The FIGS co-founder on life as a public company. Guy Raz notes the scrubs brand is more profitable than ever even though its market value is far below its post-IPO peak. Spear says public markets swing between rational and irrational.
…being worth nothing. Like this, you know, we're an $8 billion company. Now we're a $400 million company, $600 million company. Now we're $2 billion. Like it, none of it, it's so transient. And you can't get real, really tied emotionally to any of it in terms of your self-worth, let alone your net
…I think now I think the market cap of the brand is 2.4 billion, but you're more profitable than you've ever been. So it's, I think that's right. I mean, I've looked at the financials and you're actually your customer acquisition costs are lower. And so it's interesting, right, how that works.
Right. And the public markets, you know, are at times rational, at times irrational, you know, over the standard quote, like over time, it's a weighing machine in the short term, it's a voting machine. But like we went from like when we went public, like the stock went up to $50 in the first month. And, you know, people are inviting Heather and I to their castles in Italy, right? And then a year later, the stock's at $5 and it's like we murdered their firstborn, right? So
you're not invited to castles in Italy anymore?
No, it's like we literally murdered their children. So, you know, I do think like having gone through that, you kind of realize it's all a little bit fake. And the amount of entrepreneurs that I'm sure you've probably interviewed that sell their company for billions of dollars and then go into deep…
Happens a lot. Not a lot, but it does happen. Yep. You lose sense of purpose.