Missy Tannen spent five years teaching third grade and a decade as a stay-at-home mom before she ever thought about starting a company. But when she couldn't find bedding that was high-quality, ethically sourced, and traceable, she and her husband Scott started Boll & Branch out of pure frustration. On this episode of She Pivots, Missy talks about betting the family's life savings on an idea, borrowing against their own house even while sales were taking off, and what it took to scale from a garage operation to a 200-person company without losing what made it different in the first place. She's brutally honest about the mess behind the milestones (a full batch of ivory sheets that came out green!) and about running a family business—that’s now worth over $250 million—with her husband while raising their kids.
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to She Pivots
01:32 From Teacher to Entrepreneur: Missy Tannen
09:23 Stay-at-home-mom
13:04 The Birth of Boll & Branch
26:15 The Wall Street Journal Breakthrough
33:54 Growing the Business and Family Involvement
39:24 Building a Sustainable Supply Chain
41:25 The Power of Community
42:32 The Tariff Challenge
45:54 Reflecting on Missy's Journey
47:09 Production Credits
Check out Boll & Branch at www.bollandbranch.com
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She Pivots is a podcast created by host Emily Tisch Sussman to highlight influential women voices, share stories of bold career moves, and inspire women with interviews about career reinvention and how personal pivots can redefine professional success.
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