Second Life Podcast: Chelsea Hirschhorn

Welcome to Second Life, a podcast spotlighting successful women who’ve made major career changes—and fearlessly mastered the pivot. Hosted by Hillary Kerr, co-founder and chief content officer at Who What Wear, each episode gives you a direct line to women who are game changers in their fields. Subscribe to Second Life on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get your podcasts to stay tuned.

Chelsea Hirschhorn, founder and CEO of Frida, has turned a simple idea into one of the most trusted brands for new and hopeful parents. Known for its innovative and practical products like the Windi Gaspasser, the Push Pop Feeder, and the MediFrida Accu-Dose Pacifier, Frida has become a household name in child care. However, it all started with one problem-solving product: a Swedish snot-sucking device. Hirschhorn received the product from a neighbor as a gift when she was pregnant, and she didn’t give it a second thought—until her newborn caught a cold for the first time. Only then did Hirschhorn witness the power of what’s now widely known as the NoseFrida.

Like most successful entrepreneurial endeavors, Frida was born out of a gap that Hirschhorn saw in the market. As a firsthand and first-time parent, she often struggled to find effective, easy-to-use solutions for everyday challenges like congestion or feeding. Starting from just a single SKU, today, Frida boasts a catalog of over 150 products, available in major retailers such as Target, CVS, and Walmart within a five-mile radius for 99% of the U.S. population.

Hirschhorn’s path to success, however, was not linear—she started her career in a different field: law. After graduating, she worked as a bankruptcy attorney in New York during the 2008 financial crisis. However, she soon shifted to a more entrepreneurial path and joined the Miami Marlins as Associate Counsel and Director of Special Events. There, she developed her business skills in an environment far from baby care.