Uncategorized
Sole Envie to Participate in a Mass Customization Panel at Babson
Sole Envie will be one of 8 mass customization industry thought leaders participating in the panel, How Mass Customization Can Create Value & Profit at Babson College on October 8, 2009. The panel, hosted by jewelry mass customizer, Paragon Lake, and emceed by Scott Kirsner, Boston Globe columnist, will explore the impact of using technology to enhance customer experiences, the economic benefits behind mass customization, how buying practices might change consumer habits, technology practices in the future and many impromptu topics.
The other panelists include Matt Lauzon, Founder & President of Paragon Lake, Wendy Cebula, President of Vistaprint, Shaon Kan, President & CEO of Tikatok, Andrew Callen, General Manager of Corporate Casuals, Micah Rosenbloom, General Manager of Brontes Technologies, Sarah MciLroy, Founder & CEO of FashionPlaytes, and Sung Park, President of Umagination Labs.
This free panel will take place on October 8, 2009 from 6pm to 8:30pm at the Olin Auditorium at Babson College in Wellesley, MA. To register, visit: http://masscustomizationpanel.eventbrite.com/.
Posted by Monika on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Sole Envie Among 15 Start-up Tech Companies Selected for First Growth Venture Network
We are excited to announce that Sole Envie is one of 15 start-ups selected to be part of the inaugural class of the New York City based First Growth Venture Network (http://www.firstgrowthvn.com) mentoring program for high potential, seed and early stage start-up tech entrepreneurs.
The First Growth program (1) connects class members with venture capitalists, angel investors, successful entrepreneurs and advisors, all of whom have spent years in and around technology start-ups; (2) connects each start-up with a First Growth Advisor Team consisting of a VC, an angel investor or executive and a successful entrepreneur who will serve as mentors to the team; (3) provides regular opportunities for substantive information and networking with the broader First Growth community; and (4) provides a peer group of other high potential tech leadership teams in the First Growth program
The other start-ups selected to participate in the First Growth Venture Network include: 20X200, AdHatchery, Capsearch.com, ChallengePost, CB Information Systems, Give Real, GoodCrush, Legolas, MeeGenius!, OrderGroove, Producteev, StyleHop, Zeevex and Zodah.
First Growth Venture Network is comprised of leading venture-related players including venture capital firms - Bain Capital Ventures, Battery Ventures, Charles River Ventures, First Round Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Highland Capital Partners, North Bridge Venture Capital, Valhalla Partners, and Venrock; angel investors - Grape ArborVC and AngelVineVC; the Tech Group at law firm Lowenstein Sandler and the tech investment banking firm GCA Savvian.
We are thrilled to be a part of this amazing program and look forward to working with the First Growth entrepreneurs and advisors.
To learn more about the First Growth Venture Network, visit the following links:
http://www.firstgrowthvn.com/news/sept09/
Posted by Monika on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Another mention in the Boston Globe
Sole Envie was mentioned in this past Sunday’s Boston Globe. The article, “The custom touch - Bay State start-ups are taking another run at tailor-made apparel” covered some of the cutting edge mass customization fashion companies in the Boston area and Sole Envie was proud to be among them.
Posted by Monika on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Sole Envie gets mention in the Boston Globe
Sole Envie got a small mention in a recent Boston Globe article in Scott Girsner’s Innovation Economy column. The article was about Boston based online retailer, Shoebuy.com. Check it out.
Posted by Monika on Friday, June 12th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Monika interviewed on alixrose.com
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Alix Rose, a Seattle based fashion blogger. Here are some excerpts from her post, Monika Desai, CEO of Sole Envie - on how her company will change the way women shop for shoes. Visit alixrose.com for the full interview.
From the post:
I love the idea of being able to customize a pair of shoes. I know your passion for it comes from a personal place, but what exactly motivated you to make it into a career move?
I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur and I think that started when I was a kid and was living in Europe. Whenever my dad came back from business trips to the States he would bring back boxes of my favorite candy, which I would promptly turn around and sell to my American school classmates at a 100% mark-up instead of eating them myself! I kept the idea of starting my own business in the back of my mind and then a few years ago when I was having a pair of custom shoes made for my wedding I got the idea for Sole Envie. I really enjoyed the experience of designing my own shoe - choosing my style and materials and seeing my design come to life. The light went on that this would be a great idea for a business. I did some research and discovered that no other companies were offering custom shoes and for good reason - it’s not the easiest business to get off the ground. I didn’t come from a footwear background so I took some shoemaking classes, started networking, connected with some key people in the space and got to work. 9 months later I had developed my first collection, put on a fashion show and was invited to speak at a mass customization conference at MIT. Since then I’ve been working on setting up the manufacturing side of Sole Envie.
You expressed in wanting your online shoe factory to be more than just a shoe store but a community. Why and how would you go about doing that?
Shopping for women is a very social experience. We want customers to not only be able to design their own shoes, but have a place to share them with their friends and other fashion enthusiasts. Who doesn’t love creating something new and getting compliments from their friends? At Sole Envie customers will be able to rate and comment on each other’s shoe designs, participate in shoe design contests, and have a say on new product offerings. We’re also making it easy for them to share and monetize their designs on other social networks such as Facebook and StyleHive. We think we’ll be able to build a loyal following and strong brand by engaging and listening to our community.
Is there anything you would like to say to people who are looking into starting their own company, any words of advice?
Disclosure: I don’t always follow my own advice, but here are a few tips that I try to put into practice:
1) Passion. You need to have a vision and keep your eye on the big picture. At the end of the day this is what’s going to keep you going when things get tough.
2) Trust your instincts. Believe in yourself and treat mistakes as learning experiences. I struggle with this one everyday. I want everything to be perfect from the beginning and that sometimes causes me to end up with analysis paralysis.
3) Be flexible. Be open to making changes to your vision. Most likely your business will end up being a lot different than what you initially envisioned and that’s o.k. You need to be able to roll with it.
4) Seek advice. Get a mentor who knows your industry and is willing to invest time with you and guide you. This will go a long way and could open a lot of doors for you.
5) Don’t operate in a tunnel. Talk to as many people in the industry and across various disciplines as you can even if they just don’t get it (and trust me you will come across a lot of people like that and it’ll irk you to no end). It’s painful but you need to learn to listen to stuff you don’t want to hear. Let people poke holes. If nothing else it’ll make your future pitches that much stronger because chances are if one person is questioning you about something, others will too. As an entrepreneur you should expect to spend a lot of time “selling” your business whether it’s to manufacturers, suppliers, investors or customers.
6) Get structured. Formalize your company as soon as possible. Choose a business entity, form a board, spell out ownership and job responsibilities. This will help establish in your mind as well as others that you are a “real” company. There are also potential tax benefits to forming an entity as soon as possible.
7) Network, network, network and make sure you follow up with everyone you network with. You can’t do too much of this. I couldn’t have gotten this far without help from all the people I’ve met along the way. You’ll be surprised how many people are willing to go out of their way to help you.
Be resourceful. If you are self-funded and looking for capital (like Sole Envie is right now) you may not have the money to pay for legal fees, employees, marketers, etc. That shouldn’t stop you from pursuing your goals. See if your lawyer is willing to defer fees till you get funding or revenue, hire an intern, trade services, or look for people willing to work for sweat equity. It takes effort to find people, but it can be done.
To read the rest of the interview, visit alixrose.com.
Posted by Monika on Saturday, February 21st, 2009 | Entrepreneur, Fashion & Style, Uncategorized | 1 Comment
I’m Still Here!
Happy New Year to all! I’m still here but have been busy and haven’t had time to write. More posts and updates to come soon!
Posted by Monika on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Did you know there’s a T-Shirt Economy?
I ran across an interesting article in Wired today entitled “Clive Thompson on How T-Shirts Keep Online Content Free.”
Nominally the article is about how artists are freely distributing their content online without charging for it and instead are turning their fans into paying customers by selling merchandise (such as t-shirts). It’s an unbelievably big industry with T-shirt and other apparel companies selling 40 billion dollars worth of decorated apparel a year.
What interested me though, was the part about how Mass Customization companies such as Cafe Press and Zazzle have cashed in on this phenomenon by making it easy for artists to instantly create and sell their merchandise with no investment needed. In fact, at Cafe Press users sold more than a $100 million in goods in 2007 resulting in a $20 million dollar profit.
I’ve never been much of a t-shirt kind of gal, but recently I’ve become addicted to perusing the above mentioned websites along with others such as Threadless and Spreadshirt. These sites crowdsource designs or enable users to upload their own graphics onto their t-shirts. There are some really amazing artists out there and I’m glad these companies have given them a way to distribute their work. Here’s one of my favorites
.
Posted by Monika on Thursday, November 27th, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Sole Envie’s Presentation at the MIT Smart Customization Seminar
Just a quick note that our presentation at the MIT Smart Customization Seminar went really well! I know I’m not the world’s best speaker but I really enjoyed being up there and talking about Sole Envie (kind of like my singing!). Our concept video crashed midway (Eric saved the day by jumping in there and summarizing what the audience would have seen) and we had to cut the presentation short as we ran over our alloted time, but we got some great feedback and interest. The seminar was really interesting and we made a lot of great contacts too. I’ll be writing a recap over the next few days. Stay tuned!
Posted by Monika on Friday, November 14th, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments
About Monika Desai
Monika Desai, Co-founder & CEO of Sole Envie, is a seasoned marketer with over 13 years of experience. Monika Desai’s decision to start a customized fashion company was born out of a lifetime of frustration of not being able to find shoes for her size 4 1/2 feet.
Determined to find a pair of shoes for her wedding, she designed and commissioned a pair of custom-made shoes. She fell in love with the experience of choosing the style, color, leather and accessory and seeing her design come to life. A born entrepreneur, she decided to turn the concept into a scalable business so women everywhere could experience the same thrill of designing their own shoes.