Last week, global fashion entrepreneur Emma Grede launched Safely, a new business venture with co-founders Chrissy Teigen and Kris Jenner, to bring “clean cleaning” into our homes through plant-powered products. The CEO and Co-Founder of inclusive denim brand Good American and Founding Partner of shapewear brand SKIMS spoke with me about her mission-driven businesses, why representation matters, and why savvy consumers want more from brands than just the products they sell.
Jessica Pliska: Tell us about your brand-new venture, Safely. How does it fit into your overall vision?
Grede: Everything I do has to have a common purpose. When I think about my career on the whole, access and inclusivity have always been at the core. In the case of this newest company, Safely’s mission is to rid American homes of harsh toxins with plant-powered products. Most households in America use cleaning products made with chemicals harmful to our families. What I love about it is that the price range is accessible, ranging from $6-14. We should all be able to reduce chemicals in our lives. Cleaning products are not a nice-to-have beauty product. They’re a necessity.
Pliska: How did you, Chrissy and Kris come together and why?
Grede: I’ve known Kris and Chrissy for a very long time and I approached them. I knew they would be amazing voices in bringing the mission to life. Sure, it’s about marketing, but it’s also about connecting with audiences, which they each do brilliantly. They feel very familiar to consumers. They build connections and understand what people are thinking. They’re both so good at building a community—they’re already doing it for Safely, engaging directly with customers about future product ideas for the line.
Pliska: As a CEO who’s also a Black woman, you’ve been vocal that representation matters in your companies’ visual branding—that it’s important to you that women of color see themselves reflected. Do you remember the first time you felt seen or represented in advertising or media?
Grede: Oh, yes. I close my eyes and I can see it now. I was a young girl and it was a fashion campaign for United Colors of Benetton. It was the very first time I saw kids in ads who looked like my sisters and me. I was raised in London, which is very multicultural, but when I was growing up, I didn’t see Black people or people of color represented in magazines or on TV. For all of my campaigns now, including Safely, representation is paramount. You have no idea who’s seeing it, who it might mean something to, the way the Benetton ad impacted me. And I want my children to see the true representation of themselves in anything I’m involved in. It’s not a calculated choice; it’s an absolute given. It’s a non-negotiable for me.
Pliska: That is certainly purpose-driven.
Grede: For me, when you start a company, if you’re going to be mission- or purpose-driven, yes, you ought to be consistent based on a set of principles.
Pliska: Do you have an example of a decision you made based on values or mission that wasn’t the obvious best choice for business in terms of revenue?
Grede: Many! We launched Good American with such hype and fanfare that everyone came knocking—all of the retailers of my wildest dreams. I couldn’t believe it. And then they said, “We love it all and we want everything you do...in sizes 0-8.” But the hallmark of that brand is inclusive sizing for any woman 00-24. At the end of the day, I’m a CEO, and my job is to build a profitable business and make money for shareholders. But we’re nothing without our principles.
Pliska: What did you do?
Grede: We said no to any retailer with that stipulation. And it was the best thing we could have done, because from the outset, we got a reputation for not sacrificing principles, and customers loved that. They knew that if a given retailer wasn’t successful, it was likely because that brand wasn’t supporting our vision and therefore not supporting theirs. I learned quickly that saying no to something was saying yes to something else—yes to the fact that we were going to be steadfast in our mission. It meant so much to our customers. And, frankly, the world doesn’t need any more brands that don’t serve a purpose. So you’ve got to be doing something better than what exists to have a chance of any kind of longevity.
Pliska: How else do your operating principles show up?
Grede: In everything. We went through this exercise for Safely. What are our core principles and how will we need to apply them? For example, if we value accessibility through affordability, that impacts price point, which impacts our distribution strategy, which impacts our entire business plan. And, by the way, how are we going to apply these principles not just now, but in five years? In 10?
Pliska: Safely is the latest accomplishment in a career that most entrepreneurs can only dream about. To what do you attribute your success?
Grede: Self-belief coupled with really thick skin! If you are going to be in this business, you’re going to get knocked back. It hasn’t deterred me. I don’t want to paint an overly rosy picture—my journey hasn’t been easy—but self-belief has been pivotal for me. For that, I credit my mother. I was raised by a single mom in a part of London that felt really devoid of opportunity. My mom taught me that I wasn’t better than anyone else, nor was anyone else better than me. She really believed I could do anything. That’s stayed with me. I’ve also self-appointed great mentors along the way. I would say, “Wow, you’re really good, I think you should be my mentor!”
Pliska: What are you really good at as a leader?
Grede: My true leadership talent is as an operational CEO. I’m good at building companies from zero. I didn’t have formal management training. I didn’t go to business school. But my superpower is my gut instinct. I rely on it, day in and day out. I’d love to tell you that I base all of my key decisions on data analytics, but it’s more my instinct about what consumers want. So much of what I’ve done in my career are things that haven’t been done before, so I’ve had to rely on instinct when there wasn’t data. And having by now made enough decisions against my gut instinct, I know to listen to it.
Pliska: As a Black woman operating in predominantly white industries, what advice would you share with young people of color doing the same?
Grede: I think we’re in an amazing moment right now. I think it’s a time for young people of color to bring their whole selves to work—their full backgrounds, full experiences, and unique understanding of what it means to be a Black person or a person of color in America, We need your voice. So I implore young people to consider that now is not the time to show less of your true selves. It’s time to lean in to who you are.
Pliska: So from here, what’s the big goal? What does the home run look like?
Grede: It’s always world domination, Jessica.
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