- Nicole Bernard Dawes prioritizes work-life balance for employees but stays constantly available herself
- She founded Late July, sold for $100M, and launched Nixie, now in 11,000+ US stores with $27M funding
- Dawes aims to protect her team from entrepreneurial pressures she willingly accepted herself
Nicole Bernard Dawes, a Boston-based entrepreneur and founder of the $100 million companies - Late July and Nixie, believes in prioritiing work-life balance for her employees, not herself. "They didn't sign up to be entrepreneurs," she told Fortune, encouraging her team to unplug while she remains constantly available. "I think I probably am a little bit of a hypocrite, because I don't unplug. I never do. I never want to be the person that's holding up a member of our team," she added.
Dawes is a serial entrepreneur who founded Late July, a non-GMO tortilla chip brand, in 2003. The company was acquired by Campbell's for $100 million in 2017. She later launched Nixie, a zero-sugar packaged soda brand, in 2018. Nixie has seen significant growth, securing $27 million in funding in early 2025 and expanding to over 11,000 grocery stores across the US.
With over 20 years of entrepreneurial experience from her time at Late July, Dawes has weathered economic downturns and countless sleepless nights. However those challenges didn't keep her from reentering the startup world as the founder of Nixie. But she doesn't want her employees to suffer and wants them to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
"I signed up for this. I am the entrepreneur, I did this to myself—a self-inflicted situation. [My employees] didn't sign up to be entrepreneurs. I am very comfortable taking downtime, but also making sure I'm available," Dawes said.
Many leaders, like Google cofounder Sergey Brin, expect their staff to work beyond the typical nine-to-five schedule. However, Dawes believes in allowing her team to maintain a healthy work-life balance, a value influenced by her upbringing. Notably, she grew up witnessing the challenges of entrepreneurship firsthand, working in her parents' food businesses - a health-food store and her father's $4.87 billion snack empire, Cape Cod Chips. Her father missed important moments due to work, motivating her to prioritise family time and create a supportive environment for her staff.
"I think that where a lot of [leaders] differ, is extending that to their team. I feel very strongly that it should not extend to the team. But I also feel like that is how I grew up. My father missed a lot of stuff because he felt like that was what you had to do. So I was determined I wasn't gonna do that. I wanted to be present at things for my kids, and I wanted [it] to be okay for our team to be that way, too," Dawes said.
The entrepreneur emphasises that while she grew up in a high-pressure environment, she's determined to make space for her employees to be present in their personal lives, too.
Despite finding it hard to disconnect from the demands of running a business, Dawes still carves out time for the routines that help her stay grounded. She prioritises what matters most in the moment, such as sitting down for family dinners nearly every night and making space in her day for activities like walking or exercising.
