Smash Notes
#12 Fran Dunaway
Fran Dunaway, Co-founder and CEO of TomboyX, is an incredible advocate for women and the LGBTQ community. She was raised in a military family from the deep south, and has had many unique pivots in her career. Fran started TomboyX as a clothing company with her wife, Naomi, in 2013. They quickly found success and transformed solely into an underwear company…
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Notes
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She considers herself an "accidental" entrepreneur" who formerly worked in human resources as a video producer and activist. She is now the CEO of TomboyX which creates underwear for all people of all sizes and all genders.
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Customers were the inspiration. TomboyX was originally a clothing company, but their fanbase requested underwear products, which was their most successful venture. Now, TomboyX IS an underwear company.
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Fran Dunaway, founder of TomboyX, tells What Fuels You that people who do well in a startup have to be comfortable with change. She also rejects work-life balance. She calls mediocrity the fulcrum of that balance and says you have to lean in and go after the work with gusto. Asked how she interviews for those qualities, she says she is still figuring it out. The group that got TomboyX as far as it had, she adds, did it with no ecommerce experience on the team. She later brought in a leadership group that did have that experience.
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