Katrina Lake had an idea to help a retail company, she found she had less time to shop and not enough money to have a personal shopper, so she wanted to create a more affordable and less time-consuming option. Her idea was she would turn a clothing store into 2 different spaces. One space would be like a museum where they could go pick outfits they liked and then the other part was the warehouse or distribution area. In the warehouse area, all of the items you liked from the museum would be there for you to try on.

Katrina took a Job after she graduated from Stanford as a venture capitalist. At this job she listened to hundreds of ideas from people. By listening to all of these ideas she realized she wanted to do something herself rather than work for anyone.

At the end of 2009, she quit her job and applied to Harvard where she studied business. This experience was unlike any other she said, and it taught her many new skills. Harvard offers four entrepreneurship and innovation courses that allow you to experience new business opportunities, negotiate deals, harness innovation, and transform your ideas into real ventures. She used these courses to grow as an entrepreneur.

In 2010 she started experimenting in Boston with friends. She sent out a survey people would fill out with their size, style, and brands they liked. They collected the data to form personalized boxes to ship to people with clothes. These people would receive the box and return anything they didn't like, if they liked it, they sent a check and got to keep it. Through the survey, she discovered how much you can learn about someone. During this time, she was the only worker for the company and did it all by herself.

On February 14th, 2011 Steve Anderson, an investor, gave Katrina one half million dollars to get her company started. He told her to try to get money from other investors but over 30 said no. Raising money was the hardest part of the process she said. Many investors were men and most men were not interested in dressing women which made it very difficult. With the money that she got from Steve she bought merchandise from local boutiques to sell to customers. She would look at the return policy of the clothes and if she didn't sell it by that day she would return it to get that money back and reuse it.

Factor: Land

During this time Kartrina also rented an office in San Fransisco. Early on she was shipping her Stitch Fix orders out of her Cambridge apartment in 2011 while attending Harvard.

Eric Colson who is a Chief Algorithms Officer (CAO) was hired to look through all of the data the company was receiving from the surveys. He sorted through the information and organized people into groups with others who have the same style to make it easy for stylists. He has a bachelor's degree in Economics and masters degrees in Information Systems and Management Science and Engineering.