Stitch Fix Founder Katrina Lake Has Some Advice for You

Katrina Lake’s friends used to kiddingly call her CEO/janitor. Today, her willingness to get her hands dirty is paying off.

katrina lake

Katrina Lake is passionate about helping women achieve everyday confidence. She founded Stitch Fix to help women everywhere discover and explore their style through a truly client-focused shopping experience. Prior to founding Stitch Fix, Katrina developed extensive experience at the intersection of fashion, retail, and technology. Katrina holds a B.S. in Economics from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Follow her @kmlake.

Who is your hero?

My maternal grandmother, who moved here on her own from Japan without knowing a word of English, has always been an inspiration to me. She was unwilling to accept the status quo and pursued a vision of a better life for herself fearlessly.

What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?

Before I founded Stitch Fix, I was working as a consultant in the retail and restaurant industries and I traveled a lot with colleagues. The best piece of advice I could give is when hiring people, consider whether or not you could enjoy spending 12 hours traveling with them. While I don’t travel with every person who works at Stitch Fix, it’s a great barometer to make sure that everyone we hire is someone we enjoy spending time with.

What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?

We didn’t take a step back from the business and define our shared values and vision for the company as soon as we should have. Having a shared sense of self for the company helps provide more alignment around hiring practices, more consistency in how we serve our clients, and creates a feeling of shared purpose among employees.

What do you do during the first hour of your business day and why?

Every morning as I’m getting ready for my day I watch “Good Morning America” (guilty pleasure!). I also read WWD to get up to date on the latest retail news. I also try to squeeze in a run a few mornings a week, especially in the summer when it’s light outside.

What’s your best financial or cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started?

Make sure to test your hypothesis/product/idea in a low-budget way before you invest more of your or another investor’s time and money. It’s tempting to pour all your money into an idea you can believe in, but it’s so important to test a concept to understand the potential traction with target customers.

When we were in the testing phases at Stitch Fix, we were purchasing inventory at retail and weren’t making any money off our clients, but we were able to validate the concept and demonstrate that women could really shop a certain way. It was helpful to show the feedback and traction from our testing as we began approaching investors for our round of seed funding. It was equally important to prove to myself that what we were doing was a worthy investment.

Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?

Take a vacation and unplug! Some of my best thoughts have come while I’ve been able to relax, and take some time and space away from the business.

What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business?

It’s hard to imagine that there will be one milestone in my life that really feels like I’ve achieved the pinnacle of success. While building Stitch Fix, I’ve experienced lots of wonderful mini-milestones that I enjoyed celebrating. When Stitch Fix was first starting out, my friends used to call me CEO/janitor. Now that I’ve been able to build an amazing team, there are fewer moments where I experience the extreme part of that high/low dynamic. But perhaps success is having many fewer moments of being janitor than CEO.

There’s nothing more rewarding than building a business where you directly see the value you create for your clients and get to see your business and your team grow.

Founder Spotlight: Joe Huff of LSTN Headphones

Joe is the co-founder and director of positivity at LSTN Headphones. In 2010, he left his position as co-founder and CEO of Ramp Logistics to start a new social cause: This Shirt Helps. Since then, his experience and passion both revolve around social enterprise and making the world a better place. Both LSTN and This Shirt Helps were designed to harness the power of consumer purchases and make a positive difference while engaging and empowering. Follow him @joehuffLA.

Who is your hero?

There’s really no one person I would call hero. I’ve been and continue to be inspired by many things and people and by life in general!

What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?

Don’t be afraid to make decisions and don’t be afraid of failure. You can’t really succeed without making LOTS of mistakes along the way unless you’re incredibly lucky. Not making a decision is much worse than making the wrong decision most of the time because you become paralyzed. It’s important to be decisive and then adapt if your original plan doesn’t work out. That’s the beauty of failure — it’s the breeding ground for new and better ideas. And even when you fall on your face, your still moving forward.

What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?

The biggest mistake I have made was becoming too caught up and emotionally invested in a product instead of the result we were trying to achieve. It’s really important to take a serious step back now and then to just look at what you’re doing and be honest about whether or not it’s working toward your main objective. In the past there have been times where we waited too long to pivot or weren’t focused on the right part of our business. We were pouring all of our time into a certain product or part of the business that we loved but that just wasn’t performing. It’s really important to make sure what you’re focused on is really achieving your true end goal.

What do you do during the first hour of your business day and why?

I’m a morning person. I use the first hour in the AM to set the tone for the day. Whether it’s a morning hike or coffee and emails, I get all of my thoughts together and prioritize everything in that first hour so I have a game plan. If possible, I try and knock a couple things off the list right away so I have a feeling of accomplishment early on. That way I’ve got something to build off of or fall back on if things go sideways.

What’s your best financial or cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started?

Don’t be afraid to take on debt, financing or investment when possible if necessary. Fifty percent of $10M is much better than 100 percent of $0.

Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?

Take a look at who you spend your personal and professional time with. If they don’t inspire you, make the changes necessary to surround yourself with as many inspiring people as you can as often as possible. “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future” is a quote I live by!

What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business?

My version of success is simple. I think when we die, the only thing that will have mattered is what we did to make the world a better place. So success to me is when you know you’re trying to make a difference, you’re inspiring others to do the same and you’re happy because of it. Luckily, I feel pretty successful already just because I realized that early on.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

Startup Founder Spotlight: Thomas Kjeldgaard, CEO & Founder, Splashpost

Thomas Kjeldgaard is an online entrepreneur who co-founded Pagemodo, which was acquired by Webs in 2011. Since then, he founded and is the CEO of SplashPost, a tool that helps Facebook Pages turn ‘likes’ into sales. Thomas is publicly known for his conference lectures and addiction to designing UI and UX.

Who is your hero?

Steve Jobs.

What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?

Develop something that you can sell over and over again. Create a business that is not dependent on you!

What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?

Holding back with marketing. Marketing starts day one. As soon the idea is on the table the marketing process starts — not when the product is ready!

What do you do during the first hour of your business day and why?

First, I get an overview of the day and handle any crucial user issues. Customer service is crucial to success and many businesses don’t realize that.

What’s your best financial or cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started?

Develop something scalable based on a recurring subscription model. This puts money in your pocket each month = cash flow.

Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?

Focus. Track everything in your business to know where you make money and what costs you money. Understanding your users and customers is crucial for success.

What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business?

When users tell you they are happy with your product, you know you are making a positive difference in their life. They will then be happy to pay you — and if you’re lucky, you make a nice exit from your company and cash in on that.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab , a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

What is everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference?

Startup Founder Spotlight: Alex Schiff, FetchNotes

Alex Schiff is the founder and chief executive officer of Fetchnotes, which makes productivity as simple as a tweet. Prior to Fetchnotes, Alex was the vice president of Benzinga and a student at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Follow him @alexschiff.

Who is your hero?

Aaron Patzer is one of the entrepreneurs I look up to most.

What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?

Optimize for speed, not cost. Your entire organization should be structured around how you can accelerate progress and learning. That $20 a month here or $50 there is NOT going to mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but if it frees up a few hours of your life, then it’s worth it.

What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?

Not focusing on one thing. At one point, I was working on three startups, working for another, and still in school full-time. They all suffered from my lack of attention. I learned that when you’re a founder you need to be thinking not “What do I need to do today?” but “What can I be doing to advance my business forward?”

The former has a finite amount of work; the latter is limitless.

What do you do during the first hour of your business day and why?

I take care of all the little things. Respond to email, complete quick tasks, etc. I actually purposefully put off anything that will take more than 30 minutes until after lunch because then I know I have the longest period of uninterrupted activity.

What’s your best financial or cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started?

You can make money in weird ways. We offered to sing karaoke to any of our users who donated money.

Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?

The best part about being an entrepreneur is that you get to choose who you work with — don’t take that for granted!

What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business?

Honestly, I have no idea. There will always be a new mountain to climb.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

Check out Alex’s guest post, Here’s A Better Way To Ask For An Email Introduction.

Founder Spotlight: Ryan Buckley, Co-Founder & COO At Scripted.com

Ryan Buckley is Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Scripted.com. Ryan holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Still and always a Cal Bear, Ryan graduated from UC Berkeley with degrees in economics and environmental sciences. He likes to dabble in PHP, Python, Ruby, Quickbooks, and whatever else needs to be done at Scripted HQ. Follow him @rbucks.

Who is your hero?

Abraham Lincoln.

What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?

Focus. Early on, in the first iteration of our company, we were building screenwriting software to help screenwriters work their way up in Hollywood. It was a lofty goal. Our first version of the product did everything from writer profiles to contest submissions and screenplay filters for producers.

It was too much. An advisor came down on us and reminded us that on our small budget (we had raised $37,000, which really felt like a lot of money) we couldn’t boil the ocean. Not even close. So we focused on one feature we were most excited about: web-based screenplay editing. Google Docs for screenplays.

That decision allowed us to hit a point where we could pivot off of that business and start Scripted.com. The reminder to focus on one problem has stuck with us, and our investors and new advisors tell us that our focus on the writing vertical is what makes us attractive.

What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?

My biggest mistake was entering a market where my customers were short-term and broke. In retrospect, the business plan competition results were right: you can’t build a business around amateur screenwriters. Our first business model was having them pay subscriptions to use our product. Then we discovered reality and tried to move to a model where studios pay us to access our 100,000 scripts.

Although studios have much deeper pockets, the sales cycle proved far too long and costly. The next pivot, to sell marketing content (not screenplays) to businesses (not studios) was the business decision that worked out.

Lesson learned: Make sure your customers can afford your product and it’s not too hard to sell to them.

What do you do during the first hour of your business day and why?

I wake up at 7 a.m. and try very hard not to check email. By 7:30 I’m usually on the couch with my wife and watching Morning Joe (a terrific political morning show) with our coffee. Then I’ll either work from the couch for a bit or go straight to the office.

What’s your best financial or cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started?

Spend as little as possible so you don’t have to stress about cash on a daily basis. Check your accounts monthly at least and always check your credit card bill for subscriptions you no longer need. Put off paying yourself for as long as possible too. It’ll make you appreciate and respect your business.

Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?

Subscribe to Fortune and Inc. And get a smartphone app to make it easy to read the blogs every day.

What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business?

When we become a talent magnet, I’ll know we’ve made it.

Startups: Is your PR strategy outdated?