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She Leads with Carly
She Leads features authentic conversations with women leaders across industries—founders, executives, athletes, and change-makers. Hosted by Carly Malatskey, each episode dives into leadership, career growth, and the real challenges behind building influence and impact. Designed for listeners seeking inspiration, practical advice, and powerful stories from women shaping the future of business and beyond.
She Leads with Carly
You'll Never Be Ready: Building SONNI Without the CPG Playbook | Megan & Eliana (SONNI)
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In today's conversation, Carly sits down with SONNI co-founders Eliana Field-Marsham and Megan Black, who share the journey they took to start the SPF brand. Eliana and Megan share how bad sunburns and a family member's melanoma scare plus a frantic business-school text between each other led them to starting SONNI. They also unpack the realities of founder life, why 24/7 grind isn't effective, and how they navigate leading a company together with clear, clean division.
We also discuss:
- The health scares that led to SONNI being created
- Why "You can't be everything to everybody" in CPG
- Why daily SPF was a product experience problem, not an awareness issue
- Fundraising, bootstrapping, and when founders should pay themselves
- The case against the 24/7 founder grind
References:
- Beauty of Joseon: https://beautyofjoseon.com
- Cheryl Strayed: https://www.cherylstrayed.com
- Estée Lauder Companies: https://www.elcompanies.com
- Factfulness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factfulness_(book)
- Hans Rosling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Rosling
- Heyday: https://www.heydayskincare.com
- Kellogg School of Management: https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu
- KIND Snacks: https://www.kindsnacks.com
- Little Spoon: https://www.littlespoon.com
- McKinsey & Company: https://www.mckinsey.com
- Stanford University: https://www.stanford.edu
- Thrive Market: https://thrivemarket.com
- "Tiny Beautiful Things": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_Beautiful_Things
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
01:40 Growing up as family friends in Toronto
06:10 Eliana's path: sociology, McKinsey, and a love of operating
08:10 Megan's consumer obsession, from USC to Estée Lauder
11:35 The sunburns and a sister's melanoma behind SONNI
13:20 Finding a formulator who starts with metal, not powder
16:45 Eliana's business-school panic and reaching back out to Megan
21:00 "Best text to ever receive": hiring her co-founder
25:05 Right brain, left brain: splitting the company cleanly
32:55 What no one warns you about building a CPG brand
35:15 Mineral vs chemical: what does the FDA actually back?
39:15 How the name, brand, coloring, packaging was born
41:05 Learning to bask in the wins, not just the lows
45:15 Fundraising vs bootstrapping, and just paying yourself
50:25 What 24/7-grind startup culture gets wrong