Ali Mejia: Cofounder of Eberjey

Second Life

Who What Wear

Business, Careers, Society & Culture, Arts, Fashion & Beauty, Personal Journals

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ali Mejia is the visionary and cofounder of elevated sleepwear brand Eberjey. Although she’d always had a soft spot for pajamas (getting ready for bed was a self-care ritual in her home growing up), Mejia began her career on Wall Street. After graduating from Princeton, she followed many of her peers to New York City and got a job as a financial analyst. When her bank unexpectedly closed, she was laid off and left to confront the nagging feeling that she should be exploring her creativity. She used her severance package to fund a trip to Florence, Italy, and being immersed in the arts and culture inspired her to make a change in her career. Upon returning home, she took one more short-lived finance job and then landed a fashion internship at Cynthia Rowley that energized her. She moved back home to Miami and took a direct marketing job to pay the bills while quietly working with a local patternmaker and learning how to design sleepwear. Once she had designed a few prototypes, she told her coworker at the direct marketing company about her business idea. This coworker, Mariela Rovito, became Mejia’s cofounder in Eberjey. In 1996, they left their day jobs, put $10,000 each into this new venture, and set off on a brand-building journey with no business plan. Today, almost three decades later, Eberjey remains a leading international sleepwear brand with five brick-and-mortar shops and products sold in over 500 retailers, from Neiman Marcus to Nordstrom.

Transcript

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1:00.0	Music at audible.com slash wonder why UK. Hi, everyone. I'm Hilary Kerr, the co-founder and chief content officer of Who Wote Where,
1:06.7	and this is Second Life, a podcast, spotlighting women who have truly inspiring careers.
1:14.2	We're talking about their work journeys, what they've learned from the process of setting aside their doubts or fears,
1:20.4	and what happens when they embark on their second life.
1:23.7	Today on the show, I'm chatting with the co-founder of Eberge, Ali Mejia. If you had asked
1:30.5	Ali as a child if she could imagine her future self founding a pajama brand, she probably would
1:37.1	have actually said yes. Born into a Salvadorian family who emphasized the importance of
1:42.1	self-care in the home, Allie's obsession with sleepwear started
1:45.9	early. However, when it came time to get her first job out of college, she followed the path that
1:51.8	many of her peers were taking and headed to Wall Street to become a financial analyst.
1:57.3	As you might expect, her heart was never in finance, so when the bank she was working at was taken over and Allie was let go, she used her severance package to fund a trip to Florence for a break from the hustle.
2:10.3	While abroad, immersed in art and culture, Allie realized she wanted to live a creative life when she returned.
	...

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