Sarah Lacy talks about entrepreneur @Sophia_Amoruso.

Sarah says Sophia succeeded by building an authentic brand instead of an aspirational brand:

This is what so many women who try to build aspirational brands — the would-be Martha Stewarts for the Internet generation — just miss. They try to be about perfection. Perfect job in a perfect city with the perfect hair and a perfect man. And that’s why they don’t catch on. No girl can relate to perfect — even the ones who seem to be from the outside. No part of me ever wanted to be the manicured, designer dress-wearing, coiffed Julia Allison clad in tutus with a little dog. And, as much as I like her personally, Brit Morin and her lifestyle brand Brit wouldn’t have been relatable to me either. She’s a pretty girl with a successful husband. That’s just not universal.

But Nasty Gal is. And that is why this works so well — not because of data or ERP. But because it’s an almost intangible, but deeply authentic thing. ”We have a relationship with this customer for going on six years,” Amoruso says. “There is undisputedly a living breathing soul to this brand. I don’t know how it happened. It’s amazing how much they care, how much they are upset when things aren’t perfect. This is not a faceless thing they are talking to. They feel they’ve been responsible for it growing, and they have. Until we recently started advertising, they were the only way anyone found out about us.”

Don't be perfect. Be yourself.