Susan Gregg Koger: Being a Rookie Is an Asset from 99U on Vimeo.

When she co-founded the online clothing retailer ModCloth, Susan Gregg Koger had never worked in retail and had no connections with the fashion industry. She had no experience that helped her write a business plan or how to source inventory for her site. But being a “rookie” turned out to be asset as she built her company without the constraints of tradition or routine. Since founding the company in college, Koger and her team have innovated in the online retail world with unconventional tactics like asking her customers to select what dresses to stock, and using user photos on product pages.
“Approaching a problem from a rookie point of view enables you to innovate just because you don’t how its usually done,” she says.