Katrina Lake is the founder and CEO of Stitch Fix, a “personal shopping service for men and women that evolves with your tastes, needs, and lifestyle.” Essentially, the mission of Stitch Fix is to combine technology and the personal touch of stylists to provide a shopping experience that is easy, saves time, and creates a style unique to each customer. To use this service, customers take a style quiz that uses multiple choice questions and pictures to determine the specific style of the customer. Once they complete the style quiz, a box of tailored clothing choices are sent them for a $20 down fee. The user can try on the clothes at home and keep or send home whichever items they want. Stitch Fix provides free shipping, exchanges, and returns. The customer can order on demand or receive regular deliveries based upon their preferences.

Stitch Fix is changing the way the world thinks about shopping and personal styling of clothing. In the age of “fast fashion” and big box stores, personal styling by professionals has largely become a thing of the past because it is considered too expensive and shopping by yourself is much more convenient. Stitch Fix uses technology to take the complexity out of shopping with a personal stylist. It provides a way to get clothing tailored to your taste without having to keep the clothing items you do not like. Why spend hours shopping for the perfect outfit when a professional can do it for you?

Katrina Lake is a bold female millennial entrepreneur who saw the potential for a new market space in the fashion industry (a largely saturated industry) by combining technology and personal styling. She started Stitch Fix while completing her MBA from Harvard University and continues to invest in and work with startups at Leader Ventures. When Lake took her company public in 2017, she became the youngest female founder ever to lead an initial public offering (IPO).

The story of Katrina Lake and Stitch Fix is inspiring to me because it shows that all it takes to succeed is to find your niche and pursue it. Katrina saw an open space in this over-saturated industry and recognized a frustration that many women experience and was able to build a highly successful company and brand from it.

Learn more about Stitch Fix by following this link: https://www.stitchfix.com/