What I Know

We're taking a look back on our interview with Emily Hikade. Host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin spoke with Emily about the inspiration for, and challenges of starting up, Petite Plume, her fast-growing luxury sleepwear business.

Here's a look back at Christine Lagorio-Chafkin's interview with Jesslyn Rollins. Rollins' dad created a product in secret. She brought it to the masses. What would it take for him to let her run the company? They chatted about the electrolyte beverage company, Biolyte, that saw a remarkable three-year growth rate of 1,052 percent. The first in our season series exploring the stories behind fascinating companies that made the 2022 Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing businesses.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviewed Melissa Bernstein, the co-founder of $500 million toy company Melissa & Doug and the author of a new book about mental health, LifeLines, about her own journey to building a company while suffering from depression.

Emily Hikade is not a household name. That’s by design. She couldn’t be, for years. That’s because no one, not her family, not her friends, knew her actual job. It wasn’t until recently, after she’d started her own company, and after she’d had her cover lifted that they found out she’d been a case officer for the Central Intelligence Agency. And it was while she was a case officer abroad that she had a near-death experience that inspired her to start her own business. Host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin speaks with Emily about the inspiration for, and challenges of starting up, Petite Plume, her fast-growing luxury sleepwear business.

Davis Smith, the co-founder and CEO of Cotopaxi, founded his Salt Lake City-based outdoor apparel and gear company in 2014. He already had started a family–and he not only set out to found a company with a purpose…but with a sense of balance for himself and his employees. In this bonus episode, I ask him about heading out into the wilderness…and getting into survivalist mode–and he explains how he makes his family the priority, so his colleagues know they can feel comfortable doing the same. 

Cotopaxi, the Salt Lake City-based outdoor-apparel company, wasn’t Davis Smith’s first business. But it was his first business inspired by a mission to do more than just sell stuff. In fact, the vision for giving back came before the company. And the mission to build a public-benefit corp with strong values came before he ever sold one technicolor backpack. He tells host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin about the inspiration for, and the making the “gear for good” company Cotopaxi, which now has more than 300 employees, and whose revenues have surpassed $100 million.

Allison Ellsworth spent seven years on the road working in the oil and gas industry. It took a toll on her health. So she took her discontent to her own kitchen. She felt she was getting health benefits from drinking apple cider vinegar, but hated the taste. Could she concoct something fruity, low-sugar, and with prebiotics? She’s Allison Ellsworth, the founder and chief of brand at Poppi. You may have seen the bright-colored cans on grocery store shelves, or on Shark Tank, or on TikTok. But before Allison was a DTC alt-soda sensation, she tells host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin, she was driving across the United States knocking on doors. She’s the kind of founder who, once she believes something, she goes for it–and this is how she built her brand and became a TikTok sensation.

Kiki Freedman is co-founder and CEO of Hey Jane, a company changing the landscape for medicinal abortion–offering it with telehealth care, and sending pills by mail. In our regular episode, we talked about all the challenges her company faced launching and expanding in a hugely changing regulatory environment–and navigating an increasingly politically divisive one. In this bonus episode, host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin asks her about finding time for herself, and recharging her mind and body after challenging days at work

While in Harvard Business School, Kiki Freedman had an idea: What if she could work with clinicians and provide medication abortions to individuals through telemedicine, and through the mail? Professors were skeptical. So were investors. Regulations loosened up and the pandemic provided opportunity to launch–but then the Supreme Court changed everything for the future of her business. Freedman, the co-founder and CEO of Hey Jane, tells host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin about the resilience required to navigate a constantly changing regulatory environment, and about creating data-security that could protect patients from not just hackers–but also from hostile governments.

In this flashback episode, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks with Kim and Tim Lewis, founders of Curl Mix, about their circuitous funding journey and landing at No. 93 on the 2021 Inc. 5000 after attaining more than 4,000 percent growth over the past three years.(Original Air Date 9-27-21)