Rebecca Minkoff’s origin story is not a glossy founder fairy tale—it’s a closet-bedroom apartment, a $3.25/hour internship, $60K in debt, and a single Rebecca Minkoff designed tee that ended up on Jay Leno. Today, Rebecca breaks down how that moment got her foot in the door—and how the next viral moment, the Morning After Bag, almost didn’t happen (FedEx late, no movie placement)… until it sparked the kind of sellout momentum every founder dreams about.
Then she gets brutally honest about what it takes to stay alive in fashion when the landscape is louder, more crowded, and algorithm-shaped: the “white lies” founders sometimes tell to level up, why you don’t need VC, and the real pain of taking money.
Rebecca also unpacks the OnlyFans Fashion Week deal that covered a six-figure show—until the platform flipped back to adult content—how COVID wiped out 70% of the business overnight, and why she’s now widening the funnel with new channels like QVC. Plus, if you’re building a product brand and wondering how to get customers without pouring cash into Meta ads, her answer is refreshingly tactical: throw the “Tupperware party.”
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Here’s what Sammi covers with Rebecca:
00:00 Rebecca Minkoff’s Social Currency
02:14 Rebecca's Early Career Goals
05:49 Learning Business in the Trenches
08:04 The "I Love NY" Shirt Story
12:18 The Morning After Bag
15:07 Trend Spotting and Product Development
21:43 Besting the Dupes
23:24 VC, PE and Monetizing Creatively (Including OnlyFans)
30:15 COVID, Chaos, and Reinvention
34:10 The QVC Rocket Ship
35:50 Inside the Female Founder Collective
36:33 Fundraising Advice Women Should Ignore
39:21 Marketing Tips
41:13 Fashion Lightning Round
42:36 Social Currency Corner
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