Meghan Sussex sat down with Heather Hasson, co-founder of FIGS, on the latest episode of Confessions of a Female Founder to explore what it really takes to succeed as a woman entrepreneur. Their shared answer? Staying in the weeds.
Meghan described the daily reality of juggling small tasks and strategic decisions. While running her lifestyle brand As Ever, Meghan often moves from reviewing logistics to mapping out the next five years, all before lunch.
For Meghan, this mix of hustle and high-level thinking is not a flaw in the process. It is the process. She describes it as a “constant state of recalibration” where founders move at “warp speed,” solving problems that can feel both urgent and invisible to outsiders. And yet, it’s in those moments—unseen and uncelebrated—that lasting success takes shape.
Heather Hasson understands this rhythm well. She didn’t just talk about getting her hands dirty—she did it. In the early days of FIGS, she stood outside hospitals at shift change, selling scrubs directly to nurses. She carried jugs of coffee and hot chocolate, hired stand-in models from Craigslist, and took cash payments on the sidewalk. For Hasson, the glamour came later. At first, it was all grit.
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From ER Parking Lots to the New York Stock Exchange
Meghan connected Hasson’s story to her own experience. Both women see the need to operate at ground level even as their companies grow. Heather called it the ability to shift “from zero feet to 60,000 feet” in a single day. Hasson agreed and said she looks for that same trait when hiring. Leaders who succeed, they argued, don’t float above the chaos. They engage with it.
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Their conversation pulled back the curtain on the emotional and mental agility entrepreneurship demands. FIGS, now a billion-dollar brand, was born not from a boardroom but from the back seat of a car filled with product samples. Hasson even recounted how a flawed production run nearly ended the company. Instead of scrapping the batch, she unstitched and resewed the garments herself.
Even now, Hasson says she keeps a close watch on quality control and product development. Though she stepped down as CEO two years ago, she still takes pride in being close to the action. Her advice mirrors Meghan’s: care deeply about the small things. It’s not micromanagement—it’s leadership with texture.
As Meghan Sussex builds As Ever and Heather Hasson launches her new health education startup AUG, both women remain committed to hands-on leadership. Their message is clear. The best founders don’t shy away from the hard parts. They embrace them. And they do it again tomorrow.
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