Watch: 'Female Founders Stories' with Tea Drops and Skylar

Annie Burford

Annie Burford is dot.LA's director of events. She's an event marketing pro with over ten years of experience producing innovative corporate events, activations and summits for tech startups to Fortune 500 companies. Annie has produced over 200 programs in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City working most recently for a China-based investment bank heading the CEC Capital Tech & Media Summit, formally the Siemer Summit.

Watch: 'Female Founders Stories' with Tea Drops and Skylar

Join us at 11 a.m. Thursday, July 23rd for our next edition of "Female Founders Stories: to Live and Work in L.A." We'll talk with Tea Drops co-founder and CEO Sashee Chandran along with Skylar CEO Cat Chen.

Join dot.LA chief cost and correspondent Kelly O'Grady as we talk with women leaders and entrepreneurs here in the L.A. startup community. We will be exploring how they got started, triumphed over challenges, as well as their favorite success stories and what they love most about living and working in L.A.


Female Founders Stories with Tea Drops & Skylarwww.youtube.com

Sashee Chandran, Founder & CEO at Tea Drops

Sashee Chandran, Founder & CEO of Tea Drops

Sashee is founder and CEO of Tea Drops, which creates bagless loose leaf teas — shedding about 20% less waste than traditional tea bag packaging. Tea Drops has become a favorite among new and experienced tea drinkers alike, launching innovative tea experiences that merge flavorful blends, food art and edgy design. Tea Drops are now available in close to 1,500 retailers — and are loved by Oprah Magazine, Chrissy Teigen, and former first lady Michelle Obama. Sashee is a 1st Place $20K WFN Fast pitch winner, 1st Place $100K Tory Burch Fellow Grant winner, and the 1st place $50K PepsiCo WomanMade Challenge winner. She has also raised over $2.5M in VC funding for Tea Drops.

Cat Chen, Founder & CEO of Skylar

Cat Chen, Founder & CEO of Skylar

Founded in April 2017, Skylar is affecting change in the dirty and unregulated $46 billion fragrance industry by creating a whole new world of better-for-you fragrances and body care products. Skylar products are clean, hypoallergenic, and cruelty-free. Our products are inspired by women and a portion of our proceeds go toward Step Up, a non-profit organization benefiting women. In addition to creating innovative products, we're also creating a more convenient and personal way to shop, content that helps women lead a clean lifestyle, and a supportive and engaged community.

Skylar is backed by Upfront Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Amplify LA, and Gingerbread Capital. Other notable investors include Brian Lee (The Honest Company Founder), Karen Katz (former Neiman Marcus CEO), Jake Kassan (Mvmt Watches Founder & CEO), and Jeff Kearl (Stance Socks Founder & CEO).

Cat started her career in management consulting at Bain & Company and continued honing her skills at Apple and Activision Blizzard. She earned a BS in Management Science from MIT and an MBA in Marketing and Operations from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Kelly O'Grady, Chief Host and Correspondent

Kelly O'Grady, Chief Host and Correspondent at dot.LA

Kelly O'Grady is dot.LA's chief host & correspondent. Kelly serves as dot.LA's on-air talent, and is responsible for designing and executing all video efforts. A former management consultant for McKinsey, and TV reporter for NESN, she also served on Disney's Corporate Strategy team, focusing on M&A and the company's direct-to-consumer streaming efforts. Kelly holds a bachelor's degree from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. A Boston native, Kelly spent a year as Miss Massachusetts USA, and can be found supporting her beloved Patriots every Sunday come football season.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/annieburford
annie@dot.la
LA Tech Week 2026: Sunday’s Event Lineup

🔦 Spotlight

LA Tech Week 2026 closes Sunday with one final day of events across Los Angeles. We have organized the remaining lineup by neighborhood so you can finish the week with a few last conversations before everyone returns to their regularly scheduled inboxes.

ARTS DISTRICT

12:00 PM

CARSON

12:00 PM

CULVER CITY

9:00 AM

  • Women in Cleantech & Sustainability Hike and Network: See Details Here
    Women in Cleantech & Sustainability

6:00 PM

  • Founders pitch competition: See Details Here
    Biomorphix solutions, Nightingale regenerative

HOLLYWOOD

10:00 AM

4:00 PM

  • AI International: Film, Music Video & Micro-Drama: See Details Here
    AI International Film Festivals

MID CITY

1:00 PM

OTHER

12:00 PM

  • ORGANIC LIFE LABS™ PRESENTS THE ALIGNMENT LAB: The Science of human performance: See Details Here
    The Blue Room Collective

SANTA MONICA

8:00 AM

1:00 PM

6:00 PM

SOUTH LA

2:00 PM

  • Future Builders : Family STEM Day: See Details Here
    Black L.A. Tech Week (Community Collective)

VENICE

10:00 AM

12:00 PM

  • How to Raise Funds to Fund Any Business Using Digital Products.: See Details Here
    DN Events

VIRTUAL

5:00 PM

WEST HOLLYWOOD

3:00 PM

Each session provides unique opportunities to gain insights, network, and explore various fields of tech innovation. For updates or more event information, visit the official Tech Week calendar.

Download the dot.LA App

LA Tech Week 2026: Saturday’s Event Lineup

🔦 Spotlight

LA Tech Week 2026 heads into the weekend Saturday with more opportunities to learn, meet fellow builders and explore what is being created across the region. Browse the day’s events by neighborhood below and find the gatherings worth leaving the house for.

ARTS DISTRICT

5:30 PM

BEL AIR

5:00 PM

CULVER CITY

10:00 AM

1:00 PM

4:00 PM

DOWNTOWN

11:00 AM

2:00 PM

  • South Asians in Space, Physical AI: See Details Here
    american south asian network

5:00 PM

7:00 PM

HOLLYWOOD

8:00 PM

INGLEWOOD

10:00 PM

LONG BEACH

10:00 AM

12:00 PM

LOS FELIZ

8:30 AM

  • Griffith Observatory Hike with Longevity Cities & Don't Die LA: See Details Here
    Longevity Cities

MALIBU

5:00 PM

MARINA DEL RAY

9:30 AM

  • The Brazen Capital Walk: Connecting Women, Capital & Opportunity: See Details Here
    BrazenEra

6:00 PM

  • Build an AI workflow editor, natively in Angular: See Details Here
    Workflow Builder

SANTA MONICA

7:00 AM

  • Founders Running Club Run in Santa Monica: See Details Here
    Founders Running Club, MongoDb

9:00 AM

  • MOLTEN - Spatial hackathon (ElevenLabs, AssemblyAI, Rokoko, Datafeel...): See Details Here
    Field Lab

2:00 PM

3:30 PM

6:00 PM

7:00 PM

SOUTH LA

7:00 PM

THE VALLEY

7:30 PM

UCLA

11:00 AM

USC

9:00 AM

10:00 AM

10:30 AM

VENICE

8:00 AM

  • Open Air Health Tech: See Details Here
    Open Air Health Tech, Bowshock, Govitamins App

10:00 AM

10:30 AM

11:00 AM

12:00 PM

6:00 PM

  • Bots, Bytes & Bubbles Benefit: See Details Here
    Distinguished Minds Institute dba thinqueBytes®

VIRTUAL

9:00 AM

  • Ask a VP of Sales: Live GTM Office Hours for Early-Stage B2B Founders: See Details Here
    Kat Rucker Consulting Group

11:00 AM

WEST HOLLYWOOD

11:00 AM

  • The 10x Engineer Showed Up. The 10x Organization Didn't.: See Details Here
    Workflow Builder, Tentaro

3:00 PM

WESTSIDE

11:00 AM

2:00 PM

  • Graphic Design & Digital Printing Meetup: See Details Here
    Big Frog Custom T-Shirts & More of West LA

7:00 PM

WESTWOOD

12:00 PM

Each session provides unique opportunities to gain insights, network, and explore various fields of tech innovation. For updates or more event information, visit the official Tech Week calendar.

Download the dot.LA App

LA Tech Week 2026: Friday’s Event Lineup

🔦 Spotlight

The workweek may be winding down, but LA Tech Week 2026 is not finished yet. Friday’s events are organized by neighborhood below, making it easier to choose where to spend the day before the week shifts into its weekend programming.

ARTS DISTRICT

9:00 AM

7:00 PM

BEL AIR

10:30 AM

  • Bel Air Mansion Creative Brunch: Investors, & Artists: See Details Here
    Amino Capital

BEVERLY HILLS

8:00 AM

  • Founders & Builders: Morning Walk/Run + Coffee Meetup: See Details Here
    FitMatchLA
  • Music-Tech : Move with the Global Ikon & Lululemon: See Details Here
    The Global Ikon

8:00 PM

BRENTWOOD

8:30 AM

CULVER CITY

8:30 AM

  • Where, not How: a Roundtable on Scaling AI Adoption: See Details Here
    Mellonhead, Gamma

11:30 AM

4:00 PM

DOWNTOWN

12:30 PM

  • Rocket Launch: A USC Builders Night by TroyLabs: See Details Here
    TroyLabs - USC's premier startup accelerator

1:00 PM

2:00 PM

  • Inner Alignment: Experience Self-trust in Navigating Complexity: See Details Here
    Meridian Collective

2:30 PM

  • From Story to Revenue: How AI Is Reshaping Microdrama: See Details Here
    Storyverse, Soulscape

3:00 PM

  • Reinventing AI Infrastructure: See Details Here
    Karmel Capital, The University of Michigan Ross School of Business

5:00 PM

  • Built Different: Outliers, Underdogs and the Next Breakout: See Details Here
    Forty.5 Capital Ventures

5:30 PM

6:00 PM

  • The Music AI Can't Hear: What's Actually Missing from the Future of Sound: See Details Here
    Motif

6:30 PM

  • HR & PEOPLE LEADERS ROOFTOP HAPPY HOUR . Leadership Signals: See Details Here
    Speech & Mind

EL SEGUNDO

7:00 PM

HOLLYWOOD

10:00 PM

HOLLYWOOD HILLS

12:00 PM

  • Early stage co-founder matching: Virtual Speed Networking: See Details Here
    Kept

INGLEWOOD

7:00 PM

MARINA DEL RAY

3:00 PM

  • South Asians Shaping Digital Media: See Details Here
    american south asian network

7:00 PM

  • Tech Industry Speed Networking Marina Del Rey: See Details Here
    Los Angeles Fun Events
  • The New Wave: The Future of Hollywood In the Age of AI: See Details Here
    american south asian network

MID CITY

8:00 AM

OTHER

8:30 AM

  • Wedbush Ventures x Women in Product Breakfast: See Details Here
    Wedbush Ventures

10:00 AM

12:00 PM

2:30 PM

5:00 PM

  • Get Wired with Senra Systems!: See Details Here
    Senra Systems, Lowercarbon, Stifel

6:00 PM

6:30 PM

7:00 PM

PASADENA

12:00 PM

4:00 PM

  • Pasadena Ascends: VIP Closing Reception, Hosted by Wedbush: See Details Here
    Innovate Pasadena

PLAYA VISTA

10:00 AM

  • AI LAX Summit - Culture meets AI: See Details Here
    Governlayer.AI, AILAXSUMMIT.com, Google

6:00 PM

SANTA MONICA

8:15 AM

8:30 AM

  • Silicon Beach Volleyball Social: See Details Here
    Holland & Knight, JP Morgan, Mucker Capital

10:00 AM

  • Gen AI Observability for Engineering Leaders: See Details Here
    Amazon Web Services

11:00 AM

1:00 PM

  • Future of Photography : Discussing the future of image capture and IP protection. Cigar Lounge: See Details Here
    VICEVERSA EDITIONS
  • Self-Host Frontier AI: Running Open-Weight Models on AWS: See Details Here
    Amazon Web Services

3:00 PM

5:00 PM

  • Gold House x Speedrun Investors Social: See Details Here
    Gold House Ventures, a16z Speedrun

5:30 PM

  • The Autonomous Playbook: Scaling Revenue faster with AI.: See Details Here
    GrupaAI

6:00 PM

7:00 PM

8:00 PM

SUNSET

7:00 PM

UCLA

6:00 PM

  • The Builder's Lounge - Jazz Bar Demo Night with VEST x Cognition: See Details Here
    VEST at UCLA

USC

Fri, Oct 16 · 5:00pm — Sun, Oct 18 · 5:00pm

Fri, Oct 16 · 5:00pm — Sat, Oct 17 · 5:00pm

VENICE

7:30 AM

9:00 AM

  • Content in Tech: Coffee & Creators: See Details Here
    Narrative Content Studio, YT Jobs

11:00 AM

12:00 PM

  • What REALLY Happens After You Raise (But No One Talks About) - Funded Founder Lunch @: See Details Here
    Grow Through Story

2:00 PM

4:00 PM

5:00 PM

  • Sell before you build: See Details Here
    USC Entrepreneurship and Venture Management Association

6:00 PM

  • A16Z | ElevenLabs - Official Afterparty: See Details Here
    ElevenLabs, a16z Speedrun

7:00 PM

VIRTUAL

9:00 AM

  • Ask a VP of Sales: Live GTM Office Hours for Early-Stage B2B Founders: See Details Here
    Kat Rucker Consulting Group

11:00 AM

  • Vibe Marketing in the Age of AI Agents: Live Workshop: See Details Here
    Juliet AI, Inc.

1:00 PM

2:00 PM

WEST HOLLYWOOD

11:00 AM

7:00 PM

  • NO HUMAN, NO CREATIVITY? Who Creates Culture Now?: See Details Here
    xVibe AI, HFE Events

WESTWOOD

9:00 AM

  • UCLA Tech + Society Conference: See Details Here
    Easton Technology Management Center

Each session provides unique opportunities to gain insights, network, and explore various fields of tech innovation. For updates or more event information, visit the official Tech Week calendar.

Download the dot.LA App

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