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Showing episodes and shows of
Sarah LaFleur, M.M.LaFleur Founder And CEO
Shows
From Where I Sit With Tom McGee
S2E2: Retail Resilience and Reinvention. Sarah LaFleur, M.M.LaFleur Founder and CEO
In this episode, Sarah shares her journey in building M.M.LaFleur, a women’s workwear brand, and navigating the business through the pandemic when virtually no one was going into the office. Sarah and Tom also discuss the value of in-person interactions, the challenges of entrepreneurship, and the future of retail in today’s crowded digital landscape. Follow From Where I Sit for more conversations about the built economy.Follow Tom on LinkedIn.Follow Tom on X.Follow Sarah on LinkedIn. This episode was recorded on October...
2025-11-10
37 min
From the Ground Up
How to scale the right way
As a founder, trying to scale your business can feel like walking on a knife’s edge. Go too fast or too early, you’ll fall off. Move too slowly and you’ll get left behind. Every Friday on The Business Model, we’re hosting a Founder Group Chat. Each episode will feature a candid, in-depth conversation about one of the many pressing topics entrepreneurs are facing. On this first group chat, our topic is scaling. Specifically, how do you scale in the right way? Three founders from very different industries share lessons on scaling that can apply across busin...
2025-11-07
24 min
All Dots Connected
The Retail CEO's Playbook for Surviving a "Black Swan a Year”
In this episode, Paul sits down with Sarah LaFleur, the founder and CEO of M.M.LaFleur, to reveal the battle-tested playbook she used to navigate near-catastrophe and build a resilient, profitable business.What do you do when your revenue crashes by 50% overnight? Or when your primary lender goes bust, giving you just two weeks to raise $3 million? Sarah shares the raw, unfiltered story of her journey—from tutoring to make ends meet in the early days to facing a "black swan a year" in the brutal world of retail. She offers a masterclass in...
2025-07-22
57 min
Odd Lots
Sarah LaFleur On the Existential Threat From the Tariffs
America's textile industry has famously declined over the years, with a bunch of production moving to lower-cost places like China, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. Now, with the Trump administration imposing heavy tariffs on exports from these countries, the US clothing industry is facing another big shock. In this episode we speak with Sarah LaFleur, founder and CEO of M.M.LaFleur, which makes high-quality work clothing for women (Tracy is a big fan). She walks us through what the past month has actually been like for a smaller clothing business trying to understand and deal with the tariffs. We talk...
2025-05-09
40 min
The Retail Pilot
Power Dressing Reimagined: Sarah LaFleur’s Mission to Simplify Workwear
In this episode of The Retail Pilot, host Ken Pilot kicks off with a PreFlight segment featuring retail expert Jan Kniffen. They dive into the ever-changing sneaker market, discussing Nike’s comeback, the rise of On Running and Hoka, and how brands like Skechers and New Balance are shaking up the industry.Following PreFlight, Ken welcomes special guest Sarah LaFleur, Founder and CEO of M.M.LaFleur, for an insightful conversation about how she built a brand that redefined workwear for women. From launching the company in 2013 to navigating the challenges of COVID and fi...
2025-03-04
41 min
Shelf Help
How To Create A Brand That Aligns With Your Mission with Sarah LaFleur Founder and CEO of M.M.LaFleur
RESOURCES:Download my FREE Annual Planning GuideLooking for an example of a perfect entrepreneur? Look no further! Today, I’m joined by Sarah LaFleur, the visionary founder and CEO of M.M.LaFleur! Together, we explore how she built a wildly successful and stylish fashion brand with purpose, intention, and a deep commitment to empowering women. Her journey is incredible – from starting with zero experience in fashion to leading a brand that redefines how women view workwear! In this episode, Sarah reveals her top strategies for navigating partnerships with major upscale retailers, offer...
2025-01-02
29 min
Your Next Move
Building a Team That Will Last
Being a business owner means having to innovate constantly and navigate change. So Inc., in partnership with Capital One Business, wants to help you figure out Your Next Move. Join Sarah LaFleur, founder and CEO of M.M.LaFleur, a New York-based clothing brand celebrating women through thoughtfully designed pieces, personal styling, and engaging content, in conversation with our small-business host Beatrice Dixon, founder of the feminine care brand The Honey Pot Company. Sarah will share lessons from her entrepreneurial journey, including how she built a strong team and how she pivoted quickly when much of the world began worki...
2024-12-10
52 min
The MOTHER Podcast with Katie Hintz-Zambrano
Sarah LaFleur LIVE in NYC - The Founder & CEO of M.M.LaFleur on Raising Triblings, Embracing Surrogacy, The Power of Fashion, & Continuing Her Mother’s Legacy
Today’s guest is Sarah LaFleur, the Founder and CEO of M.M.LaFleur. We spoke at one of her NYC stores, in front of our first-ever LIVE podcast audience!Raised in Japan, Sarah worked in corporate consulting at Bain and had a short stint in private equity before giving business ownership a try.After recruiting designer Miyako Nakamura, the pair set off to create a brand of stylish, high-quality clothing for professional women. They launched M.M.LaFleur in 2013, and have gone on to hit revenue milestones in the tens of millions. Bey...
2024-10-24
42 min
Drink Like a Lady Podcast
VIRTUAL FIRESIDE CHAT WITH THE FOUNDER, CEO OF M.M.LAFLEUR SARAH LAFLEUR
Virtual Fireside Chat with Sarah LaFleur, Founder and CEO of M.M. LaFleurHave you found your superpower?Do you listen to your clients and the zeitgeist?Sarah M. LaFleur, founder and CEO of MM.LaFleur clothing company, believes every successful entrepreneur must address these questions.Founded in 2013, MM.LaFleur clothing rose to prominence among executive women just in time for the 2016 election. Despite the curveball of a COVID pandemic that made work-from-home casual the new norm, Sarah’s gift for perseverance and out-of-the-box thinking led the way to marketing ca...
2023-09-05
1h 01
What I Know
Flashback: Sarah LaFleur: Be The Whole Person
In the summer of 2021, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews Sarah LaFleur, founder and CEO of womenswear brand M.M. LeFleur. Sarah discussed how she started, the lessons she learned from her mother, how she grew her business, and guided it through Covid-19's most turbulent period.
2023-06-12
54 min
Happier with Gretchen Rubin
Ep. 431: Design Your Summer, an Easy Hack to Have More Fun with Food, and a Talk on the Joy of Dressing
As we do each year, we consider how we plan to design our summer. We alsodiscuss a hack from a food-scientist listener about an easy way to have more funwith the sense of taste, and we talk to Sarah LaFleur, founder and CEO ofM.M.LaFleur, about the pleasures of clothes.Get in touch: podcast@gretchenrubin.comFollow on social media:@GretchenRubin on YouTube@GretchenRubin on TikTok@GretchenRubin & @LizCraft on InstagramGet the podcast show notes by email...
2023-05-24
33 min
Retail Gets Real
M.M.LaFleur CEO on evolving how the company helps women dress for work
M.M.LaFleur is not a women’s workwear business — founder and CEO Sarah LaFleur says it’s a company that supports working women. LaFleur talks about the distinction on today’s show, as well as the brand’s bricks-and-mortar strategy, how women are dressing for work in a post-pandemic world, what it means to “lead from the front” and her biggest style inspiration. Learn more at retailgetsreal.com.
2023-05-16
24 min
The Big Move
5 Things with Sarah LaFleur, Founder & CEO of M.M.LaFleur, NYC based womenswear brand introducing the world to ‘Power Casual’
Sarah LaFleur is the Founder & CEO of M.M.LaFleur. Sarah founded M.M.LaFleur in 2013 with a mission to help women take the work out of getting dressed, so they can focus on the work that matters to them. Prior to founding M.M.LaFleur, she worked at Bain & Co. in New York and TechnoServe in South Africa. Sarah sits on the board of International Rescue Committee's Airbel Impact Lab and on the business advisory council of the New York Fed. She graduated from Harvard University. M.M.LaFleur is named after her mother, whom she calls her biggest...
2023-05-08
28 min
The Modern Retail Podcast
'There were multiple times I thought maybe we won't make it': M.M.LaFleur CEO Sarah LaFleur on the women's wear brand's new store strategy
After a difficult 2020 and 2021, women's work apparel brand M.M.LaFleur is once again in growth mode.The company is investing in new stores and showrooms, and says that sales are picking up again after business cratered during the pandemic."There were multiple times where I thought maybe we won't make it, maybe the business won't survive," said founder and CEO Sarah LaFleur. She joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the company's new focus on stores and how it's positioning its overall marketing going forward.M.M.LaFleur is...
2023-03-09
34 min
What's Her Story With Sam & Amy
Sarah LaFleur, Part One
Sarah LaFleur is the Founder and CEO of MMLaFleur, known for women’s “power casual” workwear. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
2022-07-14
31 min
The Style That Binds Us podcast
How M.M. LaFleur is redefining workwear with Power Casual
We are excited to welcome the Founder and CEO of M.M.LaFleur, Sarah LaFleur, to The Style That Binds Us podcast! M.M.LaFleur is a New York-based clothing brand celebrating women through thoughtfully designed pieces, personal styling, and engaging content. Prior to founding M.M.LaFleur in 2013, Sarah attended Harvard University, where she graduated with a degree in Social Studies, and pursued a career in international development before moving into management consulting. Sarah recently became a mom of 3 (congratulations!). M.M.LaFleur has been featured in Forbes, Inc., WWD, Glossy, The Washington Post, The Cut & many more...
2022-05-05
55 min
POPULUXE
Majestic Measures of Being with Sarah LaFleur
A company visit to the Whitney Museum of American Art to view the novel paintings of Toyin Ojih Odutola, the celebrated Nigerian--American visual artist whose work challenges the traditions of storytelling through portraiture, led Sarah LaFleur to an inner journey of desire and the meaning of narratives in forming one’s character.Popular fascination with royalty, Sarah ruminates, is a manifestation not so much of our desire to share their wealth or material possessions but rather to be able to trace our legacy back to multiple generations.“Luxury is to know where you come from,” the ent...
2022-03-24
21 min
LEAVE YOUR MARK: Freshly Brewed Career Advice with Aliza Licht
Sarah LaFleur on How Your Vulnerability and Desperation Can Breed Your Biggest and Bravest Ideas
Does desperation paralyze or invigorate you? For founder and CEO Sarah LaFleur, it was both. After quitting her dream job after four months because, spoiler alert, it was not a dream, she decided she had no choice but to become an entrepreneur. In truth, her motivation came from her inability to explain her departure in a way that wouldn’t permanently dent her career. Owning your narrative and shaping your story is something that many people struggle with, but for Sarah, her so-called failure spawned the birth of her company, M.M. LaFleur. Frustrated by a lack of...
2022-02-27
35 min
Consumer VC: Venture Capital I B2C Startups I Commerce | Early-Stage Investing I Brands | Technology
Holiday Recap: Sarah LaFleur, Founder & CEO of M.M. LaFleur
Presenter: Burkland Associates helps you build the right systems that can keep up with your growth and can handle all the finance, accounting, tax and hiring services that consumer startups need to scale. For more information head to burklandassociates.com Presenter: Skillful runs online, immersive programs that help people launch and accelerate their careers in business roles in tech - Strategy & Ops, Product, Strategic Finance and Growth. Early bird applications for the Core Sprint are now open - use the exclusive code EARLYBIRD2021 if you apply before Dec 1 Click Here to A...
2021-12-13
28 min
Consumer VC: Venture Capital I B2C Startups I Commerce | Early-Stage Investing
Changing Workwear for Women and Adapting through COVID with Sarah LaFleur, CEO of M.M.LaFleur
Welcome to The Consumer VC, a newsletter about venture capital and consumer startups delivered straight to your inbox. If you aren’t subscribed, come and subscribe below.🎧 You can also listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast players.Today’s issue is brought to you by Burkland Associates and Skillful.Hey friends,Thank you Will McClelland for the intro to our guest today on The Consumer VC Podcast, Sarah LaFleur, founder of M.M.LaFleur. M.M.LaFleur creates luxury apparel and accessories with the same attention to detail a...
2021-11-17
41 min
The Kara Goldin Show
193 Sarah LaFleur: Founder & CEO M.M. LaFleur
“If you could think of any business to be in, in 2020, it definitely wasn't women's work apparel. And yet that is the business that we have. So it was just a lot of ingenuity.” How do you create clothing that is high-quality but still affordable? Our guest today is Sarah LaFleur, founder and CEO of M.M. LaFleur, a terrific women’s clothing company that makes incredible business attire. And how do you pivot quickly when the world decides to work from home? You figure it out. Listen to Sarah’s entrepreneurial journey and lessons she has learned...
2021-10-11
37 min
Plucking Up with Liz Bohannon
#51 Sarah LaFleur (M.M.LaFleur) on Freedom After Hitting Rock Bottom
Sarah LaFleur is the Founder & CEO of M.M.LaFleur, a women’s workwear brand that she launched in 2013. The company grew to be a multimillion dollar brand and darling of the direct to consumer fashion world. In this episode, Sarah and I talk about the big existential questions many of us found ourselves asking early in our adult lives (and hopefully throughout our vocations.) Sarah also shares about the many inflections of her career and personal life — from her experience of being biracial and her struggle to embrace that complexity, her journey with infertility, and how she rose and i...
2021-10-11
1h 01
Plucking Up with Liz Bohannon
#51 Sarah LaFleur (M.M.LaFleur) on Freedom After Hitting Rock Bottom
Sarah LaFleur is the Founder & CEO of M.M.LaFleur, a women’s workwear brand that she launched in 2013. The company grew to be a multimillion dollar brand and darling of the direct to consumer fashion world. In this episode, Sarah and I talk about the big existential questions many of us found ourselves asking early in our adult lives (and hopefully throughout our vocations.) Sarah also shares about the many inflections of her career and personal life — from her experience of being biracial and her struggle to embrace that complexity, her journey with infertility, and how she rose and i...
2021-10-11
1h 01
Model Minority Moms
EP12 The Fertility Journey
Fertility can be kind of a paradox - sometimes it seems like getting pregnant is so easy (it even happens by accident!) but sometimes despite our very best efforts, it can take a ton of time, money, and our emotional and physical energy with no guarantee of a baby. With more and more women choosing to delay motherhood to make time for careers and other interests, complex fertility journeys are becoming more common. We share our own fertility journeys and talk to Sarah LaFleur, founder and CEO of M.M.LaFleur, a company she founded in 2013 to help women...
2021-09-03
1h 16
What I Know
Sarah LaFleur: Be The Whole Person
On this episode, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviews Sarah LaFleur, founder and CEO of womenswear brand M.M. LeFleur.
2021-07-06
54 min
Women of Influence by SheSpeaks
Building Resilience for Success with CEO of M.M. LaFleur Sarah LaFleur
Sarah LaFleur, CEO, and Founder of M.M. LaFleur, sits down with us and shares her unlikely journey to become the head of a fashion company. You’ll hear how the pandemic has shifted her business model and the way we will look at fashion going forward. Sarah talks about why she leads her company with empathy, the special connection that inspired her, and how she takes time for self-care. You can find Sarah on Instagram at and Be sure to also check out M Dash, M.M. LaFleur's Digital Magazine. Links & Resources:M.M...
2021-04-27
40 min
The Glossy Podcast
M.M.LaFleur CEO Sarah LaFleur: 'We have this opportunity to rewrite the rules' of workwear
Workwear was different when CEO Sarah LaFleur launched M.M.LaFleur, her fashion brand targeting working women.“Dresses were the majority of our business [in 2013],” she said on the Glossy Podcast. “We didn’t even have pants until 2016.”But now that working from home has become the norm, the brand has fully embraced casual wear. “The Power Casual category [that includes joggers, hoodies and tees] was probably 15-20% of our business going into 2020. But Covid hit, and -- boom. It's now over 50%,” she said.Tackling change is a growing trend for the brand. In late Februa...
2021-02-10
40 min
Behind Her Empire
#28: Finding Your Dream Job & Unlocking Your Passion with Sarah LaFleur, Founder of MM.LaFleur
Sarah LaFleur is the Founder and CEO of M.M.LaFleur, a fashion company creating practical, inspired wardrobes for the modern, professional woman.From an early age, Sarah was exposed to high-end fashion through her mother who worked in the industry. When Sarah graduated from college and started shopping on her own for work clothing, she realized the experience and clothes were lacking despite spending so much money on them. After starting her career at Bain as a consultant, Sarah moved to private equity but left abruptly because of cultural problems at her firm. At this...
2020-12-14
1h 02
The Growth Effect
Episode 4: Hustle not #hustle
Marc Lafleur, CEO of TruLocal, works really hard. He doesn't apologize for the sweat that's needed to be a first-time founder, but that doesn't mean he's a fan of the #hustleculture that's big in the startup community. In this episode, he shares with Sarah how his goal of improving the food supply in Canada through his quality meat-delivery company doesn't leave time for much else, and why he still thinks its worth it.
2020-11-17
31 min
Come Sit At Our Table: The Be A Luminary Podcast
The Unlikely CEO: Sarah LaFleur
Sarah LaFleur, CEO & Founder of M.M. LaFleur, shares her journey on becoming "The Unlikely CEO" of her own company. Sarah chats with us about leaving her career in finance to launch her clothing line, the ups and downs of running your own company and how to focus on your mission.
2019-11-18
36 min
Entreprenista
Sarah LaFleur of M.M. LaFleur – Never Give Up
For most startup founders, they are guided by the advice to never give up. For Sarah LaFleur, the CEO of M.M. LaFleur -- a Luxury-Quality Clothing company via a Seamless & Direct-To-Consumer Stylist Experience that takes the work out of...
2019-05-20
55 min