True story · retold with care
Nasty Gal took $77 million and lost $21 million
Nasty Gal began as a single eBay shop and became one of the most talked-about online retailers of its decade. Revenue passed $100 million, Sophia Amoruso wrote a bestseller, and she made the Forbes list of richest self-made women on the strength of her stake.
The books said something else. In the year to February 2016 the company took $77.1 million in net revenue and lost $21 million after costs. It filed for Chapter 11 that November and was sold to Boohoo for around $20 million.
What went wrong
Revenue was the number everyone watched, including the people running the business. Costs grew faster than income for years, and a rising top line hides that beautifully right up until it cannot.
The habit that prevents it
Read margin before revenue. A month where income rose and margin fell is a bad month, whatever the headline figure says.
How you'd see this coming in Punctual
Punctual keeps real books behind your dashboard, so profit and margin move as the month moves instead of arriving from your accountant a quarter later.