When Leslie Voorhees Means was looking for a wedding dress, she was disappointed to find outrageous prices and a relative lack of customization options. At the time, she worked in engineering and manufacturing. She wasn’t an entrepreneur, but she knew the problem needed a solution, so she stepped up to provide it. Today, Leslie and her husband are co-founders of Anomalie, an online wedding dress experience that allows brides to customize their wedding dresses at a fraction of the price of brick and mortar equivalents.
This week Leslie joins us to talk about the experience and what it has taught her. She covers her thought process in starting the business, what she considered the biggest risks to be, what she’s learned about entrepreneurship, the impact of COVID-19 on her business, and what she considers to be most important. She offers her thoughts on the importance of trust, working with your significant other, company culture, work-life balance, being aware of your blind spots, and the role of perseverance and resilience. She also notes the key importance of direct communication both with customers and with other business founders.
“Great companies don’t launch. They just start.”
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Guests
Leslie Voorhees Means
Hosts
Stephanie Cartin
Co-founder of Socialfly and Entreprenista.
Stephanie Cartin is the co-founder and CEO of Entreprenista, an all-in-one platform – which includes a private community & business membership called The Entreprenista League that's made up of over 2,000 women founders at all stages of business, a weekly newsletter received by 60,000 readers, two podcasts, in-person educational & networking events, and an award program – that women founders at all stages can turn to for everything they need to grow.
Stephanie is also the co-founder of Socialfly (acquired by Truform Media Group in 2024), Markid, and Pearl Influential Capital. She has won countless awards, including the SmartCEO Brava award, which recognizes the top women CEOs in New York, and a Stevie Award for Women-Run Workplace of the Year. She has also appeared in Bloomberg, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Refinery29, and more.
Courtney Spritzer
Co-founder of Entreprenista.
Courtney Spritzer is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, author, and community builder with a passion for creating brands and platforms that empower women to lead, grow, and thrive.
In 2012, she co-founded Socialfly, a leading social-first digital and influencer marketing agency. Over the course of a decade, she helped scale the business into an award-winning agency working with Fortune 500 brands and emerging startups, building a powerhouse team and culture along the way. In 2024, Socialfly was acquired.
In 2018, Courtney launched the Entreprenista Podcast to spotlight the stories of inspiring women founders. That passion evolved into Entreprenista Media in 2021, a media platform and community supporting women entrepreneurs at every stage of growth. She now co-leads the continued expansion of The Entreprenista League, a membership-driven community and ecosystem for founders.
As an angel investor, Courtney supports female-led and mission-driven startups aligned with her vision for a more inclusive and equitable business landscape.
She is the co-author of Like, Love, Follow: The Entreprenista’s Guide to Using Social Media to Grow Your Business (2015), a strategic guide for leveraging social platforms to drive business success.
Her work and ventures have been featured in Bloomberg, Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, and The New York Times. She is committed to championing visionary founders and helping build the next generation of impactful, community-driven businesses.
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