STARTUP WEEK XX - AND SO IT BEGINS...
The balloon is going down, but our metrics are going UP.
This past year we’ve been building, not just an app but 3 sides of a marketplace.
When we spoke to potential investors this was their biggest concern - the problem you are solving is huge, your solution is really clever, we really like your team - BUT…. building a marketplace is ambitious….
We were really fortunate to have been backed by @Antler, and then attract our incredible Angel investors that gave us the runway to build Mys Tyler.
We also had to get creative. Launching with celebrities allowed us to launch an app so we could start to test out our fit algorithm, grow our community of women (Side 1) and onboard our Founding Contributors (Side 2). While we were doing this, we were signing up to partner with fashion brands (Side 3).
Last week was such a big deal for us because it was us launching the full solution with all 3 sides of the marketplace.
200 founding contributors - who we are so grateful to - these incredible women believed in what we were trying to achieve, and their leap of faith has allowed us to create Mys Tyler
50,000 women - that’s right. Mys Tyler has been downloaded by more than 50k women around the world - from New York to Nebraska, Brazil to Baltimore, Singapore to Sydney, London to Lithuania -- and pretty much every city in between
850 brand partners - we want to be brand agnostic, we are not here to tell anyone what to wear. Our contributors wear what they like - but behind the scenes we partner with brands so that when we bring them a purchase, we get commission in return that we share with the contributor. We’re continually adding brands. And still allow links to brands that aren’t partners - even if we don’t make commission if it helps you buy something you like - it’s a win in our minds.
So, YES building a marketplace is ambitious, YES startups are hard, YES many fail… but we’re here to show you that it’s possible, hard work, and a clear vision - and then attracting amazing people along the way so that together you can change the world for the better makes it all possible.
But…. the story doesn’t end here… this is just the beginning. We hope you like Mys Tyler now, because if you do you’ll LOVE it even more soon. We’ve had so much feedback and have so many features and changes on our roadmap. We launched what we call our MVP (minimum viable product). From here on in, we’ll be looking at metrics such as DAU (Daily Active Users) and MAU (Monthly Active Users, retention (how often do people come back), and eventually purchases - does this work? Over time, we’ll be focused on the return rate of items - we truly believe that we can help reduce the waste of clothing that doesn’t fit and is kept/ not worn, or returned.
So, if you have thoughts or feedback - don’t get mad - just tell us! Drop us a DM or comment below.
