The first thing I did was bring on my co-founder, Miyako Nakamura, who had been the head designer at Zac Posen. I didn’t know anybody in fashion, so I found a headhunter through a friend, who then introduced me to Miyako. People often ask, “Why on earth would Miyako want to work with you?” I think it was both timing and kismet. We definitely had a special connection that we share to this day.

We started doing what you could call “market research.” I took Miyako to her first Banana Republic, her first J.Crew — she had never seen their clothes. I could see the gears turning in her head as she realized this is what most women wear. I would say, “This sweater makes a lot of sense for these practical reasons,” or “This dress would be great, but you can see your bra straps so it’s not great for work.” Things that feel obvious if you’ve been in a corporate work environment were not at all evident to Miyako. It helped explain why there was such a gap between the clothes a lot of women are looking for and the actual clothing that’s presented on the racks — the experience of walking into a store thinking, I just need a pair of basic black pants. Why are those so hard to find? Customer research exists in other categories in a way that it doesn’t in clothing. 

Around 2017 we were seeing dress codes relax both in the office and generally. People were wearing sneakers and denim with a button-down. When we interviewed women about it — particularly those who worked in Silicon Valley — they told us that in some ways the lack of a formal dress code made things more complicated. It was that much harder to figure out what you were supposed to be wearing and what would garner respect while reflecting your personal taste.

Miyako started designing a line of clothing we started calling “Power Casual” internally, which was one step up from just casual. It was representative of what you need to transition from one scene to another, from a morning meeting to working briefly in a coffee shop to meeting friends for lunch. It had the same attention to detail that made our original line special, too. From the very beginning, our clothes were mostly machine washable and wrinkle-resistant, and we would have details like adjustable hem lengths. We’re always thinking about the life that “our girl” — we call her Samantha — is living. 

It was not a big part of our business initially. We had just launched T-shirts purely by coincidence when Covid hit, but dresses were still our top category.

I feel terrible saying this, but the pandemic has been this weird gift for someone like me who has gotten to work from home for most of the past two years. I only know myself as a mom through this pandemic period. I just have enormous respect for those who were moms pre-pandemic and had to continue working outside the home or work from home with school-age children. I have a lot of help. My mother-in-law has been here with us on and off since the kids were born. We have an incredible nanny who’s here Monday through Friday, and then on the weekend, it’s me and my husband. That’s been a true lesson for me because I used to use the weekend to sleep or rest and catch up on work if I needed to, and now Monday feels like a breeze compared to Sunday. I’m learning as I go, and I think the true test will be what things look like when I start to return to the office in a more meaningful way.

During our startup stage, we noticed a wage gap between men and women at the company. Some of that was a factor of when people joined the company: Typically, early-stage employees make less in salary, but they get more equity. Similarly, startups often get criticized — sometimes unfairly, but often fairly — for favoritism. The people who are there in the very early days get promoted quickly because they know the company and they end up taking on a lot more responsibility than most young people would have at an established company. So we needed to rethink our compensation and promotion cycles.

In 2016 or 2017, we created a matrix with bands from level 1, which is entry level, up to level 11, and we placed everyone in a square. If person A and person B are in the same square, they should be paid the same amount, and we tied everyone’s titles directly to compensation. It was a huge exercise, and it took us two years from beginning to end to implement it. But the result is transparency within the company. 

Next, we mapped different capabilities to each of the 11 levels. For each review cycle, employees had to hit four out of the six things in that level in order to be considered for promotion, and there had to be a business need for it as well. Is it perfect? No, but we’ve made it as transparent and fair as possible.