>> i don't want my daughters wasting time thinking about how much they weigh, what they look like in fashion has done a terrible job of reinforcing an unrealistic beauty idea. francine: the entrepreneur are

striving multibillion dollar retail partner while trying to redefine the world of fashion. british business woman is partnered with one of the most famous families. she is chief executive and cofounder of the inclusive fashion brand good american, which she launched in 2016 with khloe kardashian. she is also the founding partner of skims alongside chloe sister, kim. >> is a young black female entrepreneur, the only thing i could do is what i know from my experience in the honest truth is, i didn't set out to create any deeply rooted in principles, inclusivity. as set out to make a company right for me. francine: in this episode i speak to emigrate about her rise to the top, how she measures success and why diversity remains elusive in the world of fashion. thank you so much for joining us on bloomberg. emma: thank you for having me. this is so exciting. you represent so much for so many people. all the businesses you touch

turn into gold. did you ever think that you would be such a success? emma: no, most of the businesses i touched early in the day tenant turned to go. i love this idea of overnight success and i would feel like i would tell that journey. there has been a lot of trial and error along the way and i feel like i have probably done every job imaginable from having a paper route when i was 12, to working in a deli, to working into shops and things that were less successful to things that have medium success. i feel like there's been a long journey and i'm really thankful that i'm now 41 years old are starting to see this type of success, which is great. francine: you always wanted to succeed, is that what makes success? emma: i think so. i think there is an element in luck -- of luck in any of these things. when you take a part luck means, i think when opportunity meets

operation, i was always prepared. when my opportunity came along i was really ready to work for it. then there's the old adage of a lot of hard work. and i have really put the time in, i think. francine: did you always want to be an entrepreneur? emma: no. i came from east london and i did not know anyone who had their own business. everyone that i knew went to work to pay their bills with usually very little joy. usually the idea of doing something that felt purposeful or meaningful, you enjoy it really wasn't part of my understanding. i tried really hard to get close to what it is that i love, which is the fashion business, but i did not ever think about starting my own thing. i think he came out of a necessity. i was like, who will employ me and pay me what i think i deserve. i left the company because i was like, they are not paying me properly so i will have to pay myself. francine: age 24 in the

determination of actually making something. emma: i felt like i was adding a lot of value -- i think so many people through their careers have this feeling. i'm adding a lot of value and i'm not being renewed berated for what i bring to the table. that feeling became so strong in me, but what do you do? at 24 you don't have option so i do what people do. i went to a company and tried to do my best at the position i was given and thankfully somebody saw that and decided, maybe we will set this girl up on her own. but i talked to so many young people that i either employee or people that are trying to get notice and i think that's good advice. no one is ever going to look at you to do the next thing unless you are excelling where you are today. so sometimes just buckling down and doing the best job wherever you are is the best way to get ahead. francine: but then making the step of leaving, you have to be brave and it's not always easy. emma: it wasn't always easy.

i remember the first time i got a little bit of backing and they said, you are going to be in charge of your own p&l and i went home and googled that like what is a p&l. sometimes my habits he is the best thing for any entrepreneur. i didn't know what i didn't know what i had to go for it and learn fast and fail fast. i think i have done, throughout my career, i haven't made the best choices every time, but i think part of being a good entrepreneur is knowing when things are not going right in knowing what you don't know. and i've surrounded myself with the right people continuously. francine: what's the biggest mistake you have learned from? emma: when i had my first agency i tv and i was killing it in london and there was this idea that the company was completely exportable. i opened an office in new york and that went really well and then i opened in l.a. and i failed miserably. under infested, didn't bring the right people in. just thought whatever i was doing was translating and i

learned at the hard way. i learned by starting something, dragging people there, then having to close it. there's nothing like an embarrassment to humble yourself. pack everything up and had to pack my own office backup. so that was fantastic learning. but again. i never let it break my spirit, i took those learnings and when i started my second company in l.a. i was like, ok, this is where i need to do something different, so i packed up my family and moved to l.a. and knew if i was going to do something that would be successful, to do it myself, to be in the country and i need to give it my absolute all. francine: did they give you time to understand the market? it was difficult to do it from not being in the city? emma: being in country, being a part of the fabric of that culture has been really important, especially for my business, good american, it's really about what's happening at the moment, like where are we in society as women, where is

fashion and i think that has been really important to where it's all happening. francine: that the big move selling denim to americans. emma: nobody needs more jeans. i doubt myself. but again, coming to a business with mission and purpose at the heart of what we do is what sets us apart. so i think there are so many brands that had to make consumer choices and right now we make our choices based on what we believe in, what we feel is important, what we want our children to say and i'm a mother of four so i know too well that i don't want my daughters wasting time thinking about how much they weigh, what they look like, and i think fashion has done a terrible job of reinforcing a really unrealistic beauty idea. with an american, the premise of the brand it was that we will let women make their choices and hopefully we are going to take some of that pain out of what it means to be left out of the conversation were not represented in fashion. we've done that pretty well, i

think. francine: you have this idea, the inclusivity of making women feel good. who you talk about it with first? emma: funny enough, my husband. i think we are both entrepreneurs so it's natural for me to bat any ideas backwards and forwards with him. i have worked for years in the fashion business, so i have been part of it. i have seen firsthand how some fashion businesses make women feel. there is one thing being really vocal, being an instagram activist and talking about something is it different than -- difference in putting where your money -- your money where your mouth is and talking about the business. it was about how do i take everything i know and learned and actually do the opposite? i think as a young black female entrepreneur, the only thing i could do is what i know from my experience. the honest truth is, i didn't set out to create a company that was deeply rooted in principles and inclusivity and diversity.

i set out to make a company right for me and my friends. i knew if i had a problem, chances are somebody else does. i think that's where so many businesses are created, when you are solving a problem that's real for you and for the consumer. francine: is there a danger that entrepreneurs look at numbers too much and look at for a gap in the market? emma: that's true. there is one way to approach things. for me i go with my gut and gut instinct tells me a lot and i tend not to go against my gut. i would be lying if i set i didn't run to numbers and feel like there was commercial opportunity. nobody makes 19 sizes of anything without thinking, i reckon i can sell them somewhere along the line. i think so much of what i've done throughout my career has been in response to a feeling that i've had and then acting on that feeling. francine: were you surprised at how many other people felt like you? emma: it's one of those things were on paper good american has

been a massive success but if you go back to day one people are like you sold a million dollars in day one. at 9:00 i was the hero, by 11:00 i had no stock and everyone was like, you have no idea what you're doing and i was like, no, i don't. that was my first lesson in what it means to be excellent from a customer experience point of view because i just started there. i was like, how long do i think people will wait? not as long as it was going to take me. i was like, can you help me get some more fabric, will you 8 -- wait eight weeks for a pair of jeans. somewhere in that it worked out. but what people respond to you is brands that have authenticity and there's a level of honesty that's needed and i said, you know what, we had no idea how popular and how much this would chime with customers and if you will be patient we will get you something. we know we messed up and we don't want to disappoint you. there's a part of that honesty that actually really chimes with people, what they knew we were not feeding a line.

they knew it wasn't written by pr. because i could not afford pr at that point. how i speak to my mom or something. francine: coming up, emma on her attempts to break one of the last taboos in fashion and how success is making her reassess what it means to be an entrepreneur. ♪

francine: emma greene has made a personal fortune in progressive clothing companies. good american made $1 million in sales on its first day. she tells me about her success and the challenges that remain across the industry. fashion hasn't done enough when it comes inclusivity and diversity, but hasn't done something in the last 5-10 years? emma: fashion, as quick as it is to change and the kind of

aesthetic, it's very difficult to change a system. and i think that that comes down to who makes decisions. the people that make decisions in fashion don't typically look like me, they aren't typically women. when you look at who's at the helm of the biggest high street players, it tends to be the same type of people. so i honestly think there's a lot of work to be done, progress has definitely happen, but you only have to look at the last new york fashion week to say -- to see that there is so much tokenism around wet inclusivity really means. and i think that especially when it comes to size. we are back where we were 20 or 30 years ago when we would have one single black model walking down the catwalk, now we are in the same situation where i cannot remember the stat, but it's less than 3% of models that came down the catwalk were a size 12. a size 12 is less than average. so there is just so much work to be done in almost size is the last allowed taboo.

we are allowed to disclose people because of their size and it's really crazy. francine: i was reading something saying people feel rubbish when they look at this stuff because they don't feel represented and they feel something is wrong with them. francine -- emma: that's why i started the brand. if you go back seven years ago, i was pregnant with my second child, a girl. i felt that deeply. how much time and effort you can spend and waste time. to me, if you take out some of that worry and the strife around how much we think about our looks and instead put our energy into saying, i need a pay raise, i think i should do something else with my life, part of it was like, what happens if you shift and change the paradigm of how people see themselves? it's a really trite sentence, but representation really matters. when you see a version of yourself in something, there's a level of acceptance. that's what i wanted to do, level the playing field and say,

we all look different, we all are different and that's ok. that is not what we should be thinking about. we should be thinking about equal pay. those are the things that we should use our time for as women. let's just get equality going with men and that is throughout the workplace and all of the industries and i feel like the media is such a huge impact on us. and i don't just mean fashion media, i mean the media at large, so we need to see better representation everywhere in society. francine: is that why you do dragons then? emma: you asked me earlier today i think about being an entrepreneur, and i honestly never thought about being an entrepreneur. as i got more successful i thought about what it means to be an entrepreneur because they talk about it being really small at the top but it's not small at the top, it's minuscule. it's the same people doing the same deals, giving each other many who went to five or six schools. for me, because i'm on shark tank in the u.s., and the idea of dragon's den and that you

could be an entrepreneur with little background and absolutely no access to funding and walk on and get a check to start to do something that means something to you and can mean something for your family, why wouldn't you? it wasn't so long ago that i was out fundraising. if i could be a small part of somebody's journey that when you get the opportunity, to me it makes so much sense. it's not just about women of color, it's about, if you didn't have the means or the education to know anything differently than getting up and going to work every day. that doesn't mean to say you cannot have a successful business. i am walking proof of that. i left school when i was 16 years old and i've done pretty well. to me, it's about leveling the playing field that i love the idea of that being seen on tv and people having that idea that they can be successful if they just get an opportunity. frank -- francine: is it different in the u.s.? in the u.s. there's a badge of honor of trying and failing and starting again. i don't know if there's a stigma

in the u.k., but people are less bold. emma: i don't think they are less bold, i think there is more -- we are different here. we don't celebrate it in the same way i find that really difficult to say because i feel like i am so celebrated, especially where i'm from. people in london are nice to me. i turned up in this office and two girls came up to me and rely, we love you with a high five. i think things are shifting. what i am all about is celebrating people. listen, it doesn't all work out, but that's also a part of life. and i think we have to be honest with ourselves about what it takes and how hard it is. francine: it's hard because you need to build the team around you, you need funding. what have you found hardest? emma: if i really honest, probably the funding. i think without the right background in circles around you, access is really difficult. i raised my first check from my clients because i built a business in fashion media.

so i had lots. so the only rich people i knew were clients of mine that had been paying me retainers. that was for me the easiest way. i was like, remember me, would you like to give me $3 million? most of them said no, a couple said yes. i think just knowing where to go in the beginning, they are the barriers that most people face and once you are in it, i think that it's also about the journey. none of this stuff happens like it does on social media. i think just knowing that you are on a journey. actually, i honestly think the best way to start a business is with no money. you don't need to go out and raise tens of finances, you need to figure out, what am i creating, where is my audience in one of my uniquely good at? when you figure out what you are good at, you know who you need around you to make something work. francine: kris jenner was part of your journey. how did that shape the entrepreneur you are? emma: i think i have been really

lucky to be surrounded by so many incredible entrepreneurs, starting with my clients, also my husband, being around people like chris and just having access and listening and watching people as i grew up. and really soaking that up. and i am one of those people that can learn from anything. i've read books about being an entrepreneur. i really am someone where i will take from any situation that you lend me. francine: coming up, she tells me why diversity is a superpower and what she's doing to improve access and opportunity. ♪

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nope. ai, done, built. let's get to work. create a beautiful website in minutes with godaddy. francine: emigrate is known as the founding partner of skims with kim kardashian. it was valued at $4 billion last year. i continued the conversation by asking her about the business and her commitment to supporting diversity in black owned companies. skims is huge. did you ever think that under a -- what did you call it, in underwear shaping company? emma: we make underwear, shaping where. it was grown so unbelievably. that is kim kardashian's company, it was her idea from the outset. i honestly believe that we never thought that it would just be one thing. we always thought about it as being this huge company that would do lots of things well.

but again, that company was based on just doing one product really, really well and i think that's testament to any great company. we had so much focus in the beginning. we were like, here's what we will do. we will make superior shape wherein every single signs in every single color and it worked out well. francine: and now selling to the men, what is the right time to grow or go to a slightly different brand? emma: in good american, the first time we ever thought of going into another category was because customers asked us to. i think it's a really smart way to think about new growth, new development in a business. you really have to listen and you cannot take that commentary with just a good things because the customers will tell you what you need to hear and they will also tell you what you don't want to hear and it's like a big fat mirror. i feel like it's one of the things with social media being so exceptionally important in business. it is just a reflection of everything you are doing, a reflection of your consumer base and if you are looking carefully

enough, the data will tell you things and all you need to do is tune into that. when i think about category expansion, it really is in regards to or in relation to what customers are asking me for a period we make those decisions based on that. francine: how do you build a team that can say, this is not a great idea? emma: that is a great question. i thick i spent 25% of my time hiring. i will take speculative meetings even if i don't have a position that's available because you are only as good as your team. to do what i do, you have to surround yourself with experts like people that are really, really good at what they do and part of that is being able to stand up to you and you being able to listen. when i think about myself as a leader, i really lead with empathy because i need people to be able to see it -- to say to me, that is a bad idea or based on my experience, because my experience is limited. francine: do you think it's different being a leader in 2024

than two thousand four? emma: one hundred percent because the workforce has changed immeasurably. post-pandemic, also the generation we are dealing with now is entirely different. you have to create a company that can succeed with the workforce that it has at its disposal. so i think there has been enormous amounts of change. younger people have a different expectation of their life in their work and how those two things fit together. like it or not, cova change the working environment forever and you either adapt or die. i might have a certain opinion about how i want people to come into a space, into a business. at the end of the day, you have to work with where the culture is at and i'm not here to fight the culture. i might, it is what it is, how do we work to maximize this because at the end of the day we want the same thing. francine: how do you spot a good entrepreneur? how do you decide whether you are all in? francie -- emma: i am so personality driven.

a good idea is a good idea. but if i meet someone that just does something to me, i feel it immediately. i might, it's you. francine: like a fire in the belly, how do you describe it? emma: mad passion. i could get excited about an origami company of somebody comes to me on just that. i'm that person and i respond. but i also respond to the fact that i am sometimes seeing a little bit of yourself knowing that someone hasn't gotten another opportunity or a chance. i'm like, i will have a crack. francine: what is emma greed going to do in five years? emma: i don't know, lie down. take a break. no, it's true, i will find something else. i'm focused on my nonprofit work these days. i'm the chairwoman of an incredible organization called the 15% pledge, which is really focused on creating some semblance of balance in the world of black owned businesses,

figuring out how they could show up in retail with more balance. and i honestly believe that any way that i can use my voice, use my influence, and the knowledge i've built over all this time for good is a good use of energy. francine: why is it so underfunded still? emma: it's about access. i think about this all the time. talent is fairly evenly distributed, opportunity is in. what we need is to give more people opportunity, regardless of education, race, background, age, it's about leveling the playing field. we come back to the same idea, who gets to be an entrepreneur, who gets to make decisions? i believe the more we can open it up, the better it is for everybody. i have proven in my businesses that diversity is a super power. the more people you have at the table, the more customers you could serve. it's good business. it's not about being holier than thou are giving somebody an opportunity that doesn't deserve

it, it's about servicing as many customers as you can and the more minds that you have around the table that reflect your customer base, the better. francine: thank you for joining us. emma: thank you so much. ♪ 11 with so much entertainment out there wouldn't it be great... ...if you could find what you want, all in one place? show me paris. xfinity internet customers can enjoy the ultimate entertainment experience and save on some of the biggest names in streaming, all for just $15 a month. get the fastest connection to paris with xfinity.

>> she gave me a call and said there was something fishy going on. >> i'm like a cat with a mouse, i was shakin