Lauren Menard

Lauren Menard is the CEO and co-founder of GOB, a compostable, plastic-free earplug company built from mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms. Based in Oakland, California, GOB aims to replace the 40 billion petroleum-based earplugs produced annually with a fully circular alternative.

Before founding GOB, Lauren built her career as an industrial designer focused on material innovation. She worked at Baukunst, a climate-focused venture studio, where she explored bio-design and material futures. Before that, she contributed design expertise at PROWL Studio, working across furniture, footwear, and products for brands including Adobe.

The move from design agency to startup founder was deliberate. Lauren and co-founder Baillie Mishler started GOB after exploring biomaterials and discovering that mycelium could replace petroleum foam in everyday products. What began as a material experiment became a mission to redesign single-use items from the inside out.

GOB joined the Baukunst portfolio as a pre-seed investment and has since launched commercially with its mushroom-based earplugs. Under Lauren leadership, the company is building a community around sustainable consumer products.

Lauren is a builder and self-described healthier product activist who splits her time between Oakland and the trails. She continues to push what sustainable product design can look like at scale.