Podcast Summary: Your Next Move – "Hiring People Who Have Taste"

Host: Inc. Magazine (Diana Ransom, Executive Editor)
Guest: Stephanie Liu, Founder of Levitate Foundry
Date: December 9, 2025

Main Theme & Purpose

This episode spotlights Stephanie Liu, founder of Levitate Foundry—ranked #168 on the 2024 Inc. 5000 list. Stephanie shares the story of building the largest female-founded Shopify agency in North America, her journey from creative musician to entrepreneur, the agency’s focus on storytelling and creativity, and her insights on building teams with "taste." The episode delves into the value of creative alignment, authentic brand stories, the dynamic landscape of e-commerce, and Stephanie’s vision for impact-driven products.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Levitate Foundry’s Mission and Approach

• Overview: Levitate is the largest female-founded Shopify agency in North America, focusing on launching, growing, and selling ecommerce brands, with an emphasis on creativity, performance marketing, and storytelling.
  • Quote [01:07]:

    “We build brands, primarily e-commerce brands on Shopify, and then we do all of the performance marketing associated with running that brand... My team is made up of creatives, performance marketers, landing page specialists, funnel experts...” – Stephanie Liu

• Brand Building for Celebrities: Levitate has built and launched notable celebrity brands, such as Bella Hadid's perfume line, Orabella, offering end-to-end services from website design to advertising assets.
  • Quote [01:53]:

    “We launched a brand for Bella Hadid... We had the ability to touch the website. We did the full graphic design ideation, photo shoots... the creative around it and a lot of the assets that go live with advertising since day one.” – Stephanie Liu

2. Platform Specialization & Adaptability

• Shopify Focus: The team primarily builds on Shopify for its ease and scalability, but can support complex migrations as brands grow, moving to platforms like BigCommerce or Magento as needed.
  • Quote [02:26]:

    “Shopify has become like the easiest platform... anyone can go on there and build a store... But we also can develop stores on pretty much any platform.” – Stephanie Liu

3. Founder's Journey: From Music to Marketing

• Creative Roots: Stephanie’s background as a musician, her creative aspirations, and the transition to business under family expectations.
  • Quote [04:00]:

    “I'm a creative by trade. I actually was a musician for a long time... I got into Juilliard... I ended up going to UC Berkeley. And when I was there... I just wanted to create things.” – Stephanie Liu

• Learning by Doing: Early hands-on experience in e-commerce and marketing during an internship at Sephora led to a career in digital marketing at major brands, culminating in starting her own agency.
  • Quote [05:23]:

    “I learned digital marketing basically at Sephora... That internship taught me so much about beauty marketing, digital marketing... This is like pre-Facebook ads.” – Stephanie Liu

4. Organic Growth and Word-of-Mouth Success

• No Sales Team, Only Reputation: Stephanie describes a path of organic growth, with referrals leading to more than 270 clients signed personally, facilitated by consistently great work and connections in the LA celebrity world.
  • Quote [07:15]:

    “I didn't have a sales team for three years. I signed about 270 clients by myself. All through word of mouth.” – Stephanie Liu

5. Focus on Female Founders & The Value of “Taste”

• Women in the Agency: While working with all genders, the agency focuses on hiring women due to alignment with the brands they serve and the detail-oriented, creative strengths women bring.
  • Quote [08:38]:

    “I hire a lot of women. Over the years I have found... you can never teach them taste... So for me, it's all about finding people that really align with what we're doing in our mission and the mission of our clients.” – Stephanie Liu

• Finding Talent with 'Taste': The ability to discern creative ‘taste’ in candidates—how they present, design portfolios, and fit with the team—is considered an intangible but critical skill in agency hiring.
  • Quote [09:27]:

    “You can just tell... design case studies, the way they write about themselves, the way that they have their header image on their LinkedIn... It's very easy to tell.” – Stephanie Liu

• User-Generated Content (UGC): Team members organically create content for clients, furthering authenticity and creative alignment.
  • Quote [10:49]:

    “They love to just, you know, put it on, make videos... We hire a lot of people that are just very creative. And I think it's also a generational thing.” – Stephanie Liu

6. Current Market & Adaptation

• Tougher Market, Creative Responses: Stephanie discusses the economic slowdown for CPG brands, budget constraints, and how both clients and agencies are shifting to more creative customer acquisition methods beyond digital ads.
  • Quote [11:21]:

    “The last 18 months, the economy has not been as good as people claim... A lot of them are pulling back on spend. Media is very tough right now, especially with the election coming up, but it's very expensive and costly.” – Stephanie Liu

  • Quote [12:04]:

    “I don't see any agencies that are growing tremendously... You have to be really creative in how you're getting new customers. So experiential dinners, going back to the real world, truck wrapping...” – Stephanie Liu

  • Quote [12:25]:

    “The days of being, hey, I'm just a D2C brand... all of our clients are really omnichannel and they're really leveraging the ability to build brand awareness...” – Stephanie Liu

7. Next Steps & Values-Driven Innovation

• Making a Human Impact: Stephanie shares aspirations to create products with global impact, especially around safety and well-being, combining her background in e-commerce with hardware innovation.
  • Quote [13:06]:

    “I'm trying to figure out what is impactful for me moving forward that is really going to allow me to make like a real human impact in the world.” – Stephanie Liu

• Product Innovations: She is developing Artemis Defense, a safety device company, and working on wearable products in the longevity and wellness space.
  • Quote [13:57]:

    “I've been inventing a safety device... It's called Artemis Defense, and it's like the first ever connected safety device for men and women... We also have a kids product we’re designing.” – Stephanie Liu

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (w/ Timestamps)

• On the importance of taste in hiring:

  “You can't buy taste. If you find someone who's amazing at design but they have no taste, you can never teach them taste.” – Stephanie Liu [08:51]

• On organic growth:

  “I didn't have a sales team for three years. I signed about 270 clients by myself. Yeah, it was a lot of work. All through word of mouth.” – Stephanie Liu [07:33]

• On the creative team’s passion:

  “Our employees become the UGC creators of the content... They love to just, you know, put it on, make videos and... They are the customer.” – Stephanie Liu [10:01]

• On shifting from D2C to omnichannel strategies:

  “The days of being, 'Hey, I'm just a D2C brand.' We don't have any clients that are just D2C anymore. Honestly all of our clients are omnichannel...” – Stephanie Liu [12:25]

• On her next move toward impact:

  “I'm trying to figure out what is impactful for me, moving forward, that is really going to allow me to make a real, like, human impact in the world.” – Stephanie Liu [13:06]

Important Segments with Timestamps

• [01:07] Introduction to Levitate Foundry’s work and team structure
• [01:53] Discussion of projects with celebrity brands, specifically Bella Hadid’s Orabella
• [04:00] Stephanie’s creative upbringing and transition from music to business
• [05:23] Early digital marketing career at Sephora
• [07:33] Word-of-mouth growth and client acquisition
• [08:38] Hiring philosophy: focusing on female founders and talent with “taste”
• [09:27] Evaluating candidates and hiring process
• [11:21] Current CPG market downturn and adaptation strategies
• [13:06] Stephanie’s vision for impact-driven product innovation

Conclusion

In a candid, fast-paced conversation, Stephanie Liu provides a compelling look into the making of a standout agency rooted in storytelling, taste, and creative alignment. Her career trajectory—from creative arts to digital marketing and entrepreneurship—underscores the importance of adaptability, reputation, and authenticity in business growth. Highlighting both the challenges and opportunities in today’s e-commerce and CPG landscape, Stephanie’s forward-looking vision emphasizes innovation for social good, making this episode both instructive and inspiring for aspiring entrepreneurs and leaders.