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In This Episode You’ll Hear About:

• His early life growing up in Livingston, New Jersey, being an outgoing kid with an entrepreneurial drive, and how being a hustler at summer camp got him kicked out
• How his entrepreneurial drive came from his serial entrepreneur father
• His experience going to college in a co-op program where he got hands on experience in marketing and banking but realized it wasn’t the career path he wanted to take
• How in working with the company Way Up led him to meeting not only his wife, but his Co-Founder, Michael
• How registering for his wedding and watching friends and family members create registries for their baby made him realize the white space in the baby category 
• How he determined his Co-Founder would be a good fit, what to look for, what things they draw the line on, and why it's more like being siblings than it is best friends
• Some of the challenges they’ve faced in having to educate people on why they should be excited about the baby and toddler category
• How during challenging moments, they concentrate on surviving instead of thriving 
• How to keep talent and how to make good hiring choices 
• How he gets through dealing with imposter syndrome and how he's faced it during fundraising
• What’s next for Lalo and the plans to expand the brand into every room of the house

To Find Out More:

https://meetlalo.com/ 

Quotes:

“Entrepreneurship  was something I saw from a pretty early age and was something I always just felt that I had it in my bones and in my blood.”

“When I was watching my friends and family going to fill out their baby registry, I realized you don't know what you need, why you need it when you need it. it's a complete black hole.”

“Becoming a parent is one of the most common threads amongst humanity. It doesn't matter how rich or poor you are, where you are, where you're from, what you look like. It's such a shared experience of people who are incredibly vulnerable.” 

“Instead of focusing on one product, what if we could develop products that span different milestones of what both parents and children went through together to make that shopping experience that much easier from the overwhelming experience that it is.”

“Being a co-founder with somebody is more like having a sibling than a best friend.”

“When you have a co-founder, it’s a partnership. There has to be a division of labor to ultimately steer the organization and strategy in the best direction possible.”

“We wanted to build a brand that wasn't for one issue or one type of parent, we wanted to build a brand that could be for many different types of people.”

“We're not here to confuse you. We're not here to play games with you. We're just here to shoot it to you straight.” 

“If you survive long enough, you'll end up thriving”

“Being a founder and having a company is not just hard when the company goes hard, right? Like you bring your personal self to work and you bring your work self home.”

“Mentally ensure that you're ready and the people around you are ready, because it's a roller coaster. It's the best roller coaster, it's so much fun, I wouldn't trade it for the world. But it's a ride and you just have to be ready to persevere.”