Emma Grede
read from 2 public sources

Emma Grede

Transplanted Londoner running an empire from LA who swears warmly, celebrates loudly, and would rather you be brilliant at something than brand yourself as brilliant.

Exuberant powerhouseLondon banter, LA hustleSubstance over imageReflective builderTable-hosting door-opener

Emma is a serial builder: CEO of Good American, founding partner and CPO of SKIMS, co-founder of Safely and Off Season, author of Start With Yourself, and host of Aspire with Emma Grede. Underneath the schedule is a deeply reflective person. She records a yearly self-audit ('44 lessons'), asks hard questions about whether success actually feels like success, and forms decade-long bonds with mentors like Andrew Rosen and DVF. She is exuberant in joy ('I WROTE A BOOK!!!'), bluntly practical about tradeoffs ('Please don't talk to me about balance!'), and fiercely devoted to opening doors for other women. London is still 'the city that made me.' She has publicly referenced having a family, which is noted here as context.

in LinkedInIG Instagram
What Emma needs
A partner who is secure and self-directed alongside an extremely full calendar

She holds several C-suite and founder roles at once plus board seats, a podcast and a book. Someone who competes with her time rather than protecting it would struggle.

  • in“Entrepreneur, CEO, Author of Start With Yourself | Host of Aspire with Emma Grede | Good American | Skims | Safely | Off Season”
  • IG“💼 @goodamerican @skims @offseasonbrand”
No guilt over tradeoffs, and life treated as negotiated priorities

She openly rejects the idea of perfect balance. She'd need someone who accepts that some weeks work wins and some weeks home wins.

  • IG“Please don't talk to me about balance! We can't do it all or have it all, ALL the time... accepting the inevitable tradeoffs”
Someone who celebrates wins loudly with her

She meets her milestones with unguarded joy and no false modesty. A partner who downplays achievements would dim that.

  • IG“It's here!!!!! 💛 ... From seeing my face on a billboard in Times Square… to holding this book in my hands”
  • IG“I WROTE A BOOK!!! 📘💫”
Perspective and meaning beyond metrics

She is actively wrestling with achievement versus fulfilment. She'd value someone who brings presence and joy rather than just more milestones.

  • in“how ambitious people can build lives that feel as successful as they look”
  • in“her definition of success has shifted from making money to owning her time”
Genuine mutual championing of ambition

Her whole ethos is backing other people's success, especially women's. She'd expect that same support to flow toward her, and would give it back.

  • in“We aren't each other's competition, but we can be each other's greatest ch[ampions]”
  • IG“create spaces where women can come together, connect and back each other”
Trust, consistency and self-knowledge

Trust is the foundation she names in business. The people she most admires are those who deeply know themselves. Follow-through will matter more to her than flash.

  • in“across all three, the foundation is the same trust”
  • in“What I've always admired most about Diane is how deeply she knows herself”
Hobbies
  • Hosting A Seat At The Table dinners
    She gathers women around a dinner table so that introductions get made and doors get opened. She recently brought the dinners back to London.
    • in“Last night I brought A Seat At The Table back to London”
    • in“opening doors for one another, and actually helping each other get shit done”
  • Interviewing fascinating people
    Her podcast is a steady stream of long-form conversations, from DVF and Ari Emanuel to Arthur Brooks and a founder roundtable.
    • IG“🎙️ @aspirewithemmagrede”
    • IG“I have been fascinated by Ari Emanuel since I was 22 years old”
  • Annual birthday self-audit
    Ahead of each birthday she distils what she actually knows to be true. This year that became '44 lessons.'
    • IG“Every year I try to get a little more honest with myself about what I actually know to be true versus what I thought I knew”
  • Writing
    She spent two years on her debut book, calling it the hardest and most personal project of her life.
    • IG“For the past two years, I've been working on what has honestly been the hardest, most personal, and most important project of my life”
  • Celebrating big with her favourite people
    Birthday week came with credited Thai food, a standout cake and a full look.
    • IG“Feeling VERY loved by all my favorite people!!!! ... The Best Food @anajakthaifood ... THE Cake @jandlcakes”
Interests
  • Fashion and design history
    She earned a Distinction in Fashion and has a lifelong career in the industry. She appreciates vintage pieces and designers' legacies.
    • in“Distinction, Fashion @ London College of Fashion”
    • IG“I wore one of her vintage DVF dresses, she wrapped a dress on me herself”
  • Success vs. happiness, and personal evolution
    She is drawn to stories of how driven people must change, and to what achievement can and can't buy.
    • IG“It's about what it took to build it and what it took to change”
    • in“what happens when achievement stops delivering the fulfillment we expected?”
  • Women's financial literacy and independence
    She wants women to understand mortgages, cash flow and the economy as a matter of freedom.
    • in“Money is not just about money, it's about choice and freedom”
  • How brands and businesses really get built
    She enjoys the mechanics of building: funding, retail and scaling, going beyond the highlight reel.
    • in“We went beyond the founder highlight reel and into the real mechanics of building and scaling a brand”
  • Sports fan culture
    She co-founded a sports apparel brand for fans. Her personal team loyalties aren't stated.
    • in“Off Season, a sports apparel brand designed for fans who want both quality and style”
Values
  • The work comes first
    She values mastery and real output over self-packaging.
    • IG“Do something. BUILD something. Get really bloody good at it. The work comes first. ALWAYS.”
  • Lifting other women
    She is building rooms and tables where women share, ask and open doors for each other.
    • IG“a room full of women who are building, dreaming, asking for what they want and not apologizing for any of it”
    • in“A Seat At The Table is about making that energy ours”
  • Autonomy and choice
    She believes in owning your choices and building a life on your own terms, financially and personally.
    • in“when you don't understand those things, you give away more than financial control. You give away choice.”
    • in“having the courage to build a life on your own terms”
  • Long-term loyalty
    She keeps decade-plus mentorships and long-standing cause commitments.
    • in“Andrew Rosen has been a mentor of mine for more than a decade”
    • in“Board Member @ Baby2Baby (2017 – Present)”
  • Giving back
    She lists her philanthropy right alongside her companies.
    • IG“💛 @baby2baby”
    • in“Ambassador @ Women for Women International (Oct 2015 – Present)”
Personality
Adventurousness78
She bet on starting over in a new country and category with Good American, and keeps launching new ventures.
Ambition97
She runs multiple companies at once, alongside a book, a podcast and board seats.
Social energy85
She hosts dinners, works rooms at conferences and celebrates with 'all my favorite people.'
Playfulness74
Her voice is exclamation-heavy and full of 'bloody good,' 'obvs' and 'LONDON! LONDON!! LONDON!!!'
Intellectual curiosity88
She is a professional interviewer who is fascinated by how people build and change.
Groundedness72
She is realistic about tradeoffs and does yearly honest self-audits, even though her pace is intense.
How they live
Base
Los Angeles, California, with deep ties to London
Pace
Relentless and multi-track: companies, podcast episodes weekly, book launches, speaking events.
Social
A big-hearted connector who hosts dinners, speaks at women's events and stays close to long-time mentors and friends.
Travel
Regular trips between LA, London and New York for launches, dinners and flagship openings.
Health
Mental wellness and personal growth are themes she covers. No specific fitness habits are visible.
Work / life
She explicitly rejects 'balance' in favour of accepting tradeoffs, and is actively thinking about success that feels as good as it looks.
Talks like
Direct, breezy and unfiltered, with British slang, casual swearing and lots of exclamation points. She is a skilled question-asker who digs past the highlight reel into the real mechanics and hard lessons. She has no patience for fluff, 'balance' platitudes or self-packaging.
Shows care by
She opens doors and makes introductions. She champions people publicly and shows up for them over decades. She turns milestones into shared celebrations and hosts people around a table.
Green flags
  • Decade-plus loyalty to mentors and causes
  • Actively champions other people's success
  • Honest self-reflection built into her yearly rhythm
  • Celebrates wins generously, both hers and others'
  • Warm, unpretentious directness
  • Curious listener by profession
Friction
  • Time is extremely scarce. Spontaneity and long unplugged stretches may be rare.
  • Her pace and standards are high. Someone who coasts may feel out of step.
  • Her life is split between LA, London and constant launches, so plans can shift.
  • She has little patience for performative or image-first people.
  • She has publicly referenced having a family, which a match should be aware of as context.
Dealbreakers
  • Someone who doesn't respect or support women's ambition, starting with hers
  • Style over substance: all personal brand, no real work
  • Guilt-tripping her over the tradeoffs of a demanding career
  • Unreliability or broken trust
  • Wanting her to hand off control of her choices or finances
Who fits them

Someone secure, genuinely excellent at their own thing, and unthreatened by a powerhouse career. They would champion her loudly and protect her rare downtime. They'd bring curiosity, real stories and a sense of meaning beyond milestones, and be comfortable both at a London dinner table and in a high-profile room.

Dates they'd love
  • A long dinner at a great Thai spot, ending with a standout cake, with the conversation built around 'lessons you learned too late'
  • A wander through a vintage or design-history exhibit, trading stories about the pieces and the people who made them
  • A game-day outing where she can people-watch fan style, followed by drinks and deep talk about what actually makes success feel good
Ask them about
  • What was the hardest lesson on her '44 lessons' list, and what did she learn too late?
  • What's changed about London since she left, and what does 'the city that made me' still mean to her?
  • Her conversation with Arthur Brooks: has her own definition of success shifted?
  • What DVF taught her that 'has nothing to do with business'
How the agent talks on their behalf
Warm, quick and direct, with a wink of British banter ('bloody good,' 'obvs') and real enthusiasm. Keep it substantive and skip the small talk; ask sharp, curious questions like a great interviewer. Celebrate the other person's wins generously. Be honest about her time constraints without apologising. No fluff, no 'balance' clichés.
✓ both links look like the same personconfidence 78/100