Katrina Lake

Katrina Lake (born December 24, 1982)[1] is an American businesswoman who is the founder and CEO of Stitch Fix, a fashion-based subscription service. Stitch Fix was established in 2011 in San Francisco[2] and went public in 2017.[3] Lake, who is the youngest woman in tech to take a company public,[4] was the only woman in 2017 to lead an initial public offering in technology.[5][6] As of November 2017, Lake held a 16.6% stake in Stitch Fix.[6] In 2017, Forbes named Lake one of America's richest self-made women.[7]

Katrina Lake
Born
Katrina Lake

(1982-12-24) December 24, 1982
San Francisco, California, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materStanford University
Harvard University
OccupationFounder and CEO of Stitch Fix

Early life and education

Lake was born on December 24, 1982 in San Francisco. Her mother is a Japanese immigrant who taught in the public school system, and her father was a doctor of Jewish-American background at UCSF and the University of Minnesota.[8][9] She initially wanted to become a doctor before she became an entrepreneur.[10] She began on the pre-med course but became very interested in economics and business.[11]

She received her bachelor's degree from Stanford University in 2005[10][12] and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2011.[13]

Career

Lake worked at Polyvore and management consultancy The Parthenon Group after graduating from Stanford.[14][5][15]

While pursuing her MBA from Harvard, Lake founded Stitch Fix in 2011 at the age of 28.[16] Lake collected SurveyMonkey data from her clients to get a sense of their style. She would use the information to hand select outfits and send them to her customers. At its early stages, Lake did not even have the Internet capabilities to charge her customers and required trust from her clients to pay her monthly.[14] In 2012, Lake was introduced to Netflix VP of data science and engineering Eric Colson, who initially dismissed the business model as "whimsical" but within months joined the company as "chief algorithms officer".[17] She has combined data science with marketing to grow the business.[18]

Customers of Stitch Fix order "fixes" of five items, selected for them by professional stylists, as a one off or at scheduled intervals, and are subsequently given three days to choose which items they want to keep.[19] In 2016–17, Stitch Fix had $730 million in sales.[10]

Lake was listed as one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business [20] and in the 2016 Fortune (magazine) 40 under 40.[21] Lake was the only woman to take an internet company public in 2017.[22] On the day of the initial public offering, Stitch Fix raised nearly $120 million dollars.[23] In 2018, she was named Disruptor of the Year by Retail Dive.[24]

Lake is a board member at Grubhub and beauty company Glossier.[25]

Lake appeared as a guest shark on Season 11, Episode 14 of the ABC show Shark Tank, which aired on March 6, 2020.[26] Lori Greiner of HSN and Lake teamed up to make a deal with a young budding company for children’s glasses, Pair Eyewear.[27]

Lake is a member of YPO.[28]

Personal life

Lake married John Clifford, an investment professional, in 2014.[29] Lake has two sons.[30]

References
  1. "Stitch Fix Company Fact Sheet" (PDF). newsroom.stitchfix.com.
  2. Bercovici, Jeff (September 26, 2017). "How This Millennial Founder Created a $730 Million Fashion Startup--With the Help of an Algorithm". Inc.com. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
  3. "These Billion-Dollar Women Are Changing The Face of Silicon Valley". Marie Claire. March 27, 2018. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  4. Draznin, Haley (July 31, 2018). "She's 35 -- and runs a $3 billion company". CNN. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
  5. Cain, Áine (November 17, 2017). "How a 34-year-old Stanford and Harvard grad built Stitch Fix into a billion-dollar company that just went public". Business Insider. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
  6. Gensler, Lauren (November 17, 2017). "Stitch Fix Shares Pop In IPO, With Retailer Raising $120 Million". Forbes. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
  7. O'Connor, Clare (November 29, 2017). "Stitch Fix Stock Surge Puts CEO Katrina Lake Among America's Richest Self-Made Women". Forbes. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
  8. Pithers, Ellie (May 13, 2019). "Could Stitch Fix Solve Your Wardrobe Crisis?". British Vogue.
  9. "Stitch Fix Founder Katrina Lake gives the C-Suite a Makeover". Inflection Point. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
  10. Lien, Tracey. "Stitch Fix founder Katrina Lake built one of the few successful e-commerce subscription services". latimes.com. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
  11. "Stitch Fix CEO Katrina Lake Wanted to Work at the 'Apparel Retailer of the Future,' So She Founded It". Fashionista. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  12. "Katrina Lake of Stitch Fix on Building Diverse Teams". Retrieved November 1, 2018.
  13. "Katrina Lake - Harvard Business School Digital Initiative". Harvard Business School Digital Initiative. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  14. Spellings, Sarah (2019-12-30). "How I Get It Done: Stitch Fix CEO Katrina Lake". The Cut. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  15. "About Katrina | Getting Personal". katrinalake.wpengine.com. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  16. Spellings, Sarah. "How I Get It Done: Stitch Fix CEO Katrina Lake". The Cut. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  17. "How This Millennial Founder Created a $730 Million Fashion Startup--With the Help of an Algorithm". Inc.com. September 26, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  18. "Stitch Fix CEO Katrina Lake on how she keeps her 'shopping in a box' a formidable business". CNBC. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  19. "Katrina Lake is One of the 500 People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry in 2017". The Business of Fashion. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  20. "Meet Katrina Lake, one of Fast Company's Most Creative People". Fast Company.
  21. "Katrina Lake". Fortune. August 17, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  22. "Women in tech see today's Stitch Fix IPO as a milestone". Recode. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  23. Hirsch, Lauren Thomas,Lauren (2017-11-17). "Stitch Fix shares retreat after IPO pop, close at $15.15". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  24. "Disruptor of the Year: Katrina Lake, Stitch Fix". Retail Dive.
  25. Marius, Marley. "How Stitch Fix CEO Katrina Lake Nails Working-Mom Style". Vogue.
  26. Jacobs, Meredith. "Stitch Fix Founder & CEO Katrina Lake Joins the Sharks on 'Shark Tank' (PHOTOS)". TV Insider. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  27. "'Shark Tank' Season 11 Episode 14: Fans love Lori Greiner and Katrina Lake's team up, demand more women on show". meaww.com. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  28. "Young Influencers: 4 YPO Members Named to 'Fortune's' 40 Under 40". YPO. 2018-08-13. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  29. "How Stitch Fix's CEO Katrina Lake Built a $2 Billion Company". ELLE. February 28, 2018. Retrieved November 1, 2018.
  30. Marius, Marley (13 March 2019). "How Stitch Fix CEO Katrina Lake Nails Working-Mom Style". Vogue. Condé Nast. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
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