Footwork VC's Mike Smith on Finding the Right Fit in ECommerce

Greylock general partner Mike Duboe interviews Mike Smith, the co-founder of FootworkVC. Smith spent the past two decades developing and scaling consumer businesses. He was an early employee at Stitch Fix and helped grow the fledgling startup into a public company. Prior to Stitch Fix, Smith spent nine years at Walmart, where he managed the company's multichannel business and oversaw operations. He also serves on the boards of Ulta Beauty, Herman Miller, and Mayvenn among others.
This interview is part of Greylock's Iconversations series.
You can read a transcript from this interview here: bit.ly/3Lm5rV9
Chapters
0:00 Introduction
1:44 Career Background
5:47 Joining Walmart
8:45 From Walmart to Stitch Fix
16:10 Takeaways from Stitch Fix
19:05 Forecasting and Predictability
22:19 Retention First
25:52 Quality Acquisition
30:10 A Founder’s Important Characteristics
32:34 The Right Balance
35:13 Finding the Right Employees
38:58 E-commerce Growth Strategy
42:15 Building D2C Differently
47:00 Startup VS Incumbent
51:15 Lessons From the Boardroom
54:34 Advice for Founders
55:52 The Switch to VC