The Smartest Money Advice I Ever Got

When to spend it, when to save it, and how to ask for it: Bobbi Brown, Max Levchin, Daymond John, and 19 other founders pass along the financial wisdom that led to their success

- Anna Hensel

TONI KO THOUGHT SHE WAS ON TOP of her company’s finances. Then she woke up one morning in 2016 to find half a million pairs of extra sunglasses staring her in the face.

The founder and CEO of Los Angeles sunglasses company Perverse was by then an experienced—and successful—entrepreneur, having sold her previous company, NYX Cosmetics, to L’Oréal in 2014 for an estimated $400 million-plus. So Ko was not new to managing cash flow and inventory—and she thought she was pretty savvy about finances. Despite this, in Perverse’s early days Ko found herself making a very common mistake: buying more product than she could sell.

“I completely forgot my own advice,” admits Ko, 44. “With my first business, the inventory was a slow buildup over the years, so I never felt cash-strapped. But as I started my second business, I over purchased.”