Katie Stratton, Chief Growth & Strategy Officer at Shipt, Real Leadership

Episode Description

What happens when a leader who spent a decade inside one of the most influential technology companies in history decides to bring that playbook to the world of same-day delivery?

Katie Stratton is the Chief Growth and Strategy Officer at Shipt, the Target-owned retail technology company that specializes in same-day and next-day delivery. Before joining Shipt in 2023, Katie spent nearly 12 years at Meta, joining as the 90th employee in the New York office before the IPO and rising to lead U.S. sales for dining and delivery. Earlier in her career, she honed her craft in the agency world, working with brands like Toyota, Cadillac, and Unilever.

But Katie's path wasn't a straight line. A pivotal moment early in her career, a courageous conversation in a toxic work environment, sparked by her mother's advice, opened the door to Facebook and set the trajectory for everything that followed. That same willingness to speak up, take risks, and lead with clarity defines how she operates today.

In this episode, we cover:

How a toxic early-career experience and her mother's advice became the catalyst for Katie's entire leadership journey

What it was like to join Facebook pre-IPO as the 90th employee in the New York office — and what she learned from leaders like Sheryl Sandberg and Carolyn Everson

How Shipt is evolving from a startup into a mature growth company — and why grocery and human connection are at the center of the strategy

The story behind Target Circle 360 and Shipt's no-markup pricing model

Why Katie compares AI to How to Train Your Dragon — and how she's training her own "dragon" personally and professionally

Why "clarity is kindness" and "I got that wrong" are the leadership phrases she lives by

How the "threshold" principle and intentional presence help her lead a national business while raising three kids