Duchess Meghan’s new podcast focuses on startup founder life at a moment of market turbulence
The Duchess sat down and spoke of the tariffs.
It sounds like a scene from a bygone age of quill pens and mercantilism, but this was Monday. I was interviewing Meghan,
Duchess of Sussex
, amid the drama of the Trump trade tempest.
Just one week ago, the
actress-turned-royal-turned-entrepreneur
, launched the first products from her new consumer lifestyle brand, As Ever. The timing means that the brand is making its debut in a radically different business environment than what anyone would have anticipated when Meghan
started the company last year
. According to Meghan though, the business is well-positioned for the times.
"At the moment, all of our products are currently made in the U.S., so we don’t anticipate tariffs affecting us directly," Meghan told
Fortune
. "But as we look at the larger context of how this is going to affect the consumer day-to-day, I’m very grateful that in part of the conception of this brand, I wanted to create products that look more prestige, but are more accessible and affordable. I think during any time of recession, people still want to find creature comforts, items that can bring them joy."
As Ever’s first product drop (with inventory of an undisclosed size, but the company says "tens of thousands") almost immediately sold out the company’s selection of jam, honey, teas, and mixes. The brand seems constructed to compete with brands like Stonewall Kitchen and Crofter’s Organic — the $10 to $16 jam that feels like a treat, but isn’t out of reach.
"You'll see the bulk of our SKUs are under $20," said Meghan. "From our standpoint, certainly for me, even in the expansion of the brand, things should still feel accessible."
The consumer space, despite the gloomy prognosis right now, has had some green shoots this year, as blockbuster exits illustrate what’s possible:
Hershey
is spending $750 million to acquire popcorn brand LesserEvil, while
PepsiCo
has announced it’ll buy soda startup Poppi for a whopping $1.95 billion. Meghan is also launching As Ever into a world where there’s a template for celebrity brands that have succeeded wildly, from Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty to the knockout success of
Kim Kardashian’s Skims
.
The success of brands like these has usually started with a multimedia approach, and that’s very much the path Meghan has taken here. In March, her
Netflix show
"With Love, Meghan," launched, and on Tuesday, the first episode of her new podcast, "Confessions of a Female Founder" with Lemonada Media, is dropping.
"I’m talking about what I'm going through as I'm going through it, not with reflection after some time, not with that different vision you can have when you think about hindsight 20/20," said Meghan. "While it created a very, very tight schedule… it just felt like the right move to do the storytelling justice."
Her first guest—Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder of Bumble, and the CEO of the company’s past and future. This episode drops shortly after
Wolfe Herd boomeranged back to Bumble’s helm
after a hiatus of about a year. Listening to the interview, the tenor of the conversation seems to push back at the idea of a success-at-all-costs mentality, and is in pursuit of what it means to live a balanced life (when such a thing is possible). The podcast itself is also an effort by Meghan to document her entrepreneurial process, while learning from guests in a way that’s fundamentally casual.
"When people feel disarmed, and they feel as though they're just really with you, and they get to know you in an unpolished way, that's when impact can really happen," said Meghan.
This has been a multi-media endeavor from the jump, with
Netflix
signing on in 2024 to be As Ever’s key investor. Meghan and her husband Prince Harry have had a reported $100 million deal with Netflix since 2020.
"It was really organic, how it happened—I guess every pun is intended, with food and consumables," said Meghan, who for years had been sending Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria and Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos homemade jams as part of her holiday season gift-giving.
"[Netflix’s Bajaria] said: 'You need to teach people how to do this,' and from that moment she was very excited about the possibility of a show," said Meghan. "And I think because of how savvy my partners are, and certainly business-minded strategically, she said: 'In addition to a show, you should talk to our consumer products and division about a partnership.’"
Meghan went on to connect with Josh Simon, Netflix’s VP of consumer products, and she felt that the partnership was the "right move for the global expansion we want." She isn’t disclosing financial specifics, or what the ultimate ambition of As Ever is, whether that’s an exit or IPO.
"I can't speak to the specifics of the terms of the deal," Meghan said. "We are very, very much in harmony on how we see the growth of this, and the trajectory over the next five to seven years."
It does seem like Meghan sees the core audience for As Ever to be women, a throughline to the podcast, which focuses specifically on female entrepreneurs at a time when they still receive single-digit-percentages of total venture funding. It’s also a throughline to her own angel investing for the last five years, which has primarily involved backing female founded-companies like coffee company Clevr and women’s midlife health startup Midi.
"Women need to see that they can build," said Meghan. "Women don't need to be afraid to talk about finance. And I think the more financial literacy we have, the stronger we're going to be."
At 11, Meghan’s first business was scrunchies: "I'd buy the remnants of fabric from the fabric store and elastics, and use my little home sewing machine to make scrunchies and sell them," she told
Fortune
. In some ways, she is back where she started today—as she looks to make products that women may intermittently need, but decisively want. Consumer businesses are often zeitgeist businesses, made even trickier in volatile macroeconomic times. But Meghan (and Netflix) are betting she can carve out a niche where she’s always been, "the high-low."
"At its conception, I had thought about the interest that people seem to have in my fashion, for example, what I would wear," said Meghan. "I think there’s a parallel here, always the 'high-low.' I always loved things that present beautifully, but didn’t break the bank."
With the global economy entering uncharted waters, this formula for success may prove even more enduring than ever before.
This story was originally featured on
Fortune.com
