Synergist Senior Sound Bites - April 2020:
Heidi Zak

Background
Heidi Zak is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of ThirdLove, the 3rd largest online bra and underwear company in America. She is on a mission to get every single woman in a great-fitting, beautiful and comfortable bra that makes her feel confident. She believes inclusivity should be the norm, not the exception, and has led the charge, inventing half-cups and offering women more than 80 sizes. Zak left her job at Google with the dream of offering women a better option and marketing to them in a way that didn’t insult their intelligence or push impossible beauty standards. Seven years later, more than 16 million women of all shapes and sizes have used ThirdLove’s innovative Fit Finder™ to find a bra that truly fits her body. ThirdLove is proud to have donated over $30 million worth of bras to women in need.

Zak has been recognized as Fortune's 40 Under 40, EY Entrepreneur of the Year, National Retail Federation's Disruptors, Fast Company’s Most Creative People and Goldman Sachs' 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs. In addition to contributing a weekly column to Inc.com, Zak is committed to promoting and advancing more women in tech. She is an active angel investor in early-stage female-founded companies. She graduated from Duke University and holds an MBA from MIT Sloan. Prior to launching ThirdLove, Zak was at Google, Aeropostale, McKinsey and Bank of America. In her spare time, you can find her chasing her kids, Sloane and Zak, around San Francisco’s playgrounds and scouring farmer’s markets for new ingredients to cook impromptu dinners for friends and family. 

Tell us a bit about your background
After I graduated from Duke I moved to New York City and worked in investment banking. I got my MBA at MIT Sloan School of Management, and my first job after that was at Aeropostale where I was launched and ran their international business. From there I moved to Google in Marketing and owning the global marketing strategy for all B2B advertising websites. That was my last job before ThirdLove.

What is your favorite thing about your role, and what is your least favorite thing?
My favorite part of my role is hearing from our customers about how we’ve impacted their life for the better. My least favorite thing is having to say “no” -- one of the biggest challenges of being a founder is coming to terms with the fact that I can’t say yes to every coffee chat, or conference invite, etc.  

What is something you wish you knew at the start of your career?
Start building your network early! When I was first starting off in my career, I didn’t realize how important that would become over the years. The people that you meet along your career path and stay in touch with will become invaluable resources, mentors, advisors, and connectors over the next 20-30 years.

What has been your biggest accomplishment in your role so far? 
Writing an open letter to Victoria’s Secret in November 2018 that we published in a full page format in the New York Times. I decided to respond to CMO Ed Razek’s disparaging comments he made about plus-sized models and his ideas around how women want to spend their time. I believe taking this stand has encouraged the old-school lingerie industry to become more diverse and inclusive.

How should we determine if we are ready to start a company? What was your "aha" moment?
My “aha” moment came after a trip to Victoria’s Secret. All I could think about was wanting to buy from a brand I believed in, with similar values to my own. With the only other option at the time being functional bras from department stores, I decided to come up with a third and better way. That’s how ThirdLove was born. My husband, Dave, and I quit our jobs and put everything into this company.  The best advice I have is to think about whether you’ll regret it if you don’t try your hand at starting your own company -- if the answer is yes, you are likely ready to take the plunge.

What was an experience you had in your early or first career(s) that you think was foundational for the role you have today?
My first job out of college was an investment banking analyst in New York City. The reality of the job was that I had a lot to learn, especially because many people in my analyst class had actual business degrees and were excel whizzes. I had to work hard to even be average. The all-consuming work hours (late nights, weekends) was rigorous and helped set my work ethic, and also an appreciation for future roles and companies that were more flexible.

How does your organization approach gender & other diversity initiatives? (at the junior level a/o the senior level?)
Overall, our company is about 80% women. It’s interesting because we actually think about our diversity and our culture as it applies to hiring men. We make sure it’s inclusive, that men are comfortable in the environment, and that they’re spread out in teams across the organization. It’s not just about a male-female dynamic, though. It’s also about diversity of ethnicity. It’s about diversity of religious beliefs, political beliefs, and upbringing. Having a wide variety of backgrounds in your company increases the diversity of the ideas you’ll be exposed to. It expands the team’s thought bubble and makes for a more interesting work environment.

Who is a female leader you admire (in your industry or another), and why do they inspire you?
I really admire Katie Couric - she was an inspiration to me when I was growing up, wanting to be a broadcast journalist. I would have never imagined that one day she’d be an investor in my company.

Thank you for your time, Heidi! To learn more about ThirdLove, visit https://www.thirdlove.com/

What We’re Reading This Month:

UNCANNY VALLEY: A Memoir by Anna Weiner

In her mid-twenties, Anna Wiener left her low-paying but rewarding-ish job in New York publishing and sold her soul to Silicon Valley start-up culture. First she dipped her toe in by taking a job at a books-focused tech company, but soon she made the full plunge, moving West and joining a data analytics company as an early employee. In her debut memoir, Wiener relays firsthand the juxtaposition of the extreme wealth and poverty of San Francisco, most memorably with an anecdote about a homeless man wearing the sweatshirt swag from her company. Her colleague’s response? “I wonder whose it was. We’re not supposed to give away the hoodies.” Wiener is not here to make friends, as she gets pretty dish-y on the highs and lows of tech culture. We see young tech entrepreneurs with low EQ struggle to run a sustainable business, and highly paid boys and girls acting badly in and around the Bay Area. Wiener’s observations and writing are razor sharp; she cleverly doesn’t name any companies (Google is the “search-engine giant down in Mountain View”, Uber “an on-demand ride-sharing startup”), but they are easily recognizable and make the reader feel clever when they uncrack her code. This perfectly named memoir places Wiener on the map as an astute documenter of our time. She’s now married her worlds and is writing about Silicon Valley, startup culture and tech for national publications. —Sarah Gelman, Amazon Book Review