Good morning, Broadsheet readers! The Biden Administration rolls back Tump-era Title IX policies on sexual assault, Nelly Korda makes LPGA history, and a communications career taught a founder a lesson every CEO needs to know. Have a productive Monday!
– Comms to CEO. Before starting an olive oil company, Aishwarya Iyer didn’t have the typical startup founder resume. Rather than taking the leap after an MBA or consulting gig—or even as a college dropout—she started Brightland following a career in communications.
“I went through a lot of impostor syndrome—an inner critic,” Iyer says now. “I was very much like, ‘I’m not smart enough for this.’ The people I know who are starting companies have fancy MBAs, they have worked in consulting or banking. I used to wonder, how can my comms background serve me as a CEO?”
Over the past six years expanding Brightland from a Los Angeles-based brand selling two types of olive oil to a premium pantry staples business carrying about 10 different olive oils plus vinegars and honey, Iyer has answered that question.
During her career in public relations and communications for brands including Lancôme and the tech and media business Whisper, Iyer “got comfortable with discomfort, the gray, and the unknown.” “I got used to two truths being true at the same time—you can have an amazing story you’re pitching, and it can be true that the timing is off,” she says. “I see that all the time as CEO—that I hold two things to be true.”
Today, Brightland sells its $40 olive oils to a core customer base of 30-to-60-year-old women, a customer who loves wine, reading, and gardening and is looking for an easy way to liven up dinners. Alongside the brand Graza, it’s part of a new generation of Instagram-friendly olive oils. As CEO, Iyer leads 15 employees and navigates relationships with California’s olive growers.
After working at venture-backed businesses, Iyer didn’t want to launch Brightland as a venture-backed startup in 2018 and instead put $30,000 of her own savings into the company. (She raised $6.83 million in venture funding for the first time in 2022.) And she credits her comms career for making it through the ups and downs of growing that business. “From a mental strength and fortitude perspective, comms was incredibly effective preparation,” she says.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Title IX revamp. Updates to Title IX unveiled by the Biden Administration on Friday will remove Trump-era policies that allowed those accused of sexual assault on campus to cross-examine their accusers in person. The updates also prohibit discrimination in federally-funded education programs against students because of their gender identity or sexual orientation. New York Times
- The Caitlin Clark of golf. Professional golfer Nelly Korda made history this past weekend by winning the Chevron Championship, her fifth straight victory and second major title. She tied the record for the most wins in consecutive starts on the LPGA Tour. The attention her streak is heaping on the sport is drawing comparisons to basketball’s Caitlin Clark. Washington Post
- Sizes for all. Universal Standard cofounder and CEO Polina Veksler announced that the clothing brand is introducing a program for customers to make size exchanges for up to a year after they've purchased one of the brand's pieces. Veksler says the program is intended to stop customers from purchasing multiple sizes at a time or making unsustainable fast fashion purchases because they are worried about size fluctuation. Vogue Business
- Scooped. Sundial Media Group is purchasing Refinery29 from Vice Media, ending the women’s media and lifestyle company’s tumultuous five-year stint under Vice. Sundial Media Group owns Essence magazine and Essence Ventures, a venture capital firm that makes investments in culture and lifestyle outlets for women of color. Axios
- Speaking up. Simon & Schuster is releasing The Art of Power, a new memoir by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.), this summer that details her almost 40-year career in Congress. The book will detail how Pelosi became the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House and her personal account of events like the Jan. 6 attack on the capitol. Fortune
ON MY RADAR
She painted a few Champagne bottles. Then came Meta’s customer support hell Wired
U.K. to criminalize creating sexually explicit deepfake images Time
Sydney Sweeney: Actress calls producer shameful over comments on looks and acting BBC
PARTING WORDS
“It’s frustrating in New York that our building is half empty all the time. But the talent on the ice has never been as good as it is now.”
—Athlete Madison Packer on building a women's hockey team in New York
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