Lee Rhodes

Lee Rhodes Speaker Biography

Lee Rhodes, Accidental Entrepreneur with a Mission to Give Back

Lee Rhodes' personal and professional story is unique and inspiring. She started her company with the mission to help people heal and today people all over the world are touched by glassybaby color and light and by the money her company gives back to help cancer patients.

Lee was named Entrepreneur of 2011 by Entrepreneur magazine. She was chosen from thousands. Lee was told over and over by business experts and many others that her company would not work. But glassybaby has now grown 40-50% each year since 2009 and that means the more glassybaby they sell, the more money they give back to charities helping people heal.

Recently, glassybaby wrote a check that put them at one million dollars in giving.

• Lee Rhodes was fighting her third battle with cancer and raising three small children in 1998 when she first dropped a tea light into a handmade, colorful, glass cup. Lee found great hope and healing in the soothing light and color and found the peace and calm she needed to heal. She wanted to help others heal. She began hiring artists to make more colorful, glass candle holders and soon opened a glassblowing studio. glassybaby was born.
• From the beginning, glassybaby donated money from sales to charities helping cancer patients. Lee remembers meeting people in waiting rooms who could not afford basic day to day costs like bus fare and groceries during treatment. Health insurance does not help with those needs so Lee wanted to help fill that gap. glassybaby has now donated more than one million dollars to charities meeting those needs.
• glassybaby are made by Seattle artists in 400+ colors with names like hope, joy, frog hunting, wet dog and happiness. 70+ artists work seven days a week at our Seattle studio. It takes four artists to make just one glassybaby.