The Female Founder Story Behind Apparis: Press, Rapid Growth, and Building a Team From Scratch
Dear FoundHer...Real Founder Stories for Women Small Business Owners
Lindsay Pinchuk
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2026
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Join us for our free SWEEP workshop on April 9th to learn how to apply simple marketing strategies to your business. Register here
Apparis grew because Lauren knew how to spot demand before the business looked ready for it.
On Dear FoundHer, Lindsay Pinchuk talks with Lauren Nouchi, co-founder and creative director of Apparis, about the kind of growth story women founders rarely hear told plainly. Lauren shares how Apparis moved from an early concept that missed the mark to a brand with real traction, and why that shift depended on listening closely to the market, making fast decisions, and building credibility one move at a time.
The conversation gets into bootstrapping, growing an audience, scaling challenges, partnership marketing, and founder visibility in ways that feel useful rather than polished. Lauren explains how retail partners, pop-ups, gifting, and brand collaborations helped create momentum, and why staying lean forced better choices.
For women founders, the value here is the honesty around pressure, pivots, and the gap between how a brand looks from the outside and how it actually runs day to day. If women founders want a clearer picture of how trust, visibility, and demand are built over time, Dear FoundHer delivers that here.
Episode Breakdown:
00:00 Why Lindsay Pinchuk Brought the Apparis Founder to Dear FoundHer
01:25 How Lauren Nouchi Started Apparis
04:28 The Pivot That Helped Apparis Find Product Market Fit
07:25 The Bold Ask That Turned an Idea Into a Brand
12:12 How Apparis Built Credibility and Grew Through Wholesale
19:35 The Marketing Strategy Behind Apparis Growth
23:27 Building a Lean Team and Scaling Apparis
35:38 Lauren Nouchi’s Best Advice for Women Founders
Connect with Lauren Nouchi:
Join us for our free SWEEP workshop on April 9th to learn how to apply simple marketing strategies to your business. Register here
Subscribe to The FoundHer Files
Follow Dear FoundHer on Instagram
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What does it look like to build a fashion brand from scratch with no money, no team, |
| 0:05.2 | and no design background? And then Landon Bloomingdale, sacks, and 150 doors across the United |
| 0:11.1 | States. Today's guest is going to tell you exactly how she did it. Lauren Nucci is the co-founder |
| 0:16.4 | and creative director of A Paris. And if you've ever asked me on Instagram, what code are you |
| 0:21.7 | wearing this episode is for you? Lauren is going to walk us through how she spotted a gap in the |
| 0:27.7 | market, how she turned a pop-up shop into a wholesale empire, and how she's running a global |
| 0:33.7 | fashion brand with a team of just 20 people. She's also going to share how she handled |
| 0:38.5 | rejection and why she believes timing and opportunity are everything. This story is real, |
| 0:44.0 | it's raw, and it's going to make you want to go after whatever it is that you've been sitting on. |
| 0:48.9 | So let's get into it. Welcome to Dear Founder. I'm Lindsay Pinchuk, founder, acquired entrepreneur, and part of the less than 1% of female founders who have led a company through acquisition. |
| 1:01.3 | I built my first business from just $500 to seven figures without a marketing budget, simply using community, smart publicity, partnerships, and clear messaging. |
| 1:11.1 | Now, I host this show for women Over 40 stepping into their next chapter, |
| 1:15.6 | whether that's launching, pivoting, or scaling. |
| 1:18.3 | Each week, you'll hear real founder stories about growing an audience, getting press, |
| 1:23.3 | leading teams, navigating, scaling challenges, and becoming more visible in the right ways. |
| 1:29.5 | No fluff, no gatekeeping, just what works. |
| 1:32.5 | Around here, we build businesses that actually work with strategy, visibility, and each other. |
| 1:39.4 | Welcome back to another episode of Dear Founder. |
| 1:42.0 | I am thrilled to have today's guest on our show. |
| 1:45.5 | Many of you, many of you ask me when you see me wearing her product on social media, what is that coat? |
| 1:52.5 | It is probably the number one question I get when I am wearing my apparel-colored coat, which I just heard is going to be retired in that color |
| 2:02.1 | way. So if you don't have it, you're never going to get it. That being said, everyone asks me |
... |
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