Green-ish

#37. What happens when getting access to great healthcare still isn’t enough? And for women navigating complex chronic conditions, what would care look like if someone was actually in your corner—connecting the dots, coordinating providers, and helping you be heard? This week, Kate Yarbrough sits down with Courtney Sherbal, Co-Founder and CEO of LIORA Health and MBA Candidate at HBS. After beginning her career in investment banking at Morgan Stanley and investing in consumer health and wellness at L Catterton, Courtney’s path to entrepreneurship became deeply personal when her own health experience exposed just how fragmented the healthcare system can be. That experience became the foundation for LIORA Health, which is reimagining care for women with complex chronic conditions through dedicated care advocacy and coordination. In this conversation, Courtney shares why access alone doesn’t guarantee great care, where human support still matters in an increasingly AI-driven healthcare landscape, and what she’s learned about moving from investor to founder, raising capital in women’s health, managing her own health while building a company, and redefining ambition and wellness along the way. In this episode, we discuss: Courtney’s path from Morgan Stanley and L Catterton to founding LIORA Health How her own health experience exposed gaps in the healthcare system Why access to great doctors doesn’t always translate into coordinated care How LIORA helps women navigate complex chronic conditions Where AI can improve healthcare—and where human support still matters Building a profitable, mission-driven business in women’s health What Courtney has learned about raising capital and choosing the right investors Building alongside a co-founder with complementary strengths How managing chronic illness has shaped Courtney’s approach to ambition, boundaries, and wellness Why taking the risk to build something you believe in can be transformative

#36. What does great PR actually do for a business? And as consumers increasingly discover brands through creators, Substack, Reddit, and AI, what does it take to build trust — and stay relevant — in a rapidly changing media landscape? This week, Kate Yarbrough sits down with Lauren Kleinman, founder and CEO of Dreamday and co-founder of Quality Media and The Quality Edit. Before becoming a founder, Lauren helped scale Ritual as one of its earliest marketing leaders, where she saw firsthand the gaps between traditional PR, affiliate marketing, and measurable business results. Those insights ultimately led her to pioneer the concept of performance PR: combining storytelling and credibility with traffic, revenue, and customer acquisition. In this conversation, Lauren shares how Dreamday grew out of the pain points she experienced as an operator, why the future of brand discovery extends far beyond traditional media, and how AI and LLMs are creating an entirely new layer of visibility for consumer brands. She also opens up about entrepreneurship, choosing the right co-founder, building teams around your weaknesses, navigating burnout and motherhood, and why the strongest founders eventually learn to make themselves less essential to the day-to-day business. In this episode, we discuss: Lauren’s path from Ritual to founding Dreamday and Quality Media How performance PR connects storytelling with measurable business results Why consumer trust is shifting toward creators, newsletters, Reddit, and social platforms How AI and LLMs are changing brand discovery and visibility What Lauren believes separates enduring founders and brands Why resilience, decisiveness, and staying close to the customer matter as companies scale What to look for in a co-founder and how to build a strong working partnership How burnout, motherhood, and scaling her team changed Lauren’s definition of success Why delegation can make both a founder and a business stronger Lauren’s biggest lessons on resilience, pressure, and enjoying the process

#35. Women influence trillions of dollars in spending every year, so why are so many of their needs still overlooked by founders and investors? And what happens when you stop thinking about opportunity by industry and start thinking about the person at the center of it? This week, Kate Yarbrough sits down with Margaret Coblentz, co-founder and general partner of Capital F, a pre-seed and seed-stage venture fund investing across AI, women’s health, and digital commerce. Before becoming an investor, Margaret was an operator, growing the e-commerce division of a major retailer from $20 million to nearly $100 million in revenue, and later founded and scaled her own luxury DTC brand, Frances Austen, through a successful acquisition. In this conversation, Margaret shares how her experience as both a founder and operator shaped the way she now evaluates and supports entrepreneurs, and why Capital F is built around the $15 trillion female economy. She explains what gives her conviction in a founder at the earliest stages, why deep expertise matters more than an obvious solution, and where she sees opportunity emerging across women’s health, AI, and consumer technology. In this episode, we discuss: Margaret’s path from operator and founder to venture investor How building Frances Austen shaped the way she now supports founders Why Capital F is focused on the $15 trillion female economy How understanding the end consumer can uncover opportunities across industries What Margaret looks for when evaluating an early-stage founder Why deep expertise and non-obvious solutions create conviction How Capital F works alongside founders after making an investment Where Margaret sees opportunity across women’s health, AI, and digital commerce Why the next generation of women’s health companies may require both deep scientific expertise and consumer understanding The importance of curiosity and “trust but verify” in business and investing Why Margaret believes women should speak more openly and ambitiously about making money How motherhood changed the way she thinks about time, efficiency, and saying yes Why clear priorities are one of Margaret’s biggest tools for working more efficiently The founder lesson she learned the hard way: the value of having a great co-founder Why complementary skill sets and aligned values matter when choosing a business partner How geography, community, and proximity to customers can influence early-stage companies Why becoming a lifelong learner requires getting comfortable with being bad at something first

#34. We think constantly about what we eat, how we move, and how much we sleep - but how often do we think about actually nourishing our brains? In a world built around caffeine and the afternoon slump, what if the thing we reach for every day could support both hydration and brain health? This week, Kate Yarbrough sits down with Megan Burton, co-founder and CEO of BrainFood, a functional sparkling water designed to support focus, clarity, stress balance, and brain health without caffeine or added sugar. With a background in biomedical engineering and genetics, Megan began her career in consulting before earning her MBA from Wharton, where she began turning her own experience with burnout into what would eventually become BrainFood. In this conversation, Megan shares how BrainFood evolved from an early idea into a broader approach to brain wellness, why she believes nutrition and physical habits play such an important role in how we feel mentally, and how she developed the product from the ground up. She also gets candid about the realities of building a beverage company - from formulation and flavor testing to manufacturing, retail, and learning how to grow without moving too quickly. In this episode, we discuss: Megan's path from biomedical engineering and genetics to consulting and entrepreneurship How burnout inspired the original idea for BrainFood Why brain health has historically been overlooked within wellness The connection between nutrition, physical habits, and mental wellness Why BrainFood was created as a beverage rather than another supplement How early exploration around focus and ADHD helped shape BrainFood’s broader approach to brain wellness The research and testing behind BrainFood's ingredients How Megan developed and tested 17 different flavor concepts at Wharton What she has learned about manufacturing, retail, and growing a CPG brand Why enjoyment is essential to creating sustainable wellness habits Megan's own daily wellness practices as a founder Megan's Green-ish Goal for remembering that how we feel mentally can often be influenced by sleep, nutrition, movement, and other physical habits

#33. We think constantly about gut health, skincare, nutrition, and sleep - but when it comes to our mouths, most of us still think brushing our teeth twice a day is enough. What if oral care is actually one of the most overlooked pieces of whole-body wellness? This week, Kate Yarbrough sits down with Priya Shah, co-founder of KÖPPEN, the science-backed oral wellness brand reframing how we think about the mouth - not simply as a cosmetic concern, but as a gateway to overall health. After years of personal interest in wellness and formal study across multiple health modalities, Priya became fascinated by the oral microbiome and the disconnect between its importance and the way modern oral care had been built. KÖPPEN launched with a single tongue scraper and has since grown into a full system designed to support the entire mouth through products rooted in both ancient practices and modern research. In this conversation, Priya explains why brushing alone is an incomplete approach to oral health, what the tongue and oral microbiome can reveal about the rest of the body, and why practices rooted in Ayurveda are increasingly finding their way into mainstream wellness. She also shares how she and her brother built KÖPPEN from the ground up, why they started with a tongue scraper, how they approach ingredients and formulation, and the surprising problem with many conventional breath mints. From beautiful design to better daily rituals, Priya offers a new way to think about one of the few wellness practices we repeat every single day. In this episode, we discuss: Priya's lifelong interest in health, wellness, and naturally derived remedies How studying different health modalities changed the way she thought about her own body and routines Why the mouth can be a gateway to understanding whole-body health The oral microbiome and why brushing your teeth is only one part of whole-mouth care What the tongue can potentially signal about what is happening elsewhere in the body How ancient practices like Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine influenced Priya's approach to oral wellness Why Priya and her brother believed the traditional oral care category was ready to be reimagined How KÖPPEN combines science, naturally derived ingredients, and thoughtful design Why the brand launched with a tongue scraper - and what selling out repeatedly taught them about consumer demand The difference between tongue scraping and using a toothbrush to clean your tongue How KÖPPEN evaluates ingredients with researchers, chemists, and dental professionals The thinking behind ingredients like hydroxyapatite, bromelain, papain, and xylitol Why many conventional breath mints may only temporarily mask bad breath - and how KÖPPEN approached creating a healthier alternative Everyday habits, including mouth breathing, that Priya believes can disrupt the oral microbiome Why Priya believes oral care will become a much bigger pillar of the wellness conversation over the next five years How Priya and her co-founder think about beauty, design, and turning everyday oral care into a ritual Priya's Green-ish Goal for creating more space, clarity, and connection in everyday life