Janet Kraus is the CEO of Peach which was founded on the simple, yet big idea, that a lifestyle brand could help women “elevate their everyday.” Our mission is to be a force for good for women by helping them to thrive personally and professionally. Peach brings its mission to life in three important ways:
1. We marry awesome athletic fabrics with sophisticated design to deliver contemporary, insanely comfortable apparel for work, gym and play. Our versatile style boosts confidence and simplifies dressing every day.
2. We provide women (our stylists) with the opportunity to launch their own fashion business with none of the financial risk. We offer all the tools, training and our unique personal development program called THRIVE, as well as a very supportive community of peers.
3. We showcase two to three under-discovered, female-founded accessory brands each season, providing them with a national platform for exposure and growth through our stylists, website and social media.
Janet is also an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Harvard Business School and was a member of the entrepreneurship faculty at HBS from 2010 to 2014. Prior to her role at Peach and HBS, Janet co-founded and sold two companies in the high-end travel and leisure industry. Circles (sold to Sodexo in 2007) is a concierge and events company, and Spire (sold to Perfect Escapes in 2010) was a high-end travel and leisure social resource.
As an entrepreneur and CEO, Janet has been involved in every stage of the entrepreneurial process including idea generation, product development, building teams, fund raising, identification of key strategic partners, business development and direct sales, operational scaling, crisis and recovery, buying and exiting companies.
She and the companies she has lead or advised have been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Fortune Small Business, the New York Times. She has been a speaker at conferences and educational institutions on the subjects of entrepreneurship, innovation, leadership, building teams, vision, values leadership, happiness and life planning.
Janet is a recipient of Boston’s 40 under 40 and was a finalist of Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year. Circles was awarded the Small Business of the Year Award by the Chamber of Commerce.
Janet received a BA from Yale University in Political Science and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. An entrepreneur’s advocate, Janet sits on the board of directors of three start-up companies and advises many others. She currently lives outside of Boston with her husband and 10-year-old twin daughters.
