Founder & CEO of Oyster Sunday & OS BENEFiTS

When hiring, I look for the following qualities in aspiring professionals: Insatiable curiosity, endless creativity, boundless optimism, steady empathy and balanced confidence.

I find inspiration everywhere. I turn to an array of industries to find creative inspiration. From podcasts about AI and books about architecture to performances by the New York City Ballet and meals around town, I try to absorb as much I can with every day I am given. I often joke to my husband that if I didn’t have to sleep, I wouldn’t. Instead I would choose to be awake to live more.

As a founder, I often consider myself to be the conductor. There are so many unbelievable first-chair violinists and cellists out there. Be the one to identify and cultivate their talent. The orchestra is only as meaningful as those who are willing to play together to create something beautiful performance after performance.

As an entrepreneur, understanding what you know and where you need support is crucial. The journey to building a business is long and demanding. I learned that with Oyster Sunday and am reminding myself again with OS BENEFiTS. Sitting in and with discomfort is key, but doing it with a community around you is truly necessary.

A key contributor to my team's early accomplishments is our commitment to assembling a diverse team that brings a unique perspective to the table. From industry operators to product builders to creative storytellers, we have a passionate and dedicated team from so many different industries. This diversity of thought and skill sets allows us to quickly and efficiently fill gaps, bring new ideas to the table, and deliver exceptional service to our clients and members. As we continue to grow and scale, we plan to keep that commitment to building and fostering a company culture that attracts and retains this type of exceptional talent.

As a fully distributed, remote-first team (both Oyster Sunday and OS BENEFiTS), we rely heavily on a robust tech stack to enable our teams to do their best work. We utilize anything from Slack for fostering communication across the team (and companies), Figma for creative design, Asana for project management, and many others. We have a broad set of skill sets across the team, so we are able to leverage highly collaborative tools to get the work done in-house which is pretty unique for a start-up!

As a small business owner, I prefer to call it work/life integration – instead of balance – particularly in these first few informative years of business growth. I will be the first to admit that I am not the best at “unplugging” because I am constantly taking in the world to inform how I build and run my businesses. That said, when I have time off, I make a dedication to be present, to be with and around people I truly love. It is how I learn and recharge. On a routine basis, I love running and getting out in the mornings to have 45 minutes to an hour just listening to podcasts. I am a particular fan of The Lex Fridman Podcast, Morning Brew Daily, Pivot, and The Monocle Daily. Digestible and absorbable day in and day out.