Women in Tech: Building Community & Collaboration

🌟 Live from Meet Magento Florida! 🌟 

What does it take to thrive in e-commerce while building meaningful connections? Join Nicole Donnelly as she interviews Avani Oswal, VP of Commerce at Larson Jewelers and founder of Catalyst. 

In this interview, Avani shares her entrepreneurial challenges, how community building and collaboration have been key to her success, career advice for young professionals, and how women leaders like Indra Nooyi have shaped her perspective.

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Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:00)
You're listening to the e-commerce edition of Hello Moxie.

Speaker 1 (00:00)
listening.

with

Nicole Donnelly. each episode, we speak with leaders in the e-commerce industry on promoting diversity in the tech sector, the latest e-commerce trends, and how B2B brands can innovate through e-commerce. Hello Moxie is sponsored by DMG Digital, a woman-owned marketing consultancy dedicated to helping B2B companies create exceptional customer experiences.

Speaker 2 (00:07)
Street.

to our internal customers.

Hi, I'm Avni Oswal. I'm the VP of Commerce at a jewelry company called Larson Jewelers. And I'm also the founder of Catalyst, which is a retail executive network that I started. Just because I love getting people together, connecting, and it's a community where we can exchange ideas, grow together, and have fun along the way.

Speaker 1 (00:48)
My immediate thought is how do you have time for all of

Speaker 2 (00:52)
Well, I'm an extra word at heart and I love meeting new people. That's kind of just part of my DNA. I love learning from other people. That's just like, I guess my mode of learning. So in connecting, making connections between people gives me a lot of joy if I can add value to two people or multiple people. So I was doing that already and then just got encouraged to or thought of like, how can I do more of this and really like.

kind of box this or put more structure around it. So just this year, I've been doing it all throughout my life. But since last year, I guess I've been starting to put more structure to it and actually launching an online community where we can like have these conversations. We meet every so often at these sort of conferences where we can have in real life conversations. But in between, I wanted the conversations to continue.

So also launch the Slack community where peers can discuss ideas, what they're seeing in terms of trends in the industry, what are they excited about, and learn from each other.

Speaker 1 (01:59)
I love that. What have you noticed since you actually kind of formally made this a business? You are an entrepreneur, you started this new baby, this new company. What have you noticed about the process of turning it from kind of like a side hobby into a business?

Speaker 2 (02:13)
Yeah, the business aspect is definitely a lot of administrative work. I'm definitely like hoping to lean into virtual assistant soon. A lot of it is the administrative aspect of like accounting fees or even running the SOC community day to day as I do my day job. Like all that's still very much needed because my skill set is really in connecting with people and connecting people together. So a lot of the administrative stuff is like

also work on the weekends, so I do find myself working a lot, but I'm so passionate about the community that it doesn't feel like work. Yeah, and as I need help, I'm also learning that I can lean on someone else to do that. So if I can hire someone to do some of the administrative stuff, if I don't have full capacity, that's all in benefit of the entire community, and if I can help everyone grow better together, that's great.

Speaker 1 (03:09)
Yeah, I

highlighted several things I think make a successful entrepreneur is the ability to have wear multiple hats and just get your, you know, your feet wet and figure out what needs to happen. Even if not be your natural talent, you just have the grit to know I've got to figure this out and do it. And the other is just like knowing how important it is to delegate and find other people who can support certain things and just being able to let go since that's what like holding it all so tight.

Speaker 2 (03:35)
So true like in the beginning I did want to do every part just so I fully appreciate and I have my fingerprints on everything but as It's been a few months like I feel more comfortable delegating some of the tasks as long as I like codify it process by it like write it in a doc that someone else can follow because I do want the Full passion to be reflected in the community even when I delegate to someone else because in the end it is all about

at least what the business I'm in or my expertise is in relationships. So I definitely don't want to dilute my trust and bond with people. So I want to do it in a very thoughtful way.

Speaker 1 (04:16)
What

have you noticed most about the relationships and the people that are in that are part of Catalyst? What have you noticed over time about what's happened with those relationships? Give me cool stories.

Speaker 2 (04:25)
my gosh, I think the retail community, retail and e-commerce community, which is what Catalyst is made of, exact leaders within that community, it's a wonderful, supportive community to begin with. I think everyone kind of sees each other. It's almost like homecoming when we go to shop talk together or e-tail together, you're constantly running into your peers. So I think what's great is the community really cares for each other, loves being around each other already.

And now with this catalyst being launched, now they have like this other moment where they can connect with their peers that they're loving and like other opportunities for them to get together for a small like dinner in like a specific geo, like New York City or San Francisco, wherever the dinners or happy hours or wherever they might be beyond these big conferences that we do see each other. So the community has always been supportive. think like, especially with

Nowadays, there's the pace of change is so high with AI right now. Now more than ever, the people want to hold hands, be like, what are you seeing? What are you seeing? Figure this out together because there's so many new technologies, companies, solutions being thrown at them, whether it's all these emails. We've come across so many new companies at shop, at the conferences, or outside of the conferences through LinkedIn messages or emails that these exacts are getting bombarded with.

And it's nice to have like that wisdom with the crowd or community to be like, what are you looking at? What are some companies that, you know, are catching your interest? So it's like that shared interest, but also that shared knowledge that's helping everyone rise, like all boats rise together with that.

Speaker 1 (06:08)
That's so important, more you collaborate together. So critical, amazing. What would want to eat at E!Commerce?

Speaker 2 (06:16)
so prior to e-commerce, I'm a recovering CPA. I used to work for Ernst & Young consulting for several years in the finance and audit side. within the Bay Area, I've always been from the Bay Area. So tech companies, I always felt like I wanted to be closer to the end consumers. So that's how I got into like specifically retail and e-commerce because it's like products I can see myself being a customer of and like kind of just feel more empathy for the customer.

So I went to business school, wanted to switch my career to do more strategy and operations. So I went to Wharton and post Wharton. Since then I've been in e-commerce. I started off doing strategy for Macy's, a big retailer, both online and offline. And was at a beauty company, a beauty subscription company called Ipsy for a bit, heading up e-commerce there. And was at Game Time, which is an events ticketing platform. So...

essentially companies that I am personally a consumer of. So yeah, like the fact that I can really relate to the customer because I am the customer. And I just, as I mentioned, love the retail community because it's so supportive and so fun. You get a lot of free products. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:26)
It's so fun.

That's really cool. So what advice would you give to young people who may be considering a career in e-commerce or in tech? Like what would your advice be based on your experience that would help them maybe, you know, be prepared to face whatever challenges they may

Speaker 2 (07:47)
Yeah, I say test it all like I've definitely had like a zigzaggy career myself as I find what community or type of work I want to land on right like I moved from being a CPA and accounting finance to like strategy and operations in retail, which is like a whole trajectory and continue to do be so now more than ever you can test a lot of things I think like lean into what you're good at where you put

Doesn't feel like work and you're naturally good at especially since I've launched the community this Catalyst community a lot of my friends are like, my god, that is so you and I keep hearing that again and again and which is great validation for me because it makes me feel like like everybody else saw this strength in me. I just was like taking my time getting there but like

they are right and that this doesn't feel like work. It's just fun for me. So it takes a while. That's not to say, of course I've done a lot of reflection, thought through, oh, what should I do? This notion of everyone should find their own passion. And some people say, forget the passion. I think in the end, it's just a lot of pivots and being open to that. I say...

for young women to continue to explore. But if you're not liking something, be confident in yourself to try something new. And the less like outer burdens or commitments you have, the more pivots you can do. So continue to pivot until it almost doesn't feel like work and you feel at home. And the peers around you or friends around you who know you will also validate that. But I only know this because I've gone through this journey myself.

Speaker 1 (09:32)
That's so good. Experiment and explore. Continue to pivot and keep leaning into what you're really good at and let the people around you that you trust help you figure out what that is. Come to us, give yourself praise. You don't have to figure it out at 20th grade. You can totally resonate with your journey. It's very similar to my middle school. So I want to know who is a woman in history that has inspired you?

Speaker 2 (09:42)
Yeah.

Absolutely.

my gosh, so many. I'm personally really as a brown Indian women really resonate with Indra Nooyi who used to be the CEO of Pepsi. She's a baddie. She's a baddie. She rose from the bottom self to be the CEO of Pepsi and like just talks about just navigating it all being a mom, being a CEO of like a

like multinational, like international company like Pepsi and just like that whole, just managing it all. Like she's so impressive. She has a book called My Life in Full that I highly recommend. I think some of the takeaways really are like we live in the ecosystem. Like of course she was smart to begin with, hard worker, but it takes a whole system. And she does talk about the...

the support she got from her husband, right? Like one of the biggest decisions we make in our lives and to our happiness as a partner we choose. And like, it is a juggling act and you're gonna drop some balls, but you can't like, that's fine. Like I think like also just giving yourself grace to have like the right expectations of like.

Can you be a CEO and be a mom and bake cookies? Like, what are you gonna choose? Like, you might have to work on a board deck and outsource the cookie making because there's an anecdote of her like asking the cafeteria chef at Pepsi. She apparently had to make like these home baked cookies that her daughter said last minute. Like, I need you to come to this like ETA or whatever event at my school with home baked cookies. None of like that like school-bought, store-bought stuff.

And then she was like, well, I'm the CEO of all these meetings. I don't have time to go home and make some cookies in the next hour. But I do have the authority to ask the chef to make these bomb ass cookies for my daughter's school, which she did. So it is about just like kind of like pivoting. That is moxie, but it's it is like we live in this new age where women are bosses and like we don't have to like necessarily do the traditional stuff, but we can also still show up with the boss ladies that we are.

Speaker 1 (12:05)
that's so important is a lot of times that women what happens is we take on more. We feel like we have to do so much in order to feel successful. But I think there's a lot of wisdom in that is that you don't have to do so much. can let go of things and you can still be successful and still happy and still have an impact. Yeah, so I think that's important. I think I have in my career gotten moments where I'm just like

I gotta make the home baked cookies and I gotta do all these things and make this marketing strategy and make sure I all the things all that right. Why it's important because I think as AI continues to like change our lives so radically, there's probably going to be a tendency for us to feel like we have to push harder to keep up with the pace of change for this movie so quickly. I just think we can't, we just need to slow down. What's human about us?

Speaker 2 (12:38)
Yeah.

Absolutely,

I totally agree. It's just like what you said earlier, giving ourselves praise. know, we are only human. We only have so many hours. And yes, we have all these tools, but like times have changed. We can't expect like the careers and commitments of today with like the household commitments of the past.

And because those two sometimes can be at odds.

Speaker 1 (13:27)
That's so true. man, this has been such a delight.

Speaker 2 (13:30)
Thank you. Thanks for having me. This is a great conversation.

Speaker 1 (13:34)
I can't wait to learn about catalysts more. I'm not in retail, but I'm curious.

Speaker 2 (13:38)
Yes, we'd love to have you. We should definitely have you come down

Speaker 1 (13:42)
boring

B2B side of the economy.

Speaker 2 (13:44)
So no, it's still very relevant. It's all very relevant. We'd love to have you come talk to the women and the men about like various topics. We should definitely figure out a way for you to come on. Talk to the community. I love it. Let's say yes. Sounds good. Thank you. That's a wrap for today.

Speaker 1 (13:48)
car.

for today's

episode of Hello Moxie, E-commerce Edition. Thanks for joining us as we bring you the latest news in the e-commerce industry and celebrate diversity and innovation in the tech sector.