Episode 39: Love Her Shop - From Side Hustle to Million Dollar Venture.

Let us know what you thought of this episode and any other comments you may have. In this episode, I sit down with Adreana Alvarez , founder of Love Her Shop , and her son Adrian , founder of Eras Shorts —their story is the kind that reminds you why family businesses really are unique. Adreana started with a problem every active mom recognizes: leggings that were overpriced, see-through, or constantly sliding down mid-workout. With encouragement (and engineering-minded problem-solving) from her husband, she built a better option—then built a movement around it. What began as pop-ups at gyms and farmers markets became an online explosion during COVID… and before she fully realized it, she’d sold over $1M out of her garage. But this isn’t just a “quick growth” story. It’s a community-first story—rooted in her dad’s journey from a third-grade education to building restaurants that became gathering places, and carried forward through Adreana’s decision to create a brand that is high quality, affordable, and purpose-driven . The name Love Her came from a moment outside an ER that reframed everything: this business wasn’t just a brand—it was a mission to give back to women. Then there’s Adrian—watching his mom print labels, pack orders, and make post office runs—and realizing, “If she can do it, I can learn it.” He takes what he learned in the warehouse and on sourcing trips and applies it to his own niche: affordable team shorts that help underfunded teams look and feel unified. And yes—he shares how Eras Shorts has been successful enough to help him pay for college while he still pursues broader business experience. We also get real about what it’s like to work with family: the code-switching, the boundaries, the respect, the conflict, and the pride. Three generations deep, the common threads are clear: fearlessness, values, and the decision to put people at the center—without losing the business fundamentals. You can find Love Her Shop on line by visiting the website, 00:00 – The garage-to-growth moment Orders explode overnight, and Adriana realizes the side hustle is turning into something real. 02:05 – Meet Adreana + Adrian: three generations of entrepreneurship Introductions, family-business roots, and how entrepreneurship was “normal” in their household. 10:05 – The origin stories: restaurants → promo business → Coca-Cola lessons Adriana’s dad builds community through restaurants, Adriana builds and sells her first business, then learns distribution and operations at Coca-Cola. 28:25 – The COVID pivot: severance gamble → online launch → $1M wake-up call Bootstrapping the website, community activation, and the surprise discovery that sales crossed a million. 40:20 – Purpose + product: engineered leggings, accessible pricing, giving back Stitching-as-contour, high-quality/low-price commitment, tariff transparency, and the “Love Her” mission moment. 54:10 – Eras Shorts + working with family: building a brand, boundaries, values Adrian’s team-short niche, funding and growth, paying for college, and how they code-switch between family and business. To learn more about the Capital Region Family Business Center visit our website HERE . To learn more about River City Bank and how they can benefit your family business, visit

You can listen to Episode 39: Love Her Shop - From Side Hustle to Million Dollar Venture. online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Episode 39: Love Her Shop - From Side Hustle to Million Dollar Venture. is an episode from A Seat at the Table by Capital Region Family Business Center.

This episode is 64:02 long.

This episode was published on Dec 18, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from A Seat at the Table when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.