Last Updated on October 10, 2020 by Kristen
Photo by Taryn Elledge-Penner
Our interview for you this week is with Leigh Rawdon the co-founder and CEO of Tea Collection, which is a very cute but not too cute kids clothing brand. I love it because it’s girly enough for my glitter-loving 7-year-old, but it doesn’t have pictures of princesses covering everything. Rawdon founded the company 18 years ago after raising just a small amount of capital and has stayed at the helm all these years.
Tea Collection is now a multimillion-dollar children’s brand that along with providing kids with stylish clothing, spreads knowledge about various cultures and gives back economically. Twice a year, Leigh and her team explore a new region of the world and transform their discoveries into high-quality, modern and sustainably-sourced kids clothing.
Photo by Taryn Elledge-Penner
Through a partnership with The Global Fund for Children, Leigh has donated more than $500,000 to local, grassroots organizations. Under her leadership, Tea Collection has been recognized in Inc. Magazine’s “Inc 500” list of America’s 500 fastest growing private companies, as well the San Francisco Business Times’ list of largest women-owned companies in the Bay Area.
Leigh grew up in a suburb of Memphis, earned a BA in English from Davidson College and went on to graduate with an MBA from Harvard Business School. Later she taught entrepreneurship as a lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business before launching Tea Collection.
She is hunkered down in Oakland, California in her new home office, and she gave us an honest peek at what’s happening at Tea Collection during the coronavirus pandemic. We also talk about the magic of dance classes, and the best things about getting older, and lots more. We hope you enjoy!
Audio editing by Sofija Jovanov
Relevant links:
Dance Fit Fusion with Andre Cole
Volt dance class with Kristarae Flores
Catch up on all of our podcasts!