Ep #14: Jeremy & Lila Stewart

I’ve known Lila and her husband Jeremy not just as fellow product founders but fellow Dallas founders for years! I love husband and wife founding teams for all the obvious fun reasons but also given Jen and I worked together for years. Lila and Jeremy started Hari Mari as a premium flip flop brand and have taken over people’s feet across the country! I actually just found out about their new initiative, Studio, to move into other areas of footwear given how much demand they’ve received from their customers. We talked about the unique challenges of building a company in the product space along with universal truths we face as founders along with building a company with offices and team members across the country. There’s quite a bit of relatable and educational bits of wisdom in this one! Say hello to Lila and Jeremy and the whole team on Instagram at @harimarishoes and go get yourself and everyone you know the most comfortable flip flops ever.

Show Notes:

• 07:45 - From concept to prototype to business
• 12:50 - A blind order of 25,000 pairs of flip flops!
• 23:50 - Strong female role models growing up
• 28:15 - An honest conversation about the difficulty of being a good friend as a founder and a family person
• 34:45 - The joy of an organic celebrity sighting
• 38:30 - How Hari Mari helps fight pediatric cancer
• 44:00 - A terrible experience of sexism on a sales call