Kitsch is one of those brands that's everywhere right now and most people have no idea who built it or how. In this episode I talk about Cassandra Morales Thurswell, the founder and CEO who started Kitsch in 2010 in her LA apartment with $30,000 of her own savings, making hair ties by hand. What I didn't know when I started researching her is that Kitsch was her seventh business. The first six didn't work. She worked at a cupcake shop, made jewelry, babysat, took night manufacturing courses while working day jobs and kept trying. The seventh time she asked herself one question: what do I reach for every single day that could be better? The answer was a hair elastic. She went door to door to LA boutiques, came back every single day with feedback built into an improved product, and grew Kitsch to over $300 million in sales and 27,000 stores worldwide without ever taking a single dollar of outside investment. This episode is about failure, stubbornness, and what happens when you stop looking for the big idea and start paying attention to your own morning.

Sources & Disclaimer

• CNBC Changemakers — Cassandra Morales Thurswell: 2025 CNBC Changemaker (February 2025)
• Fortune — Kitsch's CEO Started Out Selling Handmade Hair Ties. Now She Runs a Viral Haircare Brand (July 2024)
• CNBC — How Kitsch Founder Cassandra Morales Thurswell Got Women to Switch to Bar Shampoo (February 2026)
• Behind Her Empire Podcast — Cassandra Thurswell (Episode 238)
• Beautify Tips — Meet Cassandra Morales Thurswell, CEO & Founder of Kitsch (November 2023)
• mykitsch.com/pages/our-founder
• Inc. — 2026 Female Founders 500: Cassandra Morales Thurswell
• CEW — 2026 Visionary Honoree Cassandra Thurswell on Creating Kitsch (April 2026)
• Confessions of a Female Founder Podcast — Bootstrapped and Booming with Kitsch's Cassandra Morales Thurswell (May 2025)

All facts shared in this episode are based on information available at the time of recording. Any personal reflections, interpretations, or opinions are my own. If anything is found to be inaccurate, I'm happy to issue a correction.