Luminate with Lan Anh Vu Lan Anh Vu

Today’s guest is Emily Hikade, founder and CEO of the luxury sleepwear brand Petite Plume.
Emily launched Petite Plume in 2015 and it has been profitable since its first year. The company has also doubled its revenue every year since launch, and it has reached almost $100 million in revenue. Petite Plume pajamas are coveted by the Royal Family, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anderson Cooper, Miranda Kerr, and Kourtney Kardashian, just to name a few.  
Prior to founding Petite Plume, Emily worked for the CIA as an operations officer in the Clandestine Service for nearly two decades.
In this episode, we dive into:
Emily’s experience working in the CIA What it was like to make such a major career pivot Where her idea for Petite Plume came from The art of failing forward How she builds a high performing team How she’s able to sustain and grow the business without raising external capital

Today's guest is Emmanuel Straschnov, founder and co-CEO of Bubble, a platform that empowers users to create powerful web apps without writing code.
To date, Emmanuel has raised over $106 million for the company from the likes of Insight Partners, SignalFire, and Box Group, to name a few.
In this episode, we dive into:
How Emmanuel started Bubble with Josh What makes a great cofounder relationship The early days of Bubble Why it took Emmanuel 5 years to hire the first employee How Emmanuel bootstrapped for 7 years What has been the single biggest lesson Emmanuel has learned when it comes to fundraising? How to price a product/service

Today’s guest is Larry Gadea, founder and CEO of Envoy. Envoy is a workplace platform that helps companies welcome visitors, keep employees safe, book desks and conference rooms, and manage deliveries in over 16,000 locations around the globe.
To date, Larry has raised over $170 million for Envoy from a16z, Menlo Ventures, Brookfield Growth, Marc Benioff, Elad Gil to name a few.
Prior to Envoy, Larry started his career as a software engineer at 17, having been recruited by Google out of high school. He later joined X (formerly Twitter) as one of the early people driving its ability to scale.
In today’s episode, we talk about Larry experiences at Google and Twitter and to better understand what pain points Envoy was trying to solve. We also talk about Larry on leadership lessons scaling Envoy to a billion-dollar company, what it takes to manage the board effectively, and so much more.

Today's guest is Daniel Goleman, one of the world’s leading experts on the science of emotion. Daniel is the author of Emotional Intelligence, a blockbuster book that sold more than 5 million copies in about 40 languages. 
Apart from his writing on emotional intelligence, Daniel has written books on topics including self-deception, creativity, transparency, meditation, social and emotional learning, eco-literacy and the ecological crisis. His latest book, Optimal, shows why emotional intelligence can help each of us have rewarding and productive days.
Ranked one of the 10 most influential business thinkers by the Wall Street Journal, Daniel’s articles in the Harvard Business Review are among the most frequently requested reprints. He has won many awards, including the HBR McKinsey Award for best article of the year. Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences awarded him its Centennial Medallion.
He started out by getting his PhD in clinical psychology at Harvard, and he then spent 12 years writing about brain research as a science reporter for the New York Times.
In this episode, Lan Anh talks to Daniel about why emotional intelligence matters, how science demonstrates that emotional intelligence matters far more than IQ, how we can enhance and manage our emotions to expand our brain capacity, and gives actionable tips about how we can learn emotional intelligence. 

Today’s guest is Liz Elting, cofounder and former CEO of TransPerfect, the world’s largest language solutions company, with over $1.1 billion in revenue and offices in more than 100 cities worldwide.
In 2018, Liz left TransPerfect after being there for 26 years and now she’s running Elizabeth Elting Foundation , which advances economic social and political equality for women and marginalized people. 
Liz received the 2019 Charles Waldo Haskins Award for business and public service from NYU’s Stern School of Business, the American Heart Association’s 2020 Health Equity Leadership Award, the Alliance of Women Entrepreneurs’ 2021 Vertex Award for changing the face and direction of women’s high-growth entrepreneurship, the American Heart Association’s 2022 Woman Changing the World Award, Trinity College’s 2022 Kathleen O’Connor Boelhouwer ’85 Alumni Initiative Award, and the Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation’s 2023 Angel of Hope Award.
Liz has been recognized as a NOW Woman of Power & Influence, American Express' and Entrepreneur magazine's Woman of the Year, and one of Forbes’ Richest Self-Made Women every year since the list’s inception. Liz is also the bestselling author of “Dream Big and Win: Translating Passion into Purpose and Creating a Billion-Dollar Business”.
In this episode, we discuss how Liz came up with the idea for TransPerfect, how she built and scaled a billion-dollar company without taking any outside funding. We also discuss the power of setting goals and taking action, and the role that partnerships play in your success. 

Today’s guest is Isabelle Freidheim, founder and managing partner of Athena Capital, a technology fund that focuses on bringing high-performing, mission-driven companies to the market. Isabelle is the youngest female chairman of a publicly traded company in the U.S. Under her leadership, Athena has raised more than $1.2 billion.
Before founding Athena Capital, Isabelle co-founded and acted as CEO of Magnifi, the AI and machine-learning fintech company. Isabelle led Magnifi's early growth as one of the few female CEOs in the AI industry.
Isabelle previously co-founded and managed The London Fund and was the first female venture partner at VC fund MissionOG.
During this interview, Isabelle shares her personal and career journey, from VC to entrepreneur. We then discuss SPACs in-depth, how they work, why some companies would prefer to IPO through a SPAC rather than the traditional IPO process, and much more.