Sherri McMullen - 2.8

A conversation with Amy Smilovic and Sherri McMullen. Sherri is the Founder and CEO of McMullen, the independent luxury fashion boutique she opened in Oakland in 2007 and relocated to San Francisco in 2024. Named one of the best boutiques in the country by Vogue and one of the most innovative retailers in the world by Vogue Business, McMullen has spent nearly two decades building its reputation on discovery — championing emerging designers, particularly women and creatives of color, alongside established houses like Dries Van Noten, The Row, and Tibi, which the store has carried since its early days. Before McMullen there was a business degree, a short and clarifying stint in accounting, the executive development program at Neiman Marcus in Dallas, and the launch team for Pottery Barn Kids in San Francisco — where, while building someone else's brand, Sherri began writing her own business plan on a borrowed computer. Throughout the episode, Amy and Sherri discuss the skills required to start a business versus the ones required to keep it alive, what retail math and time on the sales floor taught her that spreadsheets never could, and how a gut feeling she couldn't shake became a store. Sherri remains one of Tibi's longest-standing wholesale partners, having bought the collection for McMullen since its earliest seasons — a relationship that has spanned nearly the entire life of both businesses.