Networth and Chill with Your Rich BFF

Episode Title: Marina Larroudé on Disrupting Luxury Footwear (Without Going Broke)
Air Date: October 29, 2025
Host: Vivian Tu
Guest: Marina Larroudé, Co-founder of Larroudé

Episode Overview

In this episode, Vivian Tu sits down with Marina Larroudé—former Teen Vogue fashion director, ex-Barneys VP, and, most importantly, co-founder of the luxury footwear brand Larroudé. The conversation dives deep into Marina’s bold leap into entrepreneurship (including risking her and her husband’s retirement savings), the challenges of disrupting the luxury footwear space, building a brand with social responsibility at its core, and no-nonsense advice for aspiring founders. The episode is both candid and practical, peppered with insights on industry economics, work-life boundaries, and the value of learning the ropes on someone else’s dime.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Taking the Leap—Financing a Footwear Dream

• Risking it All: Marina and her husband, Ricardo, invested their combined 401(k) savings (about $100,000) into launching Larroudé after both lost their jobs during the pandemic.
  • “We scraped our 401ks… we were unemployed and it was Covid and we were like, okay, we're going to do this.” — Marina (16:57)
• Bootstrap Mentality: The couple personally designed the website and took on multiple roles to minimize startup costs, emphasizing scrappiness and resourcefulness.
  • “I physically designed it on PowerPoint. We hired like a developer and we paid like $4,000 to build it.” — Marina (17:54)

2. Industry Experience as a Foundation

• Decades of Learning: Marina’s background at style.com, Teen Vogue, and Barneys honed her skills in storytelling, operations, and consumer behavior.
  • Advice to Young Entrepreneurs: “Learn from the best first. Build your foundation first and then that is going to make you thrive… Don't open your own thing based on PowerPoint.” — Marina (06:49)
• Understanding the Customer: Insights from time spent on the retail floor directly influenced her product and price-point decisions.
  • “I spent a lot of time in the Barney shoe floor looking at women wanting to buy the pink boot, but then they're like, oh… it's too expensive. I'm going to buy the black one.” — Marina (07:44)

3. Disrupting Luxury Footwear: Business Model & Brand Vision

• Warby Parker for Shoes:
  • Larroudé set out to be the “Warby Parker for shoes,” offering high-end construction at accessible prices via direct-to-consumer sales and vertical integration.
  • “The footwear market, it's so dormant… you either have a very high end footwear… or you had the ones that are manufactured in mass production.” — Marina (05:02)
• Cutting Out the Middlemen:
  • By forgoing traditional wholesale and agent-driven models, Larroudé can afford higher product quality and employee wages.
  • “There are like so many people in the middle with their hand out, right?… tripling the price every time that it goes. That's why we decided to be vertically integrated.” — Marina (11:50)
• Expanding Under One Umbrella:
  • Inspired by Luxottica, Larroudé partners with other creatives to offer capsule collections, keeping everything under the Larroudé brand.

4. Marriage and Business—Navigating Co-Foundership as Spouses

• Intense but Trusting Partnership:
  • Marina and Ricardo divide roles (he’s CEO, she’s Creative Director) and maintain clear communication, even when feedback is blunt.
  • “He's the CEO and everyone knows… He's the boss at the office and then I'm the boss at the house.” — Marina (14:16)
  • On Conflict: “Sometimes he looks at me, 'your content suck.' And I'm like, oh, that's harsh… But at the end of the day, sometimes it is bad and he needs to give me feedback as he gives to anyone else in the company.” — Marina (15:30)

5. Highs, Lows, and the Growth Journey

• Lowest Point:
  • “February of 2021, we sold $5,000 in the entire month. And I was like, how are we gonna pay your employees? Or, like, rent?” — Marina (20:31)
• Breakthrough Moment:
  • “We got a $3 million order from a wholesale… that day, I was like, what the fuck?” — Marina (21:37)
• Resilience: Success took patience—over a year and a half between the lowest month and the massive order.

6. Social Responsibility and Ethical Manufacturing

• Manufacturing in Brazil:
  • Larroudé’s factories pay 30% better, provide health insurance, and offer employee perks, challenging industry norms.
  • “We're giving prosperity tomorrow. Like, what is. You're like, this is not my problem. Tell everybody else to pay.” — Marina (24:47)
• Impact on Community:
  • The company’s “dream factory” model led to local competitors complaining to the mayor’s office about their high wages.

7. Money Mindset Shift as an Entrepreneur

• Pressure of Payroll:
  • The responsibility of “working for” their 550 employees is a powerful motivator.
  • “We are working for them. We need to make this right so everyone can go home… You gotta make payroll. And that's so scary.” — Marina (27:54)
• Personal Wealth:
  • All resources are reinvested into the business; diversification takes a backseat during the growth phase.

8. Practical Footwear Shopping and Industry Prognosis

• Shoe Shopping Advice:
  • “Put it on and see how it fits. If it's tight, if you cannot walk, return it.” — Marina (30:40)
  • Focus on the width at the ball of the foot, memory foam insoles, and actual feel, not just looks.
• Industry Concerns:
  • Predicts more “bad products” in the market as brands cut corners due to tariffs and cost pressures.
  • “Everyone's going to start cutting costs everywhere. That they can and then ultimately it's going to end up in the product… we're gonna see very bad products out there.” — Marina (39:41)

9. Lightning Round—Memorable Rapid-Fire Q&A

• Best Financial Decision:
  • “Script my 401k and put into the business. Taking that risk.” (35:36)
• Worst Financial Decision:
  • Accepting a $250k return from a wholesaler on the promise of a new order that didn’t materialize. (35:45)
• Biggest Lesson:
  • “You gotta work. You have to put the work. There's no magic.” (36:13)
• Money Advice to Younger Self:
  • “Ask for more money… ask for the promotion. I always work[ed] extremely hard and I was okay with the lower pay at fashion. Not that I was okay. I was too afraid to ask.” (36:27)
• Dream Job If Not Larroudé:
  • Still a founder—entrepreneurship is in Marina’s DNA. (37:24)
• Favorite Shoe for a Desert Island:
  • “Milan raffia sandals… so appropriate for the beach, but it's also so appropriate for going out.” (38:26)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Learn from somebody else's dime… You open your own thing, don't get out of school and open. Unless you are like a genius… be doing that work first.” — Marina (29:25)
• “For work. You gotta work, and then you ask for the promotion. Ask for the promotion, but ask for money.” — Marina (37:10)
• “If your product's really good, no matter when you're going to sell them, and I really believe in our product… it's the same quality as all the high end designer brands, but then there's a third of the price.” — Marina (32:39)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Risking Their 401(k)/Bootstrap beginnings – 00:00, 16:57
• Biggest High/Low in Business – 20:31 (Low), 21:37 (High)
• Employee Impact & Ethical Manufacturing – 23:10–25:45
• Money Mindset as a Founder – 27:24
• Industry Advice & Footwear Construction Tips – 30:12, 30:40
• Lightning Round – 35:26
• Larroudé’s Long-Term Vision & Industry Forecast – 38:54, 39:37

Conclusion

This episode is a masterclass in resilient entrepreneurship, the complexities and ethics of fashion manufacturing, and the no-filter reality of starting (and scaling) a luxury brand from scratch. Listeners walk away with both inspiration and hard-earned truths, whether they dream of running a business, obsess over quality shoes, or just love hearing from someone who’s walked the walk—literally and figuratively.