Ambika Singh says she isn’t a natural-born risk-taker, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at her career trajectory. Since launching Seattle-based clothing and rental subscription service Armoire in 2016, Singh has grown the company by more than 300%, employs 85 people, and delivers to customers across the U.S.

Meanwhile, it’s caught the attention of The New York Times, Vogue, and virtually every fashion magazine. Singh herself was featured on the Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 list in 2018.

“Seattle has been an amazing place for a couple of reasons,” Singh says. “Most importantly, the community around us. It’s our employees. It’s our investors. And it’s our members. They have been really receptive and beyond supportive.”

A mother of two, Singh lives in Seattle with her partner and dog. She saw how risk-taking paid off for her parents, two “suitcase immigrants” from India. They’d initially lived in Dallas, but didn’t feel at home there. So, in the 1980s, while Singh was still an infant, her father followed a friend to a then little-known company, Microsoft. The family quickly realized that Seattle was the place they wanted to call home.

“They didn’t come from much, but they felt very lucky,” Singh says. “I think that transferred to me a lot.”

As a child, Singh attended the brand-new International Community School, which was somewhat experimental and sparked her entrepreneurial spirit. She went on to attend Dartmouth College, and returned to Seattle to work at Microsoft and then several startups. She was the second employee at Seattle pet-sitting marketplace Rover. com. She then obtained an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management.

Singh strives to align the company with her core values of sustainability and female empowerment — values, she adds, that reflect Seattle’s ethos and culture.

She briefly worked as a consultant but found it wasn’t her calling. That’s when she got the idea to launch Armoire. She knew Seattle, with its innovative and entrepreneurial spirit, was the perfect place for her company.

Eight years later, Singh— whose LinkedIn profile playfully describes her as Armoire’s “chief bosslady”— remains committed to Seattle because of its tech ecosystem, access to talent, economic diversity, and quality of life.

Armoire has always been keenly focused on using cutting-edge technologies to best serve its customers. Singh says the company was among the first in its industry to use RFID and contactless automation. It began using an AI algorithm years ago to help determine customer tastes by building profiles for users.

“We’re exploring AI and machine learning to more accurately tag our inventory to better align with how our members are browsing and shopping,” she says. “And our operations team pulls off an extremely complicated logistics feat with the help of innovative warehouse hardware.”

Singh also believes it’s important to give back. She has served on the board of United Way of King County the past six years, and previously volunteered for more than a decade at Pratham USA, serving as the Seattle chapter leader for five years. Pratham is the largest NGO in India working to eradicate illiteracy across the continent.

She still thinks back to her father’s risks, and sees a through-line with the service she provides to women. While it may seem small, trying a new outfit can be a “micro risk” that builds one’s tolerance for taking greater risks and, consequently, reaping greater rewards.

Singh strives to align the company with her core values of sustainability and female empowerment — values, she adds, that reflect Seattle’s ethos and culture. Armoire’s warehouse, in fact, is almost entirely staffed by people who identify as women.

“People, I think, are excited that we’re homegrown.”