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Polina Veksler

Co-Founder and CEO, Universal Standard · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutiveoperator

In 2015, Polina Veksler co-founded Universal Standard, an inclusive fashion brand offering sizes 00 to 40. Drawing on a background in finance, she scaled the company to nearly $200 million in gross sales and led major brand partnerships and acquisitions.

11statements → 5claims → 4claims resolved → 75%fully supported → 4.09/5average certainty → 1.45/5average debate potential → 1said about them ↓

3 supported 0 partly supported 1 contradicted 1 not checkable as stated how the 5 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 4 assertions · 1 insight · 5 disclosures · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 5 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 4 are resolved, and 1 names no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Polina argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Veksler: About 70% of American women wear size 14 and above
“About 70% of American women are size 14 and above.”
Polina Veksler Aug 11, 2022 ▶ 12:09 HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Veksler: US inclusive-size apparel market is about $100 billion
“It's about a hundred billion dollar market, and that's just in the U.S. Just in the U.S.”
Polina Veksler Aug 11, 2022 ▶ 16:25 HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
none yet certainty 3
67% certainty 4
100% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Polina Veksler on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Polina Veksler said on How I Built This that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Disclosure
VCs rejected Universal Standard's inclusive pitch, urging a plus-size-only model
“The response was that this is going to be really difficult. And look, they're not wrong, because inclusive fashion has traditionally been very difficult, but that it was going to be very costly, the inventory was going to be impossible to manage, consumers are…”
Polina Veksler Aug 11, 2022 ▶ 29:59 HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler
Assertion Contradicted
Veksler: US inclusive-size apparel market is about $100 billion
“It's about a hundred billion dollar market, and that's just in the U.S. Just in the U.S.”
Polina Veksler Aug 11, 2022 ▶ 16:25 HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler
Insight
Universal Standard blended manufacturing costs by making size 18 its medium
“The average woman in America is a size 18, so that should be our medium, and we would then manufacture clothing up and down from that, and then making that size 18 our medium, we were able to blend our costs from the very beginning.”
Polina Veksler Aug 11, 2022 ▶ 24:51 HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Veksler: Inclusive fashion brands will master the model within 5 to 10 years
“I do believe that in five years or 10 years from now, these brands that are venturing into inclusivity and trying this, they will get it right, because fashion is only moving in this direction, and inclusivity is the future of fashion, so those brands who I th…”
Polina Veksler Aug 11, 2022 ▶ 38:54 HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler
Assertion Supported
Veksler: About 70% of American women wear size 14 and above
“About 70% of American women are size 14 and above.”
Polina Veksler Aug 11, 2022 ▶ 12:09 HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler
Assertion Supported
Veksler: The average woman in the US wears a size 18
“The average woman in the U.S. Is a size 18”
Polina Veksler Aug 11, 2022 ▶ 12:21 HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler
Assertion Supported
Veksler: Universal Standard's sizing spans from 00 to 40
“Our smallest size currently is a double zero, and then we go all the way up to a size 40.”
Polina Veksler Aug 11, 2022 ▶ 20:49 HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler
Disclosure
Veksler: Universal Standard recently reached profitability
“Yes, we recently reached profitability.”
Polina Veksler Aug 11, 2022 ▶ 35:33 HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler
Disclosure
Universal Standard grew 60% YoY without heavy paid customer acquisition
“So we were still growing at about 60% year over year since we started, but we were never one of those startups that focused a lot on customer acquisition.”
Polina Veksler Aug 11, 2022 ▶ 35:55 HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler
Disclosure
Universal Standard acquired early customers primarily through free t-shirt giveaways
“So our main way for probably two, two and a half years of acquiring customers was giving out free t-shirts.”
Polina Veksler Aug 11, 2022 ▶ 36:43 HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler
Disclosure
Universal Standard lets customers exchange clothes for free if sizing changes
“So what we do is we allow our customers to buy for the size that they are today. And then if their size happens to go up or down, we allow them to exchange for a new garment for free.”
Polina Veksler Aug 11, 2022 ▶ 41:36 HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler

The other half of the tape: Polina Veksler's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode on How I Built This. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Guy Raz 1

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
0011112022episodesmentions
0112022episodes it came up in
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2022 1 mention in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
HIBT Lab! Universal Standard: Polina Veksler Aug 11, 2022 28m
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