Unstoppable Podcast: Asking People to Buy Less Has Led to Growth for This Company

“Fewer, better” is the philosophy behind the luxe-yet-affordable women’s essentials brand Cuyana. And that includes suggesting customers “buy less” of the company’s products. 

That counterintuitive thinking has paid off. Cuyana is an online shopping innovator in the direct-to-consumer space that is changing the way people consume fashion. It has expanded from an online-only business into physical retail with five stores in the U.S. Co-founders Karla Gallardo and Shilpa Shah launched the brand fresh out of business school in 2011. Earlier this year, the company announced a $30 million growth equity financing, making it one of the largest rounds raised by a female-founded fashion retail company.

Cuyana means “to love” in Quechua, the language of the makers of the its first products. “The whole purpose of our brand is to instill the philosophy of fewer, better, which means really own and buy what you love,” says Karla. “We only put products to market that we love, that were made with love, and that consumers should buy because they love them.”

In the latest episode of my podcast Unstoppable, I sit down with the Cuyana co-founders to find out how entrepreneurs can boost their business by focusing on doing fewer things, better. (Related: 6 Podcasts to Keep You Inspired)

Lesson #1: Hone in on a few things, and obsess over the details. 

Growing up in Ecuador, Karla loved fashion, but had limited access to it. And while there were lots of seamstresses in business, there weren’t many clothing stores. “I would buy fabric from stores, bring it to a seamstress and ask them to re-fabricate what I saw in magazines,” she says. “And then when I moved to America, and it was the entire opposite. There was just so much.” 

She noticed that people had almost no connection with the products that they were buying. They didn’t know how good the quality was, where the materials came from or how they added value to their lives. 

So when she started Cuyana, she wanted to take a different approach. The brand spent the first two years sourcing, perfecting the product and setting up a solid supply chain. Today, each piece is made with high-quality materials, created by skilled craftsmen throughout Europe, South America, China and the United States.

Lesson #2: Listen to (and adjust) to your customer.

When Cuyana first launched, the plan was to sell only accessories since they tend to have a limited return rate and fewer sizing challenges. (They started with hats.) But the founders quickly realized that hats were not the best fit for direct-to-consumer online purchases, since most people don’t know their head size. Slowly, the company moved into handbags, and have since expanded to include clothing, small leather goods, scarves, belts and more. 

While many think of direct-to-consumer companies as simply cutting out the middleman, Cuyana wanted to own every customer touchpoint, from fulfillment to customer service. “Every customer interaction is ours, from the store retail experience to all of our social channels to email to the website,” says Shilpa. “That's actually what we mean by direct-to-consumer. For us, it's really about ensuring that the customer journey with the brand is the best it possibly can be.” (Related: My Top 3 Growth Mindsets for Success)

Lesson #3: See things from others’ perspective.

Cuyana sources and makes products from all over the world. It uses wool from Peru, straw from Ecuador and leather from Argentina and Italy. Karla jokes about how a class that she took while at Stanford Business School called “Different Countries are Different” basically sums up the company’s supply chain: Every country is different, and every vendor is different. To maximize these partnerships, the founders have discovered that cultural sensitivity is key.

“The fact that Cuyana means 'to love' sometimes is a cheesy thing, but it's true. When we find partners that actually love what they're doing because they're proud of it, we make a product that's just incredible and beautiful,” says Karla.

So when the founders run up against a cultural problem, they try to figure out who’s the best person that can put things into perspective for both parties. “You just find the right person who can make the intro or set up the meeting in the right way,” says Shilpa. “And then we'll take it from there.”   

And for both co-founders, gratitude keeps them moving forward. “I come from a country where most people live under the poverty line, and I had the opportunity to leave and get an education in an Ivy League school, and now I'm building a business,” Karla says. “The more I do, the more I feel I owe to the world. It's a sense of kind of gratefulness that makes me unstoppable.”

Tune into my latest podcast episodeto hear more from Karla and Shilpa about how they made their business more successful by doing less.

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Let’s Connect! Find me onTwitter(@KaraGoldin), and DM me your burning business questions and/or comments.

Kara Goldin is the founder and CEO of San Francisco–based hint?, a healthy lifestyle brand that produces the leading unsweetened flavored water and a scented sunscreen spray that’s oxybenzone and paraben-free. Listen to her podcast, Unstoppable, where she interviews founders, entrepreneurs, and disruptors across various industries and keep up with her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.