Latest news with #NatalieGordon
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How a former Amazon engineer turned a 14-year-old baby registry into a $500 million business
– Growing up. Natalie Gordon started the baby registry Babylist in 2011 to serve customers like her. A former software engineer for Amazon, she was about to have her first child and started building a registry that met her needs. That helped Babylist distinguish itself as a destination for new parents of the early 2010s in a market where any registry for them was baby blue and pale pink, with cutesy cartoons they didn't want to send around to friends and family. 'I was our core user,' she remembers. 'I was writing every single line of code. It was very easy to know what to build because I was building it for myself.' Fourteen years later, with a 14-year-old at home, Gordon is no longer the core customer for the platform. It's now a registry, an ecommerce destination for new parents, and an affiliate sales powerhouse—a profitable one that brings in more than $500 million in annual revenue, Fortune is the first to report. Gordon tells new hires at Babylist who don't have kids that they're closer to their core user—brand-new parents—than she is. The growth of Babylist to become a half-billion-dollar business has depended on reaching a broader market of parents. The platform has traditionally been a place for people to register for and buy everything from $29 baby bottles to a $1,399 gliding nursery chair. Two years ago, the company secured licenses to operate a health vertical, where parents can order breast pumps covered by insurance, Medicaid included. That vertical is already a $50 million business. Forty percent of infants in the U.S. are born under Medicaid, and Babylist aims to serve 80% of that population by 2027. 'There are so many parts of having a baby that are truly universal,' Gordon says of getting to know the Medicaid customer. 'We do an exceptional job of serving both those audiences.' For Gordon, this growth has also come from her aversion to a traditional part of running a startup: fundraising. 'I was actually kind of terrible at fundraising,' she remembers. She raised less than $50 million over the past 14 years. 'That felt like it was a curse, and now it's a blessing,' says Gordon. 'We always treated it as a business, not a startup.' Emma – Call to action. Change the World is Fortune's annual list featuring companies that are doing well by doing good. These companies are using the creative tools of business to help the planet and tackle society's unmet needs—and they're earning a profit while doing so. Plus, the list often features companies that are creating economic opportunities for women in industries or countries where they're underrepresented. You can see last year's honorees here. The deadline for applications this year is Tuesday, July 29; the list will be published in late September, and will appear in the October/November issue of Fortune magazine. Have a company you'd like to nominate? Fill out this form! Have questions? Send an email to changetheworld@ The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune's daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today's edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here. This story was originally featured on
Sky News AU
14-05-2025
- Health
- Sky News AU
From cancer patient to doctor: A second chance at life
Dr Natalie Gordon is one of the newest interns at Broken Hill Base Hospital, with her path to medicine being anything but typical. A proud Ngunnawal woman and former teacher, Dr Gordon was diagnosed with Lynch syndrome, a genetic disorder which increases the risk of developing certain cancers - in her case, it was Duodenal cancer. Most cancer survivors looked to put hospitals and medical appointments behind them, but Dr Gordon said she couldn't look away. 'It was actually when I was sick, I just thought people in hospital deserve somebody who's going to listen and love them despite what's in front of them,' she told Sky News Australia.
Sky News AU
14-05-2025
- Health
- Sky News AU
Cancer patient Dr Natalie Gordon becomes a doctor after her second chance at life inspired her to pursue a career in medicine
At 42-years-old, Dr Natalie Gordon is one of the newest interns to join the team at Broken Hill Base Hospital after packing up her bags to move 917km to NSW's far west, but she is no stranger to hospital halls. A cancer diagnosis propelled her on a new path or as she like to call it, 'Life 2.0'. In 2014 - eighteen years into her teaching career - Dr Gordon was feeling 'exhausted'. 'I noticed I had put on a lot of weight, and I kept getting really breathless,' she told Sky News. 'I worked at a private school so they had a doctor who would come in to see the boarders who I would visit as well but they could figure out what was going on. 'I just kept going back and towards the end I thought I was going crazy.' On the June long weekend her condition escalated. 'I got really sick to the point I couldn't eat so I took myself to hospital,' she said. 'I ended up having my appendix out, but even then, they still missed the larger part of the story. 'Six weeks later I was teaching again, and I knew something wasn't right. 'I eventually had a colonoscopy and a gastroscopy, and they told me I had cancer.' She was diagnosed with lynch syndrome, a genetic disorder which increases the risk of developing certain cancers - in Dr Gordon's case it was duodenal cancer. 'In that moment my mum was so wise, she said we don't want to know the prognosis,' Dr Gordon said. 'The surgeon said in my opinion you're 100 per cent alive or you're 100 per cent dead, that's just how it is. 'I had a whipple surgery, it was a very serious surgery, it is over six hours and for most people who get it survivorship is difficult.' Though Dr Gordon will never say she is cancer free, her health is now back on track. It's her hospital experience that sticks with her the most. 'I do worry that I was a bit disregarded, not only was I a young woman who should be well but also, I am an Indigenous woman, so I had a few things going against me,' she said. 'I think women aren't listened to in medicine and that's not anyone's fault it's just the way medicine is taught.' Determined to change that experience for others she sat the Graduate Medical School Admissions Test – and she passed. 'I didn't think I would pass but I though why not give it a go,' she said. 'I had this sense teaching wasn't for me anymore so if I didn't pass I was going to become a pilates instructor.' By no means did Dr Gordon find her studies at Australian National University easy, she even failed her first year, but she 'thought people in hospital deserve someone who is going to listen and love them despite what is in front of them'. 'When I was in my country hometown (Goulburn) I thought they don't need people blowing in then blowing out,' she said. 'There is not enough consistency in towns that need doctors like that. 'So I would like to become a rural generalist and hopefully give back to my home community.' Dr Gordon deals with constant reminders of her cancer journey now she is five months into her time at Broken Hill. 'I am deeply grateful mentally to have had the life experience of knowing how hard it is for patients,' she said. 'When I have to work with them every day I understand what it feels like to not be heard by a doctor, to not be clear about your own health, to not have autonomy over your own body.'
CBS News
09-05-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Raising a kid in the U.S. was already expensive. Tariffs could add $1,000 to the bill.
President Trump's tariffs are hiking baby product prices. Here's how much you could spend. President Trump's tariffs are making it a lot more expensive to have kids, parents and baby gear makers say. Sweeping levies imposed by Mr. Trump in April are hiking the prices of baby essentials, including car seats and strollers, amounting to a tax on parents, advocates for reducing costs for families say. At the same time, the White House is trying to encourage Americans to have more children. Mr. Trump is even considering a $5,000 "baby bonus," according to a New York Times report, to boost the U.S.' declining birth rate. New parents and couples that are expecting could soon face tariff-related cost increases of up to $1,000 a year on baby essentials, according to Natalie Gordon, the CEO of Babylist, a baby registry service. Gordon noted that price increases are already in effect across a range of products, given manufacturers' reliance on China to produce strollers, cribs, car seats and other required goods. Currently, an import duty of up to 145% applies to U.S. imports from China, where the vast majority of strollers sold in the U.S. are made. Mr. Trump on Friday signaled that the rate could come down, writing in a post on his social media platform Truth Social that an "80% Tariff on China seems right!" Calling for a reprieve Gordon is among a group of advocates calling on the White House to exempt critical baby products from sky-high tariffs. In addition to levies on Chinese products, a baseline 10% tariff applies to all U.S. imports. Additional country-based duties — with the exception of China — are currently on hold for 90 days. "Manufacturers are, on a day-to-day basis, dealing with the shock of tariffs on products and are very willing to invest in supply chains," Gordon told CBS MoneyWatch. "They are looking at what it takes to onshore products, but it takes time and investment." Gordon added that she believes the tariffs amount to a "baby tax on every parent across the country." That's why she said a reprieve is necessary. "We know the administration wants to support families to feel like they can have babies, and this is the easiest and quickest way they can do that," she said. Inventory sitting on U.S. store shelves already costs more than it did last month. For example, UPPAbaby, which makes car seats and strollers overseas, said in a statement posted on its website in an April that tariffs are making price increases "unavoidable." Price hikes on some products went into effect May 5. An UPPAbaby car seat, for example, already costs $150 more than it did last month, according to Elizabeth Mahon, who owns Three Littles, a children's store in Washington, D.C. One of her most popular items, the UPPAbaby Vista stroller, now costs $1,199, up $300 from $899, she told CBS News correspondent Jo Ling Kent in May. "There aren't very many products that are made exclusively in the United States, and even products that are made in the United States rely on global manufacturing for production, or for their materials that they're packing things in or shipping materials," Mahon said. Resale proves popular The rising cost of parenthood has some parents turning to resale platforms, boosting demand for discounted open-box goods or overstock inventory. Shraysi Tandon, founder and CEO of Kidsy, a re-commerce platform for baby and kids products, told CBS MoneyWatch that "tariffs are wreaking havoc on families that were already squeezed to begin with." Tandon said she's witnessed a 25%-35% across-the-board hike in prices on baby equipment, including strollers, car seats, bouncers, carriers and other gear. "Price hikes we thought would happen over the summer are already happening in real-time," she said, adding that the increase in costs doesn't jibe with the White House's call for families to have more children. "If anything, people will get sticker shock and not want to have more kids at a time when many families are already experiencing inflationary pressures at checkout," she said. Kidsy has seen a 70% spike in traffic over the past couple weeks, according to Tandon, as parents look for ways to save money. "Resale and re-commerce is a strong signal to me that consumers are actively looking for discounted items, and ways in which they can save money on products that are essentials," she said. Mr. Trump this week said he's considering a carveout for baby products, but that he'd prefer for tariffs to be "nice and simple." "I'm not looking to have so many exemptions that nobody knows what's going on," Mr. Trump said during the swearing-in ceremony for David Purdue as Ambassador to China. In the meantime, expecting couples are taking a close look at their budgets and trying to find ways to trim costs. "I feel like we're trying to cut back a little bit on everything just because it's not clear how long this is going to last," expecting father Femi Taiwo told CBS News.
CBS News
09-05-2025
- Business
- CBS News
U.S. tariffs could raise the cost of baby products up to $1,000 a year, industry players say
President Trump's tariffs are hiking baby product prices. Here's how much you could spend. President Trump's tariffs are making it a lot more expensive to have kids, parents and baby gear makers say. Sweeping levies imposed by Mr. Trump in April are hiking the prices of baby essentials, including car seats and strollers, amounting to a tax on parents, advocates for reducing costs for families say. At the same time, the White House is trying to encourage Americans to have more children. Mr. Trump is even considering a $5,000 "baby bonus," according to a New York Times report, to boost the U.S.' declining birth rate. New parents and couples that are expecting could soon face tariff-related cost increases of up to $1,000 a year on baby essentials, according to Natalie Gordon, the CEO of Babylist, a baby registry service. Gordon noted that price increases are already in effect across a range of products, given manufacturers' reliance on China to produce strollers, cribs, car seats and other required goods. Currently, an import duty of up to 145% applies to U.S. imports from China, where the vast majority of strollers sold in the U.S. are made. Mr. Trump on Friday signaled that the rate could come down, writing in a post on his social media platform Truth Social that an "80% Tariff on China seems right!" Calling for a reprieve Gordon is among a group of advocates calling on the White House to exempt critical baby products from sky-high tariffs. In addition to levies on Chinese products, a baseline 10% tariff applies to all U.S. imports. Additional country-based duties — with the exception of China — are currently on hold for 90 days. "Manufacturers are, on a day-to-day basis, dealing with the shock of tariffs on products and are very willing to invest in supply chains," Gordon told CBS MoneyWatch. "They are looking at what it takes to onshore products, but it takes time and investment." Gordon added that she believes the tariffs amount to a "baby tax on every parent across the country." That's why she said a reprieve is necessary. "We know the administration wants to support families to feel like they can have babies, and this is the easiest and quickest way they can do that," she said. Inventory sitting on U.S. store shelves already costs more than it did last month. For example, UPPAbaby, which makes car seats and strollers overseas, said in a statement posted on its website in an April that tariffs are making price increases "unavoidable." Price hikes on some products went into effect May 5. An UPPAbaby car seat, for example, already costs $150 more than it did last month, according to Elizabeth Mahon, who owns Three Littles, a children's store in Washington, D.C. One of her most popular items, the UPPAbaby Vista stroller, now costs $1,199, up $300 from $899, she told CBS News correspondent Jo Ling Kent in May. "There aren't very many products that are made exclusively in the United States, and even products that are made in the United States rely on global manufacturing for production, or for their materials that they're packing things in or shipping materials," Mahon said. Resale proves popular The rising cost of parenthood has some parents turning to resale platforms, boosting demand for discounted open-box goods or overstock inventory. Shraysi Tandon, founder and CEO of Kidsy, a re-commerce platform for baby and kids products, told CBS MoneyWatch that "tariffs are wreaking havoc on families that were already squeezed to begin with." Tandon said she's witnessed a 25%-35% across-the-board hike in prices on baby equipment, including strollers, car seats, bouncers, carriers and other gear. "Price hikes we thought would happen over the summer are already happening in real-time," she said, adding that the increase in costs doesn't jibe with the White House's call for families to have more children. "If anything, people will get sticker shock and not want to have more kids at a time when many families are already experiencing inflationary pressures at checkout," she said. Kidsy has seen a 70% spike in traffic over the past couple weeks, according to Tandon, as parents look for ways to save money. "Resale and re-commerce is a strong signal to me that consumers are actively looking for discounted items, and ways in which they can save money on products that are essentials," she said. Mr. Trump this week said he's considering a carveout for baby products, but that he'd prefer for tariffs to be "nice and simple." "I'm not looking to have so many exemptions that nobody knows what's going on," Mr. Trump said during the swearing-in ceremony for David Purdue as Ambassador to China. In the meantime, expecting couples are taking a close look at their budgets and trying to find ways to trim costs. "I feel like we're trying to cut back a little bit on everything just because it's not clear how long this is going to last," expecting father Femi Taiwo told CBS News.
