Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

How to build a cult-like brand | Laura Modi (Bobbie)

April 13, 2023

AI Summary

5 min read

Laura Modi, founder of Bobbie—an organic infant formula company disrupting a stagnant duopoly—discusses operational lessons from her time at Airbnb, navigating crises like the 2022 formula shortage, and building a DTC business through brand, content, and deliberate constraints.

Airbnb takeaways shaping Bobbie Modi credits Airbnb with teaching her to treat supply (hosts) as the core product, prioritizing user tools over tech efficiency, which fostered organic growth as satisfied users attracted more. Culture hinged on sustained energy and storytelling to align teams around impact, even for mundane tasks—lessons she applies at remote-first Bobbie via personal check-ins and branded processes like the "Secret Shopping Program" for legal reviews or "slowth team" during pauses.

Crisis decisions prioritizing customers During the formula shortage, Bobbie's inventory depleted faster than replenishment despite surging demand. Head of growth Shireen flagged six days until stockout for existing subscribers; Modi approved shutting the DTC site for six months, halting new growth to reliably serve 70,000 panicked customers. This built loyalty—exemplified by personal deliveries and stories like a Davos encounter—while reframing internal culture around "slowth" to maintain morale amid role flips.

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What you'll learn

1 `* (04:22) **Airbnb Lessons: Culture, Energy, and Hosts as Product**`
2 `* (11:45) **From Airbnb to Founding Bobbie**`
3 `* (15:20) **Bobbie Overview and 2022 Shortage Crisis**`
4 `* (22:21) **"Slowth" Strategy and Customer-First Pivot**`
5 `* (26:14) **Brand Building: Connect to Customer Pain**`
6 `* (35:55) **Setbacks, Naivety, and Work-Life Infrastructure**`
7 `* (44:15) **Hiring Optimistic Doers and D2C Growth Levers**`

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Brought to you by Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security | LMNT—Zero-sugar hydration | AssemblyAI—Production-ready AI models to transcribe and understand speech

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Laura Modi is the CEO and co-founder of Bobbie, the first woman-owned, organic infant formula in the U.S. Previously, Laura spent over five years at Airbnb, where she served as Director of Hospitality. Before that, she spent over four years at Google in finance and operations. In today’s podcast, we discuss:

• Biggest lessons from five years at Airbnb

• Lessons about building great culture

• The power of naivete

• From growth to “slowth”: Why Bobbie prioritized existing customers over growth during the height of the formula shortage

• The importance of momentum above all else

• Finding work-life balance with the right infrastructure, support, and frameworks

• The importance of brand, and how to build a brand

• What it takes to win in DTC

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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/from-growth-to-slowth-the-making

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Where to find Laura Modi:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurahughes6/

• Email: [email protected]

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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Note: Lenny is a small angel investor in Bobbie.

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Laura’s background

(04:20) What Laura worked on at Airbnb

(06:22) The director of hospitality role

(07:08) How supporting hosts led to growth at Airbnb

(08:28) Lessons from Airbnb around culture and storytelling that impact how Laura runs Bobbie

(09:44) How Laura builds a strong culture at Bobbie

(11:45) The risk she took in starting her own company

(13:41) Advice on taking risks

(15:10) What is Bobbie

(17:15) The scale of Bobbie

(17:55) The infant formula shortage crisis

(19:49) How the growth team pivoted to being the “slowth” team

(23:23) Lessons from the crisis

(25:16) Building a brand

(31:12) Branding internally

(33:58) The time the FDA shut Bobbie down over labeling

(36:45) How Laura balances her busy mom life with being a founder

(40:17) The power of naivete

(44:03) Why Laur