Welcome to Kelly Corrigan Wonders.

I'm Kelly Corrigan, and today I'm wondering what it takes to change an entire industry with Laura Modi.

This is the first episode in our Women of Consequence series, looking closely at the ways women navigate and reshape the world, made possible by a grant from

Ingaborg initiatives. Laura Modi is the co-founder and CEO of Bobby. It is the first female-founded

infant formula company in the United States, which Laura started after she had mastitis with her first child and discovered that

the number one ingredient in most baby formulas is corn syrup. So Laura went down what she calls a

mini PhD rabbit hole at 2 a.m. researching why the industry was dominated by two players, why standards hadn't been

updated since the 1980s, and why there was such a stark difference between feeding culture in

Europe versus the U.S. She raised nearly $100 million, bought a manufacturing facility, and during

the 2022 formula shortage, made the decision to serve

existing customers rather than chase growth. A choice she believes came from being a mother who

understands what it's like to have a screaming hungry baby on her hip. Today we talk about what

it means to be the only woman in the room, why being

underestimated can be an asset, and what insights caretakers have that lead to entirely new ways

of doing business. Here's my conversation with Laura Modi.

The place I want to start is with this recognition that new mothers are super vulnerable.

There's a lot of conflicting messaging and there's also a lot of internal noise, as I recall, from 20 some years ago, about whether your body is doing the things that a body, a beautiful female body, is supposed to be able to do effortlessly. And it is really

intense between like, like I had a friend who had a colicky baby and she just felt like a total

failure.

I myself had mastitis.

I used to hold babies in the NICU,

and I just saw these moms come in kind of hunched over

...