Laurie Ann Goldman, who helped turn Spanx into a global powerhouse as CEO before moving on to run Avon and Tupperware, is now CEO of Audien Hearing. In an exclusive interview with Fortune ahead of today’s announcement, the veteran brand builder talked about her plans to scale the over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aid brand, currently used by more than 1.5 million customers.
For Goldman, the key to tapping into the 1.5 billion people who experience issues with hearing loss is to destigmatize hearing aids by promoting the wellness benefits. “I’ve been calling it building the ‘Great Un-Mumbling’,” she said, pointing to research like a landmark Johns Hopkins study that found even mild hearing loss doubled dementia risk. “Getting people earlier into these products is really important.”
While Audien is one of cheapest and most popular hearing solutions providers, sold in stores like Walgreens and Walmart, it’s in an increasingly crowded space. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration established a new category of OTC hearing aids in October of 2022, noting the importance of making such devices accessible to the 30 million adults in the U.S. with some form of hearing loss. Because consumers can now buy such devices without seeing an audiologist, there’s a wider range of options and quality among products available for sale. Even Apple AirPods can now act as FDA-authorized OTC hearing aids.
So how to compete? Along with having proprietary technology, testing and an innovative hearing-specialist support program developed by founders Ishan Patel, Dylan Garber and Zack Hubbard, Audien competes on price: its hearing aids cost as little as $98. Goldman wants to remove the stigma of wearing them.
Goldman joins the founders—Ishan Patel, Dylan Garber, and Zack Hubbard—three entrepreneurs inspired by their own grandparents’ hearing struggles. Together, the team has built a breakthrough approach: proprietary engineering, real-world testing, and the industry’s first trained hearing-specialist support program. Goldman talks about seeing a high school friend who confessed to being embarrassed that she was now wearing hearing aids. “She’s a doctor, she’s attractive, she shouldn’t be thinking that about her hearing health,” said Goldman.
For that, she draws from the playbook she and Spanx founder Sarah Blakely used to build a market for their sharewear products. “There are so many similarities to my time at Spanx when somebody would say, I would never wear a girdle like it was a deep, dark secret,” Goldman said. “Yet we wound up getting people on red carpet, pulling up their dresses to show off their Spanx. We, can do great things to break down those barriers through marketing and positive energy and creativity here as well.”
And does her experience in serving industries tilted towards women consumers inspire her to see opportunities here through a gender lens, too? Not really. This is more like the Eric Schmidt moment at Google, when young co-founders realize they need someone with experience and a broad network to take their company to the next level. “The founders are all men, and they love that I’m a woman as it kind of balances things out,” she said. “Maybe I bring a different leadership style.”
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