Jordana Kier started her company, LOLA, to solve a problem she and millions of other women face regularly: an element of “transparency” was missing from the feminine products industry.
Meet this year’s Entrepreneur of the Year, a Columbia Business School alum behind Lola, the revolutionary, recently-acquired feminine products line disrupting the field.
CSL: How did LOLA come to be?
JK: The first iteration of LOLA was to solve what I thought was the main pain point around periods – that we never seem to have a tampon when we need one. But once I realized that the FDA doesn’t require tampon companies to fully disclose all of the ingredients in their products and I may not have full line of sight into what I was putting in my body (for ~40 years!), it became clear that transparency – in how we should think about ingredients, in how we should talk to our customers, in how we should run our business – was the priority. We all deserve to know what we’re putting in and on our bodies.
How did your time at Columbia shape your idea and what would become LOLA?
I am so appreciative of my time at CBS getting to take classes like Negotiations and Marketing Research that helped build my skill sets in key areas for business building. I was fortunate to get to conceive of the early pieces of LOLA within CBS amongst supportive classmates, teachers, and peers. And of course, getting to be a part of the amazing inaugural class in the Columbia Startup Lab on Varick Street in the summer of 2014!
What’s next after LOLA’s acquisition?
I’m now back to my first love: the arts! After taking a beat after LOLA, I now oversee all growth strategies for the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), the country’s oldest continuously operating performing arts institution. Come visit us in Fort Greene!
What does this award mean to you?
It’s very humbling. I didn’t go to CBS looking to study entrepreneurship or thinking I’d leave an entrepreneur, so I’m grateful for the recognition.
What advice would you give CSL cohorts and students in startups that you wish you might have had during your own startup journey?
Don’t start a business to start a business; start a business to solve a problem. I wouldn’t have started a company had I not been actively mad at the tampon industry!