Babylist: Natalie Gordon. How a new mom used nap time to build a $500M business.
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
In this compelling episode, software engineer Natalie Gordon shares how a frustrating experience in a big box baby store while pregnant in 2010 led her to build Babylist, one of the most trusted baby registry platforms in the United States. (17:50) Gordon quit her job to code the first version of Babylist during her son's nap times, starting with just $140 in revenue in the second month. Through strategic growth tactics including Pinterest advertising (49:29) and a pivot from affiliate marketing to first-party e-commerce, she scaled the company to over $250 million in revenue.
- Main themes: The episode explores solving personal pain points through technology, the evolution from affiliate marketing to direct retail, the challenges of first-time leadership, and building a trusted parenting platform while living the customer experience as a new mother.
Speakers
Natalie Gordon
Natalie Gordon is the founder and CEO of Babylist, one of the most popular baby registry platforms in the United States. She previously worked as a software engineer at Amazon from 2004-2008, where she was part of the founding team for Amazon Fresh. Gordon has a background in math and computer science and started Babylist in 2011 while pregnant with her first child, coding the initial platform during nap times.
Guy Raz
Guy Raz is the host of How I Built This, NPR's award-winning podcast about innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists. He's also the creator and host of several other popular podcasts including TED Radio Hour and has been recognized as one of the most popular podcast hosts in America.
Key Takeaways
Live Your Problem to Build Better Solutions
Natalie Gordon's success with Babylist stemmed directly from experiencing the exact problem she was solving. (17:50) Her overwhelming experience at Babies R Us while pregnant led to her "aha moment" for creating a better registry system. By building Babylist while being a new mother herself, Gordon could validate features in real-time and understand her users' pain points intimately. This approach allowed her to create solutions that truly resonated with her target market - expecting and new parents who were equally overwhelmed by traditional baby retail experiences.
Start Small and Build Through Customer Feedback
Gordon's commitment to spending just 45 minutes a day on Babylist during early motherhood demonstrates the power of consistent, focused effort. (29:16) She used this limited time to fix bugs, answer customer support emails, and make incremental improvements based on direct user feedback. Her hands-on approach to customer service allowed her to rapidly iterate and improve the product, turning $140 in monthly revenue into clear validation that the business model could scale significantly with more users.
Distribution Strategy Can Make or Break Your Startup
Gordon learned from her previous failed startup (Languajero) that distribution was the hardest challenge for new businesses. (24:24) For Babylist's launch, she forced herself to cold-email 10 mommy bloggers with personalized registry examples, resulting in 5 coverage stories. She also posted on Hacker News as "a pregnant hacker," generating initial traction. This proactive approach to distribution, combined with the product's inherent viral nature (registry recipients becoming future users), created sustainable growth channels.
Transition from Founder to CEO Requires Deliberate Skill Development
Gordon struggled significantly with hiring, firing, and management in her early years as CEO. (39:42) Her breakthrough came when she hired an executive coach who provided detailed feedback from her team and gave her practical tools for leadership. The coach helped her develop the ability to give immediate, non-emotionally charged feedback to employees. This investment in leadership development was crucial for scaling the team from a solo operation to a company with substantial staff and revenue.
Strategic Business Model Evolution Requires Long-term Thinking
Gordon's decision to pivot from pure affiliate marketing to first-party e-commerce was driven by the need to "control their own destiny." (58:03) Despite the affiliate model being profitable and low-risk, the dependence on a few major retailers created vulnerability. The transition to holding inventory was initially painful and expensive, but it ultimately became the core of their business model and provided greater control over the customer experience and margins.
Statistics & Facts
- Babylist's best month with affiliate revenue was making $3,000 per month, which Gordon set as the threshold to work on the business full-time instead of getting a traditional job. (38:00)
- By 2021, Babylist's annual revenue had reached $250 million, which Gordon used as the opening slide in her successful Series B fundraising presentation that raised $40 million. (67:51)
- Nearly 100 million gifts have been given through the Babylist platform since its launch, with annual sales estimated at over half a billion dollars according to the episode introduction.
