{"id":20482,"date":"2026-02-10T11:31:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T11:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=20482"},"modified":"2026-02-10T11:31:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T11:31:33","slug":"this-ceo-wants-to-do-for-hearing-aids-what-she-helped-do-for-shapewear-at-spanx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=20482","title":{"rendered":"This CEO wants to do for hearing aids what she helped do for shapewear at Spanx"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Laurie Ann Goldman, who helped\u00a0turn Spanx into a global powerhouse\u00a0as CEO before moving on to run Avon and Tupperware,\u00a0is now\u00a0CEO of\u00a0Audien\u00a0Hearing. In an exclusive interview with\u00a0Fortune<\/em>\u00a0ahead of today\u2019s announcement,\u00a0the veteran brand builder\u00a0talked about her plans to scale the\u00a0over-the-counter\u00a0(OTC)\u00a0hearing aid brand, currently used by more than\u00a01.5 million customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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For Goldman, the key to tapping into the 1.5 billion people who experience issues with hearing loss is to destigmatize hearing aids\u00a0by\u00a0promoting\u00a0the\u00a0wellness\u00a0benefits. \u201cI\u2019ve\u00a0been calling it building the\u00a0\u2018Great\u00a0Un-Mumbling\u2019,\u201d she said, pointing to research like a landmark Johns Hopkins study that found even mild hearing loss\u00a0doubled dementia risk. \u201cGetting people earlier into these products is really important.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

While\u00a0Audien\u00a0is one of\u00a0cheapest\u00a0and most popular\u00a0hearing solutions providers,\u00a0sold in stores like Walgreens and Walmart,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0in an increasingly\u00a0crowded space. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration\u00a0established a new category of OTC hearing aids\u00a0in\u00a0October of 2022, noting the importance of making such devices accessible to the 30 million adults in the U.S. with some form of hearing loss. Because consumers can now buy such devices without seeing an audiologist,\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0a wider range of options and quality among products available for sale.\u00a0Even Apple\u00a0AirPods\u00a0can now act\u00a0as FDA-authorized OTC hearing aids.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

So how\u00a0to\u00a0compete? Along with\u00a0having proprietary technology, testing and\u00a0an innovative\u00a0hearing-specialist support program developed by founders Ishan Patel, Dylan\u00a0Garber\u00a0and Zack Hubbard,\u00a0Audien\u00a0competes on price: its\u00a0hearing aids cost as little as $98.\u00a0Goldman wants to remove the stigma of wearing them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Goldman joins the founders\u2014Ishan Patel, Dylan Garber, and Zack Hubbard\u2014three entrepreneurs inspired by their own grandparents\u2019 hearing struggles. Together, the team has built a breakthrough approach: proprietary engineering, real-world testing, and the industry\u2019s first trained hearing-specialist support program.\u00a0Goldman talks about seeing a high school friend who\u00a0confessed to being embarrassed that she was now wearing hearing aids. \u201cShe\u2019s\u00a0a doctor,\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0attractive, she\u00a0shouldn\u2019t\u00a0be\u00a0thinking that\u00a0about her\u00a0hearing health,\u201d\u00a0said Goldman.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For that, she draws from\u00a0the playbook she and Spanx founder Sarah Blakely\u00a0used to build a market for their\u00a0sharewear\u00a0products. \u201cThere\u00a0are\u00a0so many similarities to my time at Spanx when somebody would say, I would never wear a girdle\u00a0like it was a\u00a0deep, dark secret,\u201d Goldman said.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cYet\u00a0we wound up getting people\u00a0on\u00a0red\u00a0carpet,\u00a0pulling up their dresses\u00a0to show off their Spanx. We, can do\u00a0great things\u00a0to break down those barriers through marketing and positive energy and creativity\u00a0here\u00a0as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And does her experience in serving industries tilted towards women consumers inspire her to see opportunities here through a gender lens, too? Not really.\u00a0This is more like the Eric Schmidt moment at Google, when young co-founders realize they need someone with experience and a broad network to take their company to the next level.\u00a0\u201cThe founders are all men,\u00a0and they love that I\u2019m a woman as it kind of balances things out,\u201d she said. \u201cMaybe I bring a different leadership style.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#CEO #hearing #aids #helped #shapewear #Spanx<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laurie Ann Goldman, who helped… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[12486,529,8997,5039,1055,12487,5522],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20482"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}