Outdoor Voices

“We've been lucky with the funding and engagement around the brand to have Mickey Drexler from J. Crew actually joined as the chairman of the board in 2016.”

“Yeah, Peter Boyce from General Catalyst. General Catalyst is a big VC. You're probably familiar with him out of Boston. He saw the product, saw the pitch, had gotten product on his girlfriend, Natalia. She loved it, and he said, I love this concept. I want to …”

“For me, I realized that the future of athletics wasn't about being there first, but about being there most frequently and consistently,”

“Back to when I was initially starting the product, I had always brought these groups of people together to do an activity, and at this stage, I started realizing that this offline kind of gathering of community was really the best way to drive word of mouth, a…”

“The crop top and the two-tone legging, which are some of our best sellers today, are the first two things I sketched.”

“And pretty quickly after that launched, got a post in from Lena Dunham in this kit, the man repeller kit. And she had been running for the first time on the set of Girls, something for the episode. And on Instagram, she had a caption that said, I've never been…”

“After that initial run of 10, I think I paid 5000 dollars to get 200 units, or 200 tops and bottoms made so that I could show up to this trade show.”

“There was a guy named Cal Vipuri, who I remember reading a ton about, and so I went to him, knocked on his door and said, hey, this is what I'm doing would love for you to put 25 to fifty-k in, and he did.”

“Most of them, almost all of them, only made high-end fashion product, so they weren't wanting to make activewear”

“It did phenomenally, and so I think within the first week, they had already sold through 50% of the product.”

“I think I raised within two to two and a half months, 400 K, which was more than I needed to fulfill that 500 K order.”

“Stefan, he and his team were constantly making new materials to present to the likes of the Nikes and Underembers and Lulus, so they had created a material kind of at a similar time that they ended up showing me and maybe they had shown it to the other compani…”

“We're not up against the Nikes or Under Armors of the world. As a company, we're up against people's negative perceptions of themselves.”

“It wasn't that expensive. 10 samples, I think, probably cost me a thousand dollars, but it was all money that I was collecting from having a full-time job.”

“It was 500,000 dollars. A 500,000 dollar purchase order.”

“I think I left with seven purchase orders, and I ended up fulfilling five, and so financially I was able to make it happen from savings.”

“There don't have to be, like, sacrifices from a family Perspective that you take to be the CEO of a fast-growing company, and you can do it all, all kind of in harmony.”

“So we spent a 150,000 dollars to build out our first store in Austin, Texas.”

“Of the 25, let's see, I would say probably 19 got back to me.”

“I was intent on keeping my job as long as possible and I think that's something that I'd recommend for people in, in the startup space or wanting to create something. Hold on to that job as long as you possibly can.”