From the Ground Up

Babba Rivera, the founder and CEO of clean-beauty company Ceremonia, is a cover subject of Inc. magazine’s 2025 Female Founder issue. Her heritage is both an inspiration and a driving force for her brand. When Babba Rivera was growing up, her Chilean family moved to Sweden to escape the brutal Pinochet dictatorship. She spent her early career working at startups in both Sweden and the U.S., at Uber and at the luggage upstart Away, where she was director of marketing. During that time, Babba was spending an hour every morning styling her hair with really “toxic, unhelpful products.” As a Latinx woman, she didn’t see any products that were designed with her heritage or type of hair in mind. So, in 2020, she founded Ceremonia, an aspirational natural-ingredient brand that seeks to fill a void in the beauty market for her fellow Latinx consumers.For Inc. magazine’s Female Founders 2025 series, Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom sat down with Babba to chat about her background and where the seeds for Ceremonia took root. They discussed how Babba felt that working at Uber in her 20s was like getting paid to go to business school, how she created a knowledge exchange with another founder to learn about the beauty business, and how her company’s product development is constantly evolving with the help of customer feedback. Joining Diana is Inc. editor-at-large Christine Lagorio-Chafkin, as well as special guest Cate Luzio, founder and CEO of Luminary.Additional research and information:Inc.’s 2025 Female Founder ListRead more about Babba and Ceremonia at Inc. Visit: Ceremonia

Half of Americans live in child care deserts. For many more, child care is unaffordable. Paid leave for parents is far from universal. Reshma Saujani is on a mission to change all this. Reshma is best known for having founded Girls Who Code in 2012 during her run for the U.S. Congress. She has raised $100 million and taught 670,000 girls programming skills over the past decade. Now, Reshma has turned her sights on building her second nonprofit, Moms First, which focuses on making women’s lives better in the workplace through paid family leave, improved child care, and pay equity for moms. Today, Moms First is a community of 1.1 million.For Inc. magazine’s Female Founders 2025 series, Inc. editor-at-large Christine Lagorio-Chafkin sits down with Reshma to chat about how she is bringing everything she learned from scaling Girls Who Code into her new venture, the potential lasting impact of the war on DEI programs, and the ongoing fight against the rising cost of child care in this country. Along with Inc. executive editor and co-host Diana Ransom, Luminary founder and CEO Cate Luzio joins the conversation as a special guest.Additional research and information:Inc.’s 2024 Female Founder’s list (2025 out soon!)Read more about Reshma and Moms First (previously The Marshall Plan for Moms) at Inc.com: https://www.inc.com/rebecca-deczynski/marshall-plan-for-moms-mothers-day-ad-flexible-work-policies.htmlCheck out My So-Called Midlife with Reshma Saujani PodcastVisit: Moms FirstVisit: Girls Who Code 

In this episode, Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom and editor-at-large Christine Lagorio-Chafkin host a roundtable discussion with some of the reporters who contributed to Inc. magazine’s 2025 Female Founders issue. They are joined by freelancer writer Issie Lapowsky and senior editor Rebecca Deczynski to discuss how the state of female entrepreneurship is rapidly changing in this political moment.In putting together the 2025 Female Founders issue of Inc., Diana noticed an interesting phenomenon: There were a significant number of women entrepreneurs who’d bought back their businesses or returned to the helm of their startups after having stepped away. What’s going on? We discuss.Also: The challenges—and remarkable innovations—of women-founded companies in health care.And finally! Celebrity business overload! Could 2025 see a shift in strategy, with brands leaning more on social media influencers and fans to reduce their reliance on costly A-list celebrities? What industries are still ripe for celebrity founders? Which are essentially over? And, the eternal question: What’s the real ROI for a brand when it enlists a celebrity co-founder or spokesperson?Additional research and information:Inc.’s 2024 Female Founder’s list (2025 out soon!)Listen to Chrisitine’s interview with Anu Duggal about the state of female founders in 2024To read more from Inc.com about embattled DEI: The Anti-DEI Lawsuit Against the Fearless Fund Was Just Settled To find out more about Female Founder funding read: What Female Founders Can Do to Raise Money Right Now, Next Year, and Beyond, According to This VC

The serial founder says the legacy pasta brands have made their beds. So she made a new one. Jen Zeszut’s mac and cheese brand, Goodles, is designed not just to stand out in the aisle—with rainbow-hued packaging amid a sea of beige and blue—but also to carve out a new customer for the classic pasta recipe: young adults who like convenience, but who aim to eat something healthier than your standard boxed fare. This meant changing adopting new market strategies in addition to creating a nutrient-packed mac and cheese. Jen is not a first-time founder, nor is she a stranger to the consumer packaged goods landscape. She left her role as CEO of the baby food company Cerebelly to launch Goodles in 2021, and the brand has been on the rise ever since. Today, it’s the fastest-growing mac and cheese in the U.S. and the seventh-fastest-growing natural food brand in the U.S. grocery category. For our mini-series highlighting Inc.’s 2025 Female Founders honorees, executive editor Diana Ransom sat down with Jen to discuss Goodles’s rapid growth, scrappy but innovative marketing, bringing in incremental customers, and how she raised $27 million for seed round funding. Additional research and information:Inc.’s 2024 Female Founder’s list (2025 out soon!)Read more on Jen Zeszut and Goodles on Inc.com: If You Cannot Outspend Your Competition, Out-Weird Them Visit: GoodlesVisit: Goodles’s bio

To kick off our fourth season of From the Ground Up, Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom and editor-at-large Christine Lagorio-Chafkin are speaking with founders who will be appearing on Inc. magazine’s Female Founders 2025 list. Our first guest is serial entrepreneur Jeni Britton. She’s best known for rethinking flavor creation in ice cream, and is the founder of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, which has close to 100 scoop shops around the country and over $150 million in revenue. During the pandemic, Britton took a step back from day-to-day management of her company—and that got her thinking about her own health. Christine sat down with Jeni to talk about the mental and physical health inspirations for her new business, Floura. Starting up a second time wasn’t the plan—but Jeni explains what her prior experience in retail and culinary experimentation armed her with for this next journey, and what she knows will still be a challenge. Plus: We get a peek into the burgeoning ecosystem of upcycled food, as Jeni explains the unconventional composition of her new fruit-leather bars, which includes watermelon rinds and apple cores. Additional research and information: Inc.’s 2024 Female Founder’s list (2025 out soon!) Read more on Jeni Britton and her new business, Floura, on Inc.com: How the Founder of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams Knew It Was Time for a Second Act Why Jeni of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams Won’t Stop Talking About Fiber From the Inc.com archives: This Ice Cream Retailer Figured Out How to Turn a Logistical Nightmare Into a Stellar Brand Experience Visit: Floura.com

This is a special segment in collaboration with our partner at Glenfiddich Single Malt Scotch Whisky. Inc. Editor-in-Chief Mike Hoffman spoke with Smarsh Founder Stephen Marsh about his remarkable journey, the legacy he has built, and the honor of being the first recipient of the inaugural Legacy Award presented by Glenfiddich at this year's Inc. 5000 gala.

Ah, 2024. So much to say! For our last episode of the season, we analyze the biggest small-business and workplace topics of the past year and highlight what’s on the horizon for 2025. Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom and editor-at-large Chrsitine Lagorio-Chafkin sat down with senior editor Tim Crino, and staff writer Sarah Lynch to discuss the annual changes that have taken place here at Inc., the massive layoffs in the tech sector, DEI backlash, and the generational workplace mismatch between managers and Gen Z employees. Also, we look ahead to Trump’s proposed tariffs and the new wave of crypto hype and scams. Don’t worry, we are optimistic about a few things in the startup landscape, though.Additional research and information: To read more from our Inc. 5000 coverage:How Tiny Changes Have Reaped Enormous Results at America’s Fastest-Growing Company  How Inflation Shaped the Companies of the Inc. 5000 To read our coverage from the tech layoffs:Employees Are Still Worried About Layoffs The 2024 Layoff Landscape Is Better Than You Might Think To read our coverage of Gen Z in the workplace:Gen-Z Hits Some Bumps as it Enters the Workforce Are You Leading on Empty? How to Recognize and Combat Manager BurnoutWhy Gen-Z Workers Are Consciously ‘Unbossing’To read our coverage DEI Backlash:U.S. Workers Might Be Souring on DEIHere Are the Most Common Anti-DEI Legal Cases Right Now — and What You Need to Know About Them To read more on tariffs and crypto:Here’s What Trump Says About Tariffs, and How They Would WorkNew Trump Crypto Venture Gets Boost From GOP Candidate Himself 

If you grew up in the ’90s, the “¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!" chihuahua commercial was inescapable. Remember the vital-to-surfers sunscreen Sun Bum? Both of these memorable branding moments were created by serial entrepreneur Tom Rinks. Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom sat down with Tom for this episode of From the Ground Up to discuss his unusual path to becoming a branding whiz—and what he’s learned about identifying human desire along the way. His early job of selling furniture taught him how to read people, and his first branding deal, with the University of Michigan’s Fab Five, immersed him in the skills needed to identify talent. Diana and Tom discuss the complex art of brand-creation, company-building, and finding the niche audience who will fiercely love your product. They also discuss Tom’s most recent branding venture, the oral-care line Made by Dentists.Additional research and information:Visit: Made By Dentists Visit: Made by Dentists’s profile Visit: Made by Dentists’s educational pageVisit: Sun BumVisit: Sun Bum’s profile

Honing one's craft. Dedicating many, many hours to perfecting a skill set. Entrepreneurship can, in some ways, resemble the work life of a professional athlete. Ayesha Curry is certainly focused on her burgeoning lifestyle and culinary brand, Sweet July, and the multiple businesses within it—but that’s where she might say the similarities she has with her husband, NBA star Stephen Curry, end.Whereas Steph brings a calm sense of logic to business and philanthropic decisions, Ayesha says she’s the kind of creative founder who brings passion to a project. In this interview with Inc. editor-at-large Christine Lagorio-Chafkin, Ayesha describes how, when building Sweet July, she built in soul: It is designed to empower and celebrate women and BIPOC creators, and multiple arms of the business were inspired by her family’s Jamaican heritage.Ayesha explains to Christine how she’s navigated her career from aspiring chef to business owner, including the early tumultuous moments in the company, how she delegates responsibility to her small team, and how she creates an atmosphere of autonomy and trust. They also discuss the Currys’ Oakland-based philanthropic endeavor, Eat. Learn. Play., which builds playgrounds, opens access to nutrition, and fosters literacy skills through partnerships with local schools.Additional research and information:To read our Inc. 5000 coverage on Ayesha Curry: How Ayesha Curry Cooked Up Her Own Business Empire  Read more on Ayesha Curry on Inc.com: Ayesha Curry Launches a Food Startup, So You Can Eat Like a Golden State WarriorVisit: Sweet JulyTo learn more about: Sweet July bioVisit: Sweet July’s Instagram Visit: Eat. Learn. Play.

Have you ever wondered what happened to your favorite kettle chip brand or kombucha in your local supermarket? Don’t see your favorite cranberry sauce for the holidays?For this episode, Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom and editor-at-large Christine Lagorio-Chafkin spoke with editor-at-large Tom Foster about his recent article, “Why Are So Many Supermarket Brands Losing Shelf Space?” By the end of last year, the total amount of early-stage venture-capital funding for consumer-product brands was down about 60 percent from its 2021 high. And new product launches were down about 70 percent in the same period, according to consumer-products data provider Spins. What’s going on? Is it a CPG rupture?Paul Voge, co-founder of the sparkling water brand Aura Bora, told Tom that getting on store shelves “is astronomically harder today.” He adds that “I had a smaller, worse business in 2019, and it was easier to run than my larger, better business today.” One thing’s clear: Gone are the days of consumer-product brands being able to use the strategies of Silicon Valley tech startups to fuel their rapid growth.This fascinating conversation explains why this is happening in so many supermarkets, how having shelf space for a product in a supermarket is like paying rent for an apartment, and how brands such as Me & the Bees lemonade and Aura Bora are finding ways to thrive in this industry by being creative and navigating their business relationships.Additional research and information: Read Tom Foster’s story on Inc.com: Why Are So Many Supermarket Brands Losing Shelf Space?Read another article from Tom Foster on Inc.com: At This Company, the Free Office Lunches Are So Good, Even Remote Employees Can’t ResistTo learn more about Me & the Bees lemonade and Mikaila Ulmer on Inc.com: Forget an "$11 M Contract" with Whole Foods. This Kid Did BetterTo learn more about Aura Bora and Paul Voge on Inc.com read: Scott Galloway Called Public Universities ‘America’s Greatest Innovation.’ These Founders AgreeVisit: Me & The Bees LemonadeVisit: Me & The Bees Lemonade’s bioVisit: Aura BoraVisit: Aura Bora’s bio