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Back to FIGS: Trina Spear and Heather Hasson. The $2.5 Billion Scrubs Brand That Investors Said Would Never Work, with Trina Spear & Heather Hasson.

How Much Did Trina Spear Invest in Scrubs?

Trina Spear put $70,000 into the scrubs company, half of a $140,000 retirement account she liquidated while she was still paying off business school debt.

The cash was her commitment to Heather Hasson, who had already done a lot before Trina got involved. Cashing out the account was a horrible tax decision, and the hit was 50% of everything. Heather had the company up and running, and they agreed on an equity split both felt good about. Heather is a creative genius, and her equity was greater than Trina's, in line with what was fair and with what had already been built. If the company failed, they both lose, and if it succeeded, they both win. Trina had gone to Harvard Business School and worked at Blackstone. In her late 20s she had no mortgage, no family, and no kids, so if she was not going to start then, she was never going to do it. Everybody asked why she would leave Blackstone to sell scrubs, and what a scrub even was.

Heather Hasson thought Trina was a lot of fun and wanted to have fun in life, because they only live once. Not partnering looked like the larger risk.

Grokipedia·Harvard Business School·Trina

Transcript

FIGS: Trina Spear and Heather Hasson. The $2.5 Billion Scrubs Brand That Investors Said Would Never Work ·

How I Built This with Guy Raz

More from this episode

  1. What Happened When Figs Stock Fell From 50 to 5?Trina Spear and Heather Hasson say they fell off a Forbes list of wealthy women the year after Figs stock went from $50 to $5.
  2. How Did a Trip to Kenya Lead Heather Hasson to Figs?Heather Hasson says a trip to northern Kenya is what led her to Figs. Her handbag business had collapsed after her partner died of lung cancer.
  3. How Did Figs Start Selling Scrubs?Heather Hasson says Figs started selling scrubs out of her car in emergency rooms, after a short path from a favor to a product.
  4. Why Do Most Medical Workers Buy Their Own Scrubs?Trina Spear says most healthcare workers buy their own scrubs because hospitals were not paying for them.
  5. How Did Trina Spear Sell Scrubs Out of a Car?Trina Spear says Heather Hasson told her that working together meant selling scrubs out of the car.
  6. How Did Figs Ship Its First Orders?Guy Raz says that in early 2013 Trina Spear left Blackstone, moved to Los Angeles, and she and Heather Hasson shipped Figs orders from the apartment they…
  7. Why Do Figs Scrubs Cost Only a Little More?Trina Spear says Figs spent about double what rival scrub makers spent on the product and still charged only about 15 to 20 percent more.
  8. Why Did Investors Reject Figs?Trina Spear and Heather Hasson say investors turned Figs down about three to four hundred times.
  9. Why Did Thomas Tull Invest in Figs?Trina Spear says Thomas Tull invested in the Figs seed round and the Series A, then in 2017 bought out the other investors.
  10. How Much Did Figs Spend Fighting a Lawsuit?Heather Hasson says Figs spent $40 million fighting a lawsuit she puts at $800 million, and that the money was worth spending because she and Trina Spear…
  11. Why Did Figs Go Public in May 2021?Trina Spear says Figs went public in May 2021 because the company should be a public company, not because 2020 was a year to cash in.
  12. Why Is Net Worth Not the Same as Self-worth?Trina Spear says net worth is not self-worth, and a founder cannot tie either one to a stock price.

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