Founder & CEO of SharpeHaus, Leon Elias Wu started designing suits for the LGBTQ+ community on his living room couch. Today, Good Morning America says he’s “making LGBTQ History” and calls him a “huge staple within both the LGBTQ+ community and the fashion industry”. Fashionista magazine calls his company, SharpeHaus, the “destination for the queer community.”
Leon’s classic designs with a personalized touch exhibit a modern aesthetic featured everywhere from the Oscars to the Emmys to the Cannes Film Festival. His company is filling a valuable niche within the fashion world for members of queer, POC, and marginalized communities who deserve to be seen and celebrated.
Beyond his artistic presence on the red carpet, Leon is a force for good with his message, his charitable work, and his powerful activism. It’s easy to see why Nikki Blonsky says, “Leon has the determination and strength to change the fashion world.” Having been named one of USA Today’s Top 10 Designers, Leon Wu is a prolific media personality, appearing in outlets like Forbes, Fashionista, Refinery 29, and the Wall Street Journal … just to name a few.
What is SharpeHaus all about?
A core piece of creating Sharpe has been to bring more visibility to gender-nonconforming, trans, non-binary, people of color, and women. After all, fashion is identity and entertainment is storytelling. If we are not shedding light on underrepresented groups and identities, then we are missing out on a whole lot of opportunity in the multi-billion dollar industries of fashion and entertainment.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
When I was a 5-year-old little girl, I would sneak into my parents’ walk-in closet when no one was looking and try on all my dad’s clothes. From a very early age, I knew that I didn’t want to dress like any of the girls around me. In fact, I already knew at that age—with absolute certainty—that I was really a boy. I just had no way (or knowledge on how) to articulate this. My parents allowed me to wear my brother’s hand-me-downs and that kept me happy for most of my childhood. Later into early adulthood, clothing became more and more binary especially for formal occasions. I realized at a young age how much clothing and style could really impact a person’s confidence and sense of self.
Due to some pressure from my family as well as my own pressure to fit in, I joined an Asian American sorority, Chi Alpha Delta, during my undergrad at UCLA. There I learned about ‘feminine’ dress, makeup, and style. By the time I graduated college I had an enormous itch to free myself from those confines and joined a drag king troupe. As a drag king performer, I learned all about ‘masculine’ posture, movement and FASHION. I learned how to cut, style and wear my clothing to make myself look more masculine.
The concept of the Sharpe Suiting business really came to me during business school. I had a grey pin-striped Ann Taylor suit with jumbo-sized buttons as my best option. I felt silly wearing it to interviews. During those two years, my finance buddy Juan Carlos introduced me to custom tailoring and encouraged me to get a suit made during our school trip to Hong Kong and Beijing. I got one, then I bought three more. Trying my suits on for the first time made me feel amazing! With each suit I bought, I began to develop my own ideas or preferences for which pattern I wanted the tailors to choose and how I wanted them to measure me based on my masculine identity. This process is now our patented system, known as Andropometrics™. I knew I needed to bring this process back to my friends and LGBTQ family.
What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
- One: Execution, to spark an idea into action. A lot of folks have ideas but neglect executing them. Then a year later, when someone else launches that idea, they say, “Hey, I had that idea!” All ideas must progress from fantasy into work for them to take off in reality.
- Two: A solution-oriented attitude is needed to change failures into successes. Failures are just problems that need to be solved. Real entrepreneurs see failures or problems as opportunities.
- Three: Persistence, to not give up on continuing this cycle. If each problem is an opportunity, then it follows that growth will be the result. Perhaps the new solution will become a new product or service, or even a new line of business.
What are your plans for the future, how do you plan to grow this company?
Next year, we plan to expand Sharpe Suiting to London while further establishing our presence in various locations here in the states, as well as bringing a few more colleges/universities onboard with gender-inclusive uniform options.
We have also been in discussions with a major American bridal store chain to potentially develop a diffusion suit line of Sharpe suits for brides.
For the entertainment side of the Haus, there are a few entertainment projects in development for SharpeHaus which will cover concepts around gender in Asian-American culture, transness, as well as ethos around American masculinity. Genres for the projects range from unscripted documentaries to horror.
How have the pandemic and Lockdown affected you or your new business?
Our initial thought was, how can we help our community? Our suiting factory notified us that they will be producing masks and other PPE. We didn’t want to get into the business of selling PPE, but with such low manufacturing costs, we used this opportunity to donate thousands of masks to hospitals and NPOs locally.
Next, we needed to determine what to do about sales knowing that most of our sales were made in-person during suit design sessions. The first thing we did was lock in some future sales by offering 20% to clients if they pre-paid for a design session. Within a week of the offer, we made a total revenue of what we make on average in a month. After this influx of revenue, we pivoted our business to offer virtual design sessions and put in place some process and technology to help set this up.
Next up, not knowing how long the economic slump would last ahead of us, we set out to secure some funding. We went into the pandemic with a pretty healthy balance sheet. This was especially helpful for us when applying for government aid grants and loans. This funding not only carried us through the pandemic, but helped create capital for some exciting projects ahead.
During lockdown, fashion weeks and shows came to a halt. Fashion shows were our primary way for doing our visual activism, which is to bring visibility, empower, and promote women, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community. With no events to produce or design clothing for, we created a new idea for how we could continue to do our visual activism virtually: “The Mixtape Capsule”. This was not a fashion-based capsule; rather, it was a collection of 80s music video covers by modern artists from marginalized communities (LGBTQ+, women, and POC). These videos went live in support of Cyndi Lauper’s non-profit organization True Colors United and their fight to end global LGBTIQ homelessness. Sharpe typically partners with NPO’s every year. This past year during pandemic, and given that homelessness will be a major issue for the next 5+ years, this was the perfect partnership.
In hindsight, the pandemic lockdown has actually been an opportunity for us to expand our business and grow our roots stronger with who we are as a company.
What are the top 3 online tools and resources you’re currently using to grow your company?
All three tools I highly value for Sharpe happen to be financial tools. Once I understood the financial vitals for what made Sharpe set a healthy rhythm, it made sense to automate this as much as possible. As we continue to grow, soliciting experts who can provide us valuable advice based on all the data and reporting tracked using these tools comes in handy for future strategy.
- We use bench.co for all our financial reporting, monthly reconciliations, and annual tax preparation. Although I advocate all entrepreneurs setting up and learning the structure of their own accounting, this service and tool has saved me several hours a week that can now be dedicated to strategic growth of the company.
- We originally used ADP. They were a great HR and payroll system to start out with as a new business, but it was a bit too high-touch and high-service for a pretty penny. Gusto has become our favorite do-it-yourself and self-automated tool we use for anything from onboarding new contractors and employees to payroll reporting and analysis.
- As we expanded to more locations in different states, sales tax reporting, filing and remittance began to become time consuming and too much overhead. The Taxjar app automates this whole process and has the ability to remit taxes monthly, quarterly, or whatever the periodic filing requirement is per state. We link this to Square, which we use as a POS system and it automatically gathers all the sales tax data per state and remits it for us.
What’s a productivity tip you swear by?
Team morale and enthusiasm are obvious drivers for productivity and producing quality products or services. But I’ve found that the one which always gets overlooked is communication. Leading with communication is the best way to get things done. As CEO, I’m the oil that keeps the gears moving in the company. Oftentimes, I get pulled into an issue, I find the resolution is often a communication gap.
Leaders in your organization can be highly motivated, bright and have efficient work ethics, but their strengths are not amplified unless other leaders are clear on their objectives. Without clear communication, cross-functional strengths to build on and dependencies that block other work are not visible. Opportunities get missed. Projects get delayed.
Can you recommend one book, one podcast, and one online course for entrepreneurs?
I highly recommend MasterClass. There is no better learning podcast than the ones provided to you directly from the CEOs and leaders you admire. My favorite MasterClass podcasts by far are “Creativity and Leadership” by Anna Wintour and “Business Strategy & Leadership” by Bob Iger (Disney, Chairman, Former CEO).
What helps you stay driven and motivated to keep going in your business?
My team. My coaches. But, most importantly, our cohesive mission. In 2018, we re-chartered as a public benefit corporation. As a Public Benefit Corporation, we donate up to 100% of our profits to charitable channels and organizations. The specific public benefit to be promoted by the Corporation is to have a positive effect on, create opportunities for, and to support the LGBTQ community, women, and people of color through charitable channels.
Each leader at Sharpe including myself has their own ups and downs, but the mission is what holds us together.
We’ve been up and down and over and out
And we know one thing
Each time we find ourselves layin’
Flat on our face
We just pick ourselves up and get
Back in the race
That’s entrepreneurship!
What is your favorite quote?
A famous Henry Ford quote: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.” It emphasizes how much attitude determines success or failure. This is true for most projects you take on and certainly for technology initiatives. So much of it is based on attitude.
But this has changed now, since it’s come to be known that Henry Ford was a racist. Need to think of a new one.
“He is able who thinks he is able.” – Buddha <–suggestion
What is your definition of success?
Persistence. Because all failures eventually become successes. And anything you don’t achieve
How do you personally overcome fear?
Meditation. I talk to my coaches. My shifu at the temple. I sweat it out at kung fu.
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