The Builders/ Speaker

Michelle
Cordeiro Grant

Founder & CEO, GORGIE · Founder, LIVELY

The Serial Category Disruptor

Michelle Cordeiro Grant is a serial entrepreneur with a remarkably consistent playbook: find a massive category dominated by legacy brands, identify the consumer they’re overlooking, and build backwards from her.

She first applied that thesis to intimates with LIVELY, the community-led brand she built from concept to an $105 million acquisition by Wacoal in just three years. Michelle coined “Leisurée” to define a new space between lingerie, activewear and loungewear, while building a community of more than 165,000 ambassadors who became an extension of the company’s product development and growth engine.

Then she did it again. With GORGIE, Michelle entered the traditionally male-coded energy drink category with a wellness, beauty and fashion sensibility designed around women. The company went from concept to retail shelf in six months, expanded to more than 1,900 Target stores and raised $37 million to date.

Few founders get to build, scale, exit—and then deliberately return to zero. Michelle brings the lessons of both journeys to the stage: how to spot white space inside enormous categories, build demand through community, know what actually matters from zero to one, and decide what to do differently the second time around.

Speaking Fee

Upon request

Booking Inquiry

Speaking Topics/ 02

What Michelle brings to the stage.

How To Leverage Creators & Influencers To Build a National Brand

Michelle does not begin with product. She begins with the customer. Drawing on LIVELY and GORGIE, she shows how obsessive listening, focus groups and co-creation can turn consumers into an unofficial R&D department before a product ever reaches the shelf.

ii.

How to Find White Space in a Billion-Dollar Category

The biggest opportunities are not always in new markets. Sometimes they’re inside enormous existing ones whose leaders stopped listening. Michelle breaks down how she identifies overlooked consumers, finds the cultural gap and builds a brand that makes an old category feel new.

iv.

The Second Act

What do you do after you have already built and sold the company? Michelle speaks to returning to zero, separating ego from experience and deciding which lessons from your first company are genuinely reusable—and which ones belong in the past.

Community as Competitive Moat

Michelle built LIVELY with more than 165,000 ambassadors and is applying the same philosophy to GORGIE, where customers influence flavors, ingredients and launches. She explores the difference between having followers and building a community powerful enough to shape the product itself.

“I look for billion-dollar categories where legacy brands still have the lion’s share, but the consumer, especially women, is being overlooked.”

Michelle Cordeiro Grant

Past Stages

Camp FFF – “You Made it – Now What?,” 2026
Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala — “Cashing Out or Carrying On: Navigating Your Exit Strategy,” 2024
Luminary Women’s History Month Summit — “From Start-Up to Scale,” 2024
Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala — “Building the Future of Fast Growth,” 2023
Create & Cultivate Haven — Speaker, 2026

Selected Press

Forbes
Michelle Grant Shares the Multimillion-Dollar Marketing Playbook Behind GORGIE
Teen Vogue
profile on leaving Victoria’s Secret to build LIVELY and create “Leisurée”
Female Startup Club
founder interview on building and selling LIVELY

Also On The Roster/ Related

MichelleCordeiro Grant