Samantha Shih sold her custom clothing company 9Tailors to join LookSky as chief brand officer. Shih founded 9Tailors in 2008, growing it through challenges like the financial crisis and pandemic. Her C-suite role both doubled her salary and allowed her to balance her work and family life.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Samantha Shih, a 43-year-old chief brand officer from Boston. It's been edited for length and clarity. Advertisement After graduating from Brown University in 2003, I worked as a consultant at Deloitte for three years before spending a year in China.
There, I started making custom clothing, which inspired me to open a custom suiting and shirting company. I founded 9Tailors in Boston in 2008. Launching a business was challenging because I had little experience in retail and fashion and had to learn everything from scratch.
I had some business strategy knowledge from working at Deloitte but didn't have operational knowledge. Advertisement I learned and grew the company for 14 years. In 2022, I sold 9Tailors and jumped ship to work for a startup.
Launching a company in 2008 was tough I had a lot of friends who were getting laid off , but I was optimistic. You can only go up from the bottom, so I thought it was an excellent time to start a business. The company started online, keeping no inventory and making everything to order.
This allowed us to identify our target customer — young professional males looking to dress up for work or weddi.
