Kara Ellen Goldin (nee Keenan; born 1967/68) is an American businesswoman, the founder and CEO of Hint Water, a flavored water brand founded in 2005.[2][3][4]
Early life[edit]
She was born Kara Ellen Keenan, a daughter of William and Kay Keenan of Tempe, Arizona.[5] Her father worked for Con-Agra, and then for Armour & Company in Phoenix, where he retired as the general manager for distribution, and her mother worked at a local department store.[6][5] She is the youngest of five children.[7]Goldin grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona, after moving there from Minneapolis when she was three years of age.[7]
Goldin majored in communications and minored in finance at Arizona State University, graduating in 1989.[8]
After graduating in 1989 from ASU, she moved to New York City, after accepting her first job out of college atTime Inc.[9] Goldin worked in circulation at Time Inc. for three years.[10] She started out as an executive assistant and worked her way up to managing the airline circulation for the Time Inc. publications.[7] She then moved on to work in advertising sales at CNN.[3]
Following her move to San Francisco, Goldin began working for a start-up called 2Market, a spin-out of Applepursuing a computer-based shopping idea that Steve Jobs developed.[10] She was given the position of National Sales Manager for two years until the company was bought out by AOL.[10] Goldin then began working in e-commerce for AOL as the Vice President of Shopping and E-commerce Partnerships while her husband worked for Netscape[11]. In this position she grew AOL’s e-commerce and shopping business to about a billion dollars in revenue.[12] When AOL acquired Netscape in 2001, Kara decided to take a step back from this field of work and focus on raising her family.[12] After having three kids, Goldin realized that she wanted to spend her time creating and living a healthy lifestyle.[13] She had trouble losing the additional baby weight and came upon the realization that everything she was drinking was sugary, unhealthy, and artificially sweetened.[14]
Goldin then took this idea and launched Hint in 2005 in San Francisco [15] as a healthy alternative to the sugary, artificially sweetened drinks she had been consuming.[16] Hint Water is flavored solely with natural fruit.[17] In the 12 years since its creation, Hint Water has become an asset of the break rooms of some of Silicon Valley’s highest-profile companies, including Google, Facebook and LinkedIn[3][18]. Hint Fizz carbonated beverage was launched in 2011 and in 2017, Hint began to market sunscreen. [19][13]
Following her work and creation of Hint, Goldin wanted to share her experiences as an entrepreneur with the world. She created The Kara Network as a place for fellow entrepreneurs to reach out and tell their stories as well as provide some helpful insight to those who were interested in following a similar path.[3][20]
Kara’s first job was at age 14 working for a local toy store, Alphabet Toys in Scottsdale where after a few weeks, she was asked to help with buying for the entire store.[21] Kara credits this experience with launching her on the path to entrepreneurship.[citation needed]
Personal life[edit]
Right before she began working with CNN, Goldin met her husband, Theo Goldin, who at the time was in law school at New York University.[22] They married in 1995 at the Wrigley Mansion in Phoenix, Arizona.[5]
They moved to San Francisco when Theo graduated and they were married shortly after.[22] They have four children together.[23]
Awards and recognition[edit]
- Fortune's Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs (2011)[24]
- Ernst & Young's Entrepreneurial Winning Women (2012)[25]
- Gold Stevie Award Winner for Female Entrepreneur of the Year (2013)[26]
- Forbes' 40 Women to Watch Over 40 (2013)[27][28]
- EY Entrepreneur of the Year, Northern California (2017)[27]
- Fast Company's'Most Creative People in Business (one of) (2017) [29]
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