Kate Hudson on Building Her Fabletics Empire While "Under a Microscope"
The athleisure mogul gets real about the pros and cons of running your own business.
Kate Hudson, our eternal lady crush, revealed some major intel into the business of running her athleisure brand, Fabletics. ICYMI, Fabletics just celebrated its third anniversary, and operates at an annual revenue rate of $250 million. That's a BFD, but it hasn't always been easy.
Hudson discussed the highs and lows of being an entrepreneur at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit. "I can't believe it's only been three years and we have reached the level of success," Hudson told Laura Brown in the interview. "You do a startup company and you kind of cross your fingers and hope for the best."
Fabletics quickly reached levels of cult-like following, but there was pressure for the young startup to keep up. "We just got very successful, very fast," Hudson said. "When you grow so fast, you have to catch up to it. We're just now getting in this groove where we feel like things are starting to move in the way we like to see them move."
Hudson spoke about the tension she feels as both a founder of the company and a celebrity."When you are a celebrity, you're under a microscope," Hudson revealed. "You have to be so much more on top of things. We have 400 employees, we have 1,000 customer service, we're a very big company. As the company grows, it's just the bigger it gets, the more challenging things get sometimes. And because you're under a microscope, you have to make sure you're on top of everything."
"When you are a celebrity, you're under a microscope. You have to be so much more on top of things."
Yes, Fabletics has grown tremendously since it was founded, but the brand is still guided by a few core values. "At the very beginning for us, we wanted it to be all-inclusive," Hudson explained. "We wanted it to be more versatile and not discriminate at all. We try to provide something for everything."
And today, that means the brand is expanding. "This year we're going into extended sizes," Hudson revealed. "We've had a big demand for extended sizes and we've found that people don't look there to make cute things for women who are a bit bigger."
Another secret to the Fabletics success story? Hudson is a team player. "It's about the team you create around you and who you have inside of your company running things," Hudson said. "You can only really be as strong and as together as the people that you have around you supporting you." #Truth.
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Watch the entire interview below.
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Maggie Maloney is the associate editor at Town & Country and ELLE Decor, where she covers style, beauty, jewelry, and the many members of the royal family. She also manages social media and content strategy for both brands.