Kate and Andy Spade waited four years to take a $15,000 salary
Andy Spade · Kate Spade: Kate & Andy Spade · Feb 6, 2017 · at 19:58
Andy Spade, co-founder of Kate Spade, describes the early financial realities and prolonged bootstrapping period before the brand became profitable.
0:00 / 0:04exact quote · 4.3s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“Fourth year we paid ourselves 15,000, and we were still working out of our apartment.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Andy Spade
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.…”