She got into Target. Then the containers stopped arriving.

Alex Schinasi has nine employees and the ninth arrived last week. Her company, Hulken, sells a rolling tote her father sketched in a Paris hotel room, and it started with fifty bags shipped out of her New York apartment. She launched nationwide in Target a year ago, it worked, and then she woke up to find no containers arriving to stock her own website. She explains what she calls the minimum viable company: nine people, three factories, no venture capital and an AI chief of staff for every employee. Before Hulken she co-founded and sold two software companies, Ivy to Houzz and Clay to Kangarootime. Featuring Elizabeth Gore, Co-Founder and President, Hello Alice Alex Schinasi, Co-Founder and President, Hulken Timestamps 0:00 Gus, and AI agents that can now buy things on their own 1:32 Fifty bags, shipped from her apartment 2:50 A walking billboard, and what the name means in Swedish 4:40 Her first employee was her husband 6:36 Building the company and the family at the same time 8:05 The moment she finally left the software company 9:37 What she took from software into a physical product 11:32 Nine employees, and the ninth arrived last week 12:48 The AI brain they built for the whole company 14:05 Why every employee has a chief of staff 15:10 Her last two companies were venture backed 17:49 How she fights the copycats 19:09 The photograph she took of a stranger 20:56 Target nationwide, and what it cost her 22:25 Complexity decides when she hires, not revenue 24:28 The Brooklyn bakery she wants you to know about 25:53 Why 93% of her customers are women #Hulken #SmallBusiness #Retail #TheBigIdea #YahooFinance == AlphaSpace by Yahoo Finance: A Professional-Grade Investment Platform Built for Everyday Investors. 👉 https://finance.yahoo.com/about/promos/gold/alphaspace?ncid=100003571