Spirit Of 608: Fashion, Entrepreneurship, Sustainability + Tech

Technically speaking, they're co-founders. But Meaghan Rose and Maia Bittner, the CEO and COO behind San Francisco jewelry subscription company RocksBox, are much more likely to refer to each other as thought partners. The company didn't begin as a two-woman show. As you'll hear in today's episode, Meaghan started her venture alone. Maia was her first hire. And before either of them knew it, Maia was re-routing her life, turning down grad school in Copenhagen less than a month before her scheduled departure to stay on and join the team as an official co-founder. "One of the things that I try to be really deliberate about in my life is recognizing opportunities when they do just show up," Maia tells me during our talk. It's good advice, as is the duo's take on what it takes to build excellent customer service (something I have personally tested more than a few times in Rocksbox's case). But wait, there's more below!

It's one thing to launch a startup when you're barely out of college. It's another to launch it and then win a $400K prize from one of the most well-known business media companies in the world within a few months, then go on to speak at TEDx and land a slew of press, including mentions in Women's Wear Daily, the Los Angeles Times and Refinery29. But that's what happened to Ann Wang and Jessica Willison, co-founders socially-conscious shopping site Enrou.co, seller of artisan-made apparel and accessories from around the world. On the show, Ann and Jessica share their co-founder story, give listeners insight into the millennial's shopping mindset and reveal a parenting trick that may very well be the best idea I've heard lately for getting kids to think about entrepreneurship. But wait, there's more below!

Today's source for F.E.S.T. info + inspo is Tracy Sun, co-founder of the peer-to-peer fashion resale platform Poshmark, a wildly popular social shopping app that now calls itself the largest community marketplace for fashion. But Poshmark wasn't Tracy's first adventure in fashion. She started out at Brooklyn Industries during the hip apparel retailer's early days before leaving to launch her own startup aimed at helping budding designers get their creations to market. She followed that experience in entrepreneurship with a cross-country move to San Francisco, where she networked like a pro before meeting the team that would found Poshmark and turn it into what has become, for many of its users, not only a daily addiction but an avenue for small business building. But wait, there's more below!

Distinguished with a capital D. That's how I describe Denise Bradley-Tyson in the the opening of today's show, and you'll see why as you listen to her casually explain her journey from the film and television industry to the international art world and then onto fashion ecommerce. Now pouring her efforts into InspiredLuxe.com (when she's not acting as the president of the San Francisco Film Commission or running into Diane von Furstenberg, Arianna Huffington and Gloria Steinem, of course), Denise is both an early stage entrepreneur and seasoned expert in art and craftsmanship from around the globe. The founding executive director of the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, she's committed to bringing artisan-created fashion and accessories to the Net-A-Porter set - and making sure we know the stories behind the goods at the same time. Denise talks about why she chose ecommerce and fashion as the focal point of her latest venture, how she's navigated a career that's taken her all over the world and

Plenty of us have fantasized about ditching a day job to build a business out of that really cool and beautiful thing that we're really good at making. But Cady Boughtin actually did it. Starting on a whim with a few inexpensive baby onesies, this 20-something entrepreneur was soon making enough to quit her professional gig and launch EnjoyEssential, an online ecommerce shop specializing in women's and children's t-shirts emblazoned with Boughtin's cheeky sayings and pop culture-inspired memes. With income streaming in - and Cady goes into detail about how much she was making early on in the episode - she grew her store to include an active wear line of tanks and, in early 2015, added a philanthropic twist to her company. Without raising tee prices, she committed to buying and donating a meal to a non-profit organization near her hometown of Fairfield, CA for every purchase. She even rounds up her team and shops for the non-perishable goods herself and delivers them to organizations like Mission Solano and So

The biggest mall in America was the go to-shopping destination of her youth, but these days Maxine Bédat is busy building a company that combines back-to-farm sourcing with respect for artisans and skilled craftspeople and no small degree of style. As co-founder and CEO of Zady and the founder of the non-profit social enterprise The Bootstrap Project, Bédat has become a sought-after authority on sustainable style - as you'll hear in our conversation, she visited the White House this year to talk about the future of manufacturing with companies many times the size of her own. The funny-cool-real thing is, the mission is not the reason shoppers are scooping up the New York-based company's linen t-shirts, sweaters and curated collection of clothing from ethical brands. They're coming for the polished, yet laid back style of the clothes, many of which are basics that somehow seem incredibly current and classic at the same time. Hear Maxine talk about how she came to c0-found Zady after starting out her career not

There's so much to learn from successful bloggers far and beyond their styling tips and perfect poses. In fact, the ones who turn blogging into a career are gold mines for entrepreneurial inspiration and practical takeaways. Jordan Reid, the blogger and lifestyle expert behind Ramshackle Glam, is no exception. From not knowing what a hyperlink was in 2007 to now, Jordan's grown her site into a successful business that includes the new ecommerce shop Glam Camp, frequent collaborations with brands (the latest of which is startup Thumbtack) and books that put a frank, but fun lens on motherhood and style. With her second book due out in January and a recent cross-country move from New York to the Bay Area under her very stylish belt, Jordan's a woman to look to for how to build a new career after the one you thought you were going to pursue totally implodes (her words, not mine!), as well as how to keep it all going when the newness of motherhood starts throwing curve balls your way.     But wait, there's more

Say yes, then figure it out. It's the advice you hear from so many successful entrepreneurs, but Danielle DiFerdinando actually ran with it. Here's what happened: while still a student at FIT in New York, she founded Danielle Nicole after a chance meeting in an elevator got her a deal at Bergdorf Goodman. She went on to sell her handbags in Neiman Marcus and many others before pivoting to create an affordable, yet stylish line of vegan leather accessories that have made their way from Oprah's events to Rihanna's arms and onto HSN.com. Hear Danielle talk about the surprising training ground that prepped her for fashion success - she has her dad to thank! - and how she has incorporated giving back into her company's recent campaigns. But wait, there's more!

If luxury consignment and ecommerce run in similar circles these days, it's thanks in no small part to Julie Wainwright, founder and CEO of The RealReal. An early player in a arena that's become increasingly crowded in recent years, this female founder and startup veteran leads a company that's raised over $80 million in venture capital and has made a name for itself as a go-to for discounts on coveted finds from Chanel dresses and Hermès Birkin bags to looks inspired by the latest runway trends. Does the key to her entrepreneurial stamina and cool-amid-chaos demeanor stem from her years of experience building companies through the first dot.com boom and bust to now? That hasn't hurt, but Julie reveals she actually learned to triumph over stress at a much earlier age. Hear Julie get frank about her childhood and the misdiagnosed terminal illness in her family that shaped her future, as well as her career building companies selling products from software to preventative health tools and pet supplies on this ep

Ever geared up to shop eco-friendly or sustainable or fair trade or socially conscious goods and then just pffft...lost your steam as you tried to wade through the wilds of the Internet to find what you need? That's exactly the common consumer conundrum Ecohabitude is here to help sort out. After her mother's battle with breast cancer, founder and CEO Kristen Drapesa launched the online marketplace to connect shoppers with healthier beauty products and ethically-produced fashion. Today the New York ecommerce startup it a gateway to much more, including eco-friendly children's clothing, homewares, wedding gifts and edibles such as coffee and spices. Kristen talks about the chicken-and-egg decision that faces many early stage entrepreneurs: do you go for the vendors and partners first or the audience? Hear her answer, as well as her thoughts on the challenges facing fashion labels that want to produce apparel from eco-positive materials or using socially responsible manufacturing and much more on this episode o

Today's guest has a name spells power. Well, actually, it IS power. Katherine Power, the co-founder and CEO of Clique Media, the content and technology company that publishes Who What Wear, a digital fashion platform that's among the best-known sites out there for fashion fans tracking what's hot right now - especially among celebrities, top bloggers and fashion icons. Since founding the site in 2006, Katherine and co-founder Hilary Kerr, both former fashion magazine editors, have grown the site into a media company that now includes beauty site Byrdie and lifestyle destination MyDomaine and churns out over 700 social media communications a day from its Los Angeles headquarters. The site covers celebrities and the familiar faces of fashion icons closely, but never snarkily. A positive approach to showing what the most talked-about names in popular culture are wearing right now has not only won the site legions of fans, but helped build support from the celebs themselves. Katherine talks about her start at wel

It's one thing to know you can accomplish something. But it's another thing entirely to stand up, take ownership of that thing and get it done. Bonus points if that thing doesn't already exist, and you're the one cutting the first path. Third Wave Fashion founder and CEO did just that after she left a successful career in open source software to launch her New York-based fashion think tank and consultancy. Today, her company's Third Wave Fashion magazine is the only print publication dedicated to what's happening now and what's up ahead in fashion tech. But that's not all Liza's up to these days. She's hard at work on a forthcoming book about wearable tech and design, and she's a frequent speaker, teacher and presenter both in New York and around the world. In this episode, hear from one of fashion tech's pioneers about her path from retail and styling to the very different world of software and how that prepared her for what she was ultimately meant to do. But wait, there's more!

Since when is made in China linked to sustainability? Well, it is when you're talking to today's guest, Anna Lecat, the founder and CEO of Les Lunes, a womenswear label rooted in super-soft separates, lingerie and lounge wear made of bamboo, designed in Paris and manufactured in a company-owned facility in China. Funny enough, Lecat lives - at least most of the time - just outside of San Francisco. An example of just how mobile and global a sustainable fashion entrepreneur can be these days, Anna is full of surprises. Born in Ukraine and fluent in Chinese, she's building a brand known for all-day wearability and a soft, feminine appeal. But don't let the aesthetic fool you. Anna is as strong as they come. She lets listeners in on why she chose China to manufacture her line, the ups and downs of marrying your product to a finicky fabric like bamboo and her approach to femininity as a source of power. You'll also hear her insight on the importance of face-to-face interactions with customers and her unique appro

Badassness is central to today's show. My guest is Emma McIlroy, co-founder and CEO of Wildfang, a Portland-based fashion retailer with a super passionate fan base - and for good reason: the company is one of the very few purveyors of menswear-inspired style made for women. And while the clothes are a serious part of the draw, the real attraction has a lot to do with the brand's ethos and effort to stand for badass, independent women who do things a little differently. Much of that spirit comes straight from Emma and her co-founder and best friend Julia Parsley. Ex-Nike employees fed up with the lack of clothing options to fit their style leanings, they set out to build a company that would let its customers step into the looks they'd wanted but couldn't find. A few years into the retail adventure, Emma is about as real and authentic as they come when she talks about what Wildfang has done well - and where it's screwed up. You'll be inspired by her hustle, how well she knows the Wildfang girl, her frank respo

Today's guest is Lucy Beard, the founder and CEO of Feetz, a shoe company aiming to deliver custom, 3D printed footwear with an added sustainable twist when its first products hit the market later this year. And while where Lucy is going next is pretty exciting stuff - cutting edge technology that creates shoes you can send back for recycling when you're done with them -  it's her journey to now that's going to stop you in your tracks. That's because Lucy did everything right: climbed the corporate ladder, secured a solid job at a well-known Internet gaming startup and reached an enviable level of success. But it just wasn't right. So then she did what many dream of, but never quite get around to doing: she quit her job, packed her things into an RV and headed on an epic roadtrip. Finally ready to say yes to the entrepreneurial urges she'd been setting aside for seven - seven! - years, Lucy stepped onto a new path pioneering 3D printed fashion for the masses. Listen to why she chose Chattanooga, Tennessee ove

Today's guest is Tracy DiNunzio, the founder and CEO of Tradesy, a fashion resale platform where women connect to buy and sell secondhand apparel, handbags, shoes, jewelry and even wedding dresses. The look of the site and many of the items sold there is sleek and sophisticated - like the pages of your favorite fashion magazine. But it wasn't always this way. Tracy - a former bartender, artist and self-described bohemian - started her business from her apartment, where she slept on the couch and rented out her bedroom through Airbnb to fund her first company, a peer-to-peer resale site for wedding dresses. With no tech experience, she bootstrapped her brand and later rolled it into Tradesy, which continues her original mission, but on a much larger scale. From the one-woman show that started in her early thirties, Tracy has built one of Silicon Beach's top startups, amassed a reported $44.5M in venture capital funding and grown a team that's now north of 110 people. But the really cool part? It's Tracy hersel

Today's guest is Phuong Mai, the founder and CEO of P.MAI, a young brand with a fresh mission: deliver a women's backpack that's ultra functional, but stylish enough to jive with polished daytime looks. At first, it may sound like a modest goal. But then you start thinking, wait a second, why aren't there more products designed for women's bodies? Why is society's dominant form of carry-all for women a bag that hangs on one shoulder, pulling you down, f-ing up your back and throwing you out of alignment? Why should we have to look like day-hikers or high school students to bring what we need along with us on all our daily adventures? Phuong left a career in management consulting to develop an alternative. She's at work designing and manufacturing a sophisticated take on the average backpack, one specifically made for women's bodies, one that will look as at home in the Financial District as it will riding shotgun on your next weekend wine country jaunt. The thing is, unlike a lot of companies that will be fea