Karen Lee is the co-founder of LEZÉ the Label, a comfort-first fashion brand she launched with her friend in 2018. What started with a wildly successful Kickstarter grew into a seven-figure business, $100K months, a feature on Oprah’s Favorite Things and a devoted community of customers.
But behind the milestones was another version of the story: debt, declining sales, founder burnout, a factory literally burning down, opportunities that became operational nightmares, changing priorities and the relentless whiplash of entrepreneurship.
After eight years, Karen and her co-founder made the decision to close the business.
In this episode of Branded Assets, Kate and Karen have an unfiltered conversation about the side of entrepreneurship we don’t talk about enough: what it takes to keep a business alive, what it can cost you personally, and how you know when it’s finally time to let go.
Karen opens up about building a business with her best friend (and why they ended up in therapy together), putting motherhood on hold while she built the company, the reality behind landing Oprah’s Favorite Things, the mistakes they made as the business began to decline, and the moment she realized they were “forcing ourselves to drive this car with no wheels.”
They also talk about the complicated identity of being a founder, the pressure to prove yourself through your business, why closing a company doesn’t necessarily mean it failed, and what happens when the thing you built has already served its purpose.
Because sometimes the business you build also builds you. And sometimes success means knowing when you’ve outgrown it.
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KEYWORDS: Karen Lee, LEZÉ the Label, Branded Assets podcast, Kate Bouchard, female entrepreneurship, women entrepreneurs, female founders, seven-figure business, building a seven-figure business, closing a business, shutting down a business, founder burnout, entrepreneur burnout, business failure, startup failure, entrepreneurship realities, behind the scenes of entrepreneurship, Oprah’s Favorite Things, fashion entrepreneur, fashion startup, DTC brand, direct-to-consumer brand, Kickstarter business, co-founder relationship, business partners, founder mental health, founder identity, work-life balance, motherhood and entrepreneurship, knowing when to quit, knowing when to close a business, walking away from a business, business lessons, startup lessons, founder story, entrepreneurship podcast