CG: A Conversation with StitchFix COO Mike Smith

Industry Focus

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4.6 • 854 Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2019

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Founded by Katrina Lake in 2011, StitchFix has taken the fashion world by storm. By leveraging data science, StitchFix sends customers personalized “fixes” tailored toward their size and style, and the company has continued to innovate through new initiatives like its Style Shuffle game and new Direct Buy Program. We hope you’ll enjoy this conversation between StitchFix COO Mike Smith and the Motley Fool’s Tom Gardner, Andy Cross, and Tim Beyers.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Industry Focus, the podcast that dies into a different sector of the stock market every day.
0:07.0	Today is Thursday, October 29th, and we've got a special episode for you.
0:11.0	Earlier this month, Motley Fool CEO Tom Gardner, along with Andy Cross and
0:14.7	Tim Byers, spoke with Stitch Fix CEO Mike Smith about the company's origins, its
0:19.4	business model, and the company's culture of innovation and growth.
0:23.0	For those not familiar with Stitch Fix,
0:25.0	the company is working to revolutionize how people shop for clothing
0:27.0	by providing its members with curated fixes
0:30.0	using its proprietary technology to select pieces that match customers style and size.
0:34.7	Mike, well thanks so much for joining us here at the Motley Fool where Stitch Fix is a recommendation
0:41.6	to our members that we've and we follow the business for
0:44.9	for many years and I think we'd like to start with a little bit of your
0:50.5	background your history what's your position at Stitch Fix and how did you end up there?
0:56.6	Sure, so I'm Mike Smith, I'm our president, chief operating officer. I've been with the company about seven and a half years. I joined
1:05.0	from Walmart.com. I had been at Walmart's online division for nine years,
1:11.0	left that position as chief operating officer, and then joined Katrina when we were just four people.
1:19.0	And it's been an amazing and intellectually challenging run for the seven and a half years that I've been here.
1:26.8	I grew up in Virginia, I went to University of Virginia for undergrad, worked in consulting, and then went to business business school and then been in retail pretty
1:34.7	much since 2003 and it's been obviously an exciting time to be in retail.
1:38.9	Can you talk about the early, you know, the first year or two of getting stitch fix off the ground.
1:45.4	We've certainly read and heard from Katrina Lake about the capital raising challenges that she faced and what can you tell us about the early days and what what is there in the DNA of the company that you that you experienced as employee number four?
2:02.0	Yeah, we talk a lot about Stitchrix grit and sort of some of the thick skin we got back in the day when it was more challenging
	...

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