627: How This Law School Dropout Built an Iconic Aussie Fashion Brand in Just 5 Years
Episode
56 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Career Growth, Productivity, Startups
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓COVID pivot strategy: When lockdowns hit, Georgantes stopped all incoming stock orders and pivoted entirely to loungewear, sweaters, and activewear that people could wear at home or for casual outings. The business exploded with 50% year-over-year growth accelerating to 100-200% by focusing on what customers actually needed during lockdowns rather than continuing with existing inventory plans.
- ✓Content volume approach: Girls with Gems posted six to nine times daily on Instagram during COVID, prioritizing volume over perfection. Georgantes emphasizes founders must not let ego stop them from posting imperfect content. The team constantly tests new content ideas, abandons what doesn't work immediately, and doubles down on what resonates. When content saturates the market through copycats, they reinvent their approach entirely.
- ✓Discount strategy discipline: The brand limits sales to three times per year maximum, with no signup discounts or Black Friday participation. This trains customers to buy at full price rather than wait for promotions. Georgantes argues Black Friday hurts retailers during their most profitable season by forcing margin cuts from 50% to 20% after wages and costs, especially damaging multi-brand boutiques.
- ✓Private label economics: Sneaky Link launched with 100-unit minimum order quantities per piece, using existing Girls with Gems infrastructure to avoid startup costs for website and company structure. The brand sacrifices margin on certain products like 100% wool coats to deliver quality that lasts years, making up profitability on other items. Sizing extends from four to twenty, focusing on how garments make women feel across body types.
- ✓Team-based storytelling: The brand creates narrative content series featuring staff members going to houses and creating storylines about products, not the founder's personal journey. When key team members leave, audiences forget quickly once new characters are introduced. Georgantes developed "TikTok brain" to recognize filmable moments constantly, requiring relentless content capture rather than planned photoshoots with models.
What It Covers
Leah Georgantes took over her mother's struggling multi-brand boutique Girls with Gems five years ago after studying law, then faced COVID lockdowns six months later. She transformed it into an iconic Australian fashion brand through relentless social media content, launching private label Sneaky Link which now generates 50% of revenue.
Key Questions Answered
- •COVID pivot strategy: When lockdowns hit, Georgantes stopped all incoming stock orders and pivoted entirely to loungewear, sweaters, and activewear that people could wear at home or for casual outings. The business exploded with 50% year-over-year growth accelerating to 100-200% by focusing on what customers actually needed during lockdowns rather than continuing with existing inventory plans.
- •Content volume approach: Girls with Gems posted six to nine times daily on Instagram during COVID, prioritizing volume over perfection. Georgantes emphasizes founders must not let ego stop them from posting imperfect content. The team constantly tests new content ideas, abandons what doesn't work immediately, and doubles down on what resonates. When content saturates the market through copycats, they reinvent their approach entirely.
- •Discount strategy discipline: The brand limits sales to three times per year maximum, with no signup discounts or Black Friday participation. This trains customers to buy at full price rather than wait for promotions. Georgantes argues Black Friday hurts retailers during their most profitable season by forcing margin cuts from 50% to 20% after wages and costs, especially damaging multi-brand boutiques.
- •Private label economics: Sneaky Link launched with 100-unit minimum order quantities per piece, using existing Girls with Gems infrastructure to avoid startup costs for website and company structure. The brand sacrifices margin on certain products like 100% wool coats to deliver quality that lasts years, making up profitability on other items. Sizing extends from four to twenty, focusing on how garments make women feel across body types.
- •Team-based storytelling: The brand creates narrative content series featuring staff members going to houses and creating storylines about products, not the founder's personal journey. When key team members leave, audiences forget quickly once new characters are introduced. Georgantes developed "TikTok brain" to recognize filmable moments constantly, requiring relentless content capture rather than planned photoshoots with models.
Notable Moment
When a competitor attempted to acquire Girls with Gems, they conducted six months of due diligence then only offered to buy the customer list. They subsequently opened in Sydney and told all supplier brands they would be dropped if they continued stocking with Georgantes, causing most brands to pull out overnight and wiping significant revenue immediately.
Episode Transcript
Hey, founder fam. I want to talk to you about something super exciting. We're officially partnered with Omnisend, the email marketing and SMS platform built specifically for ecommerce founders. We've been recommending Omnisend to founder students for a while now because it just works. Whether you're launching your first store or you're scaling to 7 figures, it really helps you automate your marketing and get real results. Did you know on average, Omnisend customers make $68 for every $1 they spend, which is an insanely good return on investment? And because you're part of the founder community, you get 50% off your first three months with the code founder 50. Just head to omnisend.com forward / founder without the e to get started. Alright? Now let's jump back into the show. So what if you had to take over a whole retail business that just lost most of its brand partnerships overnight and you never run a business before. We'll meet Leah Georgantes, the founder of Girls with Gems, the Australian fashion brand that's become iconic for its relentless social media presence and viral storytelling campaigns. So after studying law for five and a half years, Leah took over her mom's struggling multi boutique brand only to face COVID lockdowns six months later in a crisis that almost wiped out all their supplies in just one day. So in this episode, you're gonna discover how posting six to nine times per day on Instagram helped them explode by being relatable instead of perfect, why Leah refuses to participate in Black Friday, and why that's a genius move, and how she launched sneaky link, her private label, is a raw, unfiltered conversation about building a fashion empire through authentic storytelling, relentless content creation, and never letting ego stop you from posting. Hear the stories, learn the proven methods, and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to the founder podcast with Nathan Chen. Alright, Leah. So how did you start this incredible brand? You have a career in law. Is this your first business? Yes. It is. So my mom started the brand when I was still at school, but I was working side by side with her. And then I had my eyes set on law. I was 100% going to become a lawyer. While I was studying law, I was working with her as, like, my casual job, and I really love the business. But I was like, I'm just doing some fun. I'm gonna become a lawyer. And then when crunch time came, five and a half years after studying law and I was actually going to go to my corporate job, my mom was like, okay. Cool. I'm out. I'm gonna build a hotel in Milos. I am not gonna continue Girls With Gems, so you can take it over if you want to. But if you take it over, you have to keep it. Like, I'm not I'm not coming back to save you if …
Get the full transcript (11,246 words) + summary by email — free
One-time email with the complete transcript and AI summary of this episode. No account needed.
One email, no spam. We’ll also show you what SignalCast does.
You just read a 3-minute summary of a 53-minute episode.
Get Foundr summarized like this every Monday — plus up to 2 more podcasts, free.
Pick Your Podcasts — FreeKeep Reading
More from Foundr
703: (Solo) If I Had to Start Over in 2026, Here's How I'd Make My First $1M
Sep 7 · 10 min
The School of Greatness
Start With Yourself: The Mindset That Built an Empire | Emma Grede
Apr 13
More from Foundr
702: Mark Cuban Calls Us His BEST Shark Tank Deal Ever ($200M+)
Sep 3 · 60 min
How I Built This
Advice Line with Ben Goodwin of Olipop
Sep 3
Books, tools, and gear mentioned in this episode
SignalCast may earn commission on purchases via these links. As an Amazon Associate, SignalCast earns from qualifying purchases.
Tools
Products
- Sneaky LinkBy guest
by Girls with Gems
“launching private label Sneaky Link which now generates 50% of revenue.”
company
- Girls with GemsBy guest
“Leah Georgantes took over her mother's struggling multi-brand boutique Girls with Gems five years ago after studying law, then faced COVID lockdowns six months later. She transformed it into an iconic Australian fashion brand.”
More from Foundr
We summarize every new episode. Want them in your inbox?
703: (Solo) If I Had to Start Over in 2026, Here's How I'd Make My First $1M
702: Mark Cuban Calls Us His BEST Shark Tank Deal Ever ($200M+)
701: Trieu Doubled His Brand To $200K/Month In 5 Months - Whilst Still Working Full Time
700: (Solo) The Ambassador Strategy - How to get Famous People to Sell Your Brand for Free
699: A Pizza Oven Saved My Life - Then It Built a $100M Company
Similar Episodes
Related episodes from other podcasts
The School of Greatness
Apr 13
Start With Yourself: The Mindset That Built an Empire | Emma Grede
How I Built This
Sep 3
Advice Line with Ben Goodwin of Olipop
How I Built This
Aug 31
Late July Snacks: Nicole Bernard Dawes. Crackers and Cookies were Failing… Tortilla Chips Saved Them
Eye on AI
Aug 24
95% of AI Agent Projects Fail to Reach Production. Here's Why | Manoj Saxena, TrustWise
The Vergecast
Aug 17
The Digital Doctor will see you now
Explore Related Topics
This podcast is featured in Best Startup Podcasts (2026) — ranked and reviewed with AI summaries.
Read this week's Startups & Product Podcast Insights — cross-podcast analysis updated weekly.
You're clearly into Foundr.
Every Monday, we deliver AI summaries of the latest episodes from Foundr and 192+ other podcasts. Free for one show.
Start My Monday DigestNo credit card · Unsubscribe anytime