Confessions of a Female Founder with Meghan
Bootstrapped and Booming with Kitsch’s Cassandra Morales Thurswell
Tue, 20 May 2025
On today’s episode, Meghan sits down with Cassandra Morales Thurswell, founder of the viral beauty brand Kitsch. They have an authentic conversation about turning a passion into a business—from Cassie’s early days handcrafting hair ties to building one of the largest self-funded, woman-owned beauty brands in the country. The two discuss how grit, intentional design, and a scrappy mindset were essential in transforming a humble start into a thriving global business. Follow Meghan @Meghan and Cassandra @CassandraThurswell on Instagram. Stay up to date with us @LemonadaMedia on X, Facebook, and Instagram. For a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and every other Lemonada show, go to lemonadamedia.com/sponsors. Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our shows and get bonus content. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Main Theme: “Crabbuckit” words and music by Kevin Deron Brereton (c) Universal Songs of Polygram Int., Inc. on behalf of Universal Music Publishing Canada (BMI) / 100% interest for the Territory.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: How did Cassandra Morales Thurswell start Kitsch?
So my mom and I, we had a boutique. And I really wanted to have my – this was one of my first businesses. I really wanted to have my own business that wasn't affiliated with my mom's. And I was like, you know what, mom, I would love to take all of these products that you have in the store and I want to make my own website and I want to sell everything. I want to do e-commerce.
But it cost so much money to build a website at that point. There was no like plug and play. And I said, I know you save money for each of us to get married. Yeah. I would love to take that money and create a website with it and start my own business. It was called CassiesCouture.com. Oh. Do you still have it? Do you still have the domain? No, definitely no.
Maybe someone else can do something great with it. I will bequeath it to whoever wants it. No. Or just start to use it now and have it auto-direct a kit. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Great idea. But, yeah, so that's a couple of the businesses. You know, I had a spray tan business when I was out here for a while, too. I forgot about that one. I had a machine. It was actually a great investment.
The return on investment was very quick. But I mean, I had failed so many times and I got a job working at a private label jewelry company and I saw the whole private label world. And I was like, oh, this is really interesting. It really takes a lot of the risk out of inventory.
You know, it's essentially you get you design a piece, you show it to a buyer, they place an order for it, then they produce, you deliver it, then you get paid in 30 days.
And so when you're saying private label, you're talking about at this point you're designing for Jewelry for Forever 21, for Hot Topic, for Urban Outfitters. How old were you at this time? So I was 23, 24.
So this is when we'd connected.
Yeah. I didn't know you were doing that at the same time. I was not.
You were doing a lot of stuff. But yeah, so that's how I got into the private label world. And that's how I funded Kitsch.
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Chapter 2: What challenges did Cassie face while bootstrapping her business?
Chapter 3: How did Kitsch evolve from handmade hair ties to a beauty brand?
And then you're able to like create the job description and not through chat GPT. It's like, this is how I want the job done.
This is how I'm doing the job. Yes. So I'm going to actually write down what I'm doing so I can bring in the person that can take this off the plate.
And then hopefully they know how to do the job even better. You know, that's the goal. And then there's the entrepreneur stage where then you're in build. You're in build mode. And that's kind of like the post Nordstrom experience, Nordstrom kids experience where then I'm like, OK, all my bills are paid. What's next? Now it's not just an idea anymore. Like what's the next product?
What's the next retailer? How do we get to this next place? And that was a really interesting phase for me because that is when I had my daughter. What year was that? So that would have been like 2014. Wow. I can't believe you have a 10-year-old. It's so crazy. That is wild. And she's the best. She's also a mini entrepreneur, too. Oh, okay. Awesome.
But yeah, and that was actually really tricky for me, you know, being four years into the business. And that was this entrepreneurial stage where you have to get more strategic and you're doing a lot of hiring and trying to figure out, like... business infrastructure. I've got the private label arm of my business that is slowly dwindling away because people are wanting the brand more.
The brand is being celebrated. And then I had my daughter. I thought everything was going to be just so easy. I would continue to just go on as my normal self and breastfeed at the office and do all of these things. And I had a real reality check. And I had some really intense postpartum anxiety. And my husband really had to step in. And this is when, you know, we were really growing quickly.
And it was such a crippling growth period for me. It was so hard. I felt like I wasn't good at anything. And I have one child. So I can only speak for my experience with my one daughter. But I... I think it wasn't until seven, until she was seven years old, where I was like, I'm okay.
Oh, wow. What do you think it took you to get to the seven-year window of I'm okay?
I think it was her ability to really, because, you know, when they're infants, the way they communicate is crying. And I think I had a lot of stuff that came up, and I was like, the crying really hurt my heart. It just was so hard for me to hear her cry.
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Chapter 4: What is the significance of customer feedback in building Kitsch?
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Chapter 5: What was Cassie's first big break in her entrepreneurial journey?
I know in some of your previous interviews, you've talked about being a people pleaser. So how hard was that for you to compartmentalize when you can intellectualize what you should be doing as an entrepreneur? But emotionally, it's a very different experience.
The people pleasing in my interpersonal life was complicated. I mean, I think that even with my daughter, I didn't set boundaries with her because I wanted her to like me. And with employees, you know, pre having kids, I had a hard time, you know, giving good feedback because I wanted them to like me, you know, and that is more of where the people pleaser aspect was not healthy.
And so then when I broke that down and I channeled it into something that was more healthy. appropriate in like, you know, of service to a customer and, you know, giving great customer service for the brand to our retail partners in all these different ways. But learning how to have healthy boundaries, I think, you know, that was that was a big shift for me.
So in all of that, how to really, really clearly define and refine what are the things to be taken off of your plate now and what are the things that you don't want someone to take off your plate because you're like, no, by doing that, you're removing the thing that brings me joy. Has that evolved from where you started to where you are now?
Yeah. So I once read, which is really fascinating and something to keep in the back of your mind, that if the founder becomes the CEO and the business continues to grow, what they were best at... starts to become like their most difficult area of the business. I'm writing it down. But if you have the CEO title, you have to keep running the business.
And so you're now part time in the area that you were the best at at one point. And so I need to make sure that I have the strongest product developers and I had to release control over it, too. You're better at this than me. I will let you do that. You get my vision.
Let's keep going. Yes. And also finding those people who are able to pull up a stool into your head and really understand your taste level and be able to do the product development the way that you would do it if you could so that you can let it go. So you can let it go and you can still sleep at night. Yes. Because I think so much of it is being in a tremendous level of trust.
You're entrusting, as you grow, so many other people to carry out the vision that you had. And so in that, what are you comfortable sharing that were maybe some of the mistakes that if you could do it differently, you would adjust?
Because if so much of your ethos is about being of service, and even though you haven't done as many podcasts or panels, doing this now is such an act of service for young entrepreneurs who are starting a business to be able to know, Oh, I don't have to do that, that, and that. She would have done that, that, and that differently.
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