Self-made millionaire behind $4 billion Skims says it all began with a cold call to Kris Jenner
Job-seekers are turning to unusual ways to advance their careers, from delivering donuts to Silicon Valley bosses, to waitressing at tech conferences to hand out CVs. But actually, simply cold calling or emailing employers isn’t a bad way to stand out.
For example, you’ve probably heard of the British Entrepreneur Emma Grede because of Skims, the $4 billion shapewear company she runs with Kim Kardashian. She’s also invested in other brands with the family, such as the cleaning products company Safely and Kylie Jenner’s clothing line, Khy.
But what you may not know is that the growing empire can all be traced back to one phone call she made to Kris Jenner in 2015 that changed everything.
“I had an idea, and I formed the partnership in my mind,” the self-made millionaire told me in an exclusive interview. “The difference between me and someone else is that I made the phone call, I took the meeting, and I made it happen.”
Grede hadn’t run a fashion business before nor had she ever worked with the Kardashian-Jenners, but she didn’t wait for the stars to align. She picked up the phone, pitched Good American Denim to the “momager” and the rest is history.
And she’s not the only person to try their luck with a stranger and strike gold.
When Figma’s billionaire CEO Dylan Field was 19 years old and looking to get his design tool off the ground, the millennial cofounder cold-emailed his tech “heroes” to invite them out for coffee. He also hit up the inbox of former fellow interns and peers from LinkedIn, Flipboard, and O’Reilly Media—and it worked.
Likewise, Nespresso U.K. CEO Anna Lundstrom got her foot through the door of the notoriously hard-to-break-into luxury industry thanks to a cold email to an LVMH boss. He instantly offered her an internship which snowballed into a 5-year career at the likes of Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Gucci.
Google executive Sameer Samat got his start by plucking up the courage to cold-email one of the biggest names in his industry: Google cofounder Sergey Brin.
Before becoming the CMO of $7.2 billion company Squarespace Kinjil Mathur spent her summers as a college student skimming the Yellow Pages. She would go to the company listings section, and dial the number of businesses listed, inquiring about internships—and that’s how she got her foot in the door. Now she calls cold-calling employers the “life hack to avoiding long interview processes.”
So don’t wait for opportunity to ring. Sometimes you have to be the one to pick up the phone, send that bold email, and create your own luck.
—Orianna Rosa Royle Success Associate Editor, Fortune
Got a career tip or dilemma? Get in touch: orianna.royle@fortune.com You can also find me on LinkedIn: @oriannarosa
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God
Thank you for sharing.
Congratulations Business Inventor.
Sometimes you just need to go for it.
Yes… but this is what worked before everyone did it. Huge fan of Emma. But to stand out now, would recommend skipping the cold calls and emails that land in massive piles of other emails, and build something. Create something that gets attention. Pitch competitions and hackathons. Ideas won’t cut it. Prototype and create.