While early e-commerce start-ups like One Kings Lane, Gilt Groupe
and Fab were failures for investors, the category has picked up steam in the past few years as traditional retailers have looked to start-ups to lift their businesses.
At the company’s warehouse, Eric Colson, formerly a top data scientist at Netflix, spoke to the role
that data science — once the province of high-tech giants — plays in nearly every aspect of the Stitch Fix business.
And while Stitch Fix executives say they have no specific plans to go public, the company
is well positioned to file for an initial public offering as soon as this year.
But word of mouth helped the company grow — and eventually drew investors like Mr. Gurley,
whose interest was piqued by the number of assistants at his firm who swore by the service
