#28. Beauty and wellness are evolving faster than ever before—but what's actually driving the industry's next chapter? Is it innovation, community, science... or the consumer?

This week, Kate sits down with Lindy Firstenberg, Co-Lead of the Beauty, Health & Wellness Practice at AlixPartners. From helping launch Louis Vuitton Fragrance to advising founders, retailers, investors, and global brands, Lindy has spent her career at the forefront of the industry's biggest shifts. Now, she's stepping into entrepreneurship herself, co-founding a science-backed scar repair company built around breakthrough biotechnology.

In this conversation, Lindy shares her perspective on where beauty, health, and wellness are headed, why today's consumers are more informed than ever, and the lessons she's learned through building businesses, navigating serious illness, and redefining what it means to live well.

In this episode, we discuss:

Lindy's unconventional path from NASA to Louis Vuitton to AlixPartners
The biggest shifts shaping the future of beauty, health, and wellness
Why today's "Consumer PhD" is changing how brands must build trust
The most common mistakes founders make when scaling consumer brands
How retailers and brands should think differently about marketing, distribution, and community
Why content, peer recommendations, and clienteling matter more than traditional influencer marketing
The inspiration behind Lindy's new science-backed scar repair company
What building a company alongside her husband has taught her about entrepreneurship and partnership
How surviving a life-threatening illness reshaped her perspective on ambition, purpose, and risk
The future of wellness, longevity, personalized health, and clinical validation in consumer products