Lauren Bass

MY STORY

I'm an entrepreneur, growth marketer, writer and professional athlete. I have a daily meditation practice that has changed my life in the best way possible. By sharing my stories of self-experimentation and discovery, I bring people with me on this journey of learning to balance the doing and the being. You know what I'm talking about - that tension between that relentless drive to do more and be more and choosing to be enough just as we are in this moment.

Practicing mindfulness (awareness of the present moment) has become my superpower. I'm a better and happier entrepreneur, teacher, friend and human because of it. I'm here to share my exploration of that superpower with you and help you discover it within yourself too.

A few more details...

I grew up on a horse farm just outside Cleveland, Ohio. I started riding before I could walk and started competing when I was five. As a junior rider I won two national championships and was voted by my fellow riders to win the sportsmanship award, at Madison Square Garden. 

I graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Politics and a certificate in Environmental Studies. But I didn't take the typical post-Princeton path - no NYC analyst jobs for me. Instead, I moved back to Cleveland and took over running our family equestrian business and worked towards my dream of becoming an Olympian. I competed on the grand prix circuit, bought and sold horses, built our client training business, and guided one of my students to win a national junior championship. 

I loved growing our horse business but another business idea kept coming up that I just couldn't shake. I wanted to grow beyond the safe haven of my equestrian life, so I went back to school and got my MBA from Kellogg. I used my time there to research and pursue my business idea. 

It all stemmed from a need and an interest of my own, as many ideas do. As an athlete and a vegetarian since age 10, I struggled to eat healthfully, especially when I was on the road for competitions. I became fascinated by food systems and obsessively read everything I could find by Michael Pollan, learning more and more how broken it all really was. 

After graduating from Kellogg, I moved to San Francisco to launch LolaBee's Harvest, an online farmers market, and do my part to help build a better food system. I bootstrapped and grew the company and sold it to competitor Good Eggs in November, 2013.

Since selling LolaBee's, I've been working with other startups in a consulting capacity to help them grow. After a 2 year hiatus from growing my own company, I'm back in the saddle, working with a friend to test a new business idea aimed at helping people bring mindfulness practices into their daily lives.