saint sass: Berlin startup breakdown
saint sass was founded in 2021 by Vivien Wysocki and Larissa Schmid. They are a premium direct-to-consumer fashion lingerie brand, mostly selling online. After starting with angel investors, they managed to gain enough traction to raise $5M in July 2025 for expansion in the US.
edits: chapter “Who runs this place” on 8.9. based on reader feedback
Parts of the article in video format on Instagram:
[
View this post on Instagram
](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOeBQYrgvE-/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading)
Table of Contents
What do they actually do?
saint sass designs and sells trendy women’s hosiery and lingerie that carry playful, empowerment-themed slogans, for example, “Mom, I am a rich man”, “Bite Me” or “Future if Female”. In their words, they “turn confidence into design” and merge fashion with social/female empowerment. They produce in Europe (Italy, Turkey) and sell mainly in the US. They started with tights, but now expanded to other lingerie products like underwear, bodysuits and socks.
How do they make money?
They mostly sell direct-to-consumer, but also in retail. Prices are premium, and they project reaching $10M in revenue this year. They are likely profitable and will use investor funds to expand the product portfolio and push their sales in the US.
How international is it really?
Everyone speaks English, but the internal language seems to be German. Their job descriptions are also in German and require fluency in both English and German.
What’s their hiring situation right now?
They were hiring for several positions just after raising their $5M in the summer of 2025. At the time of this writing, they had 4 positions open. Check their current job openings here.
Who runs this place?
Vivien and Larissa are first-time founders with no prior exits. They founded the company together with two investors (Björn Jopen and Sebastian Weil), who wanted to test the idea of a creator-led business. Both co-founders were later named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Europe (Retail & E‑commerce) for their work at the company. I’ve spoken to Larissa a couple of times, and she is great. She seems well prepared and has a great understanding of finance.
They both have big social media followings (on LinkedIn and Vivien on Instagram) and actively build in public and leverage social media for organic growth, reducing marketing costs.
What’s one thing they’re doing better than competitors?
Their edge lies mostly in brand and design. They strongly differentiated themselves with ‘statement’ tights and played the social mission card well. Female empowerment hit home so well that Madonna was seen wearing the tights several times. And this really is something special. They have extremely strong social media engagement, especially on Instagram, but less on TikTok.
What are their biggest challenges?
Fashion is, well, fashion: a cutthroat industry which punishes you quickly if you miss a trend. The biggest challenge will probably be scaling the business while keeping the premium quality, or finding the balance between premium and broader mainstream adoption.
More products also mean bigger supply chain complexity, more customers and more customer care work. In addition, the brand is strongly founder-led, which is a blessing to differentiate from the competition, but can also mean a danger in case things start to go wrong (e.g. succession risk).
Since their most important market is the US, they will also need to navigate tariffs and in addition to operational issues (shipping delays, customer service capacity).
Gut check: Would you tell a friend to work here?
I am a bit subjective here because I know Larissa, and I would say yes, especially if you want to work in the e-commerce industry. The company is still relatively young, and there is lots to do and learn. They are a small team, so you will probably need to wear several hats. You can definitely expect some levels of stress and action-packed workdays with some levels of firefighting.
Don’t miss the next profile, subscribe!
