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

00:59 The “I Love NY” Tee That Changed Everything

06:51 Learning Business in the Trenches

11:04 The Morning After Bag & Real Product–Market Fit

14:41 Why Fashion Is More Competitive Than Ever

22:10 Breaking Through the Algorithm

24:04 Monetizing Creatively (Including OnlyFans)

24:34 Building Without Venture Capital

26:48 Private Equity Lessons—The Hard Way

29:01 COVID, Chaos, and Reinvention 

30:33 The QVC Rocket Ship

34:36 Inside the Female Founder Collective

36:33 Fundraising Advice Women Should Ignore

39:54 Fashion Lightning Round

40:47 Listener Questions

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