She Leads with Carly
You'll Never Be Ready: Building SONNI Without the CPG Playbook | Megan & Eliana (SONNI)
In today's conversation, Carly sits down with SONNI co-founders Eliana Field-Marsham and Megan Black, who share the journey they took to start the SPF brand. Eliana and Megan share how bad sunburns and a family member's melanoma scare plus a frantic business-school text between each other led them to starting SONNI. They also unpack the realities of founder life, why 24/7 grind isn't effective, and how they navigate leading a company together with clear, clean division. We also discuss: The health scares that led to SONNI being created Why "You can't be everything to everybody" in CPG Why daily SPF was a product experience problem, not an awareness issue Fundraising, bootstrapping, and when founders should pay themselves The case against the 24/7 founder grind References: Beauty of Joseon: https://beautyofjoseon.com Cheryl Strayed: https://www.cherylstrayed.com Estée Lauder Companies: https://www.elcompanies.com Factfulness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factfulness_(book) Hans Rosling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Rosling Heyday: https://www.heydayskincare.com Kellogg School of Management: https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu KIND Snacks: https://www.kindsnacks.com Little Spoon: https://www.littlespoon.com McKinsey & Company: https://www.mckinsey.com Stanford University: https://www.stanford.edu Thrive Market: https://thrivemarket.com "Tiny Beautiful Things": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_Beautiful_Things Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 01:40 Growing up as family friends in Toronto 06:10 Eliana's path: sociology, McKinsey, and a love of operating 08:10 Megan's consumer obsession, from USC to Estée Lauder 11:35 The sunburns and a sister's melanoma behind SONNI 13:20 Finding a formulator who starts with metal, not powder 16:45 Eliana's business-school panic and reaching back out to Megan 21:00 "Best text to ever receive": hiring her co-founder 25:05 Right brain, left brain: splitting the company cleanly 32:55 What no one warns you about building a CPG brand 35:15 Mineral vs chemical: what does the FDA actually back? 39:15 How the name, brand, coloring, packaging was born 41:05 Learning to bask in the wins, not just the lows 45:15 Fundraising vs bootstrapping, and just paying yourself 50:25 What 24/7-grind startup culture gets wrong
