Kate Spade
Co-founder, Kate Spade New York. On 1 show, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderauthorotherkatespade.com ↗Wikipedia ↗YouTube ↗
Kate Spade was an American fashion designer who co-founded the global lifestyle brand Kate Spade New York with her husband Andy Spade in 1993, gaining widespread fame for her sleek, colorful handbags. After selling her namesake company, she launched the accessories and footwear brand Frances Valentine in 2016.
1shows
2appearances
25statements
6resolved
6supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
49said about them ↓ Everything Kate Spade said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Kate Spade: Giving up a salary creates essential founder scrappiness
“The truth is, you would never have done it had you stayed, because I wouldn't have been as scrappy or as, I mean, it was kind of, you know, do or die, so I think if I had still been working, I would have been like, ah, a little bit more lackadaisical about it,…”
Sourcing materials from Yellow Pages prevented mainstream fashion clones
“There's a fabric show in Paris called Premier Vision that all the designers go to, so sometimes you could end up with the same materials. Mine came out of the Yellow Pages, so chances are I wasn't gonna run into any people that had the same materials. So we we…”
Kate Spade found early 1990s designer handbags too complicated and over-designed
“At the time, things were very, bags were too complicated, and I really loved very simple kind of architectural shapes, and I would wear these very simple shapes, none of which were famous designers.”
Kate Spade says keeping her magazine job would have prevented brand success
“The truth is, you would never have done it had you stayed, because I wouldn't have been as scrappy or as, I mean, it was kind of, you know, do or die, so I think if I'd still been working, I would have been like, ah, a little bit more lackadaisical about it, w…”
Kate Spade viewed street corner counterfeit knockoffs as a compliment of success
“Which Andy said, that's actually a compliment. He said, you know, you're doing something right when they're on every blanket on every street corner.”
Kate Spade chose clean exit to avoid ugly post-acquisition founder lawsuits
“You've heard so many horror stories about people who sell, and then they stay, and then they fight, and then they sue, and I just thought, oh, that's too ugly for me.”
Kate Spade's debut collection was made from potato sack burlap
“I looked in the yellow pages, and I looked up burlap, and I found a potato sack company that was willing to sell to me. And they had three different, you know, weights, and I needed the heaviest weight so that it was, you know, substantial enough for a handbag…”
Kate Spade secured Barneys and Fred Segal at first trade show
“We hadn't even sold enough to cover the cost of the booth, and I started crying, and Andy said, well, who did you get? And I said, well, we got Barney's, and he said, okay, and I said, Fred Siegel in Los Angeles”
Andy Spade invented the brand name reflecting a 50-50 partnership
“Well, that was Andy. Because we were, I was not Kate Spade. I was Kate Brosnahan, and I kept coming up with these names, and Andy kept saying Kate Spade, because we were fifty-fifty partners, and finally I just said, okay, and everyone said, I love it, Kate Sp…”
Kate Spade never borrowed money to fund operations or inventory
“But we never borrowed a dime, ever.”
Kate and Andy Spade self-financed their new venture, Frances Valentine
“And we're self-financing again. So I'm not crazy about, as I mentioned earlier, losing any money. So, you know, this thing better work.”
Kate Spade has no regrets about leaving her namesake brand
“People said, oh, do you have any regrets? And I remember thinking, oh, I hope I don't, and I never have, and I think they've done such a good job that luckily I don't have to have.”
Kate Spade's first handbag collection used burlap sourced from potato sacks
“None of the fabric houses would sell us anything other than a hundred yards, for example, right?... 500 yards. We only needed to make six bags. We had six shapes, so we only needed probably... 40 yards. 30 yards? 20, 25. So I called, I looked in the yellow pag…”
Kate Spade landed initial wholesale orders from Barneys and Fred Segal
“We got Barney's, and he said, okay, and I said, Fred Siegel in Los Angeles, and he was like, right, and then it was, he goes, Katie, he said, you've got two of the best stores in America.”
Kate Spade says sourcing materials from Yellow Pages created unique product differentiation
“Mine came out of the Yellow Pages, so chances are I wasn't gonna run into any people that had the same materials. So we were doing something different, which was really to our advantage.”
Kate Spade says her namesake brand never borrowed money or took debt
“But we never borrowed a dime, ever.”
Kate and Andy Spade worked on separate floors to protect their marriage
“We actually worked on separate floors for that very reason, because I had a tendency to go into his office, and he'd be on the phone, and I'd say, get off the phone, I have something to tell you, or ask you. And that, we had to really, I had to myself find bou…”
Kate Spade: Condé Nast hired me despite poor typing skills
“Condé Nast called, and they have a job in the fashion department. So they ended up hiring me. They didn't want to because I couldn't type, and my boss said, listen, she's great, and I don't need her to type a lot, because we were doing fashion shoots and styli…”
Kate Spade: Early 1990s handbags were overly complicated
“At the time, things were very, bags were too complicated, and I really loved very simple kind of architectural shapes, and I would wear these very simple shapes, none of which were famous designers.”
Kate and Andy Spade maintained boundaries by working on separate floors
“We actually worked on separate floors for that very reason, because I had a tendency to go into his office, and he'd be on the phone, and I'd say, get off the phone, I have something to tell you, or ask you. And that, we had to really, I had to myself find bou…”
Kate Spade brought on two early business partners for sweat equity only
“We took on two partners and For sweat equity only, it was my friend Elise Ahrens, my best friend since I was 18, and then Pam LaBelle, someone that we'd just met through friends here in New York.”
The other half of the tape: Kate Spade's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 37 times in 14 episodes across the shows. 12 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Guy Raz 33Jennifer Martin 4
Statements about Kate Spade, by other people (12)
Jeff Martin: Kate Spade posted Pipcorn on Instagram during its debut
“Kate Spade. Put us on her Instagram.”
A 50-store department store rollout quadrupled Kate Spade's business
“Either Neiman's or Saks, they were buying for two or three stores, and they said, we're going to buy for all of our stores. And that was 50 stores, or more than 50 stores, and that quadrupled our business.”
Founders drained their savings and 401(k) to bootstrap Kate Spade
“We had run through our four or one K money. And, you know, all of our savings at that point, we still weren't seeing, you know, a progression that was going to pay us a salary in the next year, in the near future.”
Kate and Andy Spade took no salary until year four
“Fourth year we paid ourselves 15,000 and we're still working out of our apartment.”
Department store expansion to 50 locations quadrupled Kate Spade's business overnight
“Either Neiman's or Saks, they were buying for two or three stores, and they said, we're going to buy for all of our stores. And that was 50 stores, or more than 50 stores, and that quadrupled our business.”
Kate and Andy Spade waited four years to take a $15,000 salary
“Fourth year we paid ourselves 15,000, and we were still working out of our apartment.”
Andy Spade took Saatchi advertising job to fund Kate Spade fabric costs
“I got a job offer to work for Saatchi and Saatchi in LA, and I almost tripled my salary. You know, we were still funding the company ourselves, and we needed money for fabric, and we needed money for the trade shows, and so we both agreed that I would go to L.…”
Andy and Kate Spade depleted all 401(k) accounts to bootstrap their brand
“We had run through our four or one K money. And, you know, all of our savings at that point, we still weren't seeing, you know, a progression that was going to pay us a salary in the next year, in the near future.”
Counterfeit Kate Spade bags first appeared on Canal Street in 1998
“And counterfeits started around 98. And we started seeing them on Canal Street.”
Kate Spade accepted her first New York job for $14,000
“When she got her job offer for 14,000 dollars a year, everything changed.”
Kate and Andy Spade hid their business from family expecting to fail
“We intentionally didn't really talk about it much to family, because I think secretly we both thought it would fail.”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
How I Built This 37
2026 3 mentions in 1 episode
2025 1 mention in 1 episode
2024 3 mentions in 1 episode
2021 5 mentions in 1 episode
2020 6 mentions in 3 episodes 2 per episode
2018 8 mentions in 3 episodes 3 per episode
2017 11 mentions in 4 episodes 3 per episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Kate's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Co-founder, Kate Spade New York | 2 | 25 | 100% 6/6 | full record on How I Built This → |