In New Venture, Bonobos Co-Founder Reimagines the Way Men Shop Brian Spaly's latest venture, Trunk Club, bucks conventional retail models.
By Jason Ankeny •
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The right fit means everything to Brian Spaly. When the Stanford University MBA student couldn't find trousers that met his exacting standards, he learned to alter clothes himself. Eventually he designed a line of pants and started selling them out of the back of his car, a sartorial sideline that in 2007 blossomed into Bonobos, an online venture renowned for its colorful, tailor-made menswear. But when his partnership with his Bonobos co-founder grew strained, Spaly stepped out of the company and slipped into something more comfortable: In late 2009 he accepted an offer from Menlo Park, Calif.-based investment firm Anthos Capital to become CEO of Trunk Club, which was connecting fashion-frustrated men with personal stylists via Skype and mailing them on-demand cardboard trunks stuffed with designer clothing, outerwear, shoes and accessories, all handpicked based on the customer's individual needs and tastes.
"Anthos came to me and said, 'We can't imagine someone who is better positioned to take over this company than you,'" Spaly recalls. "And I thought, This is a great fit for me."
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