I suppose I am jealous. Especially of Rent the Runway.
Anyways, read below. And thank you to KL for bringing it to my attention!
The Power Women Who Are Reinventing The Way You Shop Fashion Online
They don’t code. They’re not designers. And they definitely don’t walk around in hoodies. But these six tech founders are changing the face of the $54 billionapparel e-commerce market. Their multi-million dollar companies are reinventing retail with new brands and platforms that are altering our appetite for shopping — and where and how we buy.
E-tailers creating businesses for other women have arrived, tapping into their 71% of online spending in apparel and accessories. The entrepreneurs featured below are not alone: Sophia Amoruso’s Nasty Gal has almost a million global customers and a reported $100 million in annual sales. Susan Feldman and Ali Pincus’ One Kings Lane, purveyor of home decor (not fashion but sharing the same customer base), was valued at just under $1 billion in its recent Series E round. Birchbox, Hayley Barna and Katia Beauchamp’s beauty subscription service, has raised nearly $72 million.
Katrina Lake’s two-year-old personal shopping service, Stitch Fix, has raised close to $17 million, and Aslaug Magnusdottir, formerly of Moda Operandi, just launched Tinker Tailor, a marketplace for customized designer clothes. Taken together, these entrepreneurs represent a stylish retort to the oft heard lament: “Where are the women in tech?”
Moda Operandi: Lauren Santo Domingo
Quick Pitch: Couture before it hits retail. Founded: 2010. Funding: $71 million. Average order: $1,600-plus ($5,000 for elite customers). Top designers: Isabel Marant, Valentino, Prabal Gurung. Pedigree: Voguecontributing editor. Other half: Andres Santo Domingo, heir to Colombia’s richest beer family. Tech or not: “I am constantly feeling pressure to act as if we are a tech company. And I don’t feel that. We’re a luxury fashion company powered by a tech side.”
“Just having a clever idea and technological savvy isn’t enough for the fashion business. It’s not an industry where someone can come in lacking the intimate knowledge because so much is based on relationships, taste, vision and ultimately trust. This is not about disrupting a system. I love this industry. I love these designers. And I love this customer.”
Quick Pitch: Online magazine that sells the spreads. Founded: 2000. Employees: Over 2,500. Monthly visitors: 5 million. Acquired: Luxury groupRichemont bought a majority stake in 2010. Estimated valuation: $3.4 billion.Average order: $900-plus. Pedigree: Former fashion editor at Tatler; mother was a Chanel model. Brand extension: Print magazine Porter, social shopping platform Netbook. Ambitions: “We’re trying to own a category. And unlike Amazon, which is a fantastic place to get everything, we want to be the destination for fashion.”
“Technology is at the heart of what we do. If you come to our offices, we look like Google. We have hackathons. It’s what we talk about. But we’re also obsessed with fashion, service logistics, operations, automation and content.”
Quick Pitch: Social shopping. Founded: 2011. Funding: $14 million. Valuation: $100 million-plus. Employees: 33. Registered users: 11 million. Traffic from mobile: 85%. Fangirls: Fashion Squad’s Carolina Engman, The Cut’s Veronica Gledhill and Man Repeller’s Leandra Medine. Signature look: Bold print dress, leather jacket. Path to Success: Moved from Siberia to New Jersey at 16. “Malls were a really frustrating experience.”
“In April 2011 I shut my design agency, ended a ten-year relationship and moved from L.A. to S.F. to get funding. But I was a solo nontech female founder without a team. I didn’t fit the pattern. Forty rejections later I closed my first round. I still get regret notes from VCs who said no.”
Quick Pitch: Watch a video, find the perfect anything. Founded: 2011.Employees: 35. Funding: $20 million. Monthly customers: 6,000. Power play: Four acquisitions in three years totaling $2 million. Path to success: Born in Tanzania, grew up in St. Catherine’s, Canada, and an original Silicon Valley girl. Women in tech: “It’s a much more crowded field today — in a good way. There is a rise of founders from non-engineering fields who have consumer vision and insight in categories like e-commerce.” Her résumé includes Amazon, Google, Accel Partners and Polyvore.
“My best lesson [from former boss Jeff Bezos] was that e-commerce begins in the search box. The best customer experience isn’t about exclusive rights to every product on your platform. It’s about satisfying every customer query.”
Quick Pitch: Borrow, don’t buy. Founded: 2009. Funding: $54 million.Employees: 250. Members: 4 million. Rentals in 2014: $250 million in retail value. Customer faves: Marchesa, Narciso Rodriguez, Vera Wang. Brand extension: New York and Las Vegas retail stores. Daily question for CTO: “Did we hire any engineers yesterday?”
“The idea that I had gone to Harvard twice and my cofounder had gone to Yale and then Harvard Business School credentialed us in a way that created a bond with the male VCs who had also gone to Harvard Business School or had gone to Stanford Business School. At least in that capacity, we were similar.” — Jenn Hyman.
You know your projects stand out of the herd. There is something special about them. It seems to me all of them are really brilliant! personal stylist
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