Mom Turns $700 into a $65 Million Company After Manufacturer Calls Her ‘a Stupid Woman’

““In 2010, she sent a few of her most colorful satchels to some fashion bloggers who were attending New York Fashion Week. She could not afford to fly to the states with her tight budget, but she still hoped that perhaps the satchels would attract some new customers.

Following the fabled fashion event, a shocked Deane was flooded with over 16,000 orders.

The manufacturer that had been assembling the bags was too small to fulfill the massive influx of orders, so she approached a larger company for her production needs… that is, until she found out that the local firm was selling knockoffs of her designs on the street for a fraction of the price. When confronted about the issue, the owner of the company informed her that she didn’t have any other choice but to keep working with them.

“That sort of irritated me,” she told CNBC. “But then the next line was the real kicker: ‘Because you’re a stupid woman and you don’t know about manufacturing.’ And he was so pleased with himself. He turned on his heel and went out the back.”

Weeks later, Deane got her revenge after she fixed up a dilapidated warehouse location and hired almost every one of the employees from the manager who had scorned her.

The rest is basically history: ten years later, Deane is the CEO of Cambridge Satchel Company: a fashion brand that is worth over $65 million.””
     — McKinley Corbley

Tags: Cambridge Satchel Company ∙ Julie Deane