Sophia Amoruso
Sophia Amoruso
Sophia Amoruso is the founder and owner of Nasty Gal, which sells women's fashion including modern and vintage clothing, shoes and accessories for young women which can all be found on the brand's website. It was called one of "the fastest growing companies" by Inc. Magazine in 2012. After being diagnosed with depression and attention deficit disorder, Amoruso dropped out of school and began homeschooling. She had many jobs as a teenager, her first ever job being in Subway. After...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth20 April 1984
CitySan Diego, CA
CountryUnited States of America
That has been challenging but also such a pleasure to branch out and do different things.
It's a huge assortment that we have under our roof and I don't know, it's just managing a taste level and execution of a vision. I think our team does as incredible job at it but it takes incredible leadership and I'm only really a spark for all of that. I'm not out there at every trade show, and so having an amazing team that can keep that vision month after month and keep the assortment consistent is a huge challenge. But something I think we execute every well.
The biggest challenge is people thinking you know everything going on in your company, because you're at the top of it and you started it. But the thing is, nobody knows everything about anything.
There's so many moving pieces, but to be as public as I've become and to be at the front and take the brunt of anything that happens is a huge responsibility, but also something that takes some time to step into and that has been really challenging.
I think there are very few brands with a person's point of view behind them.
I think many people go to business school and learn ways to play it safe, ensuring that they avoid some of the pain that entrepreneurs endure while taking less calculated risks.
I think I've just gotten really good at accessorizing personally. I've always been good at accessorizing other people, and intellectually, I've known how to accessorize, but I was pretty minimal personally - although I was wearing a ton of rings.
I wrote '#GIRLBOSS' while running a $100 million-plus revenue business.
When I was 22, I wasn't too proud to do anything. I was taking out trash, buying stinky vintage clothes, and pulling gross Kleenex out of the pockets.
Success is a scary concept because it assumes something kind of final. In the grand scheme of life, I don't think there is some ultimate success.
Some of the best things that I ever sold on Ebay, I bought on Ebay - just for way less.
My parents taught me the value of money and working hard. And I kind of got that in me intuitively.
There are a lot of parents who've come to me and said about their daughters, 'Oh my God, she's 21, she's totally flailing. Your story gives me hope.' I put my mom through that.
When I go through hundreds of applications from people who all have very similar-sounding experience, cover letters are the only glimpse I have into a person's personality.