Meghan Markle has spoken about ‘getting your hands dirty’ and how studying acting at college helped her prepare to be a company founder.
The Duchess of Sussex spoke with Heather Hasson, co-founder of medical scrubs brand Figs, in the latest episode of her podcast Confessions of a Female Founder.
Speaking about entrepreneurs who start their own business, Meghan said: ‘It can get messy and the best founders are not afraid to get their hands dirty.
‘And I don’t mean play dirty. I mean, when it’s ‘clean up on aisle five’ time, you are the first person there with a mop.’
The Duchess added: ‘The whole point for me, and you’ll probably speak to this too, is when you see something that is an easy solve in the everyday, that’s not complicated, that’s not fussy, how do you get your hands involved?’
‘I see vegetables and I see takeout — because I don’t have time to cook every day — and I go, ‘Alright, but how do I still make this flattering and beautiful and present well and something that people find appetising?.’
Hasson replied: ‘I think when you take something so simple in your everyday life and you elevate it and you make it elegant, I think that’s what makes it so special.’
Meghan also talked about her experience studying theatre and international relations at Northwestern University helped her prepare to be a company founder.
Heather Hasson, founder of medical scrubs brand Figs, is on Meghan’s new podcast episode
The Duchess of Sussex launched the eight-part ‘Confessions Of A Female Founder’ podcast
She said: ‘I was a theatre major and part of the program was that you couldn’t just do the acting.
‘You had to do soup-to-nuts every part of what a production would entail, which I actually think is incredible training for when you’re running a team, because you appreciate what the sound person does and what the lighting person does.
‘Wardrobe department and sewing were part of it too, so I am comfortable with a sewing machine.’
Scrubs maker Figs was started in 2013 by Hasson and Trina Spear, and received financial backing in its early days from acton Will Smith.
The firm saw a jump in demand for its medical apparel, face masks and shields from 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic began.
Figs makes medical apparel aimed at combining style with comfort, sold under the tagline, ‘why wear scrubs, when you can #wearFIGS?’
It sells scrubs in different styles including ‘skinny scrub’ trousers and ‘oversized’ scrub tops and those with multiple pockets in colours such as royal blue, teal and bright red and facemasks with patterns featuring cats, pandas and kisses.
Scrubs maker Figs was started in 2013 by Trina Spear (left) and Hannah Hasson (right)
FIGS was founded in 2013 and quickly became known for its form-fitting, fashionable scrubs
The company went public in 2021 and was valued at $4.6billion, although its sales and profits slowed over the following years as lockdown restrictions were eased.
Figs was valued at about $1billion when it received a takeover offer last December from private-equity firm Story3 Capital Partners, which it later rebuffed.
Today’s episode was the sixth of Meghan’s podcast Confessions Of A Female Founder, which has been releasing a new part each Tuesday since April 8.
This has included interviews with Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani, Highbrow Hippie co-founder Kadi Lee and IT Cosmetics co-founder Jamie Kern Lima.
In episode five last Tuesday, Meghan discussed leaving the UK for California as she interviewed Clevr Blends co-founder Hannah Mendoza who made the same move after struggling to ‘fit in’.
