded in empathy and creating highly personalized experiences lead brands to sustainable growth, and how Circle Up invests in companies that have traditionally been denied access to capital.

Karen’s Bio

Karen joined CircleUp in 2018 and serves as Managing Director. Before joining CircleUp, she served as an independent consultant providing financial services to small-to-mid sized consumer-centric companies. Prior to that, she spent over 15 years at top-tier international investment firms, including Citadel, Barclays Capital, and UBS where she held positions in the Investment Banking and Equity Research divisions focusing on the consumer and retail sectors. Mrs. Howland received her B.S. from Tulane University.

In this inaugural episode, Craig and Rob take a spirited and fast-paced look at the importance of being human-centric in designing and marketing everyday products.

From how method soap was launched to the reason why his favorite book is an anthology of design patents, Craig reveals why every touch point between a brand and its audience matters, why being rooted in empathy is so important, and why you should reject those who tell you that you can’t do something.

Craig’s Bio

Craig is obsessed with design, transformational brands, and elevating the everyday things around us. He was an early investor and board member in method, the co-founder and creative lead at eos Products, the CMO of Popcorn, Indiana, and a board member of the Art Directors Club. He is Chairman of Lexicon’s Advisory Board because he digs names and was named to Advertising Age’s Creativity 50 as one of the Most Influential and Innovative Creative Thinkers and Doers. Craig’s a lover, not a fighter, and started Hello Brands because he was tired of hearing about a war in his mouth.