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Lily Kanter

17 statements across 1 episodes · 1 bullish · 2 bearish · 2 people on the record · first statement Aug 3, 2026 by Lily Kanter · across every show →

On the record as a speaker too: Lily Kanter's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.

Everything said about Lily Kanter, oldest first

Aug 3, 2026 neutral
Disclosure
Kanter asked new majority shareholder to find a CEO to replace her
“I said to the new owner, the new majority shareholder, I said, listen, this brand needs someone who can really scale it, and I hadn't really spent enough time with my children at this point, and I wanted to spend more time with them, and so I kind of said I'd …”
Lily Kanter Aug 3, 2026 ▶ 1:10:08 Serena & Lily: Serena Dugan and Lily Kanter. They Built a $20M Brand—Then One Investor Almost Destroyed It
Aug 3, 2026
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Serena & Lily maintained a 70% CAGR over a seven-year period
“We had a 70% cumulative average growth rate over a seven-year period, and honestly, to Sand Hill Road, Like, we were a slow grower.”
Lily Kanter Aug 3, 2026 ▶ 52:18 Serena & Lily: Serena Dugan and Lily Kanter. They Built a $20M Brand—Then One Investor Almost Destroyed It
Aug 3, 2026
Assertion Not checkable as stated
In 2007, Serena & Lily had zero e-commerce sales across 600-800 stores
“100% wholesale. We had about 600 to 800 stores. We had zero online. We didn't even have a shopping cart on our website, so there was no direct-to-consumer happening for us”
Lily Kanter Aug 3, 2026 ▶ 46:50 Serena & Lily: Serena Dugan and Lily Kanter. They Built a $20M Brand—Then One Investor Almost Destroyed It
Aug 3, 2026
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kanter funded cash shortfalls via loans to preserve Dugan's 50% equity
“I always kept Serena as my 50% partner, and we booked this infusion, if you will, as a due to Lily Cantor, so that we had a liability on our books, but not.”
Lily Kanter Aug 3, 2026 ▶ 34:27 Serena & Lily: Serena Dugan and Lily Kanter. They Built a $20M Brand—Then One Investor Almost Destroyed It
Aug 3, 2026
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kanter and Dugan took no salary for three and a half years
“Now, keep in mind, we haven't taken a salary now for three and a half years”
Lily Kanter Aug 3, 2026 ▶ 44:19 Serena & Lily: Serena Dugan and Lily Kanter. They Built a $20M Brand—Then One Investor Almost Destroyed It
Aug 3, 2026 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
A 2X participating preferred term blocked Serena & Lily from raising capital
“One of our other major investor on Sandhill Road came up with the capital. They actually put the money into the company on top of our cap stack, on top of the capital chart, At a very heavy duty preference of a two X preferred participating, very gnarly securi…”
Lily Kanter Aug 3, 2026 ▶ 56:31 Serena & Lily: Serena Dugan and Lily Kanter. They Built a $20M Brand—Then One Investor Almost Destroyed It
Aug 3, 2026
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Mill Valley Baby expanded into a 3,000-square-foot store in four months
“July of 2002, we opened our baby and kids' store called Mill Valley Baby, and by November of 2002, we moved down the street to a nearly 3000 square foot store.”
Lily Kanter Aug 3, 2026 ▶ 7:47 Serena & Lily: Serena Dugan and Lily Kanter. They Built a $20M Brand—Then One Investor Almost Destroyed It
Aug 3, 2026
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Serena & Lily convinced an LA printer to run 15-yard fabric samples
“We got the name of an agent that can help us in Los Angeles find a printing source that can print our fabric for us. So we literally, you know, talked him into Taking a risk that we were going to be this multi multi-million dollar brand one day, and can you pl…”
Lily Kanter Aug 3, 2026 ▶ 26:36 Serena & Lily: Serena Dugan and Lily Kanter. They Built a $20M Brand—Then One Investor Almost Destroyed It
Aug 3, 2026
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Founders raised a $1.5M friends and family round in 17 days
“I mean, Serena chased down every one of her friends, and I would say half the money came in from Serena's friends, half the money came in from my friends, and we raised the money in a 17 day sprint.”
Lily Kanter Aug 3, 2026 ▶ 46:03 Serena & Lily: Serena Dugan and Lily Kanter. They Built a $20M Brand—Then One Investor Almost Destroyed It
Aug 3, 2026 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Acquirers demanded perpetual rights to founders' name, image, and likeness
“And meanwhile, our investors want us to take the acquisition offer regardless of the egregious terms, including, ah, owning our name, image, and likeness in perpetuity.”
Serena Dugan Aug 3, 2026 ▶ 1:02:30 Serena & Lily: Serena Dugan and Lily Kanter. They Built a $20M Brand—Then One Investor Almost Destroyed It
Aug 3, 2026
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kanter and Dugan launched Serena & Lily as 50-50 partners with $50K
“We spun it out as a separate company. We were fifty-fifty owners. I told Serena I'd put 50,000 dollars into this business. We'd be equal partners.”
Lily Kanter Aug 3, 2026 ▶ 25:22 Serena & Lily: Serena Dugan and Lily Kanter. They Built a $20M Brand—Then One Investor Almost Destroyed It
Aug 3, 2026
Assertion Not checkable as stated
A new family office acquired over 50% of Serena & Lily
“Yeah, it was definitely over 50 at that point.”
Lily Kanter Aug 3, 2026 ▶ 1:09:12 Serena & Lily: Serena Dugan and Lily Kanter. They Built a $20M Brand—Then One Investor Almost Destroyed It
Aug 3, 2026
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Serena & Lily recapitalization offered existing investors over a 3x return
“Many of them were making, at that point, over a three X, and they could sell their shares, or they could convert to common, and they can ride along in the car with us.”
Lily Kanter Aug 3, 2026 ▶ 1:07:41 Serena & Lily: Serena Dugan and Lily Kanter. They Built a $20M Brand—Then One Investor Almost Destroyed It
Aug 3, 2026
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mandatory employment contracts saved founders from board-forced company sale
“Listen, we, the board could have voted to sell the company because they had enough votes around the table that were incentivized to sell the company. The problem is that the acquisitions were requiring us to sign three year employment contracts.”
Lily Kanter Aug 3, 2026 ▶ 1:03:00 Serena & Lily: Serena Dugan and Lily Kanter. They Built a $20M Brand—Then One Investor Almost Destroyed It
Aug 3, 2026 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Serena & Lily secured $100,000 in wholesale orders within weeks of launch
“At the time, we sold everything as a three-piece crib set, which was the bumper, the sheet, and the dust ruffle. And the dust ruffle, ok. Yeah. It was very premium crib bedding, and we had a minimum order requirement of four crib sets, so it was basically a mi…”
Lily Kanter Aug 3, 2026 ▶ 31:11 Serena & Lily: Serena Dugan and Lily Kanter. They Built a $20M Brand—Then One Investor Almost Destroyed It
Aug 3, 2026
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Serena & Lily built its initial wholesale mailing list via screen scraping
“She came over and started working full time for Serena and Lily, and she I think they use the word screen scraped. She screen scraped the entire internet for every retailer that would be the right place to get our crib bedding into their store and produce mail…”
Lily Kanter Aug 3, 2026 ▶ 27:20 Serena & Lily: Serena Dugan and Lily Kanter. They Built a $20M Brand—Then One Investor Almost Destroyed It
Aug 3, 2026
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Founders used an 'oversold' pretext to secure 50% deposits from wholesale buyers
“So, we're like, hey, why don't we call all of them? And let them know that we are in an oversold situation with our initial production, and if they would like to guarantee their order, they would have to provide us a 50% deposit on their order. And the oversol…”
Lily Kanter Aug 3, 2026 ▶ 33:25 Serena & Lily: Serena Dugan and Lily Kanter. They Built a $20M Brand—Then One Investor Almost Destroyed It
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