{MILL VALLEY} Female Founder Stories Panel
Female Founders Stories launches November 15. Join us as female founders share their entrepreneurship journey. This event is a unique opportunity to get inspired by stories of resilience, innovation, hard truths and deep connections.
This is a free event with RSVP requested. Please feel free to share and invite other female entrepreneurs! Bring business cards and collateral for the community table.
Agenda
5:30 - 6:00 Networking
6:00 - 6:45 “Founder Stories” panel with Lily Kanter serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Serena & Lily, Christin Powell of Kinship, Keira Kotler of Everviolet and Justin Kahn of Botnia Skincare!
6:45 - 7:30 Networking by industry or however else you prefer!
Speakers
Lily Kanter
Lily Kanter is a serial entrepreneur with 5 start-ups. She was cofounder of Serena & Lily and founder of Boon Supply, and most recently the cofounder of Averylily. Her first foray into retail was in 2001 after having her first child; she opened a baby-oriented home furnishings business which eventually led to her partnership with Serena Dugan and the creation of Serena & Lily.
She started Boon Supply in 2018 which was a blend of merchandising with passion towards philanthropy. Lily's most recent start-up Averylily is getting back to her deep passion and roots in the home interiors business in partnership with an uncommonly creative interior designer Avery Solmssen.
Lily graduated Arizona State University with a BS in Accounting and attended the Executive MBA program at Pepperdine University. She is also a Wexner Heritage Fellow as well as a Henry Crown Fellow from the Aspen Institute. She guest lectures at Stanford on the case study she authored on Serena & Lily. During time off Lily and her family love to travel to Africa and play tennis.
Christin Powell
Christin Powell is a founder of Kinship. She spent almost 20 years researching and creating clean skincare products, incorporating plant-based medicine, nutrition, and holistic health principles. She uses this knowledge to develop innovative, science-backed products that focus on improving the skin microbiome. Kinship offers effective products supported by clinical results and environmentally friendly packaging.
Before Kinship, Christin worked on award-winning products for PerriconeMD and Ever Skincare (Stella + Dot) and co-founded Juice Beauty. She also holds three global skincare patents and has been featured in publications like WWD, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and Forbes.
Keira Kotler
Keira Kotler is the visionary behind Everviolet, an intimate apparel collection designed with adaptability and beauty in mind. Her brand is dedicated to women navigating various life-altering experiences: whether it's coping with cancer, embracing pregnancy, navigating menopause, overcoming disability, dealing with skin sensitivities, or recovering from surgery.
Keira's mission is to aid women in rekindling their sense of self and femininity. She strives to provide comfort, beauty, and confidence, ensuring that women feel their best, regardless of the challenges they encounter.
Justine Kahn
Justine is the creative force, formulator, and esthetician behind Botnia Skincare, a deeply personal journey toward authentic, holistic skincare. Botnia Skincare was born from the need for individualized skincare solutions, as unique as our fingerprints. This revelation ignited a passion for understanding skin's complexities and nature's nurturing secrets.
More than a skincare line, Botnia is a science-backed collection of potent, raw ingredients, each uniquely blended to cater to specific skin types. A full-fledged lab, partnering with over 200 spas nationwide, the reach of Botnia extends beyond skincare. It embodies Justine’s cherished values: sustainable farming practices, a nurturing work environment, and the promotion of self-love.
Hosts
Bonnie Powers
Co-Founder, Poet and/the Bench
Bonnie pivoted from her 30 year career running branding, design and innovation consultancies to opening the mixed use retail and gallery space Poet and/the Bench with her jewelry designer husband. Poet and/the Bench is a rare find of a lifestyle shop with a highly edited selection of small batch and one of a kind home goods, art, jewelry and apothecary supporting more than 60 emerging and independent artists. A majority of the artists are from the San Francisco Bay Area, most are women, and a good selection of artists are BIPOC.
With a history creating narrative for consumer brands, Bonnie believes in giving voice and visibility to artists and providing a platform for discovery and an intimate shopping experience. At its heart, her passion is connecting you to the artist story in order to develop an examined way of buying and creating appreciation for craft and inspiration. She says, “Storytelling connects us to the human experience.” The shop has its brick and mortar HQ in Mill Valley and ecommerce online.
https://www.instagram.com/poetandthebench
Kasia Stiggelbout
Founder, In Flow
Women’s wellness entrepreneur and podcast host, Kasia’s journey is anything but linear. In her past life, she led product development, marketing, and operations at companies like Microsoft, TEDx, and AI startups in Silicon Valley. Still, after suffering crippling burn-out which resulted in full-body eczema, hormonal imbalance, & inflammation, Kasia found herself questioning her definition of “success.” Her life seemed perfect on paper, but her heart and body were left behind. Embracing the Buddhist philosophy of a “beginner's mind” she leaped to leave her 11-year successful corporate career and start from scratch; redefining her sense of self and launching an ever-evolving journey to balance her Type-A, “Yang” energy with that of feminine “Yin” vibes. She entered a Doctoral program studying Chinese Medicine, graduated from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and launched her podcast, helping similarly ambitious women navigate “doing” with “being.”
Today Kasia Hosts the Nourish Podcast and is building In Flow, a women’s wellness brand rooted in cyclical living for ambitious women (covering every phase of a woman's cyclical journey: from first menstruation and pregnancy to menopause). When not working on her passions, she fills her cup hiking, doing yoga, or dancing.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kkrzoska/
https://nourish.buzzsprout.com/
Kristina Rudzinskaya
Founder, Etalon
Kristina Rudzinskaya is the inventor and founder of Etalon, founded in 2021 with a mission to guide people towards alignment within themselves and the world around them. Kristina's innovative approach places the human experience at the forefront, transforming the often uncomfortable process of posture correction into an enjoyable and effective one. Her pioneering work has earned her accolades, including the SF Design Week Award in the FashTech category and the Best Health & Wellness Product Globee Award.
Prior to dedicating herself to this work, she led the Quality Engineering team at Slack. Additionally, Kristina is a certified STOTT Pilates instructor, drawing inspiration from her fascination with alignment and fascia.
Kristina is actively engaged in the female entrepreneurs community, and hosts entrepreneurs meetups in San Francisco and Marin.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/krudzinskaya/
https://www.instagram.com/krudzinskaya/
💖 A Big Thank You to Our Sponsors:
Good Earth is an independent natural and organic grocer proudly serving Marin County since 1969.
Media Luna - Estate wine from Mendoza, Argentina to the USA.
Waldscraft is an Artisan Bakery in Marin. 31 Sunnyside Ave in Mill Valley is their Bakery Shop, and they can be found “in the wild '' at Farmer’s Market’s and pop-ups in Marin and San Francisco.
Owl's Brew - boozy beverages made with real ingredients. Hard Tea Seltzer and spirit-based canned cocktails. 4.8% - 5% Alc/Vol. Vegan & Gluten-Free.
Female Founder Collective is a network of businesses led by women, supporting women. Their mission is to enable and empower female-owned and led businesses to positively impact our communities, both socially and economically.
A special thank you to our event space sponsor, Assembly Mill Valley and Wrap Manager, a financial planning and wealth management firm committed to improving the lives of the people in our community.
📩 Questions? If you have any queries or need more information, feel free to reach out to us @ femalefounderstories@gmail.com