YouSaid · the spoken record

Laura Modi

lines on the record: 67
first: 2023-04-13
most recent: 2023-04-13
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Why is it that I'm embarrassed about it? I feel guilty feeding my childless, and it's also ugly. Like, it's hitting on my counter every day. And this isn't what I want to see. I feel like I'm giving her saying to my husband, I was like, I feel like we have failed to breastfeed. And the alternative is that I need to give her a medical solution to survive, which it's milk. I mean, I should feel like I'm giving her food. But for whatever reason, society has set this up to make Formula feel like you have failed. And that, I mean, that was the impetus. I know you asked me, what is Bobby? So we are better for you, infant formula, without the guilt.”
2023-04-13 · Lenny's Podcast · How to build a cult-like brand | Laura Modi (Bobbie) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the thing that really hit me, and this was more of the business investor side of me, I just hated the product and I couldn't understand why as something that is used by so many, 83% of parents.”
2023-04-13 · Lenny's Podcast · How to build a cult-like brand | Laura Modi (Bobbie) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, Bobby is a powdered milk company. We are an infant formula. And prior to infant formula, you know, the formula gate of 2022. The short of it is that this is an industry that is owned by a duopoly. It's one of the last remaining industries in the CPG space that has seen any disruption or change in probably 40 years. And my desire was to create a formula the parents could feel proud of, an infant formula that felt modern and met where science is today. Because frankly, none of the infant formulas in the market really had caught up to where science has evolved to. Now, obviously, I only experienced this as becoming a mother myself. I knew nothing about this at all. And then I pick up a can of formula and I read the back of the can and those ingredients in there I would never feed myself.”
2023-04-13 · Lenny's Podcast · How to build a cult-like brand | Laura Modi (Bobbie) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean I have a folder of businesses and product ideas that prior to Bobby, I had dreamt of. Can always get into that again in the future. Some of them I still dream of doing one day. But a big reason for not taking the risk is because I didn't feel the conviction. So yes, while I think it's luck, you know, I think I put a lot of intention into researching the marketplace, understanding the business, determining how much of a risk I'm really able to take, even financially, sitting with my husband and determining like how long I may need to be in this position before raising capital and is it possible? It certainly isn't what sometimes it can appear on the surface, which is oh, she had an idea and she left. There's a lot of work that goes into determining is this actually going to be something that's viable?”
2023-04-13 · Lenny's Podcast · How to build a cult-like brand | Laura Modi (Bobbie) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Lisa Chardi Airbnb. I really believe this company is going somewhere. So, anyway, the moral of the story is the move into starting my own business. It was a big risk and it was one that I felt so confident on that was needed, it was worth it.”
2023-04-13 · Lenny's Podcast · How to build a cult-like brand | Laura Modi (Bobbie) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“EJ Was all kind of over the papers. It was a small company. I wasn't really given a title. And I'll never forget as well exactly the same narrative. My parents going, hold on a second, you're leaving Google to go start a BNB. Like, no.”
2023-04-13 · Lenny's Podcast · How to build a cult-like brand | Laura Modi (Bobbie) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that's just always kind of being a narrative mostly in my career, which is. I don't believe there's such a thing as taking a big leap without first taking a major risk. And that was, I mean, it was a very big risk, obviously. But then also, keep in mind, even before I joined Airbnb, I had a good job at Google. Airbnb at the time, I think, just had one of its most major crises back in 2011.”
2023-04-13 · Lenny's Podcast · How to build a cult-like brand | Laura Modi (Bobbie) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh my god, you mean like leaving one of the fastest growing companies to star powdered milk? It was so funny. I don't know if I ever share this with your lenny. I remember telling my dad. And he was like, hold on a second, Laura. Don't understand. He's like you're lactose intolerant. What why are you starting a milk company? He just couldn't fathom why I would, I mean, in many ways, leave an established business that had established, you know, parental leave. Benefits, everything that, in many ways, as you grow through your career, become more and more what you need and you need the stability. So that shift, I suppose just socializing it is probably one of the hardest. Big thing to take a risk Taking 10 steps backwards in hopes of making major leaps forward.”
2023-04-13 · Lenny's Podcast · How to build a cult-like brand | Laura Modi (Bobbie) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think you need a hybrid. I do. I think looking at work for transaction's sake, are your colleagues purely as the people who are just there to get the job done with you? And that's not inspiring. No. Do I think that there's a balance and maybe some of the things that get introduced in a culture probably don't need to go that far? But no matter what, I do believe building personal connections and actually caring about the people you work for is imperative for building a lasting business.”
2023-04-13 · Lenny's Podcast · How to build a cult-like brand | Laura Modi (Bobbie) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think one of the biggest ones I would say is that you need to get to know people personally as much as you do professionally. Was maybe something I also maybe took a little bit for granted at Airbnb. We had built a culture where people really personally loved each other. They loved working together. Now, fast forward to today and you're building a company that's completely remote, how do you build a personal relationship? So, you know, for example, we make sure that we take time to have personal and professional check-ins and like cross-functional people in the org who maybe have no idea someone else has a kid or what they're doing in their lives because those personal connections, I mean, again, like it's your second family. You're waking up every day to spend time with them. I think those personal connections are some of the biggest.”
2023-04-13 · Lenny's Podcast · How to build a cult-like brand | Laura Modi (Bobbie) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Changing lives. And again, it makes you wake up every day going, fuck yeah, like I want to work on this. And you're not just going in to fix something. You actually feel like you're having very large impact. And that has to be felt the whole way down the org”
2023-04-13 · Lenny's Podcast · How to build a cult-like brand | Laura Modi (Bobbie) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Most obvious kind of cliched one is culture. It is bread and butter to everything you do from the people you hire to how you build the right mindset to just keeping the energy. I mean, like energy at Airbnb was the currency. You know, it's like unless you didn't have that energy, nothing was happening. And I think about that every day. How do you keep energy going? And my God, they did that for a decade. Just keeping it going. I think the other big takeaway is if you can get people excited behind a vision and storytelling, again, kind of carries through that cross-functional work. I now reflect back on just how powerful our storytelling was at Airbnb to get people pumped up. I mean, even for some of the smallest features that we would build, Lenny, they would kick off with like the most powerful storytelling.”
2023-04-13 · Lenny's Podcast · How to build a cult-like brand | Laura Modi (Bobbie) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, I think it maybe just starts internally where you have to be able to like create a culture first to all understand that. Because otherwise, you're going to be in a position where you're focused on optimizing the technology, efficiency, growth, looking at tools for tool's sake versus tools for user's sake. And I mean, I remember a very pivotal shift when we started realizing that we really needed to understand our hosts. Far more than we had leading up to that. And I think growth just follows. I mean, we certainly saw that at Airbnb. If we put the hosts first and we thought about building tools for them versus what do we need just to drive more bookings, it, you know, growth, I mean, users begets users. And that's exactly what we saw.”
2023-04-13 · Lenny's Podcast · How to build a cult-like brand | Laura Modi (Bobbie) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Our product really wasn't our technology. It wasn't the physical or wasn't the technology that we were building. Although for a few years we all taught it was. And then it got to a place where we realized Airbnb is nothing without its hosts. Nothing. If anything, Airbnb's product was its host. So there was a moment, and I can't remember, it was like two or three years in, where that narrative was building up more and more. And we realized that there was a need to have a central team, which we called hospitality, dedicated to equipping and recognizing and holding this product of our hosts accountable to their job.”
2023-04-13 · Lenny's Podcast · How to build a cult-like brand | Laura Modi (Bobbie) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What didn't we work on You chose like I reflect back, and it's one of those experiences where it probably was transformative because you do get an opportunity to work on so many different things. So I remember joining and I was just put in charge of leading and growing parts of customer service. Vendor management. I mean, we were scaling the team so fast on that side. It quickly shifted into taking me to Europe where I led our consolidation of our European offices in Dublin. It was so funny. I remember at the time being asked to go do it and thinking, am I being asked surely because I'm just the only Irish person in the company right now? It was one of the biggest operational changes that we went through there. And then for the last few years, I was the director of hospitality, leading global host community and host operations.”
2023-04-13 · Lenny's Podcast · How to build a cult-like brand | Laura Modi (Bobbie) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Thank you. This is going to be exciting. Hope you don't mind. I'm going to have a little bit of wine as we go through this”
2023-04-13 · Lenny's Podcast · How to build a cult-like brand | Laura Modi (Bobbie) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, our head of growth, who, I mean, this girl is just fabulous. She was watching our inventory levels very carefully and also watching how quickly we were growing. And I'll never forget that moment. I can like visualize the city in a meeting. And she pulls up her screen. She goes, here's the dilemma. We are depleting inventory. Far quicker than our ability to replenish, and the customers keep coming. Know you sit there, and your first reaction is this is, I mean, this is great, we're growing. She's like, it's not that great, actually. Because here's what's going to happen. We are going to run out of product for the babies that are on Bobby today. We have about six days before we get to a place where we won't be able to serve those who've already made a commitment to Bobby. So we need to turn off our site and stop growing the business.”
2023-04-13 · Lenny's Podcast · How to build a cult-like brand | Laura Modi (Bobbie) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source