This CEO Quit Executive Job at Airbnb to Start Her Own Baby Nutrition Company - Bringing in $84 Million in 2022
Laura Modi wasn't looking for a reason to quit work when she walked the aisles of her local pharmacy at 3 a.m. — she just wanted to find something to soothe her crying newborn.
Instead, hidden among a rack of magazines and discounted bottles of sunscreen, she found a multimillion-dollar business idea: organic baby milk.
It was 2016 and Modi had given birth to her daughter just five days before. The Airbnb executive wasn't producing enough milk to breastfeed her newborn, and she was confused by the fact that many infant formulas available in San Francisco, where she lived at the time, had corn syrup or palm oil among the first ingredients.
"I was exhausted and angry that I had failed at breastfeeding and had to resort to the second best option, formula with ingredients I wouldn't want to consume myself," 38-year-old Modi recalls today.
What's more, it was the opposite experience Modi expected as a new mother. "I was expecting joy, mixed with a bit of exhaustion and excitement from it all," she says. "I never thought I would feel such immense disappointment and sadness over feeding my child."
That same year, Modi plunged headlong into a research rabbit hole studying the ins and outs of the infant formula industry and was shocked to discover that nutritional standards for formula had not been significantly updated since the 1980s. The global infant formula market is expected to be valued at more than $100 billion by 2032.
In 2017, when Modi's daughter was one year old, she quit her job as an Airbnb hospitality manager to create baby formula with cleaner ingredients.
Today, Modi is a mother of three and the co-founder and CEO of Bobbie, a company that sells FDA-approved infant formula that's made with organic milk—and doesn't contain fillers, corn syrup, antibiotics, palm oil or maltodextrin, a white starch preservative.
To date, Bobbie has raised over $140 million. One 14-ounce can of formula costs $25.99 and is sold on Bobbie's website and at Target stores across the U.S., as well as on Target.com.
byy 2022, Bobbie's revenue is expected to exceed $84 million, despite last year's nationwide shortage of infant formula caused by supply chain issues and the discovery of the life-threatening cronobacter pathogen in powdered formula.
When the formula shortage hit in early 2022, Bobbie closed its subscription service to new customers for about eight months — a difficult decision that Modi said allowed the company to "constantly and reliably" serve its existing customers.
.jpg "This CEO left an exec job at Airbnb to start her own baby formula company—in 2022, it brought in $84 million")
What her work at Airbnb and Google taught her about business:
If you want to work in tech, you have to learn to take risks and bet on yourself. I remember leaving Google to join Airbnb in 2011 and it was a tough decision because the company was so small at the time. Leaving something like Google, which was a very safe and well-established place to work for a company that might not survive, was brave.
I remember so many people at that time looking at me with their eyes and asking what I was doing and it ended up being a very amazing experience. It was the same with the beginning of Bobbie.
It felt like the right time to start my own business as I had been preparing for it for a solid 12-18 months. When I sent in my resignation, I just finished drafting my business plan. When you're disrupting an industry, I believe you need a mixture of confidence and conviction along with a bit of naivety and courage.
But the biggest lesson I learned from working at Airbnb and Google is the power of culture. Both companies had very, very defined cultures that permeated everything from the work ethic to the benefits they offered.
I've seen firsthand the power of creating and nurturing a strong culture and what it means when people come in and do work they love. When you love your job, you do it better than anyone else. I've tried to honor the same principles as we build Bobbie's culture.
How she found joy in being underestimated:
I went to raise my first round of funding for Bobbie when I was seven and a half months pregnant with my second child. I remember meeting with over 60 different investors and sounding like an extremely fiery, passionate mom in all my presentations.
Sometimes I felt like my professional experience and ability to execute the plan with Bobbie was overshadowed by the fact that I was visibly pregnant. Some investors dismissed Bobbie as a personal passion project for mom instead of a legitimate business opportunity.
Women are often underestimated and now I have realized that this is probably our greatest asset.
When expectations start and stay very low, you have an opportunity to surprise people – and this provides an opportunity to show people that their first impression was not generous. It can challenge their way of thinking. I think it's fun to prove people wrong.
During my career, something beautiful happened, especially with Bobbie: Many male friends or business partners came up to me and openly admitted that they were surprised to see how far Bobbie had come.
Why they believe the next baby formula crisis could be just 'one bacteria away'
The biggest challenge and biggest opportunity facing the formulary industry is that new and different products are being developed faster than ever before.
And yet there are still few manufacturers and few available products on the shelves – this remains a crisis we have not solved as a nation. We're in a better place than we were last year, but unfortunately, we're still one bacteria away from another shortage happening again.
But this crisis is also an opportunity to finally reform the industry. Two years ago, very few people could articulate the structure of the infant formula industry. Now a lot more people are interested in where baby formula really comes from.
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Meta Description: Learn how a former Airbnb executive ventured into the baby formula industry and generated a remarkable $84 million in revenue by 2022. Learn more about her inspiring journey and the key factors that have led to her company's success.
(First paragraph):
In a revolutionary career move, a former Airbnb executive has decided to embark on a new entrepreneurial journey by starting her own baby formula company. She left behind a prominent role at Airbnb and boldly entered the highly competitive baby formula market.
The results have been nothing short of astounding as her company has amassed a staggering $84 million in revenue through 2022. This article delves into the inspiring story of this CEO's transition from the tech industry to infant formula and explores the key factors that contributed to her remarkable success.
In 2022, a prominent CEO decided to leave her executive role at Airbnb and embark on a remarkable entrepreneurial journey. Determined to revolutionize the infant formula industry, she started her own company, which became an extraordinary success, raising a staggering $84 million in its first year of operation.
Airbnb CEO's Bold Move: Find out why this high-profile executive decided to leave her esteemed position at Airbnb to pursue her vision of creating a game-changing baby nutrition brand.
The Birth of a Formula Company: Delve into the early stages of founding an infant formula company and explore the challenges and triumphs faced by a CEO.
A Phenomenal Year: Learn how the company managed to reach an impressive $84 million revenue milestone in the highly competitive infant formula market during 2022.
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This former Airbnb executive's journey from the corporate world to the infant formula industry has been nothing short of remarkable. With a pioneering company that generated $84 million in its first year, it proved that passion, determination and innovation can lead to extraordinary success. As the infant formula company continues to grow and make a positive impact on children's nutrition, the world eagerly awaits the next chapters of this CEO's inspirational story.
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