Madeline Veenstra plans to leave hometown Brisbane for Silicon Valley so that she can pursue Popbasic, her opt-in micro-collection fashion service where you can have a package delivered every month, featuring the latest fashion items.
It follows the success of her first startup Wikifashion; an online hub for people interested in fashion that brings together writers, readers and brands.
“In terms of making the decision to move, it wasn’t difficult,” says Veenstra.
“If I had my time over again with Wikifashion, I would have moved a lot sooner.”
She says the community for fashion is so much larger in the US.
“The startup scene is quite small in Brisbane and to be honest there aren’t too many fashion and technology startups based here.”
According to Veenstra, there are no direct competitors for Popbasic in Australia, though there are a number of similar online fashion services in the US, such as StitchFix and LeTote. The difference is they offer “more of a pure styling service”, compared with Popbasic which will focus on “building (fashion) basics and following monthly trends.”
It won’t be Veenstra’s first visit to the US. Both her and her co-founder travelled New York at the start of the year to do some research and find out what was happening. She also spent some time at SXSW, the multi-day festival of film, interactive technology and music which has been described as ‘Woodstock for geeks’. She spoke on a panel there, also using the opportunity to network.
“SXSW was invaluable, even though I only spent a few days in Austin for my panel.”
“It was great to meet so many people that I’d previously only spoken to online.”
Popbasic will sell monthly clothing collections to fashion lovers (Image: supplied)
Her advice if you’re planning a trip: “If there was anyone in particular that you wanted to meet, reach out to them prior to your trip and make an offer to take them out for a coffee.”
Veenstra built a substantial online community with her first venture, Wikifashion. There are now more than 700 fashion bloggers, 5000 contributors and 70,000 users on the platform. It took a “really long time” to get to that level though, says Veenstra.
“We started in mid 2009 and I personally contacted over a thousand people to tell them about what we were doing and asked if they would like to be involved.”
“I’d recommend if you have an idea to gather as much feedback as possible.”
Friends, family and people in the industry helped provide advice in the early stages with Wikifashion.
Chosing an opt-in model rather than adopting a subscription commerce approach seems an interesting choice. Veenstra hopes the decision will mean customers feel more comfortable signing up.
“This way we won’t be shutting out any customers and people won’t feel as though they may be trapped into the purchasing process.”
Veenstra’s tips for building a community around your brand:
- Tell as many people as you can. It takes a long time to build an online community. Veenstra says she started contacting people in 2009 and it was plenty of talk that helped build a community of 70,000 fashion lovers;
- Test everything first. If you’ve got an idea, test it with friends and people in the industry. This will give you a better feel for what to offer;
- If you’re heading overseas, reach out before leaving. Veenstra says reaching out to people before she went to the US last time was the best way to organise a meeting. Make sure you have a reason to meet.
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