Jun 8, 2025 · 55m · founders
How Tamara Mellon Built Jimmy Choo
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Host David Senra analyzes Tamara Mellon's memoir 'In My Shoes,' detailing how she overcame severe personal trauma and addiction to build Jimmy Choo into a global luxury powerhouse before losing control to private equity. The episode extracts vital entrepreneurial lessons on maintaining majority equity, executing disruptive marketing, and preserving uncompromising product quality.
Statements from this episode (15)
Mackey: Whole Foods would remain independent if Founders podcast existed earlier
“He had listened to over a hundred episodes before we met, and he told me that if Founders existed when he was younger, that Whole Foods would still be an independent company today.”
Carnegie: Cost savings are permanent while profits and prices remain cyclical
“Profits and prices are cyclical, subject to any number of transient forces of the marketplace. Costs, however, could be strictly controlled, and any savings achieved in costs were permanent.”
Carnegie held the world's largest liquid fortune when selling to JP Morgan
“When Carnegie sells to JP Morgan, Carnegie has the largest liquid fortune in the world.”
Renaissance Technologies has generated over $100 billion in total profit
“Renaissance technologies, which goes on to make over a hundred billion dollars in profit and continues to make what I hear billions of dollars in profit every year to this day”
Tamara Mellon's father scaled and sold Vidal Sassoon for $72 million
“He did a bunch of businesses that probably the business business biggest success was the fact that her dad had helped scale and build Vidal Sassoon. So they just sold right before they found Jimmy Choo, a few years before they sold found Jimmy Choo, he had jus…”
Jimmy Choo launched with $150,000 in seed capital and sold for $1.2B
“Now, remember, this is a company that's going to sell for 1.2 billion dollars in about 15 years from where we're on the story. They start the company with just a hundred. Her dad puts up a 150,000 dollars. That's all they start with the company.”
Retailers must ambush customers by paying a premium for high-traffic locations
“We had to ambush them. What that meant is that we had to go to high traffic locations and put stores there, even if it was more expensive.”
Jimmy Choo achieved $250,000 in first-year sales with just one employee
“Our sales for the first year were 250,000 dollars. And the shop cost us 15,000 and the only, there's only one employee other than Sandra and myself.”
Gifting celebrity stylists multiplies a brand's chances of securing organic endorsements
“And because these people work for multiple clients, contact with a single stylist gave us many more shots at scoring a wind.”
Kate Winslet's Oscar mention of Jimmy Choo drove a major sales spike
“Kate Winslet, who was nominated for best actress for Titanic that year, she mentions that she's wearing Jimmy, Jimmy Choo shoes. That has such a positive effect on sales that going forward, Oscar night was a huge focus.”
Jimmy Choo's iconic Sex and the City placement was entirely free
“Manufacturers of everything pay fortunes for product placement in movies and TV. We got this huge call out entirely for free. Why? The show's creator said she put the reference in the script because she'd been in London and stopped by the store on Mottcombe St…”
Jimmy Choo sold his 50 percent brand stake for $8 million
“Jimmy sells his 50% share for around eight to ten million dollars to Phoenix equity partners. And he leaves the business.”
Jimmy Choo generated 2.9 million EBITDA with only nine employees
“Our EBITDA going in when the deal was completed was 2.9 million. So make it about three million a year. Okay. Which is a lot for a company with only nine employees.”
Jimmy Choo scaled to a $1.2 billion acquisition through sequential PE sales
“In 2001, Jimmy Choo sells 50% share to Phoenix Equity Partners and leaves the business. Three years later, Lion Capital buys Jimmy Choo for one hundred and one million dollars. Three years after that, Lion Capital sells Jimmy Choo for one hundred and eighty fi…”