Season 6 of The Room returns with Julie Bornstein, Founder and CEO of THE YES, a personalized web-based fashion retailer that works with hundreds of brands, large and small. Julie describes what she learned from her time at Nordstrom, Sephora, and Stitch Fix and how she was able to use those experiences to create THE YES.
Julie gives advice to new founders and the best first steps to take to raise capital from investors. Julie also walks us through THE YES’s algorithm and how they continue to provide an accurate and personalized selection for each user, as well as future goals for the company. Plus, she shares her insight on the future of online retail and Web3/ e-commerce 3 in general.
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3:58 - What was investment banking like when Julie was in college?
6:31 - What were some of the innovations that Julie brought to Sephora to make them the cutting edge brand they are today?
13:10 - How did Julie end up working with Stitch Fix?
16:35 - What was it like taking a company public after building it for over five years?
18:29 - What led to Julie founding THE YES?
22:30 - What does THE YES do?
24:00 - Who were the early partners that said yes to working with THE YES?
29:52 - What advice does Julie have for new founders?
29:47 - What goals did Julie set for THE YES early on, and how did she carry out her vision?
32:21 - How far are consumers from a fully personalized shopping experience?
26:48 - How does THE YES’s algorithm learn from picky users and continue to provide an accurate personalized selection?
36:25 - Who was the first brand to say yes to joining THE YES’s collection?
38:18 - What was a time when things didn’t go to plan while starting THE YES?
41:59 - What does Julie believe is the future of e-commerce?
43:44 - What’s next for Julie?
44:47 - Who is a woman in Julie’s life that had a profound impact on her and her career?
The Room Podcast is sponsored by our friends at Silicon Valley Bank and Cooley.
WX Productions
Season 7 continues with another incredible episode as we chat with Kelsey Mellard, co-founder and CEO of Sitka. Sitka is an online network of experts in medicine, technology, policy, and product with the goal of making access to specialists more available for all people. Kelsey talks to us about her initial career in healthcare, both public and private, and what that taught her before she began her journey of founding Sitka. Kelsey also details her experience of raising a baby and a company at the same time and how her investors felt when she broke the news. The themes of this episode include; problems in the healthcare system and how Sitka is making a difference, the complexities of being a new mom while founding a company, and lessons learned in developing a core product and go-to-market strategies. For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter. 5:04 - How did beginning in the public sector help form Kelsey’s view of the world?6:35 - What has Kelsey learned about the complexities of the healthcare system?8:27 - How did Kelsey’s career drive her to start Sitka?11:00 - Did Kelsey ever think she was going to become a founder? 12:16 - What problem did Kesley identify that encouraged her to create Sitka?13:27 - What were some of the early days like in founding Sitka?15:00 - What product did Sitka take to market?16:42 - What lessons did Kelsey learn during the creation and evolution of Sitka’s core product?18:36 - What was Kelsey’s fundraising journey like?23:45 - What did Kelsey learn when ...
In this week’s episode of The Room, we welcome Liz Meyerdirk, CEO of The Pill Club, a women’s telehealth platform that simplifies and personalizes the experience of prescribing and delivering birth control. Prior to joining The Pill Club Team, Liz was a founding member of the Uber Eats team, leading strategy and global business development for six years. As The Pill Club hit a $100 million run rate, Liz joined as chief executive officer, now leading the team into an exciting product line launch that we have the exclusive on! We talk knowing when to launch a new product line, transitioning CEOs in a growth-stage startup, and the future of women’s health care. Let’s open the door. ...
This week on The Room, we interview Coral Chung, the CEO, and co-founder of Senreve. Sitting down with Coral to hear about the start of her luxury D2C brand, we learned about the early days of founding an accessories brand in Silicon Valley, her global expansion plans, and a bit about juggling the hats of CEO and mother. ...
