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Joan Barnes — The Woman Behind Gymboree and the Life She Built After It
Joan Barnes built Gymboree from a church basement and a few thousand dollars into a global brand that eventually sold for $2 billion — and she'll be the first to tell you that's not the part of her story she's most proud of. In this conversation, Joan traces the wild arc from lonely new mother in 1970s San Francisco to accidental entrepreneur, walking us through the near-misses, collapsed deals, and the moment she realized she'd built something that couldn't sustain itself — or her.
What makes Joan's story stick isn't the business — it's what came after. She talks openly about stepping away…
The skinny
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