She Leads with Carly

Inbal Shani dropped her PhD for a job offer she never expected to recieve, and it set off a career spanning Amazon, AWS, Microsoft, GitHub, and now Twilio, where she serves as CPO and Head of R&D. In this episode, Inbal explains how curiosity is really a leadership trait, why introverts can be the most connected leaders in the room, and how the future of product management is being rewritten.
References:
AWS https://aws.amazon.com/
Github: https://github.com/
Inbal Shani: https://www.linkedin.com/in/inbalshani/
Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/
Technion: https://www.technion.ac.il/en/
Tel Aviv University: https://english.tau.ac.il/
Twilio: https://www.twilio.com/
Uber: https://www.uber.com/
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
01:47 Inbal's childhood: introversion and learning to build
06:00 Being one of six women in aerospace engineering
07:06 Fostering a strong belief in yourself
09:36 Why Inbal dropped out of her PhD
13:27 Learning to lead others as an introvert
15:24 Why curiosity is a core leadership trait
16:45 Two books that shaped Inbal's career
18:27 What determines a great team member
22:40 Empathy is a prerequistie to success
26:36 How Inbal made her career choices
28:31 Advice to younger women navigating their career
31:14 Inbal's journey to CPO at Twilio
34:04 The future of product management
39:42 Could the app era be over already?

In today’s episode, Carly sits down with Scarlett Leung, Chief Brand Officer and Co-founder of Pretty Tasty, a collagen tea company. Scarlett shares her unconventional path from accountant, to turnaround CEO, to CPG founder, and how growing up around intense family entrepreneurship shaped her views on work. This conversation covers Scarlett’s experiences navigating parental expectations, making big career pivots without a rigid 5-year plan, and the stripped-back, unglamorous reality that is founding a consumer brand.
References:
AllSaints: https://www.allsaints.com/
Carolina Herrera: https://www.carolinaherrera.com/
Deepak Chopra: https://www.deepakchopra.com/
Deloitte: https://www.deloitte.com/global/en.html
Estée Lauder: https://www.esteelauder.com/
FreshDirect: https://www.freshdirect.com/
Gucci Group / Kering: https://www.kering.com/
Honest Tea: https://www.honesttea.com/
L’Oréal: https://www.loreal.com/en/
Lancôme: https://www.lancome-usa.com/
LVMH: https://www.lvmh.com/
MIT: https://www.mit.edu/
Philip Morris International: https://www.pmi.com/
Pretty Tasty: https://www.prettytasty.com/
PwC: https://www.pwc.com/
Sugarbreak: https://www.sugarbreak.com/
Target: https://www.target.com/
Uniqlo: https://www.uniqlo.com/
University of Waterloo: https://uwaterloo.ca/
Virgin Group: https://www.virgin.com/
Waterloo Sparkling Water: https://www.drinkwaterloo.com/
Timestamps:
(01:17) Growing up with an entrepreneurial family
(06:59) The decision to study accounting
(09:47) Should you choose a risky career path?
(13:39) Unpacking Scarlett’s unique career journey
(18:12) Lessons learned from a travel-heavy role
(22:51) Why you need to advocate for yourself
(23:39) Why Scarlett went to MIT business school
(26:11) Scarlett’s superpower in business
(31:10) Pretty Tasty’s culture manifesto
(32:55) The journey to founding Pretty Tasty
(36:16) Developing the collagen product
(38:44) The one thing most CPG founders miss
(40:05) Advice for someone starting a company
(42:15) Scarlett’s scariest founder moment
(44:41) How to navigate a quarter-life crisis

Carly sits down with Swati Vauthrin, co-founder of Recess, a new parenting app built by two former Instagram leaders. Swati shares how growing up in New Jersey with early access to computers led her to computer science, how she navigated being one of the few women in engineering, and what she learned building and leading teams at Disney, ESPN, BuzzFeed, and Instagram. She opens up about career pivots, motherhood in intense tech environments, and the decision to leave big tech to build Recess.
References:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com
BuzzFeed: https://www.buzzfeed.com
ESPN: https://www.espn.com
George Washington University: https://www.gwu.edu
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com
Recess: https://therecess.app/
Swati Vauthrin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/swativauthrin/
The Cobalt Group: https://cobaltgroup.com
The Walt Disney Company: https://www.thewaltdisneycompany.com
Timestamps:
(01:40) Swati’s childhood introduction to computers
(04:25) Developing a natural sense of curiosity
(06:19) Being a woman in a STEM field
(09:25) Working for the Cobalt Group
(12:57) The shift from building product to leadership
(15:32) Advice for job switching in your late twenties
(17:45) How to build a strong company culture
(20:57) The reality of being a working mother
(24:02) Swati’s journey to starting Recess
(30:03) Surviving the “un-sexy” startup moments
(32:55) Being the only female founder in the room
(35:25) How Recess was pitched
(37:56) What every young woman needs to hear

Michelle Zatlyn is the Co-founder and President of Cloudflare, a global internet infrastructure that keeps the world safe and secure online operating 20% of the global web with over 4,000 employees.
Born and raised in Saskatchewan, Canada, Michelle began her career studying chemistry, aiming to become a doctor. But a pivotal turning point during a hospital internship set her on a new path - one that eventually led to Silicon Valley.
In this episode, Michelle shares the formative experiences that shaped her, the unexpected pivots in her career, and dives into the tough decisions she’s had to make. She also unpacks the gritty realities of early-stage startup life, the challenges of scaling, and what it really takes to lead a high-growth tech company.
For a deeper dive into the episode, check out Carly's Substack: https://carlymalatskey.substack.com/
Referenced:
Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com
Harvard Business School (HBS): https://www.hbs.edu/
Lee Holloway (Cloudflare co-founder): https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-holloway-159152/
Matthew Prince (Cloudflare co-founder & CEO): https://www.linkedin.com/in/mprince/
Project Honey Pot: https://www.projecthoneypot.org/
Toshiba: https://www.toshiba.com/tai/
WIRED Article about Lee Holloway: https://www.wired.com/story/lee-holloway-devastating-decline-brilliant-young-coder/
Timestamps:
(1:46) Growing up in Saskatchewan
(6:04) The decision not to pursue medicine
(9:51) Falling into business and technology
(13:39) The first taste of entrepreneurship
(16:27) Finding community and clarity at HBS
(17:28) The “essay line” that guided her
(19:28) Turning down LinkedIn to start Cloudflare
(25:05) How to improve your decision-making
(29:15) Choosing a meaningful mission
(32:18) Being the non-technical founder
(34:33) Early team challenges
(38:24) The grind from 1 to 100M
(41:32) Getting product-market fit
(44:23) The slow burn of success
(47:49) Being a founder impacts personal life
(51:52) Raising up the next-gen tech leaders
(54:12) The power of small teams and shared purpose

Jess Rosen is the Co-founder and Creative Director of Raw Generation, a leading wellness brand known for its juice cleanses and plant-based products. Jess launched the company with her father in 2012, after watching both her grandmothers battle cancer.
With a background in architecture and a certification in holistic health, Jess has grown Raw Generation into a multimillion-dollar brand while also launching spinoffs such as Little Sippers (children’s nutrition) and Functional Mother (for postpartum women). In this episode, she discusses how her personal health journey, entrepreneurship, and motherhood all intersect.
Where to find She Leads:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Website
YouTube
Instagram
X (Twitter)
Substack
Where to find Carly:
LinkedIn
Instagram
Where to find Raw Generation Juices:
Website
Instagram
References:
Gary Vaynerchuk: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garyvaynerchuk/
Hippocrates Health Institute: https://hippocrateswellness.org/
Institute for Integrative Nutrition: https://www.integrativenutrition.com/
Jess Rosen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-rosen-raw-generation/
Lisa Testa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-testa-m-s-16514036/
Raw Generation: https://www.rawgeneration.com/
Timestamps:
(01:13) Childhood creativity and early ambition
(04:10) Growing up in an entrepreneurial family
(05:00) Quitting architecture after just 9 months
(09:37) How cancer shifted Jess’s view on food
(19:17) Raw Generation was a family affair
(21:30) Burning out and battling Lyme disease
(24:55) Advice for stuck 20-somethings
(27:32) Why Jess ditched social media
(28:25) Balancing business and Instagram
(30:19) Raw Generation’s slow early days
(31:22) The Skinny Cleanse breakthrough
(35:58) Pivoting fast during COVID
(42:43) How Little Sippers was born
(47:45) Motherhood’s impact on her work
(56:01) Learning to listen to her body