The CEO Who Wants to Ensure Parents Never Face Another Formula Shortage

Laura Modi, a CEO and mother of four, is intimately familiar with the stigmas around feeding a newborn. When raising money for Bobbie, the organic formula company she co-founded, a visibly pregnant Modi pitched the idea to a male investor who scolded her for discouraging women from breastfeeding. “I went to pure motherly fury. I came back with, ‘What would you say to a woman who wasn’t able to feed their baby?’”

His loss. The market for parents who cannot breastfeed—or choose not to—is robust. Within 18 months of launching in 2021, Bobbie, whose European-style products are sought after because they omit typical additives like corn syrup, surpassed $100 million in revenue.

Bobbie for Change, the company’s mission-driven arm, pushes for parental leave, gives free formula to moms who have had mastectomies, and has introduced legislation that would bolster U.S. manufacturing to help prevent another formula shortage like the one that created a crisis for millions of families in 2022. When wildfires devastated Los Angeles earlier this year, Bobbie provided formula for families who lost their homes. “I didn’t get into this because I like making powdered milk,” Modi, 39, says. “Becoming a parent makes you an activist.” She believes that Bobbie’s advocacy wins over new customers.

Bobbie also partners with influencers like tennis champion Naomi Osaka, Queer Eye’s Tan France, and cookbook author Molly Baz, who recently posed on a billboard in New York City’s Times Square breastfeeding her son while also holding a Bobbie bottle. “We could have chosen to have her on a billboard feeding her baby a bottle, and we didn’t,” Modi says. “We respected that she was a combo feeder, and having her baby on her boob was showing the world it’s not your typical formula company. We paint a picture of all feeding journeys.”