From Blockchain to Tights??
I’m going to get so real with you here.
Do I believe in DAUNTLESS? Absolutely.
But was DAUNTLESS the “smart thing” to do? Well, that depends on who you ask.
I’ve always loved fashion, & I always loved school. Ever since I was a child, I set my sights on leaving my home in Alaska, so I started modelling in my teen years. My great escape from my beautiful home state happened when I went to university in the UK. Four years later & I was 22 in London with two degrees thinking, “Okay… what’s next?”
Well, I honestly fell into entrepreneurship. I never had any interest in business, but I followed my very niche interests & accidentally co-founded a blockchain analytics firm. To say I learned a lot is an understatement. Then life got really hard & I needed to move back to the US. I felt confused & it was terribly unclear what was next. But I have always believed what is meant for you won’t miss you & that’s exactly how DAUNTLESS happened.
I got a job at Nordstrom as a stylist & I loved it. It was more purposeful to me than anything I had done before because I was actually helping people feel better during big life stages.
From Nordstrom, three pretty magical things happened✨:
I fixed my relationship with my own body image. It turns out that by helping others be kinder to themselves I accidentally solved something I never thought I could.
I saw firsthand how messed up design & sizing are in fashion. It wasn’t just me struggling – most people I styled were a different size in every brand!
It then clicked.
I was uniquely placed to improve fashion with my skillset in data science, understanding of body image, knowledge of textiles, & experience in dressing people.
So I decided to start where I was most frustrated… with tights.
This led to the third magical thing:
3. I found my purpose.
I started DAUNTLESS because I couldn’t find tights that fit me & neither could anybody else I knew. So I decided to make tights for every body.
Now to answer my original question, “Was starting DAUNTLESS the smart thing to do?”
Though a financial planner might disagree, using the funds from my first company to start my dream business has always felt like the right thing to do. DAUNTLESS guided me to what I believe will be an extremely fulfilling career, & it has given me structure in other areas of life to navigate loss, starting over, pivoting, starting over again, & then starting over one last time.
The name DAUNTLESS is personal because it’s a constant reminder that I don’t have to be perfect but I do want to be brave.