Sole Envie
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
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
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
“Don’t know nothin’ ’bout shoes” - A women’s perspective on raising start up capital in a male dominated industry
I attended a networking event the other night called “Networking for Fundraising Success” organized by The Capital Network (TCN) and New England Venture Capital Association (NEVCA). The event brought together the area’s top entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel Investors and strategic partners for an evening of networking.
My husband and I try to attend as many of these networking events as possible as it’s a great opportunity to meet potential investors. Since Sole Envie is going to be seeking funding in the near future, we’re trying to build a name for ourselves cause everyone knows that the best way to meet potential investors is through a personal introduction - an investor is going to be much more likely to invest in people they know. These events are also a great way to meet potential strategic partners and a way for us to practice and finesse our elevator pitch.
Click here to buy my "Don't know nothing about shoes!" t-shirt that I designed at Zazzle.com
At these events, they conveniently have venture and angel investors wear a name badge with a green sticker on it (green = $$$$) so you know who to talk to. Entrepreneurs wear yellow stickers. You can always tell an investor by the large group of people standing around them. (I’d really love to know what the combined net worth of everyone in that room is). I have to admit these events are a little hard to navigate if you’re not a particularly pushy person. You can be in the middle of a great conversation with someone (usually an investor) and another entrepreneur will just shamelessly push their way though and interrupt your conversation mid-sentence to introduce themselves. I guess all the good manners that were instilled in me by my parents don’t apply in the fundraising world and I’d better throw them out the window if I want to get anywhere. Cause come on, let’s face it, 2 months from now when I’m in a boardroom presenting my business plan to an investor, they’re not going to remember me for my manners- no matter how winsome they are.
The event also got me thinking about gender bias and what it’s like to be a woman pitching a business model that merges fashion with technology to venture or angel investors who are all typically men. These events tend to be focused around the tech and bio-tech industries of Boston’s 128 corridor which means that I’m usually one of a handful of women in the room, one of few consumer driven companies, and most definitely the only fashion related company. You may ask what is a fashion company doing at a tech oriented event? While Sole Envie is a custom shoe company for women, we’re also an internet based start-up focused around user-generated content (shoes!) that is powered entirely by technology (or at least one day we will be) - much like Amazon or even Cafe Press. In the end, we’re all moving physical goods but without state of the art technology we couldn’t do what we do. Sole Envie’s success is going to be based upon successfully developing a powerful interactive configurator (for designing shoes), a social network (think Facebook like features) and a dynamic online community. This dependence on technology will extend into our back-end supply chain and logistics systems.
At these events there are always one or two men who will invariably throw their hands up and say in a somewhat condescending tone, “I don’t know anything about shoes” as I’m pitching the model - before I even have a chance to describe the concept. It’s like they hear the words “women” and “shoes” and their brain just shuts down. I want to say to them, “oh you don’t wear shoes?” or “does your mom still dress you then?” but I can’t of course and instead I have to find analogies they can relate to such as “It’s like “Dell” for shoes except instead of letting people design their computers, we’re letting them design shoes. Shoes - a 40 BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY!
Why don’t they ask “why custom shoes?” Or ask about our our revenue model, our forecasted sales or even our exit strategy? Why not ask about other parallels in the Mass Customization space that have become successful? Zazzle.com for instance. Zazzle is an online marketplace for customized products such as custom t-shirts, postage and most recently custom Keds, that attracts about 2 million visitors a month. Their estimated revenue is projected to top $80 million this year. I’m sure Ram Shriram (Google’s founding board member and one of Google’s earliest investors) didn’t say to the folks at Zazzle, “I don’t know anything about t-shirts or mugs” when his venture firm Sherpalo Ventures decided to fund them for 16 million dollars in Series A equity funding a few years ago. Forget Mass customization companies…what about other online shoe companies? Zappos for instance. They sell shoes. Last I checked Zappos was on track to top 1 billion in sales revenue this year. Would these men say “I don’t know anything about shoes” if they were to meet Tony Hsieh, the current CEO of Zappos?
As a woman, if you even bring up the word “shoes” in front of a man, they just assume the reason you are starting a shoe company is because you’re just obsessed with shoes. Take the one investor, for example, who kept proudly proclaiming to me that he was a “technical geek” and just assumed (without asking me my background) that because I was a woman starting a shoe company I couldn’t possibly be a “technical geek” too. My husband is the co-founder and CTO of Sole Envie. If this guy had been talking to my husband instead of me, would he have immediately assumed that because Eric was starting a woman’s shoe company he wasn’t a “technical geek”? I can assure you that my husband is the biggest “technical geek” I know! I love fashion, but that’s not the reason I started Sole Envie. I started Sole Envie because I wanted to start an internet-based company and I have a fascination for the concept of user-generated content and mass customization. Knowing what I know about the market and my own experiences with custom shoes, shoes just seemed to have a lot of potential. To me, figuring out what it takes to implement mass customization from a user-interface and back-end supply chain/logistical standpoint is as interesting to me as the actual shoes.
And it’s not just the men at these events. It’s friends, family and other women too. I’m sure when people hear what I’m doing they think, “Monika and her little shoe business” or they think of this as a hobby I run out of my basement (ok I admit, I work from my kitchen table - usually in my pajamas). Heck even my mom unconsciously does it. The other day my mom was talking to some relatives who wanted to come to Boston but could only meet during the work day and my mom said “Oh you should call Monika. She doesn’t work.” Of course I know my mom and I know she didn’t mean it that way. What she really meant to say was that I had a flexible schedule, but I can’t help thinking that if it were my brother and he was starting a company revolving around the next big thing in renewable energy, things may have come out a little differently.
It’s not all bad though. In fact I find the whole thing kind of amusing. Most people are very open minded and the ones that aren’t usually come around and get excited about Sole Envie’s potential once I’ve told them a little more. As an entrepreneur, especially in the relatively uncharted area of Mass Customization, you spend 1/4 of your time actually moving your company along and the rest of your time educating and convincing people about your concept. It’s all part of the game and either you learn how to play or you get out! I can’t wait till the day I’m the one wearing the green sticker in the room and I have a group of men crowding around me and I can say to them, “I don’t know anything about football, NEXT!”
Posted by Monika on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 | Entrepreneur, Mass Customization | No Comments
My Ponoko Interview Part 2
Read Part II of my Ponoko Interview
Here is the final portion of the interview. I cover Sole Envie’s target market, some results from a marketing survey I’m conducting, and Sole Envie’s manufacturing process.
Posted by Monika on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 | Mass Customization, News | No Comments
My Ponoko Interview Part I
Read Part 1 of my interview on the Ponoko Blog 
I was invited to do an interview with Ponoko, a really exciting and innovative start up in the user innovation/mass customization space. Ponoko enables users to create their own 3D designs such as jewelry and other creations and then manufactures them using 3D prototyping machines whose laser cutters cut your creations using plastic or wood composites. Users can then “turn their creativity into cash” by setting up their own online shop using Ponoko’s web commerce and digital make-on-demand services. There’s no need to worry about set up fees, minimum orders, or inventory. Ponoko does it all for you.
Ponoko also has a blog focused around Mass Customization where they talk about other companies and new innovations in the MC Space. They invited me to talk about Sole Envie and my insights on how to implement mass customization for women’s shoes. Here is Part 1 of the interview. Stay tuned for Part 2.
Posted by Monika on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 | Mass Customization, News | No Comments
My Shoes and I were on the “Today” show
Over the next few months, I’ll be talking about some events that took place in the past. Here’s one that took place a year ago that is particularly memorable to me.
I’m a member of the Hello Stiletto Shoe Club, a social network of shoe lovers. Originally founded in Boston the club has over 7,500 members in fifteen cities. The club hosts several events throughout the month at different venues ranging from restaurants and bars to boutiques and department stores. At every event, Melissa O’Shea , the shoe club founder (and a dear friend) rolls out a signature pink carpet and has guests competing for the title of “best in shoe.” The events are a lot of fun. Not only has the club given Sole Envie a lot of exposure (which I’ll talk about in future posts), but I’ve made a lot of great friends there too.
Over the past year, the club has gotten a lot of national and local press and I was lucky enough to be at one of the events where the “Today” show was filming a segment about the Shoe Club. I wore the first and only pair of shoes that I had ever designed (at the time) to the event with the hopes of getting on TV. I figured I’d be one of the few people at the event wearing my own designs and that would get their attention. When I arrived at Cordani, the Boston based shoe company hosting the event, the place was crawling with excited shoe club members and the camera crew. After spending the entire evening standing around hoping to be interviewed and getting nowhere, I finally mustered up the courage to walk over to the reporter and tell her I had designed and made the shoes I was wearing. Impressed, she immediately called over one of the cameramen and started interviewing me and filming my shoes. While they only showed a brief clip of the interview, it was amazing to see my shoes on national TV. They even used my shoes as the thumbnail for the video on the show’s website! You can see my shoes and I at about 1 minute and 46 seconds into the segment. http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&vid=13ac5824-aa83-4ee1-83ba-73d6c484ec28.
Posted by Monika on Monday, October 27th, 2008 | News | No Comments
Find out how “smart” I am
Yes, It’s official. I’m smart! How smart? I can’t tell you, but you can find out for yourself when I speak at the first annual MIT Smart Customization Seminar next month.
A few months ago, Frank Piller, the go to guy for all things mass customization, asked me if I’d be interested in speaking about Sole Envie at the upcoming seminar and I readily accepted.
The seminar is taking place on November 10th and 11th and is the only event of its kind in North America. Providing an in-depth coverage of one of today’s most important business trends, the seminar will gather some of the most advanced and interesting businesses in mass customization today. It is open to executives from diverse industries working on, implementing, or considering mass customization and personalization strategies and technologies for their companies. In addition, a small group of pre-eminent scholars will share leading-edge research on issues of importance and practicality to mass customization professionals.
Frank Piller and Joseph Pine, the “gurus” of mass customization will kick off the seminar with the key note address. They will be highlighting some of the key aspects of matters today in mass customization. Their address will be followed by two days of presentations by mass customization innovators and leaders along with peer to peer discussions on how to implement a profitable customization business.
Allison Page, the director of Adidas’ mass customization program (mi adidas ), Jana Eggers, CEO of Spreadshirt, Jeff Beaver and Andy Howell, the co-founders of Zazzle joined by Kristin Ella of Keds are some of the speakers I’m really excited to hear and hopefully meet.
I will be one of the entrepreneurs presenting during the following segment:
Mass Customization Entrepreneurs: Meet the next generation of mass customization:
Following MIT’s entrepreneurial spirit, we proudly present some of the best upcoming new ventures in mass customization. Learn from the founders what motivated them to invest in a mass customization business and get the latest insights from their research and experiences.
• Matt Lauzon, Co-Founder, Paragon Lake (Jewelry)
• Sharon Kan, President & CEO, Tikatok, Inc. (Children books)
• Sasha Revankar, Founder, MyFactory (Fashion)
• Seph Skerritt, Founder Proper Cloth (Shirts)
• Monika Desai, Founder, Sole Envie (Women’s footwear)
Needless to say I’m excited and honored to be speaking among this esteemed group of innovators and scholars in mass customization. To learn more, visit the seminar’s website at MIT.
Posted by Monika on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 | Mass Customization | No Comments
Hello World!
My name is Monika Desai and I’m the founder and CEO of a start-up called Sole Envie, a “soon to be launched” online social shopping community and e-commerce site that provides women with the opportunity to co-design and purchase their own, one of a kind, customized fashion shoes and share their designs with a community of fashion enthusiasts.
When the Sole Envie site officially launches, it will feature a state of the art interactive configurator that will provide customers with the unique shopping experience of building a shoe. By mixing and matching a wide assortment of design elements (leather and fabrics, styles, heels, trims and accessories) customers will be able to design shoes that express their own personal sense of style.
While having the opportunity to create and purchase customized shoes is pretty cool, Sole Envie will be much more than just an e-commerce site or a footwear company. Our goal is to develop a rich and thriving social network and community where shoe lovers can congregate, inspire and express themselves by sharing and rating each others designs, blog about shoes, meet other shoe lovers, crowd source new designs and much more.
While I could go on forever about how Sole Envie willl soon become every woman’s best friend, this blog is not intended to be another advertising vehicle for Sole Envie. Instead, It’s meant to provide you with a behind the scenes look of one entrepreneur’s mission to turn an idea into a reality. Come along for the ride as I share with you the trials and tribulations of starting a company along with the excitement, success and fulfillment that comes wth doing something you love.
Posted by Monika on Thursday, September 18th, 2008 | Entrepreneur, Mass Customization | 1 Comment
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.