How the Founder of Stitch Fix Is Weaving Social Impact Into the Core of Her Biz
Katrina Lake’s radical data-driven approach to selling clothes has completely disrupted the retail model by combining data science with technology and personal stylists. Today, her online personal styling company, Stitch Fix has taken a multi-billion-dollar slice of the $368-billion U.S. apparel industry but she is just getting started.
Stitch Fix is equally concerned with social impact and using their influence for positive change. After experiencing her own challenges first hand as a female entrepreneur struggling to fundraise in a male-dominated VC landscape, Katrina has prioritized diversity for Stitch Fix from the start. They recently pledged to use resources, influence, and data to create real, systemic change as part of their long term work on social justice and diversity, equity and inclusion, and sustainability efforts.
Most recently, this year, they launched a new grant and mentorship program called Elevate which will help to grow, mentor, and support underrepresented entrepreneurs in a bid to help bring needed diversity into the apparel ecosystem. Stitch Fix also publicly shared their longstanding commitment to pay equity, which they analyze through the lens of race in addition to gender.
At our recent Social Good Summit, New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist Elaine Welteroth virtually sat down with Lake to dive into these initiatives and so much more. Scroll on for all the most memorable moments from the conversation.
On finding the path to entrepreneurship…
“My path to becoming an entrepreneur was a little bit by process of elimination where I didn’t find another company I wanted to work for where I felt like more innovation could happen.”
On falling in love with the retail space…
“I fell in love with the idea that apparel is such an important way we express ourselves, it’s an important part of who we are.”
On building a team and learning how to lead…
“I’m not trying to micromanage people. I’m not trying to tell people how to do their job. I want really smart people to work with me that I can learn from.”
On reckoning with systemic challenges…
“I naively thought the world was more equal when I first started the business.”
“It wasn’t really until living and breathing it I realized how many systemic challenges we have.
On being frustrated with the lack of diversity in VC...
“The reality is, opportunities are not equal. Privileges are not equal. All these things that help you to succeed, are not evenly distributed. Especially money.”
“Not only do I have to find someone who believes in the numbers and believes in the business, but they also have to care about women’s clothes, and 94% of [venture capitalists] are men? This is so hard!”
On using the consumer’s power…
“We have economic power, so we need to be more demanding of the places where we are transacting.”
On improving representation within Stitch Fix…
“We’re very proud of the female-representation on our board, on our management team, and our company.”
“Diversity is a cornerstone of who we are and it has been since our founding.”
“We need to see greater representation in these places where the big decisions are made in order to see the change we want to see.”
On changing who has the hiring power in the industry...
“It is the right decision to have a board that better represents your employees, that better represents your customers.”
“It’s easy to get infuriated when we see another white man get another CEO job of a company that sells to mostly women. We see that over and over again—and it’s actually the board that’s making that decision.”
On holding your own brand accountable…
“Recently, we did a study with a third party that verified that we are paying each person dollar-for-dollar for the same job, for the same work, regardless of gender, age, race.”
“For our own employees, we were able to do what we can to take care and make sure we can help them to prioritize [their children and employment].”
“At Stitch Fix, we are super proud to be a place where you can be a great parent and also be a great employee.”
On encouraging public policies to do their part…
“There is so much bias in even the notion of asking people—and, in California, this is now illegal—but asking people what was their pay before they came to the job. I mean, you are just propagating the same bias that is in the system.”
“The more we can have our leaders, our representation, look like the people they represent, I think the more we can help to find solutions to these issues.”
On encouraging individuals to use their voices...
“The good news is people are looking in the mirror and they want to see it. They wanna look themselves in the face and ask, ‘Is this the right thing to do?’”
“It’s not gonna be any one company. One company is not gonna change the world. We all have to do this together.”