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Kate Nowlan

Co-Founder GRACEDBYGRIT

In 2013, Kate co-founded GRACEDBYGRIT, a women’s athletic apparel brand based in Solana Beach, CA. Kate brought athletic coaching and deep product knowledge for athletes to GRACEDBYGRIT establishing herself as COO. GRACEDBYGRIT acquired over 25,000 customers, sold over 2.5 million in premium apparel, developed strong manufacturing partners in the United States, and grew a unique community of women through authentic storytelling and marketing. Kate received her BA in Sociology and Psychology from UMass Amherst. As an entrepreneur, she owned her own company, Absolutely Organized, that organized small businesses and homes. She launched, coached, and grew a youth and masters swim program at a private health club in Plymouth, MA. Upon moving to Southern California in 2008, Kate was a youth and masters swim coach and an executive for The Boys and Girls Club in which she planned and ran events, coordinated fundraisers, ran the day to day office operations, and launched new revenue driving community programs. In addition, she privately coached women and women’s running groups. Her experience as an athlete, coach, fundraising executive, and entrepreneur have taught her to constantly think of ways to improve efficiency and results making her an expert in understanding what women want and what women should wear in order to perform and look their best. GRACEDBYGRIT was acquired by HYLETE in June 2018. Kate was hired as the VP of Strategic Initiatives to HYLETE where she brought the female voice and narrative to the HYLETE brand focused on expanding the women’s product offering at HYLETE and elevating the emotive, reliability, and relevance to the brand voice. Kate left her day to day role in April of 2020 and now serves on the Board of Directors for HYLETE. She also serves on the board for the GRACEDBYGRIT foundation whose mission is develop the female leaders of tomorrow through events, mentorship, coaching and athletic scholarship fund.
Outside of the office, Kate is raising two teenage daughters. She lives in Cardiff, CA and loves spending quality time with her family and friends outside enjoying the Southern California sunshine and breathing the ocean air.

9:00 am

Tuesday Oct 6th

SDSI “Ask the Founders”

What does growth look like? Where does the money come from? When to grow and why? Get your growth questions answered directly from the mouths of the founders who have experienced growth in all forms; from acquisition to rapid e-commerce growth and everything in between. Join Joe Kudla, Founder of Vuori; Tom Rinks, Founder of Sun Bum; and Kate Nowlan, Co-founder of GRACEDBYGRIT for an interactive discussion and Q&A session facilitated by Bob Rief, Industry Veteran and Executive Director of SDSI.