Emma Grede

Company: The Fifteen Percent Pledge, Good American, Off Season, Skims, SafelyTitle: Serial Entrepreneur & Chairwoman of The Fifteen Percent PledgeIndustry: Non-profitNotable in 2024: Grede led the charge for Black-owned brands and Black-owned small businesses through her Fifteen Percent Pledge, which urges major retailers and corporations to commit 15% of their purchasing power to such brands.

Emma Grede dropped out of high school at 16 to pursue a career in fashion. Now, she is one of America's richest self-made women and a leader in fashion.

She immersed herself in work – starting a paper route at 12 – and the world of fashion, from magazines to PR agencies, at an early age. In an interview with Glamour, she recalled how a lucky break at a fashion production company set her career in motion, leading her to sponsorship deals, pairing artists with designers, and ultimately launching her own business.

Grede has made the most of that break ever since.

In 2016, she launched Good American alongside Khloé Kardashian, generating $1 million in sales on its first day, a record-setting pace for a brand that has expanded into a fashion empire offering denim, ready-to-wear, swim, shoes, and activewear.

Grede's businesses share a message of size inclusivity and body positivity, or as she put it in an interview with Forbes, "We believe everybody deserves to be shown off. Fashion should be made to fit women, not the other way around."

This message, and market, is valued in the tens of billions of dollars.

Grede is also a founding partner and chief product officer of Skims, and a founding investor in Kylie Jenner's fashion line, Khy. In one of her most recent deals, she took a stake in luxury cashmere brand The Elder Statesman in 2024.

The number of projects she works on can seem dizzying. She also founded influencer marketing firm ITB Worldwide, launched cleaning products line Safely with co-founders Chrissy Teigen and Kris Jenner, became "Shark Tank's" first Black woman investor, and chairs The Fifteen Percent Pledge, advocating for Black-owned businesses in retail.

But to anyone who knows Grede, the incredible hustle has always been in her nature. "I worked in a delicatessen. I worked in clove shops. I served in restaurants. It's like I've done every job in fashion that you could do at the lowest possible level imaginable while not being paid," she said in a podcast interview with Jay Shetty.

Her formula for entrepreneurial success also relies on the trait that many risk-taking business founders possess: embracing fear. "If I am not a little bit scared about what I'm doing, then I'm not growing, I'm not moving forward. I'm not going in the right direction. And so now I find myself looking for the fear," she said.