The night Laura Modi decided she was going to launch her infant formula company Bobbie, she was out drinking with her friends in a pub back in Ireland, her home country.
“It was New Year’s Eve,” she recalls. “My daughter was one. I had already done my research, and I was so convinced I wanted to do this.” But the words, she says, had never come out of her mouth before. “I’m in a pub in Cork, and I proclaimed to my friends that I was going to start a company. And typical Irish, they ordered drinks, they started cheersing, like, this is so exciting. I viscerally remember that helping me because I came back to the States, and I handed in my notice. Once that it came out of my mouth, I had no choice but to go do it.”
It might sound like a crazy way to start what is now one of the fastest growing companies in America—Bobbie feeds more than 500,000 babies a year—and Modi herself admits, “I never ever in my life thought I would ever start a powdered milk company. It was never a dream. I was in tech, and I loved my career.”
But giving birth to her first child in 2016 (she now has four children, Mary, Colin, Owen, and Etta, her youngest, who was born earlier this year in 2024), changed everything. Bouts of mastitis had left her struggling to exclusively breastfeed, and she felt let down by what she found in the ingredients list of the formulas on the market.
What really gnawed at Modi was the conflicting pressures put on moms when it came to breastfeeding their newborns, yet also returning to work as soon as possible. “I remember continuing to see this statement which said the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that new mothers breastfeed exclusively for six months,” she says. “And then on the other side, nobody is giving mothers the paid leave to be able to do so. That conflict wrecked me.”
She continues, “I felt like I became an activist in ways that I never really was before. I cared about what my daughter ate, about the society she was being raised in. Everywhere I turned, I kept seeing an injustice for what it meant to be a parent, and specifically here in the US.”
This all led to Modi not just wanting to create the best formula for new babies on the market, but a mission-based company supporting new parents. Which in the six years’ since Bobbie’s launch has seen them advocate for paid family and medical leave, the Black maternal mortality crisis, and launch charitable partnerships with organizations like The Breasties (where Bobbie donates a years worth of formula to hundreds of parents every year who have been impacted by breast or gynaecological cancer). This year, they even lowered their prices in order to expand affordable access to their milk.
But, as Modi shares, starting a company that didn’t have pure profit at heart put off some investors. Here, she reveals the lessons she’s learned along the way, and how her passion to improve the lives of parents has forced her to break the rules….
Glamour: You’ve come from big tech and from brands where often you were taught not to take a stance, and yet you launched a business that was built on a mission to fight for improving the lives of parents and families. Did that feel risky? Did you ever get told not to do that?
Laura Modi: I don’t know if I ever saw it as risky because it felt so natural. But did people push back? Absolutely. There was doubt, there was a lot of skepticism. I have emails from investors around the time of the first pitch who basically were saying, “This is just powdered milk. No one’s going to care to fight for A, B and C.” And all of those people didn’t invest. But every time I saw what was typically a guy from Silicon Valley push back it only fueled me more. There’s nothing more personal than how you feed your baby.
Speaking of food, let’s talk about the recent Molly Baz advertising campaign you ran—which showed Baz breastfeeding her baby while holding a bottle of Bobbie formula, and the tagline “Everybody’s Gotta Eat.” How did that come about?
Molly went into her journey with the expectations that she would breastfeed. And, like many new mothers, she found herself needing to combo feed. When we found out she’d turned to Bobbie, and that she wanted to continue to combo feed, we were chatting with her about wanting to do something… The debate happened internally, which is, “Well, she’s using Bobbie so we really should show her feeding her baby formula on the billboard.” And then we came round to, “No, she is still breastfeeding and she’s combo feeding.” If we want to be a different formula company, if we want to be a formula company that’s not like the predatory ones of the past, then what we should be doing is showing the full range of feeding.
Molly also really appreciated that because it is a big part of her story, and it’s extremely emotional. I’m also very proud as a formula company that we were able to put up the first breastfeeding billboard ever in Times Square. I know it might seem controversial to say, but as a CEO of a formula company, I don’t want to normalize formula feeding. I want to normalize the fact that everyone’s feeding journey is different.
What is the hardest thing about starting a business, and what advice would you give to other women thinking about doing the same?
The one thing that I think has frustrated me along this journey is because I’m in the parenting space, because I’m making something that is inherently for babies, there’s this assumption that my work is so soft and easy. But for me, I feel the highest level of responsibility. We are feeding half a million babies—the most vulnerable audience out there—their sole nutrition. It takes three years to come out with a new formula. It takes six months to get your next order in and to go to quality, safety, rigorous tests. So I think a lot of the advice I would give is, even early on, build your company and put all of your focus into what are you doing so that it has a long-term impact. Short-term will also create a short-term company.
What’s your proudest achievement since launching Bobbie?
There are so many. You know, this may be somewhat unsexy, but being able to co-create a bill to support domestic manufacturing is… Every day, I pinch myself around the impact that we are having on parents and on mothers and on babies. But to be in a position only a few years into the company where we were called in as thought leaders to co-create a legislative bill, to be able to transform this industry domestically and support feeding American babies American formula, made me really proud.
What time do you get up every day?
Depends what day. I mean, I’m a CEO and mom of four kids. It ranges from 5:00 in the morning if a kid wets their bed to maybe a sleep in to 7:45.
What’s your morning routine typically?
I take it day by day. I try and work out around two mornings a week. I spend breakfast with my kids around two mornings a week. So I hold myself to kind of hitting some sort of a mix of what I need to accomplish.
What time are you at your desk every day?
8:30 a.m.
How do you take your coffee?
Well, before 8:30, I’ve already drunk three cups of coffee. It is my vice. I will have it any way, just give it to me caffeinated.
What was your childhood dream job?
A dietitian.
What was your first actual job?
Lifeguard.
How do you typically deal with rejection in your field?
Ooh, I love this. Anyone or thing or partner that rejects me, I go above and beyond to make sure that they’re going to regret that rejection. So I overemphasize why they will want to pick up the phone and call me again in the future. I believe how you exit is more important than how you enter.
What’s the best piece of money or career advice you’ve ever gotten?
Best career advice is, no one ever goes to bed at night thinking about you and your career. Only you.
What’s the best parenting advice you’d give a new mom?
It sounds so cliché. Truly take it day by day. If you are not a list person, don’t try and become a list person. Enjoy it day by day.
What’s the last great book you read?
Great By Choice by Jim Collins. Oh, actually, do you know what’s a really good one, and you can listen to it? I probably read it once every three to four years, is The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh. He was the coach for the San Francisco Giants.
What’s your biggest vice, apart from coffee?
I do love a bowl of frozen chocolate chips—a large bowl.
How do you define success?
As a person, I define success through continued growth. And growth also through character building and knowledge.
What’s your go-to email sign off?
Oh, so funny. My signature with all my kids’ names in it. So my signature has my name, and it says, “I am CEO of Bobbie and mom of Mary, Colin, Owen, and Etta.”
The post Bobbie Founder Laura Modi Is on a Mission to Transform Parenting—and She’s Not Afraid to Break the Rules appeared first on Glamour.
