868 Aimee Dudum: Co-Founder of VICI Collection

0:00Kara Goldin:I am unwilling to give up, but I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. You just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don't get knocked out. So your only choice should be, go focus on what you can control. Hi everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin Show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world's greatest leaders. We'll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can't wait to get started. Let's go. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by LinkedIn Hiring Pro.

0:47Kara Goldin:Hi, Kara here. For small businesses, every hire matters, but so does your time. I felt that pressure firsthand. You know, a bad hire isn't just frustrating, it's expensive in time, money, and team morale. And yet hiring the right person can feel like a full-time job on top of everything else you're already doing. Sifting through applications, trying to spot the real standouts, second-guessing decisions, it can get overwhelming fast. That's why having a way to save time without sacrificing quality isn't just nice to have, it's critical. Luckily, LinkedIn Hiring Pro is built for that reality. It's your hiring partner designed to help you hire with confidence by surfacing only the right candidates without turning hiring into another full-time job.

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2:19Kara Goldin:Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Kara Golden. Terms and conditions apply. Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Golden Show. Have you ever wondered what it takes to build a fashion brand that people come back to day after day? That's right. Day after day, they are checking out this incredible brand, Vici, that I only recently, I think I was living under a rock, only recently learned about and I'm obsessed. So fashion is one of the most competitive industries in the world. Trends move fast, customer preferences change constantly, and consumers have more choices than ever.

3:02Kara Goldin:But our next guest has developed an incredible following, an incredible brand and company. And what started in 2012 as a small fashion business in Northern California has grown into one of the leading direct-to-consumer apparel brands to emerge from the Bay Area. Woo-hoo! Shout out to the Bay Area. So today, I'm very excited to be talking to co-founder Amy Dudum, who is the co-founder of Vici, also known as Vici Collection. So I'm so excited to meet her and have her here with us today to talk about this incredible brand that she has built with some family members and also just overall what it takes to do what they are doing at VG.

3:57Kara Goldin:So welcome, Amy. So excited to meet you. So great to meet you too. Thank you so much for taking the time. I'm really excited to share some of our story. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by LinkedIn Hiring Pro. Hi, Kara here. For small businesses, every hire matters, but so does your time. I felt that pressure firsthand. You know, a bad hire isn't just frustrating, it's expensive in time, money, and team morale. And yet hiring the right person can feel like a full-time job on top of everything else you're already doing. Sifting through applications, trying to spot the real standouts, second-guessing decisions, it can get overwhelming fast.

4:41Kara Goldin:That's why having a way to save time without sacrificing quality isn't just nice to have, it's critical. Luckily, LinkedIn Hiring Pro is built for that reality. It's your hiring partner designed to help you hire with confidence by surfacing only the right candidates without turning hiring into another full-time job. Posting a job isn't always the hard part. It's finding, connecting with, and screening the right candidates. Hiring Pro streamlines the entire process from drafting your job to short-listing candidates and conducting AI-powered interviews for initial screenings. Their updated conversational interface lets you describe what you need in plain language, no recruiter jargon needed.

5:27Kara Goldin:Nearly 60 % of hires find a candidate to interview within a week. With Hiring Pro, you spend less time searching and more time connecting with the right talent. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Kara Golden. Terms and conditions apply. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by Pendulum. I think a lot of us have had that moment where we finish a meal and somehow an hour later, we're already reaching for another snack. That's one reason I was interested in learning more about Pendulum Metabolic Daily.

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6:58Kara Goldin:That's pendulumlife.com slash Kara Golden for an extra 20 % off your first order. Again, that's PendulumLife.com slash Kara Golden and get 20 % off today. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by Chime. It's 2026. Banking shouldn't feel like you need a decoder ring to understand your own money. That's why I appreciate Chime. They're changing the way people bank. They're not like traditional banks that pile on hidden fees or gatekeep the best rewards. Chime offers the most rewarding fee-free banking with no overdraft fees, no monthly fees, and no minimum balance fees. What I really like is that you get 5 % cash back on your Chime card in a category of your choice, like gas or groceries, while building credit through regular everyday spending with no credit check.

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8:38Kara Goldin:Very, very excited. So for listeners who are just discovering Beachy, like me, a few weeks ago, how do you describe the brand and what makes it different from other fashion retailers, direct-to-consumer businesses that are out there? we're super super focused on our customer and where she's going in her life what are her needs at that moment as you touched on earlier her needs are ever-changing it's a competitive landscape we're focused on listening to her product feedback social listening and really catering to her specifically and that's been our mission since the very beginning we curate assortments that are really focused on her daily life so if it's vacation if it's running errands if it's i have a job interview or I just need a cute outfit for my kids event this weekend or a date night.

9:29We have a full range of assortment that is perfectly curated to make it so the busy woman, easy, quick decisions on what she needs to wear and we get it to her as quickly as possible. But we're really that sort of helpful best friend and stylist to give her that special guided

9:44Kara Goldin:shopping experience. I love it. Well, Vici is my new obsession. So I'm very, very excited about it. Yeah, very excited. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by Hostinger. Let's face it, so many people have an incredible idea, but they never get it off the ground because they get stuck before they even start. Which domain, which website builder, do I need a designer? Before you know it, you've spent hours researching and still don't have a website. That's what I like about Hostinger. It takes away that friction. Just describe the website you want and Hostinger's AI builds the first version for you in minutes.

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11:17Kara Goldin:It's 2026, and if your business still requires a post office run just to get mail out the door, something is broken. You have invoices to send, contracts to track, packages to ship, actual work to do. Standing in line with a stack of envelopes should not be part of the business plan. That's why I use Stamps.com. With Stamps.com, you can mail what you want, how you want, from wherever you are. You can print postage and shipping labels right from your computer or phone 24-7 and access carrier rates with savings of up to 90 % from UPS, USPS, FedEx, and more. No lines, no trips, no waiting. Instead of leaving your desk just to send something, you can get it done in minutes and even schedule free pickup so carriers come right to you.

12:08Kara Goldin:Whether you're sending letters, contracts, important legal documents, or packages, Stamps.com makes mailing and shipping simple for businesses of all sizes, including multi-location offices. You can send certified mail with proof of delivery right from your desk, track deliveries, keep contacts organized with the address book, and manage everything you send in one place so mailing does not take over your day. I used to block out time every week just for post office runs. Now I handle mailing from my desk in a fraction of the time. Stamps.com has genuinely changed how I manage my business. And I'm not exaggerating when I say it saves me hours every single week.

12:50Kara Goldin:If mailing is taking more time and more money than it should, try Stamps.com free for four weeks and get a welcome kit. Go to Stamps.com slash Kara to get this offer today. That's S-T-A-M-P-S dot com slash Kara. Stamps.com slash Kara. Taxes and fees apply. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by LinkedIn Hiring Pro. Hi, Kara here. For small businesses, every hire matters, but so does your time. I felt that pressure firsthand. You know, a bad hire isn't just frustrating, it's expensive in time, money, and team morale. And yet hiring the right person can feel like a full-time job on top of everything else you're already doing.

13:40Kara Goldin:Sifting through applications, trying to spot the real standouts, second-guessing decisions, it can get overwhelming fast. That's why having a way to save time without sacrificing quality isn't just nice to have, it's critical. Luckily, LinkedIn Hiring Pro is built for that reality. It's your hiring partner designed to help you hire with confidence by surfacing only the right candidates without turning hiring into another full-time job. Posting a job isn't always the hard part. It's finding, connecting with, and screening the right candidates. Hiring Pro streamlines the entire process from drafting your job to shortlisting candidates and conducting AI-powered interviews for initial screenings.

14:26Kara Goldin:Their updated conversational interface lets you describe what you need in plain language, no recruiter jargon needed. Nearly 60 % of hires find a candidate to interview within a week. With Hiring Pro, you spend less time searching and more time connecting with the right talent. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Kara Golden. Terms and conditions apply. Back in 2012, when you co-founded Vici with your stepmom and your father is also involved in the business. I'm not sure if he was way back when you started, but very cool that you guys are all doing this together.

15:17Kara Goldin:Take us back to the beginning. What inspired you all to start Vici? Yeah. Yeah. So really, it starts with my stepmom, Sandy. She'd always been fashion obsessed. She kind of created that within me as a young teenager. But it was really finding out that there was this white space with who are the brands that are catering to mother and daughter where they can both find something to wear. When we first started with our pop-ups and with our shopping experiences, we were seeing that people wanted to come in and just get styled head to toe. They didn't want to have to figure out what goes with what or how they could maximize certain pieces in their wardrobe.

15:55And we provided that one-on-one styling expertise. And Sandy really trained me on that. Rick, my father, has obviously been involved from an operations and finance perspective from the very beginning. But Sandy and myself really partnered together. I was a young college-age girl. She was a mom. And really making sure nobody felt alienated when they came into our store. There was a way we could cater to them. And we really used social as well as our website to kind of showcase what we call our daily drop, which is our daily curation of assortments. We would feature those on social. So it would almost feel like a catalog type of shopping experience.

16:34And then when you would click through and come to the site as well, you would get that same kind of guided shopping feel. And we made sure that the way things were merchandised online through featured shops, the way things were merchandised in store, if you had date night, if you had vacation, if you had everyday casual, if you just needed to revamp your wardrobe entirely, we would provide that support and that expertise. And only over time have we seen that need, you know, be more and more as people are just so busy and shopping online is entirely overwhelming, especially for a new brand. And I feel like we found this niche where she comes to our site, she relates to the product, the prices are accessible for her, and the shipping is incredibly fast.

17:19So if you need something, you know, tomorrow, the next day, we're there with that package, you know, in a timely fashion.

17:25Kara Goldin:Well, I will attest to the shipping being so fast. So you guys have done such a nice job with it, too. So just to give people a visual of this, I mean, so many cute things. Dresses are just dresses galore and all very, very reasonably priced. and I mean like under$100 for many, if not most, of the items that at least I was looking at, which is incredible. So when you merchandise for VG, I feel like there's also a situation where you're constantly changing the items and you're constantly selling out on items too. So the consumer is kind of trained to go in and look daily. Would you agree? Because you're updating.

18:18100%. Yeah.

18:19Kara Goldin:There's not 10 items and then all of a sudden you're at the end of the season and that's why there's almost no merchandise around. You are setting the bar really high for other apparel companies out there. Did you know that when you were starting Vici and have you seen not just expand over time. Yeah. And actually, I tie that into one of the things that's the hardest, I think, challenge today is there's a balance between too much choice and having the right diverse assortment for her to have enough to choose from, from a print, pattern, silhouette perspective, especially when it comes to a key category like dresses.

18:58I feel like we've finally hit sort of that stride where she can come to the site and feel like there's still a level of curation happening. We've all been on websites before where it just feels like what I call spaghetti on the wall. There's just so much of everything. You don't really know what are the best sellers? What are the styles this brand stands for? There's a lot of products that don't have reviews on them. So we really focus on leaning into the styles that season after season our customer votes for. We obviously color refresh them, print refresh them while still bringing back like tried and true favorites.

19:30And then we carefully curate trend based on what we feel is new and relevant for our client. We're really good about focusing in on what she likes and doesn't like. And it is our job to carefully curate within all of the trends in the market what makes the most sense for our customer. That's one thing that I feel like is different with a lot of major retailers and a lot of D2C brands. It's get as much trend on the website as possible and see what sticks. And I feel like we do our homework and really do what I call a, you know, a demand engine type of strategy where, yes, there's a little bit of read and react, but we're tying hindsight, merchandising insights, trend forecasting, customer data to make sure we're responding with what she's looking for.

20:16There's some seasons where something doesn't check and it checks the next season, but we're really thoughtful about making sure our decisions are as informed as possible. Because as soon as an assortment starts to skew in a direction that I think the client doesn't resonate with, she kind of moves on. And so we really want to keep her attention and keep her focused on, oh, this is why I love VG. So we're really focused on that.

20:39Kara Goldin:This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by LinkedIn Hiring Pro. Hi, Kara here. First of all, businesses every hire matters, but so does your time. I felt that pressure firsthand. You know, a bad hire isn't just frustrating, it's expensive in time, money, and team morale. And yet hiring the right person can feel like a full-time job on top of everything else you're already doing. Sifting through applications, trying to spot the real standouts, second-guessing decisions, it can get overwhelming fast. That's why having a way to save time without sacrificing quality isn't just nice to have, it's critical.

21:23Kara Goldin:Luckily, LinkedIn Hiring Pro is built for that reality. It's your hiring partner designed to help you hire with confidence by surfacing only the right candidates without turning hiring into another full-time job. Posting a job isn't always the hard part. It's finding, connecting with, and screening the right candidates. Hiring Pro streamlines the entire process from drafting your job to shortlisting candidates and conducting AI-powered interviews for initial screenings. Their updated conversational interface lets you describe what you need in plain language, no recruiter jargon needed. Nearly 60 % of hires find a candidate to interview within a week.

22:05Kara Goldin:With Hiring Pro, you spend less time searching and more time connecting with the right talent. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Kara Golden. Terms and conditions apply. So you built Vici during the rise of social commerce and influencer marketing. What did you see early on that maybe others missed? You know, you're over 10, you're 15, almost 15 years old at this point. that, you know, you've sort of rode the wave and come out on top. But what have you done that you think others have really missed? Yeah, we were definitely a first, you know, a first starter with organic social and building community.

22:57At that point in time, it was really, really very simple to get onto Facebook, to get onto Instagram, and to start posting about your outfits about what you were wearing. We were taking pictures of ourselves as well as models that we had at the time wearing our new daily drop looks. Nobody was doing that at the time. It almost served as sort of a catalog at your fingertips where she already was in terms of scrolling. At this point in time, Instagram was photos, but where she was scrolling pictures of her friends and posting about her family and what her happenings were. We were there in the midst of those images with, here's a cute new outfit to buy.

23:38Here's the prices for these items. Here's the sizes available. So it almost brought the catalog shopping of the in-store experience and online experience right to her fingertips where she could then go, I'm going to visit their store. I'm going to go on their website. But we were really methodical about making sure our social channels were a place for community. We would engage with any kind of comments or questions on product fit, product quality, speed of shipping. And to this day, our team is responding to every single question and DM we get. We don't outsource that piece and we make sure that we stay engaged with the customer feedback on social.

24:15And never losing that is so, so, so important. I feel like brands, once they get to a certain size, want to outsource or disconnect from what the customer wants. I personally read DMs. I personally read comments. If you stop caring about that, it reflects, I feel like, in the brand over time.

24:34Kara Goldin:Yeah, I think that's so accurate. So the daily drop model, how did that concept come about? I would say that from a daily drop perspective, we wanted a curated collection that was really focused on newness. And we wanted to tell curated stories by day that, if it was the beginning of the week, as an example, maybe she's getting ready in the morning and she's focused on, what are some looks for school drop-off? What are some looks to put together for heading to the office? Or I have an important out-of-town meeting. Midweek, what am I wearing to a girl's night out or a date night with my husband?

25:12What do I need on the weekend for vacation? We really tried to think by day, even if she's not shopping, what type of outfit inspiration is she looking for today? And generally speaking, we would look at each singular day as what is the mood she might be in based on what she has upcoming. It's not always about selling new product. It goes beyond the transaction. We are, and I hear this feedback all the time, whether that's from influencers, whether that's from customers. Vici is a source of daily styling inspiration. How do I wear this blazer X different ways? What trend item should I buy this year to just make small tweaks to my wardrobe?

25:51We're giving that guidance to her, and that's why she's coming back to us on a daily basis, not just to purchase, but to be inspired by what already exists on our website and social platforms.