20VC: Stitch Fix Founder Katrina Lake on Growth vs Profitability, Her Biggest Lessons From Working with Bill Gurley at Benchmark and The Importance of Mental Flexibility as a Leader
Katrina Lake is the Founder & CEO @ Stitch Fix, a multi-billion dollar public company, which has brought an entirely new model to retail apparel by combining data science, technology, and personal stylists, to create a unique shopping experience tailored to the individual consumer. Prior to their IPO in 2017, Katrina raised just $42M in venture funding from some of the best in venture including Bill Gurley @ Benchmark and Steve Anderson @ Baseline. In just 6 years Katrina took the company from founding moment to $2BN IPO and was even cash flow positive after just 3 years. If that was not enough, Katrina is also on the board of both Grubhub and Glossier.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Katrina made her way from being an associate at a venture firm to reshaping the world of fashion with Stitch Fix?
2.) On reflection, is Katrina happy that the business was forced to be so capital efficient so early? What did Katrina do to structure the business and its inventory management to preserve cash? How does Katrina think about the balance between growth vs profitability?
3.) What have been some of Katrina's biggest lessons from working with Bill Gurley? How does Katrina ensure not to overweight his opinion on the board? What have been Katrina's biggest lessons on effective board management? How has being on the Grubhub and Glossier board changed the way she operates the Stitch Fix board?
4.) How does Katrina think about imposter syndrome and self-doubt today? How does she remedy it? How does Katrina ensure she remains on the front lines with customers despite being a public company CEO? What benefits are there for founders to stay in the trenches even when a large company?
5.) How does Katrina think on the importance for founders to have a vision today? Where do they need to be flexible? What are some dangers or pitfalls associated with "the vision"? How far are Stitch Fix along in cementing their vision?
Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode
Katrina's Favourite Book: Between The World And Me
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Katrina Lake – The Next Wave of E-Commerce - [Invest Like the Best, EP.187]
My guest today is Katrina Lake, the co-founder and CEO of Stitch Fix. Stitch Fix is a multi-billion-dollar public company which has brought an entirely new model to retail apparel by combining data science, technology, and personal stylists to create a unique shopping experience tailored to the individual consumer. I first met Katrina through past guest Bill Gurley and have been excited to host her since that first meeting. In our conversation, Katrina and I discuss all aspects of Stich Fix—its history, business model, innovations, and its future. Please enjoy this great and thought-provoking conversation with Katrina Lake.
This week’s episode is sponsored by Bottomless. Bottomless is a smart coffee subscription which automatically re-orders coffee for you based on your consumption habits.
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Show Notes
(2:19) – (First question) – Where E-Commerce stands and what the future might hold
(4:37) – Why personalization makes Stitch Fix stand out from the others
(9:34) – Why data science is foundational to their business
(12:15) – What makes for a good augmented human and hiring stylists
(14:34) – Stakeholder value and creating a great partnership with suppliers
(18:10) – Their emphasis on stakeholder focus and social justice
(19:28) – The capital efficiency of their business in the early days
(24:46) – Her superpower of recruiting
(29:46) – Her strengths in building Stitch Fix
(31:56) – Transparency vs authenticity
(32:59) – Big break for the business
(37:15) – Exclusive brands to Stitch Fix
(39:01) – The next act for Stitch Fix
(41:43) – Lessons learned in pricing services
(44:24) – Future trends in retail apparel
(48:02) – Hardest thing to copy about Stitch Fix
(49:59) – Lessons for putting data science at the center of your business
(53:37) – Moments during her journey she’s felt most alive
(55:23) – Kindest thing anyone has done for her
Learn More
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.
Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag
Stitch Fix: Katrina Lake (2018)
In 2010, Katrina Lake recruited 20 friends for an experiment: she wanted to see if she could choose clothes for them that accurately matched their style and personality. That idea sparked Stitch Fix, an online personal shopping service that aims to take the guesswork out of shopping. Today, it has about three million customers and brings in more than a billion dollars in annual revenue. PLUS in our postscript "How You Built That," we check back with Justin Li, who created wearable equipment to keep cool and hydrated called IcePlate.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Recode Decode: Stitch Fix CEO Katrina Lake
Stitch Fix founder and CEO Katrina Lake talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about the future of fashion, how the company has changed in the past nine years, and the rarity of female tech CEOs.
In this episode:
Lake’s background and taking Stitch Fix public; the difficulties of raising venture capital for a fashion startup; the "myth" of staying private forever; is Stitch Fix a “tech company?”; its expansion into new verticals, including men’s fashion; the broader online fashion landscape; how Stitch Fix has changed since its founding; figuring out people’s style preferences and riding fashion trends; sharing data with fashion brands; the future of retail; why Stitch Fix doesn’t have a physical store; how it reaches new customers; mistakes made and lessons learned; becoming a symbol for women in business; and what people underestimate about Lake.
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Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), host
Katrina Lake (@kmlake), guest
Erica Anderson (@EricaAmerica), executive producer
Eric Johnson (@HeyHeyESJ), producer
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Stitch Fix's Katrina Lake At The HIBT Summit
Today we have another live episode from the How I Built This Summit, featuring Katrina Lake of Stitch Fix. Katrina sat down with Guy Raz in front of a live audience in San Francisco in October to discuss building culture at a billion-dollar company, and why it's important – even for the CEO – to "rehire" yourself every year. We have one more episode from the Summit coming up next Thursday; stay tuned for Guy's conversation with Lisa Price of Carol's Daughter.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Recode Decode: Stitch Fix CEO Katrina Lake (Live at Code 2018)
Katrina Lake, the CEO of apparel delivery company Stitch Fix, talks with Recode’s Jason Del Rey at the 2018 Code Conference. Lake explains why Stitch Fix went public in 2017 even though it was healthy and profitable and what she has learned from the experience, as well as how much the company differentiates itself from commerce behemoth Amazon. Plus: Why Stitch Fix is introducing an annual “styling pass” rather than charging a $20 fee with every box of clothes it sends to its customers.
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Stitch Fix: Katrina Lake
In 2010, Katrina Lake recruited 20 friends for an experiment: she wanted to see if she could choose clothes for them that accurately matched their style and personality. That idea sparked Stitch Fix, an online personal shopping service that aims to take the guesswork out of shopping. Today, it has over two million customers and brings in nearly a billion dollars in annual revenue. Plus, for our postscript "How You Built That", how Brian Sonia-Wallace built "Rent Poet" — a poem-on-demand service for weddings, corporate gatherings, and other events.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.