“I always wanted to make a difference” – Emily Hikade, founder and CEO of luxury sleepwear and homewear company Little Feathersays Entrepreneur. “I wanted to make a change. I wanted to do something that meant something.”
Photo credit: Courtesy of Petite Plume. Emilia Hikade.
Growing up in Central Wisconsin, Hikade was curious about the world from an early age. She rode her bike to the library to learn French before going to highschool. At the age of 13, she convinced her parents to let her participate in a summer exchange program in the south of France, and she returned home easily.
Hikade continued her education at the University of Notre Dame, where she continued her studies in French, alongside German and diplomacy. When her undergraduate profession got here to an end, Hikade accepted a job at the White House.
In Washington, Hikade passed the Foreign Service Examination and worked at the State Department Operations Center, where she got a close look at the White House Situation Room and conducted essential telephone conversations with world leaders. Then one other probability to alter your life appeared.
“The lights went out, people were screaming. All I saw were the faces of my three little boys.”
“I got a tap on the shoulder to go to the dark side [to the CIA]“as we say,” Hikade recalls. “I had the perfect cover because I was actually a State Department official. I actually spoke three languages fluently at that time. I actually passed the foreign service exam. I could talk non-stop.”
Hikade joined the CIA and added Russian and Arabic to her repertoire. For over 10 years she worked as an officer specializing in counteracting terrorism. But during her time at the agency, a near-death experience set her on a different course.
Hikade was flying to a meeting when the plane went uncontrolled and headed into the water. “The lights went out, people were screaming,” Hikade says. “It was a commercial flight, as they say, jumping into a small puddle.”
Hikade considered her three sons at home; her youngest wasn’t even a 12 months old.
“As I braced myself for impact, all I could see was the faces of my three little boys,” Hikade says. “And I had a deep sense of sadness that my children would grow up without their mother.”
Fortunately, the pilot managed to regain control of the plane, but the decisive moment was in Hikade’s hands.
Hikade started considering about what else she could do – and the surprising answer was pajamas. When she lived in France, she would walk into a food market and see classic button-up pajama sets and need to buy them for her sons. However, she couldn’t find a similar product in the US. “Everything veered towards Hanna Andersson, that kind of tight style,” Hikade explains.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Petite Plume
“I know how to negotiate. I have a higher tolerance for risk than most.”
Therefore, while stationed in East Africa, Hikade decided to create the product herself and give entrepreneurship a probability. She calculated how many pairs of pajamas she would want to exceed her government salary (“and the number wasn’t high”). The plan wasn’t to start out a multi-million dollar company, but to see if she could start a business.
“It was like OK, if I sell this many pajamas, I will be safe for my children” – Hikade recalls. “And I lived in all these different countries. I knew how to negotiate. I have a higher risk tolerance than most.”
Like most aspiring entrepreneurs, Hikade had to beat quite a few challenges along the way. However, one of the first and most vital got here during the product development stage.
Hikade set out to provide Petite Plume pajamas from 100% organic cotton, but in the US, kid’s pajamas must withstand direct fire for three seconds without igniting, which implies the cotton have to be blended with other materials or coated with flame-resistant chemicals.
“That’s why we combined it with an inherently flame-retardant fiber; think of it as curled wool,” says Hikade. “This allowed us to meet all stringent Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) regulations without the use of chemicals.”
“We hit a niche.”
What’s more, launching the company “was done on the cheap,” says Hikade. Once the product was ready, Hikade arrange a Shopify site and shipped the factory on to a 3PL in the US. Petite Plume was officially launched in 2015, and despite having no investors or deep pockets, it managed to change into profitable from the start and enjoy regular growth over the years.
Today, the company has evolved into a complete lifestyle brand with eight-figure annual revenues; its products are available in nearly 500 stores throughout the country, including: at Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. Additionally, Petite Plume’s e-commerce business grew 70% year-over-year, while sales up to now in 2024 are up 50% year-over-year.
“We hit a niche,” says Hikade, explaining the brand’s continued success.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Petite Plume
“I’m really proud of the company we’re building and [its] core values.”
A few years ago, someone asked Hikade what was harder: working in an agency or being an entrepreneur? Hikade admits that she really needed to think about this query. Although her time as a CIA officer was dangerous, her stress levels appeared somewhat predictably, peaking during high-stakes meetings or operations and then declining, she explains.
Hikade says that when you are building a business, the every day ups and downs are inclined to be more erratic. He notes that the best and worst moments in business may even occur inside the same 24 hours.
Despite the challenges of entrepreneurship, Hikade commits herself fully to the business and stays committed to building one that improves the lives of her clients and employees.
Petite Plume provides its employees with flexibility in child care, including parental leave, and also offers health care, a 401k card, and a 401k card. and share in profits. “We have built on the 21st century workforce,” says Hikade. “I’m really proud of the company we’re building and [its] core values.”
Hikade may have a higher risk tolerance than most, but any aspiring entrepreneur, whether coming from counterterrorism, finance or any other field, would do well to follow her easy but essential advice: it’s never good it is time to start out a business or make a change – so you simply have to do it.
“Someone said, ‘You get business cards and they put the CEO and the founder on it right away, so that really defines who you are,’” Hikade says. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. So don’t wait for that perfect moment, because it will never come. Carpe diem.”