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- Someone said I was selling
feminism, and I was like,

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I'm not selling feminism.

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What am I supposed to do, be
a feminist on the weekends?

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You know, like.

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- It's a part time job.

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- Right, like, I'm not
only gonna talk about it

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in my off time.

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(dynamic music)

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- What's the most important
thing you think about

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when you hire people?

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- I think that now more than ever,

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someone who's really willing to work hard

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and put the time in.

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I think I meet a lot of
young people that expect

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their career to be as
quick as calling your Uber

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or your Amazon Prime, and
I keep saying I don't know

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of a shortcut to your career.

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Even if your career path is here

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for the next two years, work your ass off.

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- I think when you're hiring
or even when you're looking

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for a partner, a lot of the
advice that you would get

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from maybe more traditional
investors is, oh,

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you want someone with this kind of resume

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or that kind of experience, and

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more than anything, I've
actually realized that

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what matters most is the
chemistry that you have

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with that person.

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And does that person
bring out a side in you

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that you didn't know you even had?

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- And I think, can they
do, can they take some

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of the load of you?

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If you're the owner of the company,

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whoever you hire should
make less work for you.

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And if they're not
making less work for you,

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then you've made the wrong hire.

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And that was like, now with every hire,

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I'm like, did they take work off my plate?

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Am I more freed up?

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Like, am I not feeling like I'm drowning

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in a million things?

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Okay, good, then that's a good hire.

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- I don't have kids, but there
are, we have a lot of parents

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at my company, and that's been
a really interesting topic,

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and especially as a startup
when, you know, each dollar is

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so precious, this idea of,

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like, maternity leave, paternity leave,

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how do we take care of our
parents at the company.

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And one of the initial moments
we, we struggled with is

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when one of my first
employees, Annie, got pregnant,

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and I think we were a team
of seven people at that time.

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And of course the initial
reaction is like, congratulations!

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But then, we're like,
(groans) what are we gonna do?

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What are we gonna do without you?

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Annie was, to her credit,

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she was such an active
participant in this conversation.

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And this was her second,
so she had done it before,

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and so she was like, you
know, let me tell you

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what my needs are, let me
tell you how I need this

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to play out, and let's see if

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we can find a middle ground that works.

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And I think, as we've grown
as a company, like now

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we offer 12 weeks parental
leave to all of our employees,

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and that's something we can
afford to do, but early on

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in the company, when each
dollar matters so much,

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those trade offs are really hard to make.

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- Yeah, I think when you're
growing and, you know,

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I was the first one within
my company to have a baby,

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but then when the second person
has a baby and you realize,

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you know, how costly it is on
the company, it's something

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I hands down am 100% supportive of,

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but even if I'm 100% supportive of it,

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if you're a growing company
or you're just starting out

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or there's five employees,
it's extraordinarily expensive

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to support that.

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And you wanna support that person.

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(chill music)

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So one of the things that's
always been important to me

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that was a pillar of the company,

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but probably on the side was like,

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when we have time to support and promote

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and talk about women,

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we'll do that, been
doing it the whole time.

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But I think really, this
season it took center stage,

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and like, no, actually this is way

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more important than product.

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- Wow.

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- So we launched our I
Am Many campaign where

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we really wanted females

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to celebrate their multidimensionality.

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I think as women, we've
been marketed to is

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to be one thing, be bold,
be brave, be beautiful.

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- You see kids wearing
those t-shirts, yeah.

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- Right, and like, wait,

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we can be all these things.
- Totally.

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- And we can take confidence

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in the many different parts of
ourselves and celebrate that.

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- I mean, because we, our
customers are professional women,

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it's part of our company
ethos since day one,

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all these fashion magazines
in Japan, like they have Vogue

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and they have Harper's Bazaar,
but really it comes down

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to these four publications,
Japanese publications,

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and they all have models on the cover

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but they're posing as professional women.

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So growing up, again, like I
would look at these magazines

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and I would think, oh my gosh,

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I can't wait to be a grown up.

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Like, I can't wait for
my 8:00 a.m. meeting.

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And I think when I came to the U.S.,

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I was surprised that they're,

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these models were not to be found.

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And this conversation about
professional women, I mean,

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it was like at the very end of,
you know, fashion magazines,

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if you could find them.

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Nobody was talking about what it was like

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to be a professional woman.

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And so I think we've really
tried to corner that space

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by starting our own content.

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We have our, our own digital
magazine called The M Dash,

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and in that magazine, weekly

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we're featuring professional women.

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And the subscriber list has
grown to over a million people.

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- Wow.

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- Which has been, I mean,
a total surprise for us,

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just seeing how much interest
and curiosity there is

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from other professional women to hear

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about other professional women, you know.

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And these aren't stars, they're
not mega celebrities at all.

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They, they're women just
doing remarkable things, and,

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and I think that's really
just one way we've tried

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to put the spotlight on, okay,
what does, it's so wonderful

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to be a professional woman,
right, okay, that we have

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so many challenges, 77 cents
on the dollar, all of that,

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but I think some celebration
is also necessary, and so that,

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that's a lot of what we've tried to do.

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(chill music)

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10 years from now, where
do you see Rebecca Minkoff?

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- Oh man.

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I really think that we have a
couple categories left in us

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that we haven't launched.

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- Yes.

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- And I think really
solidifying our community and,

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and getting that dedicated
fan to stay with me

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for the next 10 years.

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And what about you?

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Where are you in 10 years?

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- You know I think, a lotta
people think fashion, oh,

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you know, so trite, like it's not serious,

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but fashion is the power of costume.

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It's so powerful when you,
when you dawn on something

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and you look yourself in the
mirror and you're like, damn,

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I look good.

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Really our, our goal, if we can
change that perception about

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how American professional
women are, are kicking butt,

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then I think that would
be a huge accomplishment.

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That and making a lotta money.

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- Totally.
- Yes.

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- Hell yes.
- Yes.

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(chill music)