While early e-commerce start-ups like One Kings Lane, Gilt Groupe<br />and Fab were failures for investors, the category has picked up steam in the past few years as traditional retailers have looked to start-ups to lift their businesses.<br />At the company’s warehouse, Eric Colson, formerly a top data scientist at Netflix, spoke to the role<br />that data science — once the province of high-tech giants — plays in nearly every aspect of the Stitch Fix business.<br />And while Stitch Fix executives say they have no specific plans to go public, the company<br />is well positioned to file for an initial public offering as soon as this year.<br />But word of mouth helped the company grow — and eventually drew investors like Mr. Gurley,<br />whose interest was piqued by the number of assistants at his firm who swore by the service
