Stephanie Lee (PetLab Co.) - Becoming Co-CEO, Two Rebrands, and Selling to Private Equity
On this episode, PetLab Co. Co-CEO Stephanie Lee joins us to unpack:
- Stephanie's "hungry, not just smart" hiring filter, and the interview questions she uses to find out if a candidate wants the job to be their whole hustle, not just a paycheck
- The blunt piece of advice a former founder-boss gave her about disagreeing openly but committing fully once a decision is made, and why she still thinks about it today
- Her "don't touch anything for the first 30-60 days" rule for any new senior hire, and whether she actually followed her own advice when she joined PetLab
- The year a manufacturing plant got struck by lightning in the middle of Covid, and how she triaged a business that was drowning in supply chain chaos all at once
- Why PetLab pulled out of Germany after a nine-month launch, and the cultural blind spot that trips up so many DTC brands going international
- How a co-founder's "I just want to do creative marketing, can you run the rest of the business" conversation turned Stephanie from COO into co-CEO
- Her honest take on when a founder-led company should hand the reins to a professional CEO, and how PetLab is thinking about that gap today
- Why PetLab put itself through two rebrands to build a more "scientific," trust-first brand, and the hidden cost that came with heavier bottles and higher shipping fees
- What the 12-month process of getting acquired actually looked like, and the part of it that surprised her most
