142: Alexandra Fuente (Woxer)

Alexandra Fuente on Innovation City

“What matters is how we can help each other.” – Alexandra Fuente

Welcome to Season 3 of Innovation City, a podcast featuring innovators, creators, and disruptors to discover how business is changing in the modern world.

Created and produced by SLAM! Agency in cooperation with Venture Cafe St. Louis and Venture Cafe Miami, Innovation City gives you an inside look at how rapidly business and culture are changing thanks to increasing diversity and inclusion, heightened creativity, and a stronger and better-connected business community. Venture Cafe is the largest combined gathering of entrepreneurs and innovators anywhere in the world. Events are held every Thursday in St. Louis, Miami, and other leading innovation cities around the globe.

Today’s guest is Alexandra Fuente, Founder and CEO at Woxer. Woxer is an apparel company that designs boxer briefs for women. The company is still in its infancy and has already enjoyed rapid growth and expansion. Fuente is driven to make a superior product that is sensible and sustainable. She aspires to become a venture capitalist and support other women who want to build businesses. While she has always dreamed of being a CEO her greater motivation is what she can give back to the world. In this episode, Tyler and Leigh-Ann sit down with Alexandra to investigate the seams of her startup, her experiences as a minority business owner, the importance of taking the right risks, hiring the right people, going with your gut and much more!

They discuss:

• How core values are what define and differentiate a business
• How the quality of a product has a direct impact on growth
• How having a self-funded business influences decision making
• Hiring with culture in mind
• The importance of learning from mistakes
• What intuition has to do with innovation
• Engineering comfortable and quality products
• Choosing a superior manufacturing process with impact in mind
• Designing with intention and integrity
• What it’s like to be a minority business owner
• Forecasting future growth and innovating new products
• How WIN Lab helps female entrepreneurs accelerate their businesses
• Growth = Give Back

Lightning Round:

1. What is the biggest lesson you have learned in life or business?
   • Learn from someone who has already done what you want to do and make it better.
2. What is your favorite restaurant?
   • Scarpetta
3. What is the first thing you do when you wake up?
   • I have a routine:
     • Give thanks
     • Name 3 things I did and like about the previous day
     • Name the 3 most important tasks to do that day
     • Take 10 minutes of silence
4. What do you spend too much time doing?
   • Working
5. What is the last book you’ve read?
   • TED Talks compilation
6. What person would you like to have dinner with, dead or alive?
   • Steve Jobs
7. What is your superpower?
   • I love people