Womansplain

She ran home barefoot through New York City because her heels hurt that badly. Then she built a shoe company so no woman would have to do it again. This week on Womansplain, we sat down with Sandra Powers Murphy, founder of Scarlett Chase Inc.. Sandra Powers Murphy spent decades in investment management before turning a painful, universal problem (gorgeous shoes that destroy your feet) into a footwear brand built on the idea that comfort and style aren't a tradeoff. We get into how she validated the idea, what it took to build a product-first brand later in her career, and why the best businesses often start with a problem you've lived yourself. 🎧 Full episode: Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gU6-TGua Apple: https://lnkd.in/ghak5Eue YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gwaQcDbF 💌 Join the Womansplain Collective: https://lnkd.in/eH76jra9 🎟️ And grab your ticket to the first Womansplain Summit, October 16 at The Malin Chelsea: https://luma.com/7bxd1137 Thank you to Michelle Katz and her team as well!!

Last month we took over the upstairs room at Ariston Flowers in Flatiron. Thirty founders, a table covered in florals, coffee going around, and a breakfast spread that barely got touched because nobody could stop talking. No agenda. Everyone just talked. One founder went up for coffee and got asked what she was building. Before the cups were even out, she was deep in her latest raise with someone across the room who'd just been through the same round. That's the whole point of these mornings. Thank you to Ramp and Alua Telemtayeva for building this with us. If you don't know them, Ramp runs the corporate card and finance platform a lot of the founders in that room use to manage spend and cut out the manual finance work. Everyone left with the Womansplain x Ramp package: vendor credits, cashback on spend, and priority access to what's next. If you've ever needed a room like that one, we're building more of them. Want more of this? The Womansplain Collective is open: $400 a year, locked for life, and only 60 founding slots. They're going fast. https://lnkd.in/eH76jra9 Early bird GA tickets for our first Summit on October 16 are live too: https://luma.com/7bxd1137

Stephanie Guild, CFA turned down Robinhood. Then she called back the next day. That call changed everything. She's now their Chief Investment Officer, running investment strategy at one of the most-watched companies in fintech. Season 6 of Womansplain premiered yesterday, and Stephanie is our first guest. In this clip, she tells the story herself: the offer she passed on, the regret that set in almost immediately, and the phone call that fixed it. She's not done with us either. Stephanie is opening the first Womansplain Summit on October 16 at The Malin in NYC. One full day, 120 seats, and most are already claimed by members, speakers, and partners. 🎟️ Summit tickets: https://luma.com/7bxd1137 🎧 Full episode: Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gU6-TGua Apple: https://lnkd.in/ghak5Eue YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gwaQcDbF

Stephanie Guild, CFA Guild spent 21 years in finance, most recently as a Managing Director at JPMorganChase Private Bank, then walked away to become CIO of Robinhood, where she shapes how 27 million people invest. She's our Season 6 premiere guest, and the conversation covers why she left private banking's exclusivity to open investing up to everyone, and how she builds trust through a phone instead of a corner office. And the part we've been sitting on: Stephanie Guild, CFA is also our keynote at the inaugural Womansplain Summit, October 16 at The Malin Chelsea. One day, 120 founders, operators, and investors. If the premiere is any preview of her keynote, you want to be in that room. Grab a Summit seat at Early Bird pricing: https://luma.com/7bxd1137 🎙️ Listen to the premiere: Spotify: https://lnkd.in/g9EKtSWW Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/exXK3P-e YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eBQk4QWz https://lnkd.in/gZXQcRtW

New season, and a big one: our Season 6 premiere guest is also our Summit keynote. Stephanie Guild, CFA spent 21 years in finance, most recently as a Managing Director at JPMorganChase Private Bank, building portfolios for clients who can always find help. Then she walked away to become Chief Investment Officer of Robinhood, where she now shapes how 27 million people invest. In our premiere, Stephanie Guild, CFA gets into why she left the exclusivity of private banking to open investing up to everyone, how she builds client trust through a phone instead of a corner office, and why she refuses to make finance sound harder than it is. She also shares the line from her dad she still hears before walking into any hard room: act like you belong, because you do. And here's the part we've been sitting on: Stephanie is our keynote speaker at the inaugural @Womansplain Summit, October 16 at The Malin Chelsea. One day, 120 founders, operators, and investors building what's next. Keynotes, founder-led panels, the Money and Wealth fireside, and the first-ever Womansplain Awards. (Nominate someone here: https://lnkd.in/gf8vBES4) Grab a Summit seats at Early Bird price before they sell out: https://luma.com/7bxd1137 The best way in is the Founder Bundle: your Summit ticket, a full year in The Collective, and the invite-only night-before mixer on October 15. First 60 are $400, then the price goes up: https://luma.com/7bxd1137 Can't make October 16 but want in year-round? Join The Collective: https://lnkd.in/eH76jra9 Listen to the premiere now: Spotify: https://lnkd.in/g9EKtSWW Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/exXK3P-e YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eBQk4QWz

Two years ago, Sola Park and I started Womansplain because the room we wanted did not exist. On October 16, we are building it for real, and opening the doors for good. Today we are launching The Collective, our membership, and our first-ever Womansplain Summit: 120 founders, operators, investors, and creatives, for one full day at The Malin Chelsea in NYC. Keynotes, founder-led panels, workshops, and the first Womansplain Awards. We have spent two years proving this community shows up: a 98% RSVP rate across our events, and a network that has raised over $1B. The Collective is how we make it last all year, not just one night. We are opening 60 founding memberships, $400 a year locked for life, before the rate goes to $500. If you have been part of this community, this one is for you. RSVP on Luma here: https://luma.com/7bxd1137 Womansplain Membership here: https://lnkd.in/eH76jra9

https://lnkd.in/eghPFsvi Our first NYC City Walk Chat is in the books, and the turnout told the whole story. People showed up tired. Half the room had been up late watching the Knicks. They came anyway, because that's the kind of founder this community pulls in. Thank you Sarah Saxty for organizing, and Philippe von Borries for the ESSPO espresso sodas that did a lot of heavy lifting. Sola Park and I loved hosting this one.

Four days until City Walk Chats NYC. Sunday, June 14. 90 minutes on the Hudson with 30 founders, operators, and creatives building in beauty, wellness, fashion, and lifestyle. Co-hosted with Sarah Saxty of Creating Forward Studio | Brand Marketing + Business Mentorship Studio. We capped this at 30 on purpose. The format only works if everyone in the room actually gets to know each other. If you've ever spent an hour at a networking event trying to figure out who to introduce to whom, this is the room that solves that problem. We're closing RSVPs Friday at noon so we can finalize the list and send the address. A handful of spots left. RSVP here: https://luma.com/6aesgf4q

Last month, Womansplain teamed up with J.P. Morgan for an intimate dinner at Misirizzi's Tavernetta. Twelve founders building across beauty, wellness, and the brands shaping how women look and feel. No pitches. No panels. Just a long table, incredible Italian food, and the kind of conversation that only happens when the room is this carefully curated. This is what we're building toward at Womansplain. Rooms where the women redefining their industries can actually connect, swap notes, and build alongside each other. Huge thank you to Erin B. and the J.P. Morgan team for co-hosting, and to every founder who showed up and made the night what it was. More to come. xx, Brooke Sowa, Sola Park

"My back pain had nothing to do with my back." That's Libie Motchan Duggal, co-founder of Fulton this week's Womansplain. A chiropractor told her the real culprit was her arches. The shoes she wore had no support, which threw her whole frame out of alignment, ankles, knees, hips, all the way up to her back. His fix? $500 custom orthotics. She walked out thinking her back pain did not warrant a $500 solution. So she built one that didn't cost $500. Fulton makes cork insoles that mold to your feet, deliver real arch support, and are made by hand in Portugal from a material that's carbon negative to produce. Performance plus a price that makes sense. That's the thesis. Libie Motchan Duggal and her co-founder started Fulton at The Wharton School, tested early versions on hundreds of classmates, and were on their way to launch at SXSW in 2020 when the pandemic shut everything down. They launched anyway in March 2021, and kept it a two-person team while expanding from insoles into footwear with their now-bestselling House Shoe. On this week's episode, the finale of Season 5, Libie Motchan Duggal gets into: → Why the most "boring" categories are often the biggest openings → The very unglamorous Google search ("cork footbed supplier Portugal") that found her manufacturer → Why she stays out of the product design process on purpose and lets customers vote → What it actually takes to keep a company at two people Also: she came into The Wharton School with a notebook of business ideas, and "millennial insoles" was written down three separate times. It kept coming back to her. That's a real thing that happened. Listen on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eTG2HPGD Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/exXK3P-e YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eBQk4QWz Full breakdown plus the rest of this week's intel in The Womansplain Weekly, Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/eRJ9KZDF