30 Seconds with 30M: Alexis Tarlow
Name: Alexis Tarlow
Title: General Manager — Picnic
What does a typical day look like for you?
Every single day — and often multiple times per day — my toddler asks me, “What does Mama do all day?!” I’ve distilled the answer as best I can: Mama sends a lot of emails, talks to all of her friends on video, and waits to play with you!
In all seriousness, there is no typical day for me, given the myriad things my business, Picnic, has going on. I spend a lot of time brainstorming new ideas and working through challenges with my team, connecting with our cross-functional partners, and learning as much as I can about the allergy space. I love that each day is different, and this is one of the things I’m most grateful for in my role at Thirty Madison.
How did you end up at Thirty Madison?
I met our cofounders, Steve and Demetri, through some casual networking before our first brand, Keeps, launched. Over six months of coffee chats, I fell in love with the big vision they had for what Thirty Madison could do for so many millions of people. While I’m very much a desk-builder, I didn’t expect to go from managing a giant team at Uber to joining a five-person startup — but I’m grateful every single day that I did.
What’s the most impactful thing you’ve worked on while at Thirty Madison?
A pharma partner made this observation about us, and it’s stuck with me: “You play in Play-doh; we play in concrete.” A feeling of being impossibly stuck is often true in healthcare, but at Thirty Madison, we’ve decided that it’s not acceptable. This team excels at being nimble and coming up with creative solutions to our industry’s biggest problems. This mindset is required for us to achieve this colossal vision that we have. Even in the past week, I’ve been both energized and humbled by ingenious, collaborative solves to seemingly impossible problems. The lesson I carry forward with me is that anything is possible if you’re willing to remold your Play-doh.
What career advice do you have for someone who’s interested in healthcare but who is not sure where to start?
I didn’t come to Thirty Madison with dedicated healthcare experience, but instead a strong desire to help improve the lives of the people around me. I’m surrounded here by some of the most brilliant minds in healthcare, and I’ve used that to my advantage, rather than letting imposter syndrome creep in. For the early part of my career, I was so afraid to ask questions, lest I be perceived as disconnected or dumb. The result was wasted time, wasted effort, and a failure to deliver the work I knew I was capable of because I didn’t have the context I needed. I’ve learned to shamelessly speak up and learn fast from those around me, and it’s made me a better operator and teammate. So my advice: If you’re passionate about improving healthcare, that’s more than enough to get started.
What’s a fun thing that you’re obsessed with?
My toddler, Noah, is the most fun thing, and I’m very much obsessed with him. I can also talk for hours about good sushi, good wine, travel (especially safari!), traveling places for good sushi, and traveling places for good wine.
