Get Inspired by The Story of Gilt Groupe

Posted on by Ashley Laurel

I recently had the great opportunity to meet Alexis Maybank, Co-Founder of Gilt Groupe. Though we didn’t have long to chat one on one, she did give a nice presentation to attendees of her recent book signing in San Francisco.

Her book, “By Invitation Only: How We Built Gilt and Changed the Way Millions Shop“, co-authored by Gilt Groupe Co-Founder Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, is about how these two women launched a fashion startup in 2007 that grew to be valued at $1B by the Spring of 2011. With the unique combination of their experience in the luxury retail and e-commerce startup worlds, and each with an MBA from HBS and penchant for high-end fashion sample sales Alexandra and Alexis were truly the perfect team to pull this off.

Before they created Gilt, Alexandra and Alexis were used to dashing all over New York City during breaks from work to strategically snatch the best pieces from local sample sales. Alexandra and Alexis essentially brought this concept online.

The book gives an exciting glimpse into just how Alexandra and Alexis handled the early years of Gilt, from brainstorming, to raising capital, to creating buzz, and to traveling an insane amount (all while in amazing heels I’m sure).

Prior to Gilt, luxury fashion brands weren’t typically looking at the Internet, and more specifically e-commerce, as a place that was refined enough through which to sell their pieces. If it wasn’t for Alexandra and Alexis’ relationship with Zac Posen (at the time, an up-and-coming designer) and his mother, Susan, the Gilt story would be drastically different. Because the Posens took a chance with Alexandra and Alexis, the women were able to leverage the Posen brand to bring others on board.

Besides Alexandra and Alexis’ relationship with the Posens, the timing was right in other ways as well. In 2007, Project Runway started exposing mainstream audiences to high fashion designer personalities and runway looks and around this time US luxury brands began creating “capsule” collections (think Marc by Marc Jacobs) aimed at making luxury more accessible to the everywomen or man.

Different sections of the book focus on different parts of Gilt’s growth and each offers sound business advice. In addition, funny anecdotes are woven through the story, which keep you remembering these insanely brilliant businesswomen are in fact actually human.

However, out of all the sections of the book, my absolute favorite is the one about raising capital because of personal ties to some of the names mentioned. Not only is Maxtrix Partners, the VC firm where I worked after college, discussed, but Nick Beim, one of the general partners, is quoted quite a bit. Notably, he was the original Series A investor in Gilt Groupe. Reading about him and the Matrix office was pretty surreal and made me feel like I’d gone back in time for a few pages. In fact, working at Matrix and being surrounded by entrepreneurs like Sheila Marcelo, Founder and CEO of Care.com (also mentioned in the book) gave me just the push I needed to return to school. I don’t doubt that much of my current drive is from this time in my life.

Overall, I’d say the book “By Invitation Only: How we Built the Gilt Groupe and Changed the Way Millions Shop” is well worth the read. It’s fast paced yet detailed enough so you feel like you get insider info. It’s interesting and truly inspiring at the same time. Even if you don’t have a personal tie to anyone mentioned, once finished, you may just feel inspired to try and conquer the world.

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I’m honored to have this post included in this week’s Independent Fashion Bloggers weekly roundup:

 

Edited by: Victoria of vmac+cheese

Yawn. Mid-week holidays are fantastic because, well, they’re mid-week holidays. The down side? It’s Thursday and I’m sure we’re all wishing it was the weekend! Waking up after a holiday that includes all of summers’ best aspects (warm weather, fireworks, swimming, and grilling) can be painful indeed. To get you through your barbecue and burger hangovers today (and perhaps hangovers of another variety too), this week’s links all feature great, fun reads to peruse in your downtime. From fantastic DIYs to inspirational stories about women in fashion, you’re sure to find a good read. Settle in with a coffee, put some aloe on your sunburn, and enjoy.

LINKS À LA MODE: THE IFB WEEKLY ROUND UP: JULY 5TH

SPONSOR:

New Bags Shopbop: Ferragamo, Gucci, YSL, Totes, Addition, Chloe, M. Williamson, Valenentino Bags, Rachel Comey, Tucker, Hindmarch & Margiela Bags

Six Things to Know About Stella and Dot Stylist Kristina Hagerty

Posted on by Ashley Laurel

I met Stella and Dot Stylist Kristina Hagerty last year through a series of meetups and jewelry parties and was immediately intrigued by the Stella and Dot story, and especially her role entrepreneurial role in at the “social shopping” company.

Why did you decide to work with Stella and Dot?

I previously worked in International Trade for 5 years but have always had a love of fashion and marketing. I was inspired by the entrepreneur spirit of Stella & Dot and the opportunity to do what I love, style!

What interested you in jewelry styling in the beginning?

I’ve always been highly creative. I used to style my mom and friends growing up. I love the texture of jewelry and how it can literally transform an outfit. I used to make my own jewelry to go with my outfits!

How do you define your personal style?

Romantic, dreamy, sleek, modern, BOLD!

Photo by Ashley Batz

What have been some of the highlights of your Stella & Dot career so far?

Giving a style presentation to a room full of ladies at one of the events I was invited to attend. Receiving heartfelt thank you’s from my customers, seeing all the fun the ladies are having at my trunk shows and more than anything the people I’ve met. They are amazing. I love to meet new people and I’ve developed some fantastic friendships along the way!

How do you incorporate social media with your business?

I have a Facebook fan page where I post photos of how to wear the pieces and get my fans involved in the creative process. It’s so wonderful to hear all their creative suggestions; it’s a team effort! I also have a Twitter account (@kristinaviajera) where I interact with others, post trend reports and awesome promotions! In addition I have my own boutique where you can check out all the jewels and sign up to do a trunk show with me! Check it out at www.stelladot.com/kristinahagerty.

Who do you typically work with?

My clients are very diverse and of all ages! Sometimes I am helping someone pick out a piece for an event or a wedding, but more often than not I am picking out and suggesting pieces that work with [women’s] everyday wardrobes. There are so many fun ways to accessorize and accentuate your personal style and I love helping women find pieces they love while they have a chance to relax, socialize and have a glass of wine!

A few photos of an event Kristina threw recently:

See the rest of the photos on my Facebook fan page. And while you’re at it, check out Kristina’s fan page as well!


Fashion Meets Analytics through New Startup, Stylitics

Posted on by Ashley Laurel

As a full time working analyst who recently purchased six pairs of shoes within a five day time span, I may have found just the site to obsess over.

Source: Stylitics Press Kit

Stylitics is a New York City based startup that helps consumers keep their style fresh and better understand their wardrobe habits. In addition, the site offers brands a way to track consumer demographics, and the media/content providers have quick access to consumer fashion trends.

Co-Founder Zach Davis, who describes his style as classic and lists Cary Grant as a style inspiration (swoon) says that he has always been a follower of style through friends, but now is trying new things he didn’t 6 months ago. Though his career background was not in fashion before Stylitics- it had consisted of experience in music, consumer insights/marketing, and mobile- Davis has always been interested in seeing what products impacted people. And now, he believes that consumers are smarter than ever and want more data so Stylitics is a good fit for that.

Through Stylitics, users can see the actual percent of how much they wear certain items in their closets as opposed to others. Right now, the site is very appealing to 18- 35 year olds and particularly moms who like the idea of managing their kids’ closets. Personally, I like the idea of having an “assistant” help me remember what I wore last week.

Since consumers are most concerned with two things- relationships with brands and privacy, the Stylitics team has addressed both.

Consumers have personal pages customized with all of their wardrobe data and no data is shared with Stylitics partners directly by name. Brands only have access to anonymous data. However, consumers can get a brand badge by wearing brands multiple times in a row and can opt-in to directly engage with brands (this helps relationship building between consumer and brand).

On the brand side of things, brands can see the trend of any type of clothing item, with information like where consumers wear the particular style, what styles of that item people like the most, and the popularity of their brand generally speaking or in certain areas of the country. This is to “give them perspective of how things are changing in real time”, Davis says, adding that brands also have complete access to data in the form of sleek inforgraphics.

Right now Stylitics has five partner brands, including Gilt Groupe and Lucky Brand. And just last week, Davis had a meeting with Ralph Lauren.

For bigger content providers like a Glamour or Lucky Magazine, Stylitics provides up to the minute fashion facts (with infographics) that these magazines can easily use. For smaller content providers, such as blogs, Stylitics offers the option to include a link to the blog, through which a blogger can therefore better understand the style of their own readers. (Coming soon on Pretty Innovative!)

After starting to use the site and learning more of the behind-the-scenes information from Davis, it’s no surprise to me that Stylitics won the Wharton Business Plan Competition just last April.

Upcoming goals for the team include adding Facebook Connect to the site (this week!), creating a mobile app (late December 2011), and ramping up to about 30,000 very active users by the end of next year.

Right now though, I’m just trying to find some time to finish adding photos (found on the site or added by hand) of my wardrobe to the site so it can start working for me. I already have a feeling that I wear a certain black boyfriend blazer from Zara a little too often…

You may also enjoy other posts about startups.

Digitally Chic’s #DCApps Event Recap

Posted on by Ashley Laurel

Last Thursday, 6 of my close friends and I hosted another Digitally Chic meetup. This time we featured fashion and lifestyle apps from around the Bay Area whose creativity was shown through small group demos and one on one discussion.

Participating apps included:

Meet Gatsby (lifestyle)

Localmind (lifestyle)

Pose (fashion)

Poshmark (fashion)

ShopNear.Me (fashion)

Snapette (fashion)

StyleSays (fashion)

Boutiika (fashion)

The event was hosted at Roe Restaurant in SOMA.

Being silly with some of the DC co-founders after the event

Just one year after we met for drinks and realized we all had a love for fashion and tech in common, we’re 230+ members strong in our Facbeook group, but also have a public Facebook page (where all of the event photos are located) and Twitter account you can follow for more updates: @DigitallyChic.

And, we were very honored to have our Apps & Apps event featured in the San Francisco Chronicle!

What’s next? Our first birthday party! That’s right, we’re currently organizing our one year celebration, so stay tuned for details coming soon!

All of the DC co-founders celebrating Sharon's college graduation!

More event coverage:

From Natalie (Miss Social)

San Francisco Chronicle

From Ashley G (FashionablyA)

Apps coverage:

Snapette

ShopNear.Me

Digitally Chic:

Scavenger Hunt

The Story of Snapette, an iOS Fashion App

Posted on by Ashley Laurel

I can’t tell you the number of times when I’ve been out and about and seen an amazing shoe that I took a picture of to text to my mom or one of my girl friends. In the end, these pictures would either end up saved on my phone or eventually deleted. But now I am able to save all photos to one place, Snapette, where other fashion fans will be able to enjoy my finds and I am able to see theirs too.

Last Friday, I sat down with Sarah Paiji, a co-founder of Snapette, and she told me the story of how this cool new fashion app came to be.

The Story

Sarah Paiji, originally from a suburb of LA, found herself on the East Coast for the past 8 years, including time in school at Harvard and working for Goldman Sachs, McKinsey & Co and Berkshire Partners. Most recently before Snapette, Paiji was studying at Harvard Business School. It was through an HBS alumni event where she met Jinhee Kim, an HBS alum more than two decades her senior, and more importantly, a woman with a very big idea.

Source: Snapette.com

According to Paiji, the two had a short meeting over coffee, after meeting at a Harvard alumni event. Soon after, Kim invited Paiji to spend her January 2011 term with the Kim family in London… to launch a company. Snapette.

With “no dominant social app yet” in fashion, and mobile being a space with such great growth potential, Paiji decided this was a chance too good to pass up.

After the two recruited a technical person to join their team (and for a month in London), the real work began.

Luckily, a tweet Paiji made about their new app was found by Dave McClure of 500 Startups, a startup incubator located in Mountain View, and soon McClure was inviting the Snapette team to relocate to California and work from the 500 Startups office space.

Just yesterday, 500 Startups hosted its second ever Demo Days, a place for its entrepreneurs to present their ideas to investors and press. The Snapette team presented, along with more than 20 other startups, as the culmination of their 3 month period in the 500 Startups accelerated program.

Think about it, within 8 months, Snapette went from an idea, to a company, and to a company that publications like Forbes and VentureBeat are now covering. That is pretty inspiring.

The App

Paiji describes the app as this: like Milo for fashion.

Source: The Fashionable Bambino

Snapette lets users upload an unlimited amount of content to the app (available on iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch) and browse other users’ finds as well. For now, users can see shoes and bags that others have uploaded from around the world, and content uploaded by nearby stores. Users are able to search by brand, store, description, or “New”, “Near”, and “Hot” ratings of products.

And of course, there is further social integration with sites like Facebook.

Right now the Snapette team is focusing its efforts on working with boutiques in New York, LA, San Francisco, and London, including San Francisco-based boutiques like Heidi Says and Gimme Shoes.

Why stop with shoes and bags? Well for now, the Snapette team decided to just start with those products because “women are passionate about them”, according to Paiji.

Within 6 months, Paiji hopes to see the team add more features to Snapette and figure out whether to decide to focus more on fashion or the social experience.

*Note: A big thank you to Hong Quan of 500 Startups for the introduction.

Polyvore’s Blogger Network Gets a Mini Makeover

Posted on by Ashley Laurel

Hey fashion bloggers, if you haven’t heard, Polyvore has upped the ante on set embed options so you can resize your sets before posting on your blog. And, the Polyvore Blogger Network now has a new home on the Polyvore site so bloggers can keep up to date on blog related developments.

As a member of the Polyvore Blogger Network, I’ve been added to their email list about blogger specific contests and information about upcoming meetups (when’s the next one in San Francisco?!).

After five years, Polyvore has 6.5 million unique visitors per month who create a plethora of digital collages featuring a super wide range of brands, celebrity style icons, and much beloved fashion bloggers.

Connect with me on Polyvore so we can inspire each other.

How Moxsie’s BuyerChat Keeps Twitter Followers Engaged

Posted on by Ashley Laurel

There are more fashion brands and e-tailers on Twitter today than I can count, but only a handful that really stand out from the pack. Creativity, a clear voice, and audience participation must be components. And @Moxsie has all three.

Since October 2010, the San Francisco-based indie fashion e-tailer has been tweeting its BuyerChat events as a way to get its Twitter community more involved with choosing the types of clothing that gets sold on the site. BuyerChat participants may also have the chance to “attend” a behind-the-scenes look at new arrivals, buying meetings, and photo shoots.

According to Marketing Creative Manager Mayka Mei, the growth in participating has been interesting to watch.

“We see aspiring stylists bringing in their partners to participate, and we have a large enough group now that makes our impromptu introduction of #team[whatever] more meaningful. The greatest reward for administering BuyerChat on this end is watching our group of “regulars,” returning,” Mei says.

The event was created after the Moxsie team realized their community on Twitter (over 149,000 followers strong) would give them the opportunity to connect with fans they’ve never met in person.

“Moxsie specifically works with independent designers, so a lot of these companies don’t have the time or resources to focus solely on their social media,” Mei says. “Since Moxsie has such a devoted following, it’s just one thing we can do: leverage the opinions of the people who know the market best (the market themselves) – and it gives our designers exposure, too, of course.”

To date, Moxsie has held more than fourteen BuyerChats through which participants and winners were issued badges.
One Twitter participant, @JennieB, a veteran of the fashion industry, has participated in more than 10 such events.

@JennieB found Moxsie through doing research about social shopping sites selling indie designers’ clothes, and subsequently followed the brand on Twitter.

“I like the interaction with other Moxsie fans, with Moxsie themselves and I like that the company is actually having a conversation with me/us – and reacting to the things we say,” she says. “Moxsie has a great ‘voice’- clever and a little sassy, but also they come across as really nice.”

To date, @JennieB is one of just four people who have achieved the top status, “Buyer Guru”. She’s also won two $50 prizes for contributing the best tweet.

Think you can keep up? Visit http://shop.moxsie.com/buyerchat and sign up for the next BuyerChat, taking place today, March 23rd, at 2 pm PST. Follow @Moxsie on Twitter, and start chatting using the #buyerchat hashtag.

Polyvore Introduces The Mini Editor… and a Chance to Win $1,000!

Posted on by Ashley Laurel

Polyvore, a social shopping site for digital collage enthusiasts, just introduced The Mini Editor. If we haven’t met, you probably haven’t heard me talk about this site yet, so first, let me explain what it is. Based in Mountain View, California, Polyvore is a “virtual styling” website that claims to have over 6 million users who’ve created more than 20 million fashion sets (and I believe it!). Every time I log in, I see the top trending sets others have made, works that my contacts have created, and new items from brands of all price points (from Target to Ralph Lauren).

So now, what’s The Mini Editor? It’s a new tool that Polyvore just introduced, that lets you create sets right here on my blog using some of my favorite items.


Even cooler? You have a chance to win $1,000 towards your fall wardrobe (thanks, Visa!) by entering the Fall Wardrobe Styling Challenge. Just create a set on here and you’re entered. Here are the official rules about how we’ll help each other out.


http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/embed?font_family=Arial%2C%20Helvetica%2C%20sans-serif&font_size=12&lid=582359&link_color=%230088CC&oid=942103&sig=75683445d60f1468b72d0852544b9153&size=536×570&title=The%20Mini%20Editor&uuid=3CLrWSGv3xGP9uKAdrrQYQ
Powered by Polyvore

ModCloth: A Very Social Indie E-Retailer

Posted on by Ashley Laurel

If you haven’t heard of ModCloth yet, know this, they’re one of a kind!

Why? Well, not only does the e-retail site feature both vintage and vintage inspired (aka indie) clothing, shoes, accessories and apartment finds, don’t forget to check out the blog before leaving. More than 20 fashion bloggers contribute to the ModCloth blog, discussing everything from ModCloth news to ModMusic. I also like how a new blogger of the moment is featured seemingly every few days, which includes an interview about his/her style and personality.

In addition to incorporating outside style bloggers, this company is very social. Already, I’ve seen ModCloth on Facebook, Kaboodle, MySpace, Twitter, and (personal favorite) Polyvore. On each of these sites, ModCloth brings something unique to the table. For example, right now there are a few weekly Twitter contests, including the Thursday “I Spy” game. This game is especially smart because it gets followers to not only check out the website for the right answer, but also engage with the brand in a creative way.

But want to really engage fans of your brand? Throw a party.

Earlier this week, ModCloth took the social offline as well, with their “Behind the Scenes” party to celebrate their move to San Francisco. Between meeting a good amount of the ModCloth staff, including Chief Creative Officer, Co-Founder Susan Gregg Koger (she’s on the right), and enjoying a fun atmosphere complete with a great DJ and open bar, I had a blast!

 

True to ModCloth style, there were also two contests at the event. One, called “Be the Buyer”, let party goers choose from the six garments to pick or skip. The piece with enough votes, will be produced and sold exclusively on ModCloth.com.

 

The second contest, called “Name It and Win It” invited us to choose the final name of this dress. In the first round, ModCloth customers were asked (by way of blog) to name the dress. After hundreds of suggested names were sorted through, the favorite four were selected my the team for us to choose from.

The last contest, well more of a dance off really, happened later in the evening after the drinks kicked in. Let’s just say, Michael Jackson was involved, and no, there aren’t any pictures.

Anyway, this is one company to watch. I’m curious to see just how the company will use its new funding of $19.8 million.  In the meantime, welcome to San Francisco, ModCloth!

*Click here for the rest of my pictures from the event!