Invest Like the Best with Patrick O’Shaughnessy
Business:Investing
My guest today is Trina Spear, a former investor at Blackstone and the co-founder and CEO of FIGS. FIGS is a multi-billion-dollar public company that built a category-leading brand selling scrubs to healthcare professionals. It was a problem hiding in plain sight and FIGS solved it through vertical integration and customer obsession. Trina shares so many interesting, simple lessons that are often ignored in business. Please enjoy my great conversation with Trina Spear.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.
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Show Notes
[00:02:28] - [First question] - The original insight that lead to founding FIGS
[00:04:28] - Why obvious opportunities can go so long before being seized
[00:06:23] - Key dimensions needed to improve the product and the early days
[00:09:02] - Basic overview of a clothing retailer’s financial profile
[00:10:49] - Financing the business and the early stage cash flow cycle
[00:13:04] - Strategies to manage workflow and making sacrifices
[00:14:43] - Advice for people trying to build their brands in a hands-on way
[00:17:14] - The biggest calculated risk she took in the first five years
[00:19:00] - Building a foundation that allowed for such explosive growth
[00:21:44] - The story that allowed FIGS to connect with their customers
[00:24:43] - Painting a picture of the size and scope of healthcare apparel
[00:26:22] - Things lazy companies do and thoughts on product variety
[00:28:54] - Defining SKU productivity and what to do with low productivity products
[00:30:21] - Chip Wilson Book; Lessons learned from reading Chip’s story
[00:31:58] - Balancing a healthy relationship with your CFO
[00:33:59] - Where she sees the most runway to tackle and continue to execute
[00:35:46] - A women-lead industry and her time spent with Meg Whitman
[00:38:13] - The most essential jobs she feels she has and shouldn’t do as the CEO
[00:40:03] - Thoughts about relationships with investors and messaging
[00:42:14] - What she’d be most focus on in founders if she was just an investor
[00:43:57] - The most stressful thing that has ever come across her desk
[00:44:41] - What types of things bring her the most joy in building FIGS
[00:45:27] - Philosophy of hiring given their small team and when it’s okay to hire
[00:46:56] - Whether or not there’s a role for non A players in businesses
[00:47:48] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for her
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Daryl Morey - Systems Thinking in Sports - [Invest Like the Best, REPLAY]
Michael Ovitz - Knowledge Is Power - [Invest Like the Best, EP.359]
Erik Serrano - Investing in Investment Firms - [Invest Like the Best, EP.358]
Doug Leone - Lessons from a Titan - [Invest Like the Best, REPLAY]
Justin Ishbia - Lessons from Acquiring 586 Companies - [Invest Like the Best, EP.357]
Gavin Uberti - Real-Time AI & The Future of AI Hardware - [Invest Like the Best, EP.356]
A Conversation with Charlie Munger & John Collison - [Invest Like the Best, EP.355]
Peter Fenton & Victor Lazarte - Purpose and Partnership - [Invest Like the Best, EP.354]
Lior Susan - Leave the World Better than You Found It - [Invest Like the Best, EP.353]
Brad Jacobs - Think Big and Move Fast - [Invest Like the Best, EP.352]
Elizabeth Zalman & Jerry Neumann - Founder vs Investor - [Invest Like the Best, EP.351]
Palmer Luckey - Inventing the Future of Defense - [Invest Like the Best, EP.350]
Aswath Damodaran - Making Sense of the Market Pt. 2 - [Invest Like the Best, EP.349]
Patrick Collison & John Collison - A Business State of Mind - [Invest Like the Best, EP.348]
Strauss Zelnick - Playing to Your Strengths - [Invest Like the Best, EP.347]
Rick Buhrman & Paul Buser - Find Your X, Nurture Your N - [Invest Like the Best, EP.346]
Jack Altman & Miles Grimshaw - Building and Investing in Lattice - [Invest Like the Best, EP.345]
Michael Simanovsky - A Platform Approach to Real Estate - [Invest Like the Best, EP.344]
David Senra - In Service of Founders - [Invest Like the Best, EP.343]
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