Karlie Kloss Net Worth 2025: The Model Who Married Into Tech—And Built Her Own Company Anyway

The meeting that changed Karlie Kloss’s financial trajectory didn’t happen at a fashion show. It happened at a Flatiron School coding class in 2014, where a supermodel with a $4 million Victoria’s Secret contract sat between software engineers learning Ruby on Rails. Her classmates assumed it was a publicity stunt. Within two years, she’d launch Kode With Klossy. Within five, she’d sit on the boards of multiple tech companies. The girl from St. Louis who once dreamed of ballet had discovered something more valuable than any campaign fee: leverage in the only industry that actually mattered.

Today, Karlie Kloss’s net worth reaches approximately $40 million. That figure undersells her position considerably. Through her marriage to Josh Kushner, she gained access to Thrive Capital’s deal flow, including early stakes in companies like Instagram, Spotify, and Stripe. However, the coding nonprofit she built independently has trained over 15,000 young women in computer science since 2015. The marriage opened doors. What she constructed behind them was entirely her own.

The Before: A Dancer Discovered in a Mall

Karlie Elizabeth Kloss grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, dancing classical ballet since age five. Her parents worked middle-class jobs with no fashion industry connections whatsoever. The teenage Kloss had her sights set on becoming a professional ballerina, training with the St. Louis Ballet before being spotted at a local mall charity fashion show at thirteen.

The Discovery That Redirected Everything

Elite Model Management signed her immediately. Within months, the girl who’d dreamed of dancing Swan Lake was walking Calvin Klein’s runway at New York Fashion Week. She was fifteen years old, standing six feet tall, with cheekbones that photographed like architecture. The ballet dreams didn’t die. They transformed into something with a higher ceiling.

That early discipline proved essential. Classical ballet training instills a tolerance for repetitive practice, physical discomfort, and delayed gratification that serves models well. Kloss brought that work ethic to castings, fittings, and eventually to learning JavaScript at midnight between shoots. The dancer’s mentality never left her. It just found new applications.

The Gatekeepers: From Elite to Victoria’s Secret

Elite Model Management represented Kloss initially, but IMG Models would eventually sign her after she’d established dominance on the runway. The real career acceleration came from Vogue and Victoria’s Secret, both of which recognized her commercial viability early. Anna Wintour championed her for covers. Ed Razek greenlit her Angel contract.

The Victoria’s Secret Years

Kloss became a Victoria’s Secret Angel in 2011, securing an estimated $4 million annually at her peak. The role provided more than income. It delivered global visibility, brand association with aspirational femininity, and access to the company’s marketing apparatus. Every December, millions watched her walk in the VS Fashion Show. That attention became currency she’d later convert.

Unlike many Angels who extended their contracts as long as possible, Kloss left Victoria’s Secret in 2015. The departure coincided with her coding education and tech pivot. She’d understood something her peers hadn’t: the contract was a credentialing mechanism, not a destination. Five years of Angel status provided enough platform to launch whatever came next.

The Transformation: Learning to Code at the Height of Fame

In 2014, Karlie Kloss enrolled in a coding course at the Flatiron School in Manhattan. Fashion journalists treated it as a quirky personal interest story. She treated it as market research. The supermodel spent her mornings on set and her evenings debugging Ruby applications, recognizing that the tech industry was building the future while fashion was selling the present.

Why Code Matters More Than Campaigns

The insight was genuinely strategic. Campaign fees depreciate as models age. Technology skills appreciate as industries digitize. Moreover, the tech industry in 2014 was desperately seeking female representation, creating space for a high-profile woman to build credibility quickly. Kloss identified a market inefficiency and moved accordingly.

She completed the course and immediately began planning Kode With Klossy, a nonprofit providing free coding camps for young women. The organization launched in 2015, initially serving 21 students. By 2024, the program had reached over 15,000 participants across multiple countries. The nonprofit status means Kloss doesn’t profit directly. The credibility it generates proved far more valuable than any potential revenue.

The Empire Pivot: Tech Adjacency as Strategy

Kode With Klossy established Kloss as a legitimate voice in technology education, not just a celebrity dabbler. That positioning attracted board invitations, speaking engagements, and venture capital proximity. She joined the boards of companies including fitness technology startups and educational platforms, bringing both her audience and her newfound technical literacy.

The NYU Credential

In 2015, Kloss enrolled at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, designing a curriculum focused on business and computer science. She completed her degree in 2022, seven years after enrolling, balancing coursework with modeling contracts, nonprofit management, and eventually motherhood. The degree matters less for its educational content than for what it signals: a seriousness about intellectual development that distinguishes her from celebrity dilettantes.

The Gallatin program allows students to design interdisciplinary majors tailored to their professional objectives. Kloss structured hers around the intersection of technology and creative industries, creating academic credentials that reinforce her public positioning. Most models never complete undergraduate degrees. She designed one optimized for her career trajectory.

The Kushner Connection

Kloss began dating Joshua Kushner in 2012, eventually marrying him in 2018. Kushner co-founded Thrive Capital, a venture firm with investments in Instagram, Spotify, Stripe, Slack, and dozens of other technology giants. The marriage provided Kloss with access to Silicon Valley’s deal flow and the company of founders building the next generation of platforms.

Critically, she didn’t simply become a venture capital spouse. Kloss continued building her own professional identity, launching W magazine’s “Take on Karlie” interview series and hosting Project Runway alongside her nonprofit work. The Kushner billions amplified her opportunities. The reputation she constructed remained independently earned.

From Modeling Income to Investment Access

Her financial architecture now combines multiple income streams. Ongoing brand partnerships with Estée Lauder and Adidas provide seven-figure annual fees. Kode With Klossy generates speaking engagement opportunities and positions her for corporate diversity initiatives. Board positions deliver both compensation and equity exposure. Through the Kushner family, she gains access to investment opportunities unavailable to even wealthy civilians.

This is what playing the long game looks like in practice. Kloss built a professional identity that compounds rather than depreciates, positioning herself at the intersection of fashion, technology, and philanthropy. Each element reinforces the others.

The Hamptons Connection: Kushner Country

Through her marriage to Josh Kushner, Karlie Kloss connects to one of the most prominent real estate families on the East Coast. The Kushner family’s holdings span multiple states, with significant presence in the New York metro area. Kloss and her husband have been photographed at various Hamptons events, linking them to the social circuit that Social Life readers navigate every summer.

East End Visibility

The couple reportedly explored properties in the Hamptons as extensions of their real estate portfolio. Whether as guests at Southampton benefits or attendees at East Hampton gallery openings, Kloss maintains the social positioning appropriate to her financial tier. She’s not seeking attention. She’s maintaining presence.

For readers familiar with the delicate balance between visibility and restraint required in Hamptons social life, Kloss represents a particular archetype: the woman who gained access through marriage but constructed independent credibility. That independence matters in circles where old money judges new arrivals harshly.

Closing Reflection

Karlie Kloss’s net worth story isn’t about a model who married well. It’s about a model who understood that marriage, like modeling, should be one asset in a diversified portfolio. She built Kode With Klossy before she had Kushner access. She enrolled in coding classes while earning millions walking runways. The discipline that once drove ballet practice now drives a long-term strategy most of her peers never attempted.

That $40 million figure will grow. Her husband’s fund will generate returns. Her nonprofit will create opportunities. The brand partnerships will continue as long as she maintains relevance. Meanwhile, she’s positioned herself for whatever comes after modeling, after tech, after whatever industry emerges next.

The girl from St. Louis learned the most important lesson early: the platform is never the point. What you build on it is. Every coding class, every board seat, every strategic relationship compounds toward a portfolio that survives any single industry’s decline. She didn’t just diversify her income. She diversified her identity into something that appreciates regardless of what any one market does.

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