Womansplain

Mithu Malik is a trained pharmacist who co-owns Musaafer, the Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in Houston, now with a second location in Tribeca and a speakeasy, SAAQI, downstairs. She and her husband Shammi built the business from an ice cream import route in Lagos, where he slept on top of the shipping container at the port so the power cut wouldn't melt the stock. She talks about the pint of Blue Bunny that took a bullet during the coup in Ivory Coast, the 400-question franchise exam that taught them the restaurant business, opening The Spice Route as the first Indian fine dining room in Lagos, opening Musaafer one month before COVID shut it down and becoming the first Houston restaurant to announce it publicly, the 100-day journey through India that sourced their spices and one recipe from a cab driver's wife, the three-week staff training that covers ancient civilizations through modern Indian politics, and what she tells anyone starting a company, beginning with mopping your own floor. 🎟️ The inaugural Womansplain Summit is October 16 at The Malin Chelsea, NYC, keynoted by Robinhood CIO Stephanie Guild. 120 seats, most already spoken for: luma.com/7bxd1137 💌 The Womansplain Collective+ is open: founder matching, member dinners, and priority Summit access. womansplainpod.com/membership Find Musaafer: musaaferrestaurants.com | @musaafernyc | @musaaferhouston | @saaqinyc Find Womansplain: @womansplainpod | [email protected] | womansplainpod.com/newsletter

Amy Chan got laid off and cheated on in the same stretch, then built the first science-based breakup bootcamp from what she learned crawling out of it. Twenty years a dating columnist and a former CMO of SPIN, she's run Renew Breakup Bootcamp retreats for ten years, landed press from The New York Times and Good Morning America, and gets 80% of her one-on-one clients into relationships within a year. Her new book is Unsingle. We talk about why hiding your success is a bait and switch, preferences vs. deal breakers, the nine-date experiment, love bombing (Amy dated a con artist for three months), the four pillars of lasting love, sunk cost fallacy in relationships, and doing 100% of your 50%. The inaugural Womansplain Summit is October 16 at The Malin Chelsea, NYC, keynoted by Robinhood CIO Stephanie Guild. 120 seats, most already spoken for: luma.com/7bxd1137 The Womansplain Collective+ is open: founder matching, member dinners, and priority Summit access. womansplainpod.com/membership Find Renew Breakup Bootcamp: renewbreakupbootcamp.com | @renewyourheart | @missamychan Find Womansplain: @womansplainpod | [email protected] | womansplainpod.com/newsletter

Robyn Berkley spent seven years as fashion director at Kelly Cutrone's People's Revolution before her health forced her out: 16 shows in a New York season, midnight most nights, and a body that stopped cooperating. She quit, flew to Bali for yoga teacher training, and came home with a name and no plan. Live the Process is now one of the first luxury activewear brands, made in its own California factory, stocked at Net-a-Porter, Selfridges, Lane Crawford and Le Bon Marché, with collaborations including the David Lynch Foundation, Moon Juice and the Whitney Museum. She has never raised a dollar. We get into the stranger at The Dutch who called her idea the dumbest thing he'd ever heard and then became her co-founder, the two years it took to source a fabric that costs triple, the corset bodysuit that sold out on launch day at Net-a-Porter, why they went all in on DTC after building a global wholesale business, going full time in April 2020 and posting their best month ever, the Whitney x Alvin Ailey shoot on the museum rooftop, and what "our plan is no plan" actually looks like after more than a decade. The inaugural Womansplain Summit is October 16 at The Malin Chelsea, NYC, keynoted by Robinhood CIO Stephanie Guild. 120 seats, most already spoken for: luma.com/7bxd1137 The Womansplain Collective+ is open: founder matching, member dinners, and priority Summit access. womansplainpod.com/membership Find Live the Process: livetheprocess.com | @livetheprocess Find Womansplain: @womansplainpod | [email protected] | womansplainpod.com/newsletter

Ochi Latjuba Vongerichten co-owns Wayan and Ma•dé, and Wayan is the only Indonesian restaurant on the Michelin Guide in America. She got there by leaving Jakarta at 18 for the Culinary Institute of America, interning for Daniel Boulud, and working every job at Per Se from food runner to manager, with a mother who catered 3,000-person weddings telling her to finish what she started. In this episode: the call home where she almost quit, opening Wayan in an old Spring Street bread shop with her husband Cedric Vongerichten and partner Ezra J. William, the corn fritters Indonesians say beat Jakarta's, Padang-style dining at Ma•dé, expanding to Aspen, the Hamptons, and Miami, women-owned liquor brands, the fall 2027 cookbook, and her advice for young founders: goal, ambition, consistency, finish what you started. The inaugural Womansplain Summit is October 16 at The Malin Chelsea, NYC, keynoted by Robinhood CIO Stephanie Guild. 120 seats, most already spoken for: luma.com/7bxd1137 The Womansplain Collective+ is open: founder matching, member dinners, and priority Summit access. womansplainpod.com/membership Find Wayan & Ma•dé: wayan-restaurants.com | ma-de-nyc.com | @wayan_nyc | @ma_de.nyc Find Womansplain: @womansplainpod | [email protected] | womansplainpod.com/newsletter

Barbora Samieian went from nonprofit fundraiser to co-founder of Sundays, the award-winning furniture brand she launched with her husband, his sister, and a 20-year friend, three months before the pandemic. She also co-founded Vancouver salad chain Field & Social and Sundays' sister brand Hetta, all while raising four kids. We cover the chef who quit mid-shift days after she took over her first business, the shuttered restaurant that became the first Sundays showroom, why free delivery and assembly lowered their returns, keeping the collection small when more SKUs mean more revenue, and the immigrant parents who shaped her appetite for risk. The inaugural Womansplain Summit is October 16 at The Malin Chelsea, NYC, keynoted by Robinhood CIO Stephanie Guild. 120 seats, most already spoken for: luma.com/7bxd1137 The Womansplain Collective+ is open: founder matching, member dinners, and priority Summit access. womansplainpod.com/membership Find Sundays: sundays-company.com | @sundaysfurniture Find Hetta: hetta.com | @hettahome Find Womansplain: @womansplainpod | [email protected] | womansplainpod.com/newsletter