Katy Mimari joined us at Simple Modern to share the amazing story of how she bui
By Mikebeckhamsm · October 15, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Katy Mimari joined us at Simple Modern to share the amazing story of how she built Caden Lane. Here are six things I learned from Katy's story.
1. Tenacity - She built the company over 22 years and it took a ton of grit. She made it through the great financial crises, being a CEO single mom with young kids, and once having her entire team quit in the same year. Entreprenuership is hard and comes with a lot of adversity. You have to be determined.
2. High Agency - "Figure it out" is a motto at Caden Lane. At one point in the history of the business Katy fired all her wholesale customers to go all in on e-commerce. She had no experience, but she taught herself. She shared several stories about being resourceful when she had no idea what she was doing. To me, this is what it means to be high agency. Being convinced you can figure it out no matter what life throws at you.
3. Huge OU fan - Katy went to the University of Texas, but as you can see from her jersey she's a massive OU fan.
4. She has a mission. Katy has built a company that is worth a lot of money, but the thing that drives her is "making life easier for moms". They have started donating to fertility support for women. Over 5 million moms have had their life made a little easier because of the excellence of Caden Lane.
5. Katy didn't take a lot of pictures during the years of building Caden Lane so she used Claude to create pictures of the things she went through. It was amazing.
6. You get paid for improving people's lives. Everyone wants to know how they can earn more money. As I listened to Katy today I had a moment of clarity. Business is getting paid for making other people's lives better. The more you are able to improve the lives of others, the more money you are able to earn. I love that markets reward making the world better for others.
Katy has a remarkable story. If you have a chance to spend time with her I would highly recommend it!