Christina Carbonell
from Puerto Rico to New York
The Power of Simple:
Christina Carbonell’s
Quiet Rebellion in a Loud World
I noticed a pattern as I sat down to prepare for my interview with Christina Carbonell: glowing press coverage of her in publications like Forbes, Inc., and USA Today. Fast Company named her one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business. I expected I would be intimidated. What I found was an understated, grounded, and incredibly warm woman who couldn’t help but put you at ease. Though even at ease, I was still intimidated.
This is the story of how Christina built a company that stands for her own beliefs: simplicity, inclusivity and the conviction that kids should feel free to be just who they are.
Her path began in corporate America. After earning a marketing degree, she joined Kraft Foods, working on brands like Maxwell House and Fruity Pebbles. It was an education in how to manage a P&L, how branding works, how marketing becomes a system, and what it’s like working for a corporate behemoth. This experience also helped provide clarity on what she didn’t want: the bureaucracy, the inertia, the gulf between effort and outcome of larger companies.
Serendipitously, she joined a start-up, Quidsi, and she loved it. If big companies were ocean liners, startups were speedboats—fast, responsive, alive. She stayed to scale its growth leading to an Amazon acquisition. This experience was the proof of possibility. If she could build someone else’s company, could she do this on her own?
She made the leap, with a co-founder from the same start-up experience. Their idea was simple.
Children’s clothes without logos, gendered boundaries or slogans. No “boys’ aisle” or “girls’ aisle.”
Clothing that belonged to everyone, no boy section, no girl section. They called their company: Primary. “We just want kids to wear whatever they want,” Christina explained. “Our mission is to help them be the truest version of themselves.”
With no background in fashion manufacturing, they first tried to brute-force their way through it.
“We thought—how hard could it be? It’s just T-shirts!”
she laughed. It was hard, much harder than she thought. They decided to pay an industry veteran more than what they paid themselves to get it right. Without the expertise, they had no business starting an e-commerce company. It was humbling, but also a lesson: values don’t survive without structure, and vision means nothing without execution.
Christina’s gift as a leader is her balance between what she calls the “science and art” of entrepreneurship. She consumes data, but also trusts her gut. She believes that one bold, creative idea can accelerate momentum. That dual fluency—numbers and imagination, analysis and intuition—has been her quiet superpower.
The road to build her company was not without its ups and downs. Less than 2.5 percent of venture capital dollars go to female-founded companies—a statistic Christina carries as memory, not abstraction.
“We didn’t face a lot of overt bias,” she reflected.
“But men knew the game. They had the networks and access to capital. They knew the rules.”
Christina and her co-founder were on the outside, and often underestimated. Despite rejection, they pressed forward with conviction in their idea and their company.
Christina recalls, early in her career at Kraft, a female mentor offered this piece of advice: Don’t just think about what you want to accomplish. Think about what kind of person you want to be. This is her north star. At Primary, they live their values in how they run the company, what products they sell and how they nurture the company culture. “We care a lot about our mission,” Christina said. “But we also care that people have good lives on the other side of work.”
Success, for her, isn’t just revenue lines. It’s the letters from families whose children finally feel comfortable in their clothes. It’s the relief of parents who no longer have to explain to their daughters why the “boys’ section” has better colors.
When asked what she wants for the next generation of women entrepreneurs, Christina didn’t hesitate: “I hope they take more risks.” Too often, women are taught to wait until everything is perfect before they leap. Christina knows that perfection can often get in the way of possibility.
“Sometimes you just try it and see where it takes you,” she told me. “You really never know.”
And when asked how she wants to be remembered, her answer was not a title. “Any role you have is just a moment in time,” she said.
“The through line of your life is what kind of person you are. I hope I’m remembered as kind, as a straight shooter, as someone who shows up for people and brings out the best in them.”
Christina Carbonell is all about simplicity and living your values. She is soft spoken, but an undeniable force in her own right.