Who inspires you?
I take business and personal inspiration from many sources, but one entrepreneur whose approach and success has inspired me for years is Marc Benioff, CEO & Founder of Salesforce.com. His vision, his passion, and his commitment to philanthropy from day one of founding his company amaze me. I’ve actually built a similar 1/1/1 philosophy into AbbeyPost as an integral part of our structure and culture.
Why are you an entrepreneur?
I’m not sure I ever had a choice! I founded AbbeyPost because I couldn’t NOT do it. I was driven to provide a welcoming, fun, positive environment for Plus Size women to shop in, and to offer sellers and makers of Plus Size fashion a much better experience than exists for them today. My previous company, La Boite Orange, was similarly born out of my own passions.
How is your company different from your competitors?
As a startup going up against the giants of the ecommerce world (eBay, Etsy, Amazon) we have to do just about everything differently if we’re going to win. The three core values that we focus on as our differentiators are: 1. Extreme user focus: we fight for what’s best for our users, even if that means fighting ourselves. 2. A lean mentality, moving fast, hopefully breaking less than we fix along the way, but always adjusting and adapting our offerings to best serve our customers. 3. A tight vertical focus: we want to do one thing, really, really well: Plus Size fashion to Plus Size women. You don’t have to sift through a million listings for car parts and carved wooden doodads on AbbeyPost; you come to us because you want to shop, sell, and connect with others around Plus Size fashion.
Where do you see your company in the next five years?
This is a fun one! Within 5 years, we anticipate serving the needs of millions of Plus Size women, being (very) profitable, creating jobs for 100+ people in the NYC startup ecosystem, and giving back significantly to charitable causes along the way. It’s possible that we will have been acquired by that time, but for the moment we focus more on creating value for our community and less on the exit strategy.
What’s the next milestone for your company?
Our next milestone is actually coming up very soon: we’re shipping the second version of our web app in early May. We’re really excited about it, because this is a complete site rebuild from the ground up, based on early user feedback.
How are you financing your business? What are your growth plans?
We are 100% bootstrapped at the moment, and looking to raise our initial seed round of funding. Our growth plans center around ramping up user acquisition via search, social, and content production. As far as product, next up on the agenda will be our mobile app.
Best advice you’ve received.
The best advice I ever received was from my Mom, who told me that I could do anything. Full stop.
Tell me something about yourself that we don’t know already.
I grew up in the circus! Literally. My Dad was a musician for Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey, so I grew up hanging around backstage at Circus World, an amusement park that featured 5 Big Top circus shows a day. I can ride an elephant like nobody’s business.
What is your guilty pleasure?
I love to watch Glee. Don’t judge.
A setback, stumble or face plant…What did you learn from that experience?
In 2001, I went through an incredibly tough time after 9/11 and losing my Mom unexpectedly a month later. I struggled on a personal level with PTSD and survivor’s guilt for over a year. The biggest lesson I learned during that time was that life is a precious gift, and we absolutely have to commit to wringing every single experience, every hug and smile, and every iota of value out of every single day.
What is your favorite mobile app?
Skype. Skype’s my jam, yo. The AbbeyPost team communicates all day, every day, via Skype chat and Skype calls when we’re not together.
What do you do to help focus?
The boring truth is that I drink hot tea and listen to classical music.
AbbeyPost is a marketplace and community exclusively focused on bringing together shoppers and sellers of Plus Size women’s fashion. There are over 100 million Plus Size women in the US today, and they cumulatively spend over $18B a year on apparel, but the mainstream fashion industry ignores them. We’re bringing Discovery, Community, and Fit to the Plus Size shopper for the first time.
This post was created by Raine Dalton, WIM’s editorial and community innovation intern. Raine is passionate about finding creative ways to empower women globally through tech. In addition to WIM, Raine has written, tweeted, and posted for the Global Banking Alliance for Women, WITNESS, and 90.7 WFUV News. You can find her work at www.rainedalton.com or get in touch with her through Twitter @rainedalton, or by emailing raine@wim.co.