Stitch Fix names Elizabeth Spaulding as new CEO

Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi and Myles Udland discuss Stitch Fix’s new CEO as the founder Katrina Lake steps down.

Video transcript

BRIAN SOZZI: There's a [INAUDIBLE] digital retailer Stitch Fix, after a disappointing holiday quarter sent the stock plunging back in March. Founder and CEO Katrina Lake will move to an executive chair position. Current Stitch Fix president Elizabeth Spaulding will take over as CEO on August 1.

And Myles, this is very interesting and perhaps unsurprising after you have a disappointing holiday season, and your stock on one day loses more than 20% of its value. But I think this decision is being driven by noted tech investor Bill Gurley. He sits on the board of Stitch Fix. He's almost a 2% share owner of the outstanding shares of a Stitch Fix.

And a source had told me recently that he was really the driving force in bringing in new Stitch Fix CFO, Dan Jedda. Jedda is a longtime Amazon executive. And Jedda I know is in there right now, I think trying to just better analyze the business, see if the company is computing the right stats, if their growth trajectory, the way they have it laid out, is being done correctly. But again, tough to see this. You know, it's tough to see Katrina Lake found the company many, many years ago, has led the company through its IPO, and by all intents and purposes, have brought the company to this very point it is now.

MYLES UDLAND: Yeah, and you know, Stitch Fix has been-- it's an interesting stock story as well, just over the last nine months. It had been heavily shorted. It got caught up in a little bit of that meme action. You can see the huge rally it has had over the last few months, giving back some of those gains, a lot of those gains, as things kind of rightsize here with the business.

And, you know, Sozzi, it's always an interesting moment in time for any venture-backed startup where the founder CEO who brings the company public then steps aside. And so I'm just going to be really interested to see the company's trajectory here. Because it's now being a professionally managed company. Not that Katrina Lake is a professional, but she's the founder. She is a founder CEO. And when you see that change, it's always an interesting pivot point in the company's history.

BRIAN SOZZI: Yes, definitely be something to closely watch in the months and years ahead.