Kim Kardashian recently opened up about the early financial struggles she faced while launching the family’s Dash boutique in 2006, admitting she relied on her sister Kourtney Kardashian’s credit card to get the business off the ground.
During her new 11-lesson MasterClass series, the 45-year-old media personality and entrepreneur shared insights on taking bold risks and building billion-dollar brands.
Dash Boutique Beginnings and Financial Hurdles
Kim reminisced about launching the Dashed boutique with sisters Khloe and Kourtney in Calabasas, California—a store that would later become a recurring feature in the early seasons of their hit reality show, Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
The SKIMS founder revealed that the sisters faced serious cash flow challenges in the early days of their business. To purchase inventory, they used “all of the inventory” on a credit card under Kourtney’s name, who had the strongest credit score among them.
“We were able to get a credit card, first solely in Kourtney’s name because she had the best credit,” Kim explained. She added that, at the time, the sisters lacked a track record of paying vendors on time and therefore “had to pay for everything upfront.”
Lessons in Entrepreneurship and Risk-Taking
Kim candidly admitted their approach wasn’t financially ideal. “We would pay just the minimum every month when the credit card bill would come. This is probably the worst advice because you probably should be paying your credit card bill off, but we just didn’t have the money,” she recalled.
Her story highlights the early challenges of entrepreneurship and how strategic risks—though imperfect—can lead to building successful brands like Dash and her billion-dollar empire, SKIMS.