Chris Salgardo: Founder & CEO of ATWATER

What happens when you make it to the top of your industry—and decide to start over?
On The Kara Goldin Show, I sit down with Chris Salgardo, Founder and CEO of ATWATER, and former President of Kiehl’s. After more than 40 years in beauty, Chris left the corporate world to build a skincare and grooming brand of his own.
We talk about what nearly two decades at Kiehl’s taught him about building brands that last, why he decided to become an entrepreneur, what men still get wrong about skincare, and why simpler, high-performance routines are winning with consumers.
Chris has seen the beauty business from almost every angle—from starting as a makeup artist at 18 to leading major brands and ultimately becoming a founder himself. This is a great conversation about reinvention, starting over, and what decades of experience can teach you about building something new. Listen here or anywhere you get your podcasts. 🎧

Lola Banjo: Founder & CEO of Silver & Riley

Luxury is hard to break into. Building a new luxury brand from scratch—and aiming for $100 million—is an entirely different challenge. ✨
On The Kara Goldin Show, I sit down with Lola Banjo, Founder and Chief Executive of Silver & Riley, the luxury fashion and travel accessories brand she launched in 2019.
Lola built Silver & Riley while balancing a demanding corporate career, investing her own capital and learning firsthand that understanding business and actually building one are two very different things.
Today, Silver & Riley is a multimillion-dollar business with an incredibly loyal customer base and a hero product—the New Yorker Bag—that has repeatedly sold out. But Lola isn’t thinking small. Her goal is to reach $100 million in annual sales by year ten and ultimately build a billion-dollar global luxury house.
We talk about what happens after you’ve proven product-market fit, why finding your next customer can be harder than keeping the ones you already have, and what really changes as you try to go from millions to $100 million.
Lola also gets candid about putting her own money into the business, the hidden cost of being undercapitalized, scaling manufacturing without sacrificing quality, and why some founders seem to get funded on potential while others are expected to show up with proof.
If you’re interested in luxury, consumer brands, capital, entrepreneurship, or what it really takes to turn a successful company into a much bigger one—this is a conversation you’ll want to hear.
You can find it here or anywhere you listen to podcasts. 🎧

Matt Scanlan: Co-founder & CEO of NAADAM

What does it take to turn one big idea into a $100M+ brand that lasts?
On The Kara Goldin Show, I sit down with Matt Scanlan, Co-Founder and CEO of NAADAM—the cashmere brand that started with a trip to Mongolia and a plan to rethink the industry.
We talk about the $98 sweater that helped put NAADAM on the map, what consumers get wrong about cashmere, and what Matt has learned about growth, profitability, failure, and knowing when to double down—or walk away.
After more than a decade of building, Matt has plenty to say about what it really takes to create a brand with staying power. This is a great conversation for anyone building something of their own. Listen here or anywhere you get your podcasts. 🎧

Sam Nebel: Co-Founder of goodwipes

What if one of the biggest opportunities in consumer products is hiding in a category most people don’t even want to talk about?
On today’s episode, we welcome Sam Nebel, Co-Founder, Chief Commercial Officer — and King of All Wipes — at goodwipes, the bold personal hygiene brand changing the way people think about one of the most basic routines in our lives. Sam and his team have taken flushable wipes from an overlooked category and made them fun, culturally relevant, and increasingly mainstream, with goodwipes now sold at major retailers including Target, Walmart, and Kroger.
In this episode, Sam shares how goodwipes is challenging the status quo in personal hygiene, what makes a wipe actually flushable, and why “butt health” may be the next frontier of wellness. We also get into what it really takes to win in CPG — from retail velocity, category analytics, manufacturing, and supply chain to building a company in the field instead of behind a laptop. Plus, Sam shares why “team > founder,” how his philosophy of “have fun and get sh*t done” shapes the culture, and what brands can learn from goodwipes’ unexpected collaborations with OLIPOP and Liquid Death.
If you’re interested in entrepreneurship, CPG, retail, brand building, consumer behavior, or how to turn an overlooked category into a brand people actually want to talk about — this one’s for you. Tune in now on The Kara Goldin Show. 🎧

Dr. Karan Rajan: Founder & CEO of LOAM

What happens when a doctor and surgeon with millions of followers decides the gut-health industry still isn’t getting one of the basics right?
On today’s episode, we welcome Dr. Karan Rajan, Founder and CEO of LOAM — a science-backed, doctor-formulated prebiotic fiber brand rethinking how we support the gut microbiome. After more than a decade as a doctor and surgeon, Karan became one of the world’s most recognized health educators, building an audience of more than 12 million followers by making complex medical science understandable and useful.
In 2025, he launched LOAM after recognizing a major gap: an estimated 95% of adults aren’t getting enough fiber. In this episode, Karan breaks down what fiber actually does for the microbiome, what most of us misunderstand about gut health, and how to separate legitimate science from wellness hype. He also shares what it’s been like going from doctor and health educator to entrepreneur — and the responsibility that comes with putting his name and medical credibility behind a product.
If you’re interested in gut health, wellness, science, entrepreneurship, or what it takes to turn expertise into a company built around solving a real problem — this one’s for you. Tune in now on The Kara Goldin Show. 🎧

Heather Sloan: Co-Founder of Heali Medical

What if managing everyday pain didn’t have to mean pills, creams, or simply living with it?
On today’s episode, we welcome Heather Sloan, Co-Founder of Heali Medical — a wellness company creating wearable, drug-free products designed to help people manage pain, recover, and keep moving. A trained chiropractor with more than a decade of experience in medical sales, Heather saw firsthand how many patients and athletes were looking for better ways to manage pain and recovery in their everyday lives.
Together with Co-Founder Enwei Li, a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner, Heather built Heali around a different approach. Starting with kinesiology tape incorporating magnesium and menthol, Heali has expanded into products addressing muscle recovery, headaches, period pain, pelvic discomfort, and more. In this episode, Heather shares how they turned that idea into a profitable, largely self-funded business, scaled into more than 26,000 retail doors, and what she’s learned about building and selling physical products along the way. We also get into some incredible founder stories — from Dragon’s Den and Floyd Mayweather to the lengths you sometimes have to go to simply get the job done.
If you’re interested in wellness, consumer products, retail growth, entrepreneurship, or what it really takes to build and scale a brand without relying heavily on outside capital — this one’s for you. Tune in now on The Kara Goldin Show. 🎧

Dinah Bengur: Co-founder & CEO of Pitango Gelato

What does it take to turn a beloved local food brand into a franchise without losing what made it special in the first place?
On The Kara Goldin Show, I sit down with Dinah Bengur, Co-Founder and CEO of Pitango Gelato Franchise Co. — the artisanal gelato brand known for authentic Italian gelato and sorbet made from scratch with high-quality ingredients.
We talk about why Pitango decided to franchise, what Dinah learned from working with major franchise systems before building one herself, and what entrepreneurs should really understand before buying—or building—a franchise.
We also get into choosing the right franchisees, protecting quality as you scale, the economics of restaurant growth, and what makes a concept truly replicable.
If you’re interested in franchising, restaurant growth, consumer brands, or what it really takes to scale a great local concept, you’ll want to hear this conversation. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. 🎧

Dr. Ivy: Founder of Dr. Ivy Skincare

What if everything we’ve been taught about anti-aging skincare is focused on the wrong thing? What if the future isn’t about temporarily fixing what we see on the surface — but understanding how to help our skin function, repair, and regenerate differently as we age?
On today’s episode, we welcome Dr. Ivona Igerc, better known as Dr. Ivy, an internationally recognized aesthetic doctor and regenerative medicine expert with more than two decades of experience working at the intersection of science, skin health, and aesthetics. Her career has taken her across Europe and Asia, giving her a unique perspective on how beauty, aging, and skincare differ around the world. Today, she practices on Harley Street in London and is the Founder of Dr Ivy Skincare.
In this episode, Dr. Ivy shares what regenerative skincare actually means, what consumers should understand about exosomes and stem-cell science, and why she created a skincare line designed to bridge the gap between clinical treatments and daily at-home care. We also get into the Asian beauty movement, how approaches to aesthetics differ from East to West, LED and laser technology, collagen, biohacking beauty, and where the marketing around longevity and skincare may be getting ahead of the science. Plus, Dr. Ivy shares what she believes the next generation of regenerative medicine could mean for how we think about skin health and aging.
If you’re interested in skincare, healthy aging, regenerative medicine, beauty, wellness, or simply understanding what’s science versus hype in one of the fastest-moving areas of beauty — this one’s for you. Tune in now on The Kara Goldin Show. 🎧

KJ Miller: Co-founder & President of Mented Cosmetics

What happens when you see millions of consumers being overlooked—and realize that isn’t just a problem, it’s a massive business opportunity?
On The Kara Goldin Show, I sit down with KJ Miller, Co-Founder and President of Mented Cosmetics and President of Elevated Beauty Group. Mented launched in 2017 with six nude lipsticks created with deeper skin tones in mind, helping prove that inclusive beauty wasn’t a niche—it was good business.
We talk about how KJ built Mented into one of the early leaders in inclusive beauty, what it took to expand beyond its original hero products, and how the category has evolved as inclusivity moved from an overlooked opportunity to an industry-wide conversation.
We also dive into the realities of raising outside capital, the toughest lessons KJ learned while scaling Mented, and the brand’s 2024 acquisition by West Lane Capital Partners. Today, KJ oversees four beauty brands through Elevated Beauty Group, giving her a unique perspective on what separates a great product from a brand with real staying power.
If you’re interested in inclusive beauty, building and scaling consumer brands, raising capital, navigating an acquisition, or what founders learn when they move to the other side of the table, you’ll want to hear this conversation. You can find it here or anywhere you listen to podcasts. 🎧

Jessica Herrin: Founder & CEO of Marklo

What does it take to build companies across three completely different eras of the internet — and then start all over again with AI?
On today’s episode, we welcome Jessica Herrin, Founder and CEO of Marklo, the AI revenue planning platform helping direct-to-consumer brands understand what actually drove revenue, decide what to do next, and execute smarter. A serial entrepreneur, Jessica previously founded Stella & Dot Brands and co-founded WeddingChannel.com, one of the first companies to bring wedding registries online.
In this episode, Jessica shares what she’s learned building companies across decades of technological change, why she decided to start over and build an AI company, and what makes scaling a DTC brand so challenging today. We get into attribution, marketing data overload, merchandising, inventory, margins, and why understanding what drove revenue is very different from simply knowing how much you sold. We also discuss where AI should make decisions, where humans still need to lead, and why creativity, judgment, and taste may become even more valuable as AI gets better.
If you’re interested in AI, entrepreneurship, DTC, marketing, brand building, or what the next generation of consumer companies will look like — this one’s for you. Tune in now on The Kara Goldin Show. 🎧