After a frantic 54 hours (one weekend) marathon, 20 teams prepared pitches in hopes of being chosen as the best Big Idea in fashion tech. Each had five minutes to deliver a deck to a panel of five judges. Winning this round advances the team to the Startup Weekend Fashion & Tech finals in Poland. The pressure at LIM College was real as organizers Pavan Bahl of OS Fashion and Andrew Young of Startup Weekend wrapped up last minute details to prepare for the moment we’d all been waiting for. Read on for the recap of the pitches, the judges’ feedback, and to see who took home First Prize.
Judges (from left to right)
David Freschman, CEO – FashInvest
Deanna Clark-Esposito, Partner – Fashion Compliance Law
Liz Bacelar Founder, President – Decoded Fashion
Kay Koplovitz, Founder – Springboard Enterprises
Jessica Mercedes Kirschner, Fashion Blogger
Christina Lila Wilson, Coordinator – New York Fashion Tech Lab (not pictured)
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE 20 AWESOME PITCHES AND THE WINNERS
Image credit: Spencer Kohn
Royalty
“We are being used for free advertising” screamed this frustrated group of selfie addicts. Their app, Royalty, allows users to tag specific clothing and accessories in their photos so that viewers can buy directly through the app. Users get a cut of all sales from the retailer when an item that they’d posted is purchased.
Judges Feedback: Be careful with a plan that relies on making money from affiliates. It has a tendency to fail.
Image credit: Spencer Kohn
First Season
Meeting the right manufacturer is like meeting a good friend, they say, and that can be hard to do. First Season’s platform, focused on handbags exclusively, would allow designers to preorder small quantities and orders would be placed once minimum orders are reached.
Judges Feedback: Liz Bacelar wasn’t convinced that designers want to release their control. “You’re saying designers don’t want to deal with the headache of manufacturing? I think that’s the most important part.”
Image credit: Spencer Kohn
Dapper Exchange
Do you have champagne taste on a beer budget? Dapper Exchange solves that problem with an online marketplace offering resale high-end menswear at deeply discounted prices. Their market research showed that most potential users make less than $50k a year, but still want high-end fashion.
Judges Feedback: “If you spend 50% of your presentation time [5 minutes] telling me about the problem and not the solution, you have fucking problem. I need the solution!” Liz Bacelar advised.
Image credit: Spencer Kohn
WestXEast
A guide to international flair, WestXEast offers users curated “looks of the day” that are a fusion of modern, culturally driven silhouettes. Their deck included a Cleopatra inspired ensemble, allowing users to buy individual pieces directly from retailers.
Judges Feedback: The limited inventory will be tough, and “the affiliate model is very challenging,” Kay Koplovitz reemphasized.
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MadeRight
MadeRight sees the manufacturing process as inherently flawed, and they’re creating a platform to simplify it. Designers and factories are “trying to manage it all with Illustrator, Excel and email,” and it’s not working, the team claimed.
Judges Feedback: “You guys should pursue this, it’s a hot thing, you just need to flesh it out,” encouraged Liz Bacelar.
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Modelogs
A collection of global beauties, Modelogs is frustrated that “everyone [in modeling] looks the same.” They’re not looking to be another modeling agency, but rather a liaison between agencies and clients to book more international models.
Judges Feedback: Never underestimating the power of who you know, advised Kay Koplovitz, reassuring the Modelogs that they have “the authority to tackle this problem and the relationships. If you don’t have the contacts, it’s going to be hard to make it.”
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PEEP
Google maps for apparel, PEEP is a hyper local search engine focused on fashion. “Stores are getting bogged down with up to 100 calls a day, asking if a specific item is in stock.” the presenter claimed. PEEP allows users to shop based on their location and current store inventory.
Judges Feedback: Email marketing is extremely important to retailers, so figure out a way to provide data back to them and this could work.
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Voilà
Have you ever had difficulty choosing the right outfit? Let’s not lie here: this is a problem we’ve all experienced. Voilà will connect users with expert stylists who will advise them to “wear it or change it.” All, for a small fee, of course.
Judges Feedback: A compliment from David Freschman: “One of the challenges I’ve seen with a lot of the companies I come across is that they’re what I call New York centric companies, but this idea has the ability to reach flyover states, which is key.”
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Curate
Curate believes big data and analytics aren’t just for the retailers, but that it’s finally time to offer this information to the consumer. They promise to curate your closet, helping users build a library of their clothes and then offering suggestions on how to wear them.
Judges Feedback: “This seems like a crazy idea, and I don’t mean like cool crazy, I mean like confusing crazy,” Liz Bacelar confessed.
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Tech4Threads
Seamlessly integrating tech into everyday clothing by utilizing hydrophobic technology, Tech4Threads makes textiles water and stain repellant. Complete with a demo of coffee spilled on a white fabric swatch, this duo has already begun pre-production testing.
Judges Feedback: Liz Bacelar has seen it before. “Tell me who your competition is, and don’t lie about it, because I met them a couple months ago.”
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FashionAire
Buying luxury US goods can be pricey if you don’t live stateside, and can also be next to impossible, considering that many retailers don’t ship worldwide. FashionAire provides “trusted travelers to deliver desired products to international buyers.”
Judges Feedback: Products could be swapped out before delivery (that $1000 Coach bag from 5th Ave is replaced with a Chinatown knockoff), Christina Lila Wilson warned. “Don’t underestimate the fact that it’s going to be one of those sketchy platforms.”
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Avantika
Hailing from India, Avantika’s founder wants to “connect emerging global designers with the US market.” The desired growth strategy is organic, “I don’t want to go out there representing a ton of designers initially, but want to start with what I know, which is Indian designers.”
Judges Feedback: One of the challenges this company (and many others as well) could have problems with is the marketing strategy.
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StyleShare
Promising instant fashion feedback from the community of users, StyleShare wants to target the sorority market and allow users to choose whether their feedback comes from friends only or the public pool of users.
Judges Feedback: If their focus is on the college age group and giving brands feedback from users’ engagement, StyleShare could be on to something.
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Tinder Toes
Not an app for toes but rather for the entire foot, Tinder Toes tailors search results for shoes to users likes and dislikes. They want to reinvent search engines to filter for taste and style, not just color and type.
Judges Feedback: Liz Bacelar admitted to having a sweet spot for shoes, so loved the idea, but Christina Lila Wilson advised Tinder Toes to be careful. “I’ve seen a lot of ideas start out this way. How are you going to stay independent and make sure your platform doesn’t just turn into a giant advertisement?”
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Customiér
Not just another PLM/PDM platform, Customiér wants to combine all aspects of the development cycles into one easy to use interface, including supply chain and logistics.
Judges Feedback: A bit concerned about how they would get clients, judges wondered what the sales strategy would be.
Image credit: Spencer Kohn
Petitas
Promising to be a centralized online marketplace offering aggregated fashion for petite women, Petitas will start initially by curating current market offerings and ultimately build their own brand.
Judges Feedback: Liz Bacelar cautioned about the idea after seeing a petite-focused business fail recently due to inventory overload. “Are you sure you want to buy all that inventory and go out that way?”
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(She)spoke
Utilizing Xbox Kinect technology, (She)spoke can take a woman’s measurements in just 40 seconds (no undressing required) to create made to measure fashion. They believe that “women aren’t mass produced, so why should their clothes be?”
Judges Feedback: While custom made shirts would be great, the time required from the customer to pick out fabrics and fit was a concern.
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Dapper Dash – 3rd Place!
Dapper Dash With a goal of minimizing the hassle of packing for business trips, Dapper Dash provides on demand apparel for travelers. Included in the offering is storage services, allowing the company to store needed coats for winter trips to NYC, so that they can stay in The Big Apple where they belong.
Judges Feedback: Where are you going to store this coat? Where are you going to store the inventory? How are you going to make this work?
Image credit: Spencer Kohn
Unfiltered – 2nd Place!
Unfiltered: Made for the social sharing “prosumer”, Unfiltered promises to disrupt how retail portrays people. Using an app and a Chrome plugin, users can upload photos of themselves so that shoppers can see what clothing looks like on real people.
Judges Feedback: “It’s solving a problem on a huge scale. Sites that are using user generated data are getting a lot of traction,” Christina Lila Wilson said encouragingly.
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Privileged – Winner!
Privileged: Seeing an ever-rising need for on demand service and house calls, Privileged brings vetted beauty experts to your home to offer you beauty services. The app will match customers with stylists, based on the customers needs and availability.
Judges Feedback: “If you’re gonna do that, you better understand what you’re up against,” Liz Bacelar warned, referencing GlamSquad.
Pitches get shot down all the time – that is the nature of the process. For the NYC round, Privileged won the day. Which doesn’t mean that, no matter how hard one works and no matter how well-deserved the prize, when that Big Moment does come, the winner isn’t completely taken by surprise.
Privileged’s creator confessed to “pacing the street back and forth” nervously awaiting the results, only to walk back in after his team had been announced as the winner:
“This means so much,” he said, overwhelmed by the emotions of the moment. “I’ve been working jobs since I was 14 or 15 and have figured a lot of this out on my own…my business school was the streets.”
Image credit: Spencer Kohn
