Startupbootcamp

FOUNDER STORIES: Whering with Bianca Rangecroft

Posted: 01 Jul 2021 07:37 AM PDT

Today, we are delighted to share the story of Whering, a digital wardrobe and personal styling app that completed its Startupbootcamp program last year. We chatted with founder, Bianca Rangecroft, about how her company is making sustainability fashionable.

Bianca, could you describe your entrepreneurial journey so far?

My route into the sustainable fashion space really stemmed from being a frustrated consumer. My background is in banking and I spent the first four years of my career at Barclays and then at Goldman Sachs in its consumer division in London. As a result, I worked on two big fashion IPOs, which is how I got a feel for this industry and began exploring demographics and how the sustainability pain point was evolving. From there, I looked at how we could build a solution around that. While working on the Stitch Fix IPO, I looked into how we could harness machine learning to really democratize the personal styling landscape. I wanted to help Millennial and Gen Z users like myself escape the buy-use-dispose model but I had a hard time finding access to sustainable styling advice.

Then, I went to a two-week global hackathon in Shenzhen called Unleash, which had the UN's Sustainable Development Goals as its focus. We looked at why existing personal wardrobe organizer apps weren’t working and how we could fill this space with an experiential product. That’s how we got thinking about Whering and we founded the company in June 2020. Essentially, we have a proprietary machine learning algorithm that allows users to get styled every day using sustainable pieces that complement their wardrobe gaps. We optimize the whole experience for the end-user.

What do you see as the future of sustainability in the fashion and FMCG space?

One of the most powerful USPs we have as a company is the ability to impact the B2C and B2B segments. When we first started, we looked at the apparel market and realized very quickly that there was this whole black box around utilization data. Brands know a lot about purchasing insights and we've also seen the rise of brands like Depop, Vinted, and Vestiaire Collective on the resale side. They know a lot about end-of-life. We also know a lot about recycling. However, there was really nothing being done in terms of the items we already have – wardrobe composition, how people style themselves, what they do with their garments, and when they dispose of them.

I think one of the biggest trends we'll see in this area is brands looking to players like ourselves to optimize their value chain, to ensure they have a better understanding of what the customer wants, how they can style pieces, and how they can sell garments in a more on-demand manner. I think from the consumer side, the ability to see what you own, track your wears, look at the impact metrics of your own wardrobe, and just understand your carbon footprint is hugely relevant to our segmentation.

I guess the second thing that’s really top of mind for us is looking at the impact of sustainable sales within the broader spectrum of online and physical sales. At the moment, that’s about 8% of the market, and we’re going to see that increase to roughly 20% by 2025. That’s another of the biggest trends that we’re seeing amongst female shoppers who want to do better. They want to adopt a more conscious lifestyle.

How does Whering gather market insights from consumers about new trends in the sustainable fashion space?

Despite only officially launching in February, we now have access to a community of around 20,000 women at Whering – so it's been a very exciting (and stressful) journey. In a recent survey, 75% of our members said they wanted to consume more sustainably but they didn't know how to do so. That’s another huge trend. And we’d also be remiss not to point out that the advent of digital fashion styling games is another very interesting value proposition in the market. When we think about consuming, a huge part of that is really around boredom. So it’s going to be very interesting to see the impact of gamifying this industry and how that can help us reduce overconsumption in the long run.

You joined Startupbootcamp around a year ago. How have you found the experience of going through the accelerator?

As a female founder, starting a business in March 2020 was extremely difficult. We were looking to access capital, we were looking to build a team and I was a first-time entrepreneur. So, the whole Startupbootcamp experience was a game-changer in helping me understand the essential building blocks for creating a business. I will never forget one of your courses where you said: “If you’re not iterating in two-week sprints, you’re doing something wrong.”

So for me, that lean startup experience was really beneficial, getting me into an entrepreneurial mindset from the get-go. It was invaluable in helping me set up my company and avoiding those early-stage mistakes. I think it provided a great structure in terms of accountability. You also get pushed very hard and that’s what helped me make the decision to quit Goldman Sachs and run my own business full-time. I knew that I had the capabilities to do this because I had access to amazing mentors, teachers, resources, and other members of the Startupbootcamp cohort.

You've had a lot of success already so far. What would you say has been your biggest accomplishment?

I think our biggest achievement was getting our launch covered by Vogue International in eight different countries just one month after launching the product into the market. More concretely, we're extremely proud of the fact that we’ve been able to build our own proprietary machine learning styling algorithm in-house. That was a huge moment for us because there were a lot of different wardrobe organizers on the market. However, as a user, I’ve never been prone to use any of them because the tech just wasn’t good enough. For us as a business, that was a crucial milestone that we had to reach to start raising our first big round of funding.

And what are your hopes for the future of Whering?

For us, the future involves taking on the urban landscape and going out into the male market because at the moment, we’re only focused on women. After that, we're aiming to roll out social features to our app that would allow you to manage the entire lifecycle of your garment – buy sustainably, wear it, create outfits, get styled, but also rent, resell, and donate ethically. Further down the line, we’re looking at fashion avatars, fashion games, and other innovative developments like smart integration. So, we’ve got a lot of very interesting (some would say crazy) ideas in the pipeline.

One final question: do you have any advice for new startup founders?

In terms of advice, I’d say three things. The first one, find an accelerator like Startupbootcamp because it transforms the way you think, the way you problem-solve in those crucial early phases where you can easily waste five to 12 months. With an accelerator, you find a problem, solve it, and move on in just two months.

The second thing is to find out what you don’t know early on. I think a lot of the founders, and specifically female founders, that I speak with try to buff up their skills in certain areas and attempt to fix everything by themselves. I think getting the right stakeholders involved, whether through collaboration with existing industry players or mentors is one of the best things that happened to me through Startupbootcamp. One of my current advisors that I met through the program is invested in Whering and the other is my go-to weekly advisor who helps with everything communications-related. We talk about highs, but also lows. And I think from a mental health perspective and strategic direction, this is really helpful.

My last piece of advice is: understand when you want to fundraise. Make sure you have all of your milestones planned out. Having KPIs in mind, knowing what you want to get from each funding stage and what you’re raising for is essential. Be clear about that and then go out-of-office for a couple of weeks to start the fundraising process.

Many thanks from Startupbootcamp to Bianca for sharing her story, and all the best for the future!

Learn more about Whering here.

Would you like to have a chat with Bianca? Book a call here.

Innovation will save the world!

That is why we are excited to invite startups, scale-ups, and mentors dedicated to making the world a more sustainable and inclusive place to join our Sustainability Accelerator Program.

Would you like to be involved? Click on the buttons below.

The post FOUNDER STORIES: Whering with Bianca Rangecroft appeared first on Startupbootcamp.

Food And Recipe Fusion

Thursday, July 1, 2021