Disrupting the Dress Code with FIGS’ Heather Hasson

Summary

Confessions of a Female Founder with Meghan: Episode Summary

Episode: Disrupting the Dress Code with FIGS’ Heather Hasson
Release Date: May 13, 2025
Host: Lemonada Media

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Introduction

In this episode of Confessions of a Female Founder, host Megan engages in an inspiring conversation with Heather Hasson, co-founder of FIGS, a trailblazing company that revolutionized healthcare apparel. Heather shares her entrepreneurial journey, the challenges faced, and the strategies employed to build a billion-dollar business dedicated to supporting healthcare professionals.

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Heather Hasson's Entrepreneurial Journey

Heather Hasson's path to founding FIGS was anything but straightforward. Initially aspiring to be a surgeon, Heather's academic struggles in medical school led her to pivot towards entrepreneurship at the young age of 21. Despite lacking financial backing and experience, she embarked on her first venture—a handbag company.

Heather Hasson [07:03]: "I just didn't do well. I got all Ds, like, I just didn't do well. So I said, okay, I guess this is not going to be my career path."

The untimely passing of her business partner prompted Heather to reevaluate her career direction, eventually leading her to Kenya. There, she observed a glaring need for proper uniforms among healthcare workers, which became the catalyst for FIGS.

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Founding FIGS: Identifying the Need

Upon witnessing healthcare professionals without adequate scrubs, Heather took decisive action by manufacturing and donating the first 10 sets of scrubs. The overwhelmingly positive feedback ignited the idea to create stylish, comfortable, and functional healthcare apparel.

Heather Hasson [11:28]: "The people that I met out there, they'd never had a set of scrubs before. And so I manufactured, like, I don't know, 10 and sent them out."

Heather's dedication extended beyond merely providing uniforms; she aimed to elevate the appearance and comfort of healthcare workers, fostering a sense of pride and belonging.

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Overcoming Early Challenges

Starting FIGS was fraught with challenges, including financial constraints and production mishaps. One significant hurdle arose when a production error resulted in ill-fitting scrubs being sent to customers, forcing Heather to unsew and reconstruct the faulty garments without additional funds.

Heather Hasson [21:03]: "We sewed the women's front panel onto the men's back panel. So the inseam is tiny and very, very, very short. Not comfortable for a dude at all."

This incident, though initially devastating, underscored the importance of rigorous quality control—a principle that remains central to FIGS' operations today.

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Scaling the Business

Heather and her co-founder, Trina Spear, complemented each other's skills, allowing FIGS to scale effectively. Trina's background in private equity and business operations paired with Heather's creative vision formed a robust foundation for the company's growth.

Heather Hasson [15:03]: "She said to me, she goes, 'Heather, I will do everything you don't want to do.' And I said, 'Everything.' And she goes, 'Everything.'"

Their partnership facilitated the expansion of FIGS from a small startup to a publicly traded company, with over 350 employees at headquarters.

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Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic presented FIGS with both challenges and opportunities. Positioned within the healthcare sector, FIGS quickly adapted to meet the urgent needs for personal protective equipment (PPE).

Heather Hasson [34:25]: "It was honestly our partnering with our manufacturers, it was partnering with anybody who we knew to get our masks to healthcare professionals. We just gave them out for free."

FIGS responded by producing and distributing hundreds of thousands of masks and pulse oximeters, ensuring that frontline workers had the necessary gear to combat the pandemic.

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Taking FIGS Public

In 2021, FIGS made history as one of the first female-led companies to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. This milestone was a testament to the company's resilience and the unwavering belief in its mission.

Heather Hasson [36:08]: "It was an incredible milestone. Even though it's grueling, it was awesome to see FIGS take that step."

Despite facing a significant lawsuit during this period, Heather and the FIGS team emerged victorious, reinforcing their commitment and resilience.

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Heather's Current Ventures

After stepping down as CEO of FIGS, Heather remains deeply involved in the minutiae of the business, believing that attention to detail is crucial for success. She is now channeling her entrepreneurial spirit into OGG Health, a platform aimed at revolutionizing healthcare education through peer-to-peer learning.

Heather Hasson [38:25]: "We have a new way for healthcare professionals to get certified. We track and manage your certifications, allowing professionals to learn from each other."

Heather's continuous drive to solve problems ensures that she remains at the forefront of innovation within the healthcare industry.

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Conclusion

Heather Hasson's story is a powerful example of resilience, adaptability, and the impact of recognizing and addressing real-world needs. From her early struggles and unexpected pivots to building a billion-dollar company and contributing to global healthcare efforts, Heather exemplifies the essence of a dedicated female founder. Her ongoing work with OGG Health further cements her role as a pivotal figure in transforming healthcare education and supporting professionals worldwide.

Heather Hasson [40:11]: "My job is to help healthcare professionals. Make sure all our healthcare professionals are taken care of."

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Notable Quotes:

• Heather Hasson [01:15]: "Honestly, I still do think I'm in the minutia and I think that is the key to success."

• Megan [02:04]: "We're moving at warp speed, problem solving, filling gaps in real time... But I guess that's where the magic is, right?"

• Heather Hasson [06:03]: "We took something that was a commodity and decommoditized it."

• Heather Hasson [15:03]: "She said to me, she goes, 'Heather, I will do everything you don't want to do.' And I said, 'Everything.' And she goes, 'Everything.'"

• Heather Hasson [32:38]: "Creativity is key. You have to create the world you want to live in."

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This episode not only highlights Heather Hasson's remarkable journey but also serves as an inspiration for aspiring female entrepreneurs aiming to make a meaningful impact in their respective fields.

Transcript

[Megan]

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[Heather Hasson]

Lemonada Honestly, I still do think I'm in the minutia and I think that is the key to success. Sometimes I think you have to ebb and flow from zero feet right boots on the ground all the way to 60,000ft. It's a really hard skill set to master, but I think it's key for success.

[Megan]

I'm Megan and this is Confessions of a Female Founder, a show where I chat with female entrepreneurs and friends about the sleepless nights, the lessons learned, and the laser focus that got them to where they are today.

[Heather Hasson]

No time to get down cause I'm moving up no time to get down cause I'm mo no time to get down cause I'm moving up.

[Megan]

So as I've been building as ever, oh let me tell you, it is just a constant state of recalibration. There's joy in that. But we are always in motion. And if you're a founder yourself, you know exactly what I mean. Because we're moving at warp speed, problem solving, filling gaps in real time, scratching a million tiny, tiny things off of your to do list, but not in that fun way like a lotto ticket and then all of a sudd, you're switching gears and you're thinking about the big picture strategy and where you want to be in five or 10 years. And oftentimes all of this, every single beat of that happens in the same day, sometimes in the same hour. But I guess that's where the magic is, right? Because it can get messy. And the best founders are not afraid to get their hands dirty. And I don't mean play dirty. I mean when it's clean up on aisle five time, you are the first person there with a mop.

[Heather Hasson]

I'm chasing mail trucks. I'm sitting in hospitals, I'm selling out of hospitals. That's how we sold. I sat there and I sold right in front of a hospital, in front of an ER at 7 in the morning and 7 at night.

[Megan]

Heather Hasson turned that hustle into something so much bigger. She built Figs alongside her co founder Trina Spear. And together they turned health care apparel into a billion dollar business. In 2021, FIGS made history as one of the first female led companies to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. And by 2020, generating over $318 million in revenue on Scrubs. They created scrubs that are stylish, colorful, comfortable, and they're made with their customers. Top of mind. Figs is the ultimate if you know, you know brand. And once you see it, you can't unsee it. They're everywhere. I can't wait for you to hear this conversation with Heather. Let's dive in. How we doing?

[Heather Hasson]

We're doing great. How are you?

[Megan]

Really good. I'm so happy to meet you. When I had Met Trina at G9, she may have mentioned it to you. I don't know. She was very surprised when I knew what Figs was. She said, I have a company called Figs. I said, I know Figs. She goes, do you? Actually, it was almost like a test.

[Heather Hasson]

How do you know? Yeah, Megan, how do you know Figs?

[Megan]

God. Well, you guys have been around for a while.

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah.

[Megan]

But anytime that you see somebody either for I think it transcends beyond hospitals. In someone's home, they have on Figs uniforms. But also I work with Children's Hospital la and I see a lot of the people wearing that. And you just saw that something shifted from when I was young and you'd be in any sort of medical setting and you saw very ill fitting scrubs that were probably not comfortable to. Things are looking a little more tailored. And I remember going, wow, that looks so different. And just knowing it and clocking it and seeing the little Figs logo on there. So I. I just know your brand.

[Heather Hasson]

Oh, that's awesome.

[Megan]

Yeah.

[Heather Hasson]

I love that you know who we are. Honestly, like, I think what you've created is so amazing. I was just watching your show the other day, too.

[Megan]

Oh, thank you.

[Heather Hasson]

Because I'm. I'm a terrible cook. I can't cook anything. But I will. I'll bring you lemonade or something. Like, in the juice world, I could do that.

[Megan]

Great.

[Heather Hasson]

But you can teach me something. Probably, yes.

[Megan]

You'll have to come over, come to the garden, and we'll, like, whip something up. It's very easy. I think the whole point for me, and you'll probably speak to this too, is when you see something that is an easy solve in the everyday, that's not complicated, it's not fussy. How do you get your hands involved and change the way of thinking, surrounding it so it doesn't feel daunting? You know, I see vegetables and I see takeout because I don't have time to cook every day. And I go, all right, but how do I still make this flattering and beautiful and present well and something that people find appetizing? And for you, you go, hold on. This is something that you're doing every day. You're wearing this uniform every day. You're eating every day. How do we elevate that in a way that you feel good about what you're doing and you feel proud about what you're wearing, and you're able to have some functionality with it? In some ways, they're actually a different version of the same thing.

[Heather Hasson]

No, I totally agree. I think, you know, when you take something that's so simple in your everyday life and you. And you elevate it and you make it elegant, I think that's what makes it so special. I mean, that's what even, like, Andy Warhol did. Right. In terms of, like, commercialization with, you know, the Campbell soup.

[Megan]

Yes.

[Heather Hasson]

He took something so simple that you see every single day, but he. He elevated it. Right. He made it into art. And now it's like, you know, I don't know, $50 million on your wall. But. But, yeah, in terms of figs, that's exactly. You know, what we did over 13 years ago is we took something that was, like, a commodity and, like, decommoditized it.

[Megan]

Yes. And also that it wasn't necessarily what you had been planning to do. You know, you were in medical school then. You had a pivot to fashion and a handbag line, which is already in and of itself really Fascinating. How does that happen?

[Heather Hasson]

Well, I think so. My. Since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a surgeon.

[Megan]

Okay. And what attracted you to that?

[Heather Hasson]

I just thought I would be really good at it because I'm so precise and I pay attention to detail and I just thought that I would be. I'd be an incredible surgeon. But when I was in. In school, I did poorly. I mean, obviously organic chemistry is impossible. Anatomy was my favorite course. And I just. I just didn't do well. I got all Ds, like, I just didn't do well. So I said, okay, you know what? I guess this is not going to be my career path. I'm just not going to be a doctor. So I gave up. And when I graduated University of Wisconsin, I started my first company. I don't even think I was that employable even at the time. Like, I just didn't think I was like an employable person. Like, I try really hard, but I don't know. I don't know why.

[Megan]

But how were you able to start your own company? How could you invest in yourself even then?

[Heather Hasson]

I didn't. I didn't. I didn't have any money. I didn't come from money. So I. I didn't really. I mean, in the sense of. I had like three jobs. I raised some capital. I was 21. And then I started my bag company.

[Megan]

Back up for the people who are listening going, I'm 21. What do you mean you raised capital? How do you raise capital?

[Heather Hasson]

Honestly, it was. At the time, I didn't even know what VC was. I wasn't really in tune with anything with finance, like 000. I think it was just kind of innate. I just went to friends, family, people I didn't even know. I was in New York at the time, asked around and then met some folks and they gave me a little bit of cash and I took that little bit of cash and I, you know, started this tiny company, moved to Italy and then it didn't do very well. The bags are beautiful. They were gorgeous.

[Megan]

What kind of bags were they?

[Heather Hasson]

They were like just giant handbags. They were big oversized handbags. Beautiful.

[Megan]

And by the way, if you were so drawn to precision and the dissection of something, the manufacturing of a very detailed bag or piece of clothing has that same level of almost surgical precision. If you're talking about the craftsmanship of it.

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah, exactly. And I was like, well, at least if I. If I can't, you know, be in surgery, at least I can do this, right? But then it was actually my. I had a business partner at the time, and he passed away from lung cancer.

[Megan]

Oh, good. I'm so sorry.

[Heather Hasson]

That's. It's okay. I mean, I was super young, and he was a little older, and he was a wonderful human. And after that, I just folded the company and went straight to Kenya. So I was just going there because I, you know, my business partner passed away. I was in the hospital for a really long time with him, and, you know, I just needed a break. And so then I went over to Kenya, and then I started going to these clinics, and I saw everybody not wearing scrubs, and I'm like, what's going on? You know, how come nobody's wearing scrubs? This, you know, this one nurse, she was a nurse for 25 years, never had a set of scrubs. The surgeon didn't have a set of scrubs. So then I came back to Los Angeles, and I'm like, you know what? Let me donate some scrubs. Let me just give some scrubs to people who. The people that I met out there, they'd never had a set of scrubs before. And so I manufactured, like, I don't know, 10 and sent them out.

[Megan]

So you didn't just go and buy them. You manufactured 10 sets of scrubs?

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah, yeah. I just made literally 10 sets of scrubs in Los Angeles. They weren't stylish or anything. I just, you know, put them together, hired a tailor, because I can't sew a terrible sewer.

[Megan]

I can sew, but not well enough to mend something. I mean.

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah, yeah, no, sewing's tough. It's very difficult.

[Megan]

Yeah. You know, so funny. I went to college as a theater major, and part of the program was you couldn't just do the acting. You had to do soup to nuts. Every part of what a production would entail, which I actually think is incredible training for when you're running a team, because you appreciate what the sound person does and what the lighting person does, but wardrobe department and sewing was part of it, too, so.

[Heather Hasson]

Good.

[Megan]

So I am comfortable with a sewing machine, but, no, I couldn't sew 10 sets of scrubs without a pattern. I don't think.

[Heather Hasson]

Right. It's hard.

[Megan]

No, it's hard. Okay. So you enlist someone to go and do that, and you say, I'm going to make these 10. I'm going to send them over.

[Heather Hasson]

Yep. And so the feedback from these, the surgeons, the nurses, they were just like, I can't believe you did this. We've never felt like we were on, you Know, part of a team before. And that's when the idea of figs came about. I. Then I started to sit in hospitals, like, you can go. And I just had a cup of coffee and I would watch like, almost like a method actor. Right.

[Megan]

Okay, so wait, so this moment where you send the 10 out at the onset, it's just. Oh, you see a need, you want to fulfill it for them, but because of their reaction, you realize, I want to dig deeper into this. And that's what makes you go and sit in hospitals and observe what's happening there in terms of their uniforms.

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah, it was how important it was to them, that uniform. And I was like, oh, my God. Wow, that is incredible. I mean, I did also make uniforms for children as well when I was in Africa before even the scrubs to put kids in school. So uniforms has, I think, been part of my DNA. And when I was even in pre med, I wore these huge, massive scrubs, right. I'm over a cadaver and I'm tying my. I had a belt on top of it because, you know, they gave us extra large scrubs. It was like a one size fits all.

[Megan]

Oh, my gosh.

[Heather Hasson]

I mean, in my mind, I just thought, the smartest people in the entire world, if there's not a company that supports them, we are all going to die. Like, we're all going to die in the sense of not because they don't have scrubs, but because we need to make them feel great.

[Megan]

Right.

[Heather Hasson]

We need to make them care for.

[Megan]

The people that are caring for us.

[Heather Hasson]

That's right. So we can have better patient outcomes. Right.

[Megan]

It's really interesting that that becomes the catalyst for you. I love that because it's emotional, not economic.

[Heather Hasson]

Oh, I'm not even driven by that. And I should maybe should be a little bit more. But when I started figs, right, I think, you know, when I was sitting in hospitals and understanding the landscape of uniforms. Right. Of scrubs. And I'm sat there for hours and days and months just studying what, what they were wearing and why they were wearing it. Then before I actually did go into this, I'm like, okay, how? What's the landscape look like? Because I'm just not going to go into something where it's a, you know, if hospitals buy your scrubs for you, and. But then I realized it was direct to consumer. So nurses and doctors, right, all healthcare professionals, they were purchasing their own scrubs. So then I'm like, okay, if they're buying their own scrubs, why are they buying bad Scrubs. Right. Like they need to make. Right. It's like, okay, they're spending money on their own pockets. Right. They're hard earned money.

[Megan]

Yeah.

[Heather Hasson]

Let's give them something that's better than anything that's out there for sure. So that was how it all started. And then I met Trina because she'd.

[Megan]

Been on Wall street, right? She was. And she's still does more the op side and the business side and you're more of the creative, I would guess.

[Heather Hasson]

I think actually Trina is very creative. I think she undersells herself, but she is very, very, very creative. She's honestly, she's my, my, my best buddy and a real fantastic business partner. It's because we come from two totally different places in the world that we see things very differently and we always have very healthy conversations. But she's way more dynamic than, you know, than, okay, the business person, the ops person, because she is very creative. And I would say that probably the same thing for myself because when you are running a company at that scale, you have to be both, right? It's, you have to be, you can't just be like, okay, I'm going to do the numbers or I'm going to do this right. You have to be able to do.

[Megan]

Everything well, especially at a startup phase, you're wearing so many hats. You have to think about the customer experience, you have to think about your P and L. You have to think about what your long term trajectory is. I don't know if as you guys were conceiving this and even, you know, to my understanding, when you met, it wasn't with the intention of bringing on a business partner you met. You knew she was savvy. And then within a couple weeks, you guys realized you should be partners and do this together. How did that happen?

[Heather Hasson]

Oh, she's relentless. She. I was like, she was. You know this came from Blackstone Private Equity, Harvard Business School, right?

[Megan]

Yeah.

[Heather Hasson]

And she said to me, and I'll never forget, I'll never ever forget this, she said to me, she goes, heather, I will do everything you don't want to do. And I said, everything. And she goes, everything.

[Megan]

Wow.

[Heather Hasson]

And I said we should. And we were playing tennis and we shook hands and that was it. I said, let's go. Wow.

[Megan]

And you believed her? You knew it was true?

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah, I knew it was true. And I thought it was really cool that she was, you know, quitting this high paying job on Wall street, you know, coming to work on Scrubs. That was, we were a little tiny company. She just believed in the vision. She's like, I see it.

[Megan]

Why do you think she believed in the. Of all the things, of all the investments and all the opportunities and all the decks that get sent and all the possibilities and all the friends of a friend that say, oh, you should go and do this all, why was it this?

[Heather Hasson]

You know, I have asked her that a few times, right. And I think it was. I think she believed in me and the vision and I think she knew that I was absolutely relentless. And I knew this was, you know, that you can essentially create the world you want to live in. And she's like, I want to, I want to join this and I want to create the world I want to live in. And let's, let's do this together. I said, right on.

[Megan]

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So you and Trina decide to be partners. She leaves Blackstone. You're getting your ducks in a row. You were getting feedback on some of the items and they were saying they're just not fitting quite right.

[Heather Hasson]

Oh, yeah.

[Megan]

What was that. What was that moment at the beginning? Because as a founder, we all have that. Oh, my gosh, I've crossed every T and dotted every I. And how on earth did I miss that?

[Heather Hasson]

Yes. That was actually. It was really funny.

[Megan]

So funny now.

[Heather Hasson]

It's funny now.

[Megan]

Probably not funny then.

[Heather Hasson]

It was then, because we didn't have any money, so it was not funny. Yeah. So our first production run. So it took. It took me about a couple years to actually design our fabric. And then, you know, I did our first production run. And at the time, right, I'm chasing mail trucks, I'm sitting in hospitals, I'm selling out of hospitals. Right? That's how I. That's how we sold right in front of. That's how I sat there and I sold right in front of a hospital in front of an er. Seven in the morning and seven at night.

[Megan]

Oh. So that's really interesting. So you were there at a shift change.

[Heather Hasson]

At a shift change, yeah.

[Megan]

You. You knew when they'd be coming in and out of their cars, right? And you could be there with your. I mean, what were people using to. Were they buying with cash or did you have this swipe? What was. How were they. How were you doing sales?

[Heather Hasson]

So in the beginning, we didn't have square, so that didn't exist yet.

[Megan]

Right.

[Heather Hasson]

So we just had cash.

[Megan]

Yeah. No one was tapping their phone.

[Heather Hasson]

No tapping. We didn't have any of the tapping. I wish we did, but it was just cash. And I hired folks from Craigsl Just to stand next to me so I could be like, here's the male. Right. And here's the female. Right. And I would also bring, like, hot chocolate. Like a little thing of hot chocolate or coffee from. You know, Starbucks has those.

[Megan]

Yeah, the jugs. Like the carriers.

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah, the jugs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So just take that.

[Megan]

Like, it was scrappy.

[Heather Hasson]

Very, very. But people were just handing me cash.

[Megan]

Wow.

[Heather Hasson]

And we started getting And I didn't actually know at the time, but we started getting inquiries saying, these pants don't fit. Right? And I'm like, okay, that was one email, then another email, then another email. I think this, you know, something about a package. And then they started sending photographs of the pants, these men. And I'm like, okay. And I'm like, wait a second, what's going on?

[Megan]

Oh, no.

[Heather Hasson]

Why are men sending, you know, pictures of their front of their pants? Like, what's happening here? So then I go look and I check production. And we sewed the women's front panel onto the men's back panel. So the inseam is tiny and very, very, very short. Not comfortable for a dude at all. Right. And so that was a massive production.

[Megan]

Miss, how, how much did that end up costing you? What did you do with all of it?

[Heather Hasson]

I had a. We didn't have any money, so I had to unsew everything.

[Megan]

No.

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah, yeah. I'm like, okay, we have to redo it. So we, I literally unsewed. Yeah.

[Megan]

Unstitched it all and reconstructed them.

[Heather Hasson]

Unstitch. Every single thing. And whatever we can salvage, we salvaged. But, you know, at that time, I really thought this was like our demise because I'm like, I screwed up royally. And it was actually, it was a funny thing, but it made us really pay attention, obviously, to production. And ever since that incident, our production is our lifeline. It's our North Star. Our quality control is now probably the best in the world. We have so many checks in all our facilities. It's state of the art. So I'm glad it happened when we.

[Megan]

Were at the beginning. Yeah, well, all that stuff happens at the beginning. I mean, the types of minutiae that at a certain point, as a founder, at the onset, you kind of have to be across every single granular detail. For me, I don't know how to not have love in the details. But at what point do you go, okay, those were your beginning learns, and then you've grown to a company of how many employees?

[Heather Hasson]

I want to say 350 at headquarters.

[Megan]

Yes, you have 350 people headquarters that you have to entrust to oversee. As you said, the quality control, other elements. What has that been like for you in the growth to make you go, okay, I'm entrust that they're going to solve it, that it's going to be okay that you're not in the minutia in the same way as you were at the onset.

[Heather Hasson]

Honestly, I still, I still am in the minutia. I mean, I'm so. I've not CEO anymore of figs. I stepped aside about two and a half years ago. But I still do think I'm in the minutia. And I think that's the key to success. Sometimes I think you have to ebb and flow from zero feet, right. Boots on the ground, all the way to 60,000ft. And you have to be able to do that in the same day, sometimes in the same hour. And even when I hire folks, I like to see if they're capable of doing that. Cause it's a really hard skill set to master. But I think it's key to.

[Megan]

For success and bring in A plus people that you can trust to do and delegate and speak on your behalf. But look at it through the same lens that, that you would. I mean, okay, so let's just go from year one to now at year 13. So you're at year one, you have this not blind faith, but this faith in what you guys are creating. And even as you have little moments, as we were talking about with that manufacturing hiccup, or I wonder, without a fashion background outside of your handbag line that you had started, what was the inspiration for changing the colors, the fit, Was it trend driven? Was it just trying to make things more tailored? And also, were you. And do you continue to meet with the trends on how that should look? Or do you just say, these are evergreen, these are the styles that we do. The colors pop in a different way. You know, I'm just curious how you did that. And equally, the second part of that question would be when you talk about sizing and you're incredible in what FIGS does in terms of accommodating so many different body types and shapes and sizes, what that does for you from an inventory standpoint. Because I think a lot of small businesses certainly at the onset, are so scared of having inventory just sitting on their shelves because they don't know which units are going to move first.

[Heather Hasson]

So I think we are fortunate in the position that we are in a uniform business. Right. So we could have a long shelf life if we need to. Right. So it doesn't go out of style. We're not going to go out of style.

[Megan]

So more timeless designs than are key. So it doesn't feel like you're not going to have a puff shoulder cool, like on trend, scrub style. You're keeping something that will work no matter what.

[Heather Hasson]

And if we do, we buy a smaller run. So if something is on trend, we buy you Know, obviously a smaller run of that and we buy specific, too, of something. If we believe, for example, wide leg. Right. If we know that in Texas wide leg's gonna be more popular, we just kind of focus on that region for that specific style. But I think going back to the colors, that has to be innate and it has to come from within. Like, I had a real issue with the colors in hospital. So what was a hospital standard of color really bothered me. Why I didn't like the mix. I think something should be, let's say we have a graphite, and our graphite's heathered. Heathered is dyeing 50% of the yarns and not dyeing the other 50%. So it gives a softer gray look.

[Megan]

And it feels more textured and multidimensional.

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah. So I think in order to elevate healthcare professionals, they can't have something that's flat. Right. And that's just boring. Standard gray that blends in, you know, it just drab. Yeah. So that was a big issue for me and hospitals pushed back for many, many, many years. And I said, okay, it's not going to come from the top down, but it will come from the bottoms up. And that's how we built our business, from the bottoms up. Right. So the healthcare professionals are saying, we want the graphite, we want the graphite. Right. And so eventually then we get the call from the hospital saying, cool, we're going to work with you and we want the graphite. Right. Our healthcare professionals will allow them to wear graphite instead of our standard gray.

[Megan]

It really is cutting through a lot of red tape in a way that you probably wouldn't have thought about beforehand, even if you're just talking about color considerations in hospitals. But you' a choice to really connect with your customer in a way that feels personal. And because you were goal oriented on something that was helping in a tremendous way globally and having a ripple effect, that's, I think, why it ended up yielding so much interest and success. Because I want to hear about for you, when you decided to do your first round or have Series A or B, what was that like the first time you went from friends and family investing in your handbag company to then bootstrapping, you know, what you, you guys were doing at the beginning to real you needed to scale, how were you going to scale without capital and what that was like, who you went to and how you ended up doing that first raise?

[Heather Hasson]

That first raise was very, very, very difficult. I think we had over 200 people say, what the heck are you doing? It was not even just like a nice note. It was like, absolutely not. You know, it was like, no way.

[Megan]

They couldn't buy into the story, the vision.

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah, no, it was like, absolutely not.

[Megan]

And were these in person or over the phone?

[Heather Hasson]

Both. They were both.

[Megan]

Oh, man.

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah, most of it at the time was in person, so. Yeah.

[Megan]

Well, that even feels worse because you're using all the charm in the room and it's not working.

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah. And I really thought that, like I, at that time, I was like, you're, you're making a big mistake because you, you don't understand the value of what a uniform can do to a healthcare professional and you're not getting it. And then that means you're a shitty investor because you're not understanding another person's lens, which. That's your job. Yeah, it was Trina and I was a lot of nos and then we finally got a yes and we raised our first round. I mean, a couple million for figs.

[Megan]

What were you using it towards? Was it towards marketing? Was it towards building inventory? What was the usage that people have a real learn of how you can take that and turn it into $2.

[Heather Hasson]

Billion plus we used a lot of it towards inventory. You know, for people starting a business. Try to negotiate obviously with your manufacturers to get a longer lead time right before your net terms, before you have to pay. So in the begin, when I didn't have any money, I negotiated with our facilities, our factories. I said, look, I don't have any money, but you gotta believe in this. And they did and they fronted the capital for a year of production and that's how actually FIGS was started. Like, I didn't have any money. So our manufacturers, they said, you know what, I really believe in your vision, I believe in what you're doing, we'll front you for a whole year. And they did.

[Megan]

That is massive. How do you still work with those same manufacturers?

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah, we still work with the same manufacturers. I mean, many, many more, but yes, yes, yes.

[Megan]

Wow, that's great. Well, I also love just the loyalty in that. Because they believed in you. They were incentivized because they wanted it, but they believed in your vision from the beginning. It suddenly becomes really personal.

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The large question that a lot of people listening will probably ask is how do you get someone to buy into your vision? How do you get someone to believe in the thing as deeply as you do? Because as you're saying, you went through so many no's like an auditioning actor before you heard yes, but what makes that yes happen is that just timing. Is that the right connection? Is that start in alignment or is there something that changed in how you conveyed your vision?

[Heather Hasson]

You know, I think for figs it was a number of things. It was proof of concept, right? I think with investors you have to show proof of concept. And sometimes people show okay, this is, this is what the TAM is. This is what the total addressable market is. I am not, I don't come from the background, the school of business school at all. And I don't believe necessarily in tams for myself because I think that you could always create your own total addressable market, right? You can create it. And that's the same concept of creating the world you want to live in, right? So everybody's like, oh, the TAM is too small for scrubs and I'm like, that is the most ridiculous comment. It's not too small. It's actually massive because you're not including, you know, A, B, C, D, E, F, G. You're not including the under scrubs, you're not including the socks, you're not including soup to nuts. Soup to nuts. And you're thinking of it in a very small way.

[Megan]

Yeah. Too micro.

[Heather Hasson]

Too micro. And I think entrepreneurs should not think about, like, how do I buy into the tam, but how do I. How do I create my own tam?

[Megan]

Yeah. Expand it beyond what people can wrap their heads around. Because, of course, no one would have thought that we were going to then be facing a pandemic and how Figs showed up for that, where it had just been scrubs. If you looked at the tam, you weren't thinking about masks at the onset. And then suddenly that ends up being a very, very vital part of how the entire world was navigating through this. Can you talk a little bit about what happened when the pandemic began and how you guys showed up in that moment?

[Heather Hasson]

Sure. Yeah. That was. Wow. Yeah, I started seeing it in December, and then it hit really hard in March of 2020.

[Megan]

Where were you?

[Heather Hasson]

I was in. Or was I. I think I was in Vietnam actually at the time.

[Megan]

Doing. Doing volunteer work or doing work with the business?

[Heather Hasson]

No work. I was with our manufacturers.

[Megan]

Oh, yeah. Okay.

[Heather Hasson]

And I'm like, okay, something. Something is going to happen here really quickly because we're in healthcare and we see everything. Right. And we're in communication with healthcare professionals globally, so we know we have our finger on the pulse. I'm like, okay, this is gonna get serious really quickly.

[Megan]

But so when you hear this news and you're in Vietnam and you're at the factory, is Trina with you? Do you call Trina? Do you leave? What do you end up doing in that immediate moment when you recognize we're gonna have to action something, and you're kind of figuring it out in real time, I think, as the rest of the world was. But, you know, it directly affects your business and how you can show up for your customer.

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah, I think we were a little bit ahead of the normal commercial world, since we are so in tune with healthcare, but we didn' realize the magnitude of what was going to happen. Nobody did.

[Megan]

Right.

[Heather Hasson]

So it was honestly our partnering with our manufacturers, it was partnering with anybody who we knew to get our masks to healthcare professionals. I mean, we had calls saying, I'm using a mask eight times and I'm putting it in the Oven to sterilize it. And my institution's not helping us out.

[Megan]

Oh, my gosh.

[Heather Hasson]

They couldn't help them out. And it was our duty as a company to protect and to provide gear for healthcare professionals. Right. They're on the front lines.

[Megan]

Right.

[Heather Hasson]

And so we just did everything we could to get hundreds of thousands of masks to healthcare professionals. We just gave them out for free. We made oxy pulses, so that was a huge thing too.

[Megan]

The pulse oximeters.

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah.

[Megan]

Oh, interesting. I didn't know you did that.

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah, that was a really big deal because with the breathing and healthcare professionals were handing them out to patients. So we gave them a ton and then we said, give these out to patients so they would know when to come to the hospital if they needed to come to the hospital again. But, yeah, I mean, it was. The entire company was amazing. And we really just were working 24 hours a day for quite some time, for what, two years? Year and a half.

[Megan]

Wow. I mean, it's just. I think for anyone who's listening, they have to feel so inspired by what you've created by knowing that one moment, one observation of something can end up changing the trajectory of your whole life, where you build something and have a robust team, but also that you're continuing to pivot it to the needs of what the company wants and also outplaying and over delivering on what the expectation is, even for your investors. And so speaking of that, what was it like to take Figs public?

[Heather Hasson]

It was awesome. It was honestly a lot of work. I think to be able to get to a place of like, okay, we are taking our company public is an incredible milestone. Even though it's. I mean, it is grueling, it is very difficult. And it looks easy, obviously, from the outside. Right. Oh, you made tailored scrubs. You had a great brand. Oh, you went public. First female founders to go public. Great. But there have been, like, you know, major hardships along the way. And there still are. Right.

[Megan]

And what type of hardships would you be comfortable sharing so that people know that it's not just an easy road?

[Heather Hasson]

One that was actually. That really, really got me was we were in a terrible, terrible lawsuit.

[Megan]

Oh, gosh.

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah. And I think, you know, I was being personally sued as well, for everything my company was being sued. And it was like, are you gonna lose everything? And you can. Yes, you can.

[Megan]

Do you feel more resilient after having gone through that? Because I will say you won't.

[Heather Hasson]

And we won. We won.

[Megan]

You fought that fight and you won. So in some ways, coming out of that. Because I think every entrepreneur, in ways big or small, are going to deal with things that feel like battles or criticism or scrutiny or legal or what have you. And how do you stay the course through that as opposed to just going, what is the point? They're coming for me. How did you, how did you stay the course? Why did you choose to fight the fight? And how did you feel coming out of it with a win?

[Heather Hasson]

I just think about being a giant killer sometimes. Right. Like David, I don't know.

[Megan]

Right. Like you're just slaying dragons left and right.

[Heather Hasson]

No, like in the sense of like. Right. Cause like, the people that were suing us, they were the giants. Right. They were the Goliaths. We were the Davids.

[Megan]

Yeah, David and Goliath.

[Heather Hasson]

And Goliath. Right. And I move on very, very quickly. So it's like, okay, next, then go. I mean, I think everybody has to be resilient in order to be on this earth. You have to be. You have to be pliable in some, you know, fashion.

[Megan]

Yeah.

[Heather Hasson]

But yeah, you just move on to the next thing. Go.

[Megan]

Yes, onward, next. Yeah, I mean, that's huge. And so now as you've, you know, stepped out of a more formalized role, but you're still in the weeds and in the granular for figs. What are you working on now?

[Heather Hasson]

Well, about two years ago, I started to see healthcare professionals having an issue with certifications and education. And I started a company in healthcare education. And we have not launched yet. And we're about to launch, we're in beta. And basically we came out with a new way for healthcare professionals to get certified. We track and manage your certifications. So it's healthcare professionals learning from each other instead of learning necessarily even from a textbook or from a third party. So a specific example actually just happened the other day, which was pretty cool. Here in the United States, when you have a baby and sometimes our OB GYNs, right, they are protocols to cut up. And in Colombia you cut laterally and that's their protocol there. And so we're watching these two surgeons talk on our platform. They're like, why do you do this? I'm like, well, this is why. This is the research, these are the papers. Wow. And they're like, okay, that is really fascinating to know that. So that's just one micro example. But times that by millions.

[Megan]

Yes. With peer to peer learning and understanding that even in the cultural context of things, how much we can learn about what's happening on the other side of the Globe. Even though you have the same profession.

[Heather Hasson]

Yes. And right now, I mean, we have 10,000 professionals on here. We're watching, we're learning, we're iterating. And it's really neat to see when healthcare professionals learn, even just know protocols from state to state or hospital to hospital or country to country.

[Megan]

You're finding a need.

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah, we're finding a need. And I didn't do this. I actually just did this as a passion project because I didn't want to start another company. I just zero desire.

[Megan]

I'm like, why does every, every female entrepreneur that I talk to says that? And yet they do. They're like, no, no, then this is it. Then I'm done. And they're like, ah, I kind of got the bug. But I see something else I can do and be helpful with, so let's do that too.

[Heather Hasson]

Yeah, I think I can't. First of all, for me, I can't sit still. I always have to be doing something and I always have to be solving for a problem because that's just how my mind, if I'm not solving for something, I feel like I'm worthless. So I think this is a very, very big issue in healthcare and my job is to, okay, how do I help healthcare professionals? How do I be their biggest cheerleader? How do I give them time back so they can have better patient outcomes? Right. And so selfishly. So I'm a patient too. Right. So I can live longer and live healthier and live the best life ever. How do I do that for Heather? Make sure all our healthcare professionals are taken care of. So this new company is amazing and it's called og it's called OGG Health and we're super excited to launch it and I think it's going to make a massive difference in healthcare education.

[Megan]

Well, well done. I think this is gonna be illuminating for so many people. And also just a good reminder that you don't have to have some revolutionary idea that is reinventing the wheel. To be able to see a hole in the market, to recognize where you can be additive in a way that's not just going to be profit building, but is going to really be fulfilling on a level that you can rest well at night knowing that your purpose has really added to someone else's sense of worth and how they show up in their job and filled a need in a different way. And I think it's. It's really profound what you, what you guys have been able to create. So well done.

[Heather Hasson]

Oh, thank you so much, Megan.

[Megan]

Next week we're talking to a founder who bootstrapped a wait for it hair tie business and turned it into an 87 million dollar beauty brand.

[Heather Hasson]

We were profitable year one. I mean that's what happens when you don't hire a graphic designer to do your logo.

[Megan]

Six iterations. Are you joking?

[Heather Hasson]

No, I'm not.

[Megan]

Can you guess who it is? See you next week.

Confessions of a Female Founder is a production of Lemonada Media created and hosted by Megan. Our producers are Catherine Barnes and Oha Lopez. Kristin Lepore is our senior supervising producer. Executive producers are Stephanie Whittles, Wax, Jessica Cordova Kramer and Megan Mix and sound design are by Jonny Vincevans. Rachel Neal is our VP of new content and production and Steve Nelson is our SVP of weekly content and production. You can help others find our show by leaving us a rating and writing a review. There's more. Confessions of a Female Founder with Lemonada Premium subscribers get exclusive access to bonus content when you subscribe in Apple Podcasts. You can also listen ad free free on Amazon Music with your prime membership. Thanks so much for listening. We'll see you next week.

I know. For those that can't see us, my darling dog Mia is pawing her way into this podcast. Literally.

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