Ever since Katrina Lake started Stitch Fix in 2011, people have advised her to stop using the word “like” so much. She’s been told it makes her appear “young” and “inexperienced”, which “isn’t a good look for a CEO”.

“I sit there like, ‘You know what? I AM young and not very experienced!’” Katrina said, earning sympathetic laughs from a room full of women at All Raise’s inaugural Speaker Series event last month, because haven’t we all been told that? “Saying ‘like’ doesn’t make me a worse leader. I need to keep saying it so young women don’t think they need to pretend to be old and experienced to start companies.”

A few ‘likes’ and ‘ums’ haven’t held Katrina back. In just six years, Lake grew Stitch Fix to a $1B revenue business using just $43M in capital (*cue VC jaw drops*). In 2017, she became the youngest woman ever to take a company public and the IPO made her one of America’s wealthiest self-made women. Plus, she’s a mom of 2.

Read the full interview on our blog

Click here to see video