Ep 277 | Emily Hikade

Written By Yasmin Nouri

Going From the CIA to CEO: How a Near-Death Experience Inspired This Founder to Launch a Luxury Pajama Brand

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Emily Hikade is the founder and CEO of Petite Plume, a luxury sleepwear brand made with the highest quality fabrics.

For over a decade, Emily worked for the CIA, serving overseas in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. During this time, she was also a mother to four young boys, none of whom knew about her career. Everything changed when she was on a mission and the plane she was in nearly crashed, almost taking her life. The thought of her children growing up without their mother was unbearable, and she knew she had to make a drastic change in her lifestyle. In 2015, while still living and working abroad, she bootstrapped and launched Petite Plume. Since its launch, Emily has grown the business into one of the most well-known luxury pajama brands, with a cult following and celebrity fans like Jimmy Fallon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Hart, and Prince George, to name a few. This self-funded brand has doubled year over year since its inception and has been profitable since its first year.

In this week’s episode, Emily takes us through her journey from growing up in Wisconsin, where her fascination with travel and passion for languages began, to her remarkable career as a CIA officer, navigating war zones and negotiating with affiliates of terrorist organizations. She shares about the early days of the business, starting it as a side hustle in East Africa and navigating challenges like horrible Wi-Fi on location, self-funding the business, and creating awareness with no connections in the retail space. Emily also talks about her strategic approach to business, emphasizing the importance of slow, organic, year-over-year growth, and how she avoids burnout while leading a growing business and being a mother of four. She discusses the biggest lessons she has learned running Petite Plume for nearly a decade, and so much more. 

Show Notes:

  • Emily’s childhood and her fascination for travel. [02:54]

  • Working in the White House and starting a career with the CIA. [03:05]

  • Emily’s pivotal experiences as a CIA Officer and near-death experience. [05:36]

  • The origin of the idea for Petite Plume. [15:46]

  • The initial steps of building Petite Plume as a side hustle in a foreign country. [18:42]

  • Creating and launching the first product. [20:10]

  • Getting into 200 stores during the first year of launching. [21:13]

  • Being self-funded over the past nine years. [23:37]

  • Prince Charles wearing their flagship product, the adult pajamas. [27:44]

  • The importance of growing slowly and organically. [30:13]

  • Emily’s transferable skills as a CIA Officer to entrepreneur. [33:48]

  • How Emily prevents burnout. [35:70]

  • How Emily organizes her week. [41:00]

  • Perspective on stress as a CIA Officer and entrepreneur. [42:10]

  • Emily’s internal motivation and what keeps her going. [44:25]

  • The hardest and most surprising aspects of building Petite Plume. [47:26]

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Ep 276 | Aggie Lal