Emma Grede: British entrepreneur who co-founded multi-billion-dollar brands Good American (with Khloe Kardashian) and Skims (with Kim and Jens Kardashian/Grede). Raised by a single mom in East London, she became the first Black woman to invest on Dragons' Den and now hosts the podcast Aspire.
What this episode covers
Emma Grede traces her path from a working-class East London childhood, where she helped raise her three younger sisters, to building billion-dollar fashion brands with no design talent but relentless grit and sales ability. She makes a blunt, contrarian case that real success requires working evenings and weekends, that work-life balance is the employee's responsibility, and that remote work erodes the in-person learning that made her career. The conversation covers her philosophy on hiring A-players and learning to fire, the equity-deal insight that birthed Good American, and how she protects her judgment by 'zooming out' regularly. She also opens up candidly about a devastating fertility journey involving multiple IVF rounds, three pregnancy losses, and ultimately having twins via surrogacy. She closes on legacy, ambition, and why being deeply loved has expanded her capacity to give.
The guest's own work
Good American
Emma Grede & Khloe Kardashian
“That was the start of Good American. That was the initial thought because I wasn't getting paid what I needed to from my clients.”— Emma Grede
Skims
Emma Grede, Kim Kardashian & Jens Grede
“we just opened a store on Sunset for Skiims and we connected the store opening with this incredible diner next door”— Emma Grede
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Grit
Angela Duckworth
“Angela Duckworth like coined that phrase, I guess, or that term and wrote that fantastic book about grit that all everybody read”— Emma Grede
Frame
Jens Grede & Erik Torstensson
“At that time, Yenz and Eric had started Frame, which is an incredibly successful denim company.”— Emma Grede
Big reveals from this episode
- Declares work-life balance is the employee's problem, not the employer's responsibility, and says anyone claiming top success with all evenings and weekends free is 'a liar'.
- Says asking about work-life balance in a job interview is an instant red flag that means 'something is wrong with you'.
- Gets Steven to admit he works weekends and replies within an hour, arguing that's just how successful people operate.
- Reveals Good American was born from realizing she earned only a flat fee while talent like Pharrell Williams generated huge equity value for startups.
- Says the most important hiring advice is actually 'learn to fire', her early mistake was keeping loyal people too long, which restricted growth.
- Opens up about a soul-destroying fertility journey: multiple IVF rounds and three pregnancy losses at 9, 11 and 16 weeks.
- Reveals her twins were born via a surrogate she calls selfless, after she felt she'd been 'robbed' of carrying them herself.
- Says being deeply loved, more than any achievement, has given her ever-growing capacity to learn, give and take risks at 42.
Worth remembering
- As the eldest of four girls she ironed three school shirts and made three packed lunches before school, calling her mom 'the dad' and herself 'the mom'.
- Credits her success to three skills: intense focus, constant self-improvement, and the ability to drown out the noise of others' opinions.
- A screening survey she built found roughly 33% of the public rank work-life balance as one of their most important job priorities.
- Cites Bill Gates' twice-yearly 'reading week' as inspiration for her own practice of regularly zooming out from the business.
- Says Skims' Sunset store opening with a 50s-style diner sold out every 24-hour slot within five minutes.
- Her three business first principles: be true to yourself, know what you don't know and hire for the gaps, and take risks.
- Won't invest in any founder who can't sell, 'if you can't sell, you ain't getting my money'.
- Admits she moved a team to LA and shut the office 18 months later, learning LA was a closed community she wasn't part of.
- Latched onto Oprah as her only role model growing up, wanting to think and 'move' like her rather than be on TV.
- On not caring what others think: 'Nobody wakes up and thinks about me as much as I do.'