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. After Figs went public the shares hit $50 in the first month, and she and Heather Hasson made a Forbes list of wealthy women. The next year the stock was $5 and they were the two women who fell off. Guy Raz says the two of them were worth hundreds of millions on paper. They have taken money off the table and can support their families. That security is not what gets them up.
The company value moved with the stock. Spear calls it an $8 billion company, then a $400 million company, a $600 million company, and later a $2 billion company. Guy Raz puts the market cap at $2.4 billion and says Figs is more profitable than before, with lower customer acquisition costs. Spear says public markets are a weighing machine over time and a voting machine in the short term. At $50, people invited them to castles in Italy. At $5, she says, the same circle acted as if the founders had murdered their children. Living through the swing made the spectacle look fake.
Spear says Figs still runs with the passion of the first day. They started a foundation, built a hospital in Kenya, and meet members of Congress, including Bernie Sanders, about healthcare workers. That work needs a business that makes money, so the profit and the mission stay tied together.
