Christine Hunsicker, CEO and Founder of Gwynnie Bee — an online subscription rental clothing service for women sizes 10-32 — launched her business from her Manhattan apartment in 2013. Fast forward to today, the company has more than 400 employees across the world, offers over 3,000 styles from 120 brands and to date have shipped over 4 million boxes.

In today’s episode, Monica and Christine discuss growth, the biggest challenges of being CEO, building an open and honest culture and why it has been so critical to the company’s success.

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“Figuring out where that balance is of how far you can push yourself but also do the right thing for the company overall is pretty difficult.” - Christine Hunsicker

Show Notes:

• How Gwynnie Bee operates
• What happens when Christine gets burnt out
• The open and direct culture of the company
• What are points of growth where you have to change communication
• Why it’s important that CEO’s examine their role regularly
• The first steps of the creation of Gwynnie Bee
• What were Christine’s initial objectives
• Why the company decided to focus on plus-size
• When she knew the company was successful
• What support did she have from her board and investors
• Why you have to focus in the long term
• What were the biggest challenges that Christine faced
• Why she loves Slack and what she would change

“Ownership is the sole means of access today, and that is hugely limiting for both the consumer and the supplier.” - Christine Hunsicker

Rapid Fire Five:

1. Must-Read Book: All fiction. My favorite book of all time is Cloud Atlas by Dave Mitchell.
2. Game-Changing Business Tool: Slack. Amazingly great tool for keeping people in the loop.
3. Number one goal as an entrepreneur you have yet to achieve: Pure cash flow profitability.
4. Best moment as entrepreneur: When we built out our laundry plant in Columbus.
5. Morning Ritual: Bath and 4 Nespresso pods (the purple color)

Links Mentioned:

• Check out Gwynnie Bee
• Read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
• Learn more about Slack
• Connect with Christine:

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Linkedin

“There are many difficult things that you have to get over, some huge, some small. And at no point does the sailing get smoother.” - Christine Hunsicker

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