Sarah LaFleur (M.M.LaFleur) - Changing workwear for women and adapting through COVID

Presenter: Burkland Associates helps you build the right systems that can keep up with your growth and can handle all the finance, accounting, tax and hiring services that consumer startups need to scale. For more information head to burklandassociates.com Presenter: Skillful runs online, immersive programs that help people launch and accelerate their careers in business roles in tech - Strategy & Ops, Product, Strategic Finance and Growth. Click Here to Apply to the Next Cohort   Thank you Will McClelland for the intro to our guest today, Sarah LaFleur, founder of M.M.LaFleur. M.M.LaFleur creates luxury apparel and accessories with the same attention to detail as high-end fashion houses. This was a great chat about how to launch an apparel brand and as well as how to adapt during COVID and new market tastes. Without further ado, here's Sarah. Some of the questions I ask her: What was your attraction to entrepreneurship? Why did you decide to focus on women's workwear? What were the current options for women when it came to workwear and what did you set out to change? What were the first steps when deciding you wanted to found the company? How did you think about sourcing materials? What was your approach to production? How do you approach personalization to your customers? What was the launch strategy? How did you reach your target audience? Has COVID changed your business since people are not yet going back into the office? As we come out of COVID (hopefully soon), what do you see changing when it comes to formal wear (if anything)? When did you decide to raise capital?What was that process like?What was the most common reason why an investor would pass? What's one thing you would change about the fundraising process? What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?The Second Sex by Simone DebuarInternal What's one piece of advice for founders? What's the best piece of advice that you've received?