Katrina Lake

A Netflix executive called her idea “whimsical.” Then she made $45M in a day.

Katrina Lake wasn’t a fashion mogul.

She was a Harvard MBA student with a big idea: What if data could revolutionize personal styling?

In 2011, from her tiny Cambridge apartment, she launched Stitch Fix, blending AI-driven recommendations with human stylists to send personalized clothing to customers’ doors.

At first, she relied on SurveyMonkey forms and customer trust: she couldn’t even charge automatically.

Investors doubted her.

But Lake proved them wrong.

By 2017, she took Stitch Fix public at age 34, becoming the youngest female founder ever to lead an IPO… and the only woman to do so that year.

The company raised $120M, and her stake made her one of America's richest self-made women.

Her success wasn’t just hype: By 2021, Stitch Fix hit $2.1B in revenue, with 85 data scientists and 3,700 stylists.

In 2021, she stepped down as CEO but stayed on as Executive Chair, later joining the boards of Grubhub, Glossier, and Recruit Holdings.