OPERATORS 8 Failed Businesses Before Kitsch’s Beauty Empire
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Mar 3, 2026 Cassandra Thurswell, founder & CEO who grew Kitsch from handmade hair ties to a major beauty brand, and Jeremy Thurswell, COO who built finance, logistics, and scaling systems, tell their startup origin. They cover eight failed businesses before success. They recount catching manufacturing IP theft in China, a COVID pivot to 70M masks, building durable ops, and balancing marriage and parenting while scaling.
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Evolving Partnership Beats Agreement
- True partnership evolves by giving equal voice and clear departments while hiring for complementary strengths. Cassandra and Jeremy credit resilient decision-making to debating, aligning, and then owning choices.
Hire For Team-First Channel Thinking
- Hire for low ego and cross-channel thinking to ensure one channel's wins don't hurt another. Encourage teams to prioritize company-wide outcomes over individual channel metrics.
Hire For What You Aren't Good At
- Know your zone of genius and hire specialists to cover weaknesses instead of trying to do everything. Prioritize hiring people smarter and more specialized than you in their functions.
