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Two weeks ago, the WeightWatchers board ousted CEO Sima Sistani, who helmed the company for two-and-a-half years, appointing board member Tara Comonte interim CEO. During that time, the company has radically altered its business model to stay competitive in the Ozempic era. Cohost Yasmin Gange analyzes what this leadership change signals for the company's strategy. Also, ‘Fast Company' associate editor David Salazar talks with Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy. His tenure of the past 3 years comes amid a cultural discussion about whether or not the Grammys and the Academy are still relevant. They chatted about diversifying the Grammy voting process, advocating for artists, and how Mason feels about AI in the music industry.
Two weeks ago, the WeightWatchers board ousted CEO Sima Sistani, who helmed the company for two-and-a-half years, appointing board member Tara Comonte interim CEO. During that time, the company has radically altered its business model to stay competitive in the Ozempic era. Cohost Yasmin Gange analyzes what this leadership change signals for the company's strategy. Also, ‘Fast Company' associate editor David Salazar talks with Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy. His tenure of the past 3 years comes amid a cultural discussion about whether or not the Grammys and the Academy are still relevant. They chatted about diversifying the Grammy voting process, advocating for artists, and how Mason feels about AI in the music industry.
Long before WeightWatchers became a weight loss empire, the legacy dieting company started as a small support group in the 1960s. The company rose to popularity preaching a message of moderation and making healthy choices. But in what some call a surprising pivot, WeightWatchers is changing the way the company does business. On today's Chasing Life, CEO Sima Sistani sits down with Dr. Sanjay Gupta to share why she's making these big changes, namely, embracing telehealth and weight loss drugs like Wegovy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
#618: Today, we're sitting down with Sima Sistani, CEO of Weight Watchers. Sima has more than 20 years of experience at the intersection of media and technology. A prolific relationship builder and keen problem solver, Sima has started, operated, and scaled companies from seed startups to multinational corporations. Today, she joins us to discuss all things career progression, how to find a job you love, and how to balance work and family. We also dive into weight loss and hear about her personal journey with postpartum weight loss, how Weight Watchers helped her create balance and fix her eating habits, and how to create healthy habits surrounding nutrition. To View this Episode on YouTube click HERE To connect with Weight Watchers click HERE Head to ww.com/tsc to see if you qualify. If you do, use our code TSC25 to get your first month free plus $25 off your second month. ● Code: TSC25 To connect with Lauryn Evarts Bosstick click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential. This episode is brought to you by the Natural Diamonds Council From Canada to Africa to Australia, the natural diamond industry has transformed local communities from which the diamonds originate with healthcare, education, and infrastructure over the last two decades and is committed to continued progress. Discover so many more natural diamond truths at naturaldiamonds.com/thankyou This episode is brought to you by AG1 If you want to take ownership of your health, it starts with AG1. Go to drinkAG1.com/SKINNY to get a free 1-year supply of Vitamin D3K2 AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp BetterHelp is online therapy that offers video, phone, and even live chat-only therapy sessions. So you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to. It's much more affordable than in-person therapy & you can be matched with a therapist in under 48 hours. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/skinny . This episode is brought to you by Momentous Visit livemomentous.com/skinny and use code SKINNY at checkout for 15% off your first purchase. This episode is brought to you by Drizly Drizly is the go-to app for drink delivery. Download the Drizly app or go to Drizly.com and use code SKINNY at checkout to receive $5 off or a $0 delivery fee on your next order. This episode is brought to you Primally Pure Primally Pure has harnessed the power of natural ingredients in their complete line of non-toxic beauty products. Visit primallypure.com and use code SKINNY at checkout for 15% off your order. Produced by Dear Media
Simi Sistani, WW International CEO, talks Ozempic, technology and the company's new approach to weight loss. She speaks with Bloomberg's Caroline HydeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
WeightWatchers recently announced a $132 million deal to acquire telehealth company Sequence and enter the prescription drug space (think: GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic). It begs the question: why is a company built on personal accountability facilitating medical interventions? We ask our guest, WeightWatchers CEO Sima Sistani. Before and after the interview, Nayeema and Kara discuss their own experiences with diet fads and whether drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic will help America deal with the obesity epidemic or simply avoid tackling underlying issues like food supply, corporate greed and light regulation. Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
For our latest episode, Sima Sistani joins us for a conversation that brings to light the personal side and vulnerable truths of trying to run a company, be a present parent, and deal with life changes and societal expectations of how to do it all. We share different perspectives on how to try and raise kids with a strong internal sense of self and how we're each still discovering this for ourselves. During Covid in 2020, Sima put these life lessons of empathy and grace into action in how she led the team at Houseparty. We dig into her career trajectory, from international equities trading at Goldman Sachs to working in Hollywood and into co-founding a tech startup, and advice she got along the way. To wrap up, Chloe, April and Sima all discuss the choice to found companies in their 40s, the narrow stereotype that you have to be young to make that leap, and searching for the tingly feeling of when you know you've seen a glimpse of the future and when to chase it. Each week, we wrap up with a Shoutout to people who've inspired and helped us along the way. This episode, Sima highlights Martha Lane Fox, an internet entrepreneur and Board Director at Twitter, and Jess shines on Molly Graham, COO at Lambda School. Chloe gives a special shoutout to everyone serving on local school boards! The #ANGELS Pod brings you conversations about the latest tech trends with the people inventing and shaping them in Silicon Valley and beyond. Hosted by the co-founders of #ANGELS, an investment collective: Jessica Verrilli, April Underwood, Jana Messerschmidt, Chloe Sladden, Katie Stanton, and Vijaya Gadde. We cover personal stories about breaking into tech and scaling up, and inside looks at the most interesting startups, from the people building them. This podcast is just getting started and we'd love your feedback. You can reach us on Twitter @HashtagAngels and thanks in advance for listening! The #ANGELS Podcast is a production of Haitch Industries. Our theme music is by Tobey Forsman of Whipsong Music. The episode was produced and edited by Matt Herrero.
Anu and Sima Sistani, founder and CEO of social group video app Houseparty, discuss everything from managing the enormous surge of coronavirus video demand and adding 50 million new users in 30 days, how the app has responded to consumer needs during lockdown, putting user safety above growth and monetization potential, the loneliness epidemic we are experiencing today, and what to do when you accidentally like your ex-boyfriends instagram.
Founding Partner, Anu Duggal introduces The 2% by Female Founders Fund. The series features deep dives with iconic female tech leaders like Whitney Wolfe Herd, Anne Wojcicki, Sima Sistani to get to the stories you won't hear anywhere else. The 2% debuts on 10/22.
Host Molly Wood speaks with the CEO of Houseparty, Sima Sistani, about the sudden surge in the use of the app as people quarantining at home connect for video chats with friends and family. Like Zoom, Houseparty’s privacy practices have come under scrutiny as millions more are using the platform. Keep a close eye on your connections lists, Sistani says, and privacy should not be an issue.
Host Molly Wood speaks with the CEO of Houseparty, Sima Sistani, about the sudden surge in the use of the app as people quarantining at home connect for video chats with friends and family. Like Zoom, Houseparty’s privacy practices have come under scrutiny as millions more are using the platform. Keep a close eye on your connections lists, Sistani says, and privacy should not be an issue.
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ben Rubin and Sima Sistani, founders of video chat app Houseparty, to talk about trying and failing multiple times (3:00), why live streaming didn’t work (5:50), telling investors that their company was a bust - three months after raising $14m (8:50), focussing on the 99% (10:45), how Sima and Ben teamed up (14:15), building an alternative to “performative” social media (17:35), Sima’s background in banking (21:00), countering the loneliness epidemic (22:40), launching Houseparty (26:00), reengineering the app after it took off (29:30), raising $50m from Sequoia Capital (32:10), on everyone copying everyone in Silicon Valley (33:10), how Houseparty works (37:30), how both being immigrants influenced how they built the product (39:05), on not having a plan to make money (46:10), and their worst days of work (47:30). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Converge is an interview game show where the biggest personalities in tech come on to tell us about their wildest dreams. It’s a show that’s easy to win, but not impossible to lose — because in the final round, I finally get a chance to play, and score a few points of my own. On the premiere episode of Converge, Houseparty cofounder and chief operating officer Sima Sistani sits down to tell us about her big idea: Tupperware parties for marijuana — or, as she puts it, Stella & Dot for pot. With weed becoming legal in more states, people are curious about what they might enjoy. If you don’t feel comfortable visiting a dispensary, maybe you’d prefer to bring an expert to your house, along with some samples for you and your friends? Sistani makes a solid case. She also tells us about her experience building Houseparty, a group video chat app that became so popular with young people that Facebook cloned it into a new app called Bonfire. Along the way, she discusses the challenges of parenting in the age of social media and asks me to choose between Black Panther and Wonder Woman, which is deeply unfair. Let us know how you like the show! Review the show on Apple Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The rise of social network giants Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn paved the way for the world to connect online and showed the power of people sharing their own ideas, thoughts and images. Today, people share their personal moments billions of times a day yet these platforms are still largely considered asynchronous, meaning you post to your followers and they interact later. The advancement in mobile communication technology has, in many ways, detached the human aspect of communication with the ease and speed of text, “likes” and shares replacing phone calls. Live group video chat app Houseparty is on a mission to reconnect people in the most human way possible, when they are physically apart. Founders, Ben Rubin and Sima Sistani, have been through the trenches together pivoting from live video app Meerkat to Houseparty. Houseparty is now winning over Generation Z, with more than 1 million daily active users connecting with friends and family through spontaneous togetherness. The co-founders have deep knowledge of what drives mobile social apps. Previously, Sima was Head of Media at Tumblr responsible for global media strategy and partnership. Ben is a serial entrepreneur who has worked abroad in Israel scaling startup companies and working with large corporations including Intel. In this episode of Greymatter, the Houseparty founders share learning lessons from pivoting a company, the challenges of adopting live video and the opportunity to rethink what it means to communicate online.