In today’s episode, Carly sits down with Scarlett Leung, Chief Brand Officer and Co-founder of Pretty Tasty Tea, a collagen tea company. Scarlett shares her unconventional path from accountant, to turnaround CEO, to CPG founder, and how growing up around intense family entrepreneurship shaped her views on work. This conversation covers Scarlett’s experiences navigating parental expectations, making big career pivots without a rigid 5-year plan, and the stripped-back, unglamorous reality that is founding a consumer brand.

References:

• AllSaints: https://www.allsaints.com/
• Carolina Herrera: https://www.carolinaherrera.com/
• Deepak Chopra: https://www.deepakchopra.com/
• Deloitte: https://www.deloitte.com/global/en.html
• Estée Lauder: https://www.esteelauder.com/
• FreshDirect: https://www.freshdirect.com/
• Gucci Group / Kering: https://www.kering.com/
• Honest Tea: https://www.honesttea.com/
• L’Oréal: https://www.loreal.com/en/
• Lancôme: https://www.lancome-usa.com/
• LVMH: https://www.lvmh.com/
• MIT: https://www.mit.edu/
• Philip Morris International: https://www.pmi.com/
• Pretty Tasty: https://www.prettytasty.com/
• PwC: https://www.pwc.com/
• Sugarbreak: https://www.sugarbreak.com/
• Target: https://www.target.com/
• Uniqlo: https://www.uniqlo.com/
• University of Waterloo: https://uwaterloo.ca/
• Virgin Group: https://www.virgin.com/
• Waterloo Sparkling Water: https://www.drinkwaterloo.com/

Timestamps:

(01:17) Growing up with an entrepreneurial family

(06:59) The decision to study accounting

(09:47) Should you choose a risky career path?

(13:39) Unpacking Scarlett’s unique career journey

(18:12) Lessons learned from a travel-heavy role

(22:51) Why you need to advocate for yourself

(23:39) Why Scarlett went to MIT business school

(26:11) Scarlett’s superpower in business

(31:10) Pretty Tasty’s culture manifesto

(32:55) The journey to founding Pretty Tasty

(36:16) Developing the collagen product

(38:44) The one thing most CPG founders miss

(40:05) Advice for someone starting a company

(42:15) Scarlett’s scariest founder moment

(44:41) How to navigate a quarter-life crisis

Carly sits down with Swati Vauthrin, co-founder of Recess, a new parenting app built by two former Instagram leaders. Swati shares how growing up in New Jersey with early access to computers led her to computer science, how she navigated being one of the few women in engineering, and what she learned building and leading teams at Disney, ESPN, BuzzFeed, and Instagram. She opens up about career pivots, motherhood in intense tech environments, and the decision to leave big tech to build Recess.

References:

• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com
• BuzzFeed: https://www.buzzfeed.com
• ESPN: https://www.espn.com
• George Washington University: https://www.gwu.edu
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com
• Recess: https://therecess.app/
• Swati Vauthrin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/swativauthrin/
• The Cobalt Group: https://cobaltgroup.com
• The Walt Disney Company: https://www.thewaltdisneycompany.com

Timestamps:

(01:40) Swati’s childhood introduction to computers

(04:25) Developing a natural sense of curiosity

(06:19) Being a woman in a STEM field

(09:25) Working for the Cobalt Group

(12:57) The shift from building product to leadership

(15:32) Advice for job switching in your late twenties

(17:45) How to build a strong company culture

(20:57) The reality of being a working mother

(24:02) Swati’s journey to starting Recess

(30:03) Surviving the “un-sexy” startup moments

(32:55) Being the only female founder in the room

(35:25) How Recess was pitched

(37:56) What every young woman needs to hear

Michelle Zatlyn is the Co-founder and President of Cloudflare, a global internet infrastructure that keeps the world safe and secure online operating 20% of the global web with over 4,000 employees.

Born and raised in Saskatchewan, Canada, Michelle began her career studying chemistry, aiming to become a doctor. But a pivotal turning point during a hospital internship set her on a new path - one that eventually led to Silicon Valley.

In this episode, Michelle shares the formative experiences that shaped her, the unexpected pivots in her career, and dives into the tough decisions she’s had to make. She also unpacks the gritty realities of early-stage startup life, the challenges of scaling, and what it really takes to lead a high-growth tech company.

For a deeper dive into the episode, check out Carly's Substack: https://carlymalatskey.substack.com/

Referenced:

• Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com
• Harvard Business School (HBS): https://www.hbs.edu/
• Lee Holloway (Cloudflare co-founder): https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-holloway-159152/
• Matthew Prince (Cloudflare co-founder & CEO): https://www.linkedin.com/in/mprince/
• Project Honey Pot: https://www.projecthoneypot.org/
• Toshiba: https://www.toshiba.com/tai/
• WIRED Article about Lee Holloway: https://www.wired.com/story/lee-holloway-devastating-decline-brilliant-young-coder/

Timestamps:

(1:46) Growing up in Saskatchewan
(6:04) The decision not to pursue medicine
(9:51) Falling into business and technology
(13:39) The first taste of entrepreneurship
(16:27) Finding community and clarity at HBS
(17:28) The “essay line” that guided her
(19:28) Turning down LinkedIn to start Cloudflare
(25:05) How to improve your decision-making
(29:15) Choosing a meaningful mission
(32:18) Being the non-technical founder
(34:33) Early team challenges
(38:24) The grind from 1 to 100M
(41:32) Getting product-market fit
(44:23) The slow burn of success
(47:49) Being a founder impacts personal life
(51:52) Raising up the next-gen tech leaders
(54:12) The power of small teams and shared purpose