Next Billion-Dollar Startup: Entrepreneurs Create $750M Bra Business By Exposing Victoria's Weakness
In December 2011, Heidi Zak was shopping for a bra to go with her dress for the holiday party at Google, where she worked at the time. She wound up at Victoria’s Secret, the lingerie retailer that has long dominated the $12 billion industry, and bought an ill-fitting bra. “I took the pink bag and shoved it in my black backpack because I was embarrassed to carry it,” recalls Zak, a diminutive five-foot-four woman who is now 39. Zak wanted something that fit her body better than angel brassieres, and she believed millions of other women would, too. So instead of returning the hated bra, the determined triathlete decided to pursue an idea she’d begun mulling for some time and make her own bras, using data to create a better fit. “I thought, ‘Why is it that bras are so uncomfortable and haven’t changed at all?’” she says. uncaptioned Husband and wife team Heidi Zak and David Spector are both cofounders and Co-CEOs. TIMOTHY ARCHIBALD From that basic idea, Zak and her cofounder husba