Tina Sharkey, co-founder and CEO of Brandless, explains the power of positivity
Tina Sharkey is the co-founder and CEO of Brandless, a new company that makes better everyday essentials at fairer prices: non-GMO food, clean beauty, non-toxic cleaners and home goods, all for just $3. Prior to Brandless, Tina was a Venture Partner at Sherpa Capital and the founding CEO of Sherpa Foundry. Before that, she co-founded iVillage, served as the Chairman and Global President of BabyCenter, and led Messaging, Network Programming and Social Media at AOL.
What was your biggest discovery in 2017?
That this entire country is ripe for a positive message. Regardless of state, religion, political views, we’re all desperately needing positivity.
What hurdles did you face in 2017, and how did you navigate them?
The first hurdle was launching our company! Scale, speed and hyper growth from a cold start is hard as we built everything from scratch. Our team, products, packaging, ecommerce and data platforms…basically 100% of everything. The second hurdle was bringing together the diverse and right group of talent to help us build and scale all aspects of the business.
I navigated these hurdles when building out our team, we looked beyond simply just relevant skills and focused in addition on finding awesome humans that we instinctively knew had the personality and passion needed to take on our movement and mission as well.
What is getting you pumped up for 2018?
Continuing to spread the Brandless message that everyone deserves better, and better doesn’t need to cost more. Our team’s excited to scale the company and continues to build awesome partnerships with like-minded people along the way!
When you’re not thinking about business, what occupies your daydreams?
My children’s futures and the gift of watching these wonderful young men navigate their present and plan for their future. It’s important to think about the world they will occupy and how we can together make it a better place.
Can you name a few things that would be in your “entrepreneurship” emergency kit?
- Taking care of my mind and body is very important to me, so my emergency kit would include a whole lot of sleep, mandatory regular exercise, and lots of water.
- It’s also important to have a network of extraordinary, supportive, nurturing, and thoughtful people who have expertise, experience and wisdom that complements mine.
- And lastly, productivity tools are key. I am a Siri-obsessed human, mainly for the dictation tool. I use it all the time to jot down thoughts, document ideas, and accelerate communication.