🧵♻️ Sustainable and inclusive fashion seen on the West Coast.

APRIL 12 a Fab Founders panel hosted in San Francisco, moderated by one of our favorite VCs.

• Vicky Pasche is the Co-Founder of Dapper Boi, online gender-neutral clothing brand
• Ellie Chen the co-founder and CEO of Oddli. Oddli is a sustainable fashion brand centered around community & colorfulness
• Beth Esponnette is co-founder, creative director, and chair of Unspun, building an inclusive and sustainable industry through custom-fit, on-demand manufacturing
• Michelle Zhu, CEO & Co-Founder at Huue, biotechnology startup creating the world’s most sustainable dyes

-Vincent Diallo Partner Interlace Ventures (Founder), invests in technologies transforming commerce for better consumption. Sustainable. Investor in Flyp Treet, Queenly, Olive, Singuli and even the brand Fordays.

“Fashion has been an area of interest for years. While Shein just reached an 80b valuation, we are all wondering what are the progress made in sustainability and inclusivity within the fashion industry in the past 5 years.

We are aware that the environmental impact (Fashion industry is responsible for 10% of all carbon emissions and 20% of all water pollution) and inclusion question remain second-rank concerns for mainstream brands, how can the modern consumer have a guilt-free / adapted apparel shopping experience? Let’s begin with the jeans 👖, we all wear some of them! And 2 past guest speakers by the way of Fab SF (in person meetings)! “ Vincent

- Beth, in the Bay Area, you are a woman in tech, and Unspun is fixing the waste issue, trying to limit returns as people have exactly the right fit. Could you tell us more about what you are building and how your 3D solution works? How do you measure impact?

“There is always a problem of size in jeans. We turned to technology. We use “body scanning”, which enables customization. We have spent the last 4 years fine-tuning that. You have now a body scan. We eliminate inventories and cut waste. We eventually would like to localize manufacturing.”

-Michelle, in the Bay Area, you have begun your company with Indigo dyeing 🧵💚💙, a natural one. There are a lot of companies claiming they limit the consumption of water. What is your ambition for Huue bio? How can the consumer be aware and informed of the water consumed to produce such or such apparel?

“Our mission is to really cut the issue of dyeing production. We are disrupting the industry, as in the past expensive and not very nice natural colors, and else petrochemicals were largely used. We use biotechnology, mirroring nature, with lower carbon and toxicity! We think of water pollution. And reduce water consumption. There is no silver bullet, it’s about creating an ecosystem. We want to start a color movement. We really want to create a brand, as a partner to our retailers and brand customers.”

-I know Vicky, in San Diego, and her company DapperBoi well. We met thanks to StartOut, I would love to talk now about gender-neutral fashion. What does it mean, who do you target Vicky, and how does it resonate with the community you are building? Is sustainability also one of your priorities?

“This is my own story. I used to shop in the Women's department. I never enjoyed those styles. When I became confident, I came to the Men department, I liked the styles but the sizes were not ok and they didn’t fit me. My wife and I, when it comes to fit and style, you walk into a Department store and it’s based on 2 choices, with preset styles embedded with these societal rules and norms. It’s archaic! We need to wake up. We want to be accepted and confident. Just to have confidence can move mountains! We have been in business for 7 years, we have thousands of reviews, some of our customers saying our line changed their lives.”

- Ellie, you are Stanford alumni, living in L.A., a proud GenZ co-founder of Oddli, and your superpowers are in design.

You use dead stocks. Can you explain to us the principle of Oddli and the problem you are willing to solve? How do you position yourself in price for customers to afford your clothes?

“Great to hear about each other company! It’s so inspiring! My co-founder and I cared about the planet, and the fashion was coming from Zara when I have been in college. What does sustainable fashion look like for the next generation? It’s Community, and Color-based. We found out just how much fabric is wasted in the industry every day! We started using the fabrics and left-over.”

“Pricing. A community based-brand for GenZ, and still be able to pay for our workers. We want to be affordable.”

- Fundings, SF, and the Bay Area, are all about tech, and business angels are focusing on Saas and B2B, how did you manage to secure funding? Any advice to founders listening to us.

Ellie,

“I met my first investor at an event of a community (such as Fab). We had a passionate conversation. She became a lead investor, before having finished our pitch deck.”

Vicky,

“We are fundraising at the moment. Remembering your mission, they are ready to join that mission. People that connect with your dream.”

What are the skills you expect when investors join your cap table? 🤝We hear a lot about supply chain issues, cost of CAC, and new rules in cookies… Are you counting on support on operations/partnerships or do you want to ease acquisition?

Beth,

“We are used to having doors to be open, for LPs, other investors, recruit. Investors have not a lot of time.”

Michelle

“The time when your VCs are the most useful is when you begin the next round. Strategizing about the fundraising.”

Why do you stay in the Bay Area, why not Austin, NYC, or LA? What do you like here?

“Every place as a trade-off. In San Francisco, the proximity to investors, everybody flies to SF every few weeks, there is a large biotech talent hub here! Large universities…” Michelle

“The atmosphere is experimental, try new things. I moved here over 10 years ago (from Maine).” Beth

Tough job now: credo, advice, in one sentence to the founders listening to us. Something you use when you have a bad day or week, to inspire your team.

“Just keep trying things! There are ups and downs. It’s an exciting journey!”🙏 Ellie

“Consistency, and Remembering your why! 👉What keeps you up at night? Why did you start this business in the first place”. Vicky

“When things get hard, reframe things to fuel your growth.” 📈Michelle

“I’m taking notes! I love these. If you are struggling, there is something new about what you are doing! Take advantage of it.”💪 Beth

“Making sure, in all what you do, be a better human being, it needs to elevate you.”✨Vincent

Vicky Pasche is the Co-Founder of Dapper Boi,

alongside her wife, Charisse. Within seven years of starting her online gender-neutral clothing brand, it is now a seven-figure company on a mission to revolutionize the non-binary fashion movement. Vicky has always had a passion for people and believes that so many of us do not fit in today’s binary norms in the retail world. By creating a body-positive, accepting community, we can all build confidence within ourselves and within each other to create a world we can all “fit” into.

Prior to Dapper Boi, Vicky worked 10 years in Marketing. From writing casino promotions to managing an entire Marketing department, Vicky prides herself on her creativity and her ability to instill confidence in others. She has a BA in Mass Media Communication from Plattsburgh State University of New York.

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Beth Esponnette is co-founder, creative director, and chair of unspun, building an inclusive and sustainable industry through custom-fit, on-demand manufacturing (read: body scan jeans made with 3D weaving robotics). Before unspun, Beth developed products and materials in the outdoor gear and apparel industry, instructed at a machine shop, helped design robot-human soft good interfaces, and taught product design as an Assistant Professor at the University of Oregon. She serves as an SBIR proposal reviewer for the US National Science Foundation and received a BS in Fiber Science & Apparel Design from Cornell and an MFA in Design from Stanford. She lives in Berkeley California with her husband and two kids.

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Ellie Chen is the co-founder and CEO of Oddli. Oddli is a sustainable fashion brand centered around community & colorfulness. Up to this point they’ve used almost entirely deadstock fabrics which is some of the 14M pounds of excess fabric created daily in the fashion industry.

She graduated from Stanford in 2020 where she started what became Oddli in her product design major. She’s been entrepreneurial since she was young — creating mug sharing programs in high school and selling her older siblings lunch as early as elementary school. Her dream since before she can remember was to start a company that did good for the planet so she feels lucky to be pursuing Oddli at a time when the planet couldn’t need climate action more.

Ellie currently lives in LA and loves surfing, hosting little dinner parties, and thinking about how to tell the story of what Oddli is building next.

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Michelle Zhu is CEO & Co-founder of Huue, a biotechnology company creating the world’s most sustainable dyes for the industries that are shaping the future of the Earth, starting with the indigo in your jeans. Huue’s mission is to minimize the amount of toxic chemicals used in the dye production and application process, which Michelle witnessed firsthand growing up with parents in the fashion industry. Michelle manages all aspects of Huue’s operations, fundraising, and sales efforts, complementing her co-founder Tammy’s scientific background and development of the core technology. She holds a BSBA from Washington University in St. Louis and previously worked in both management consulting and industry at the intersection of consumer products and technology. Michelle has been recognized as Forbes Under 30 in Manufacturing & Industry as well as Inc’s 100 Leading Female Founders in 2021.

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Vincent Diallo is currently Managing Partner at Interlace Ventures, an early-stage fund dedicated to commerce technology in the US. Prior to this fund, he created and developed the venture investment capacity of a single-family office. He also held the position of CFO of the largest independent western-food importer in China (Revenue from $50m to $200m / Acquired by Savencia Group — Bongrain) from 2010 to 2015. He started his career in auditing (+ transactions services engagements) at Deloitte Paris and Shanghai. As an auditor, he has been exposed to multiple industries from manufacturing to professional services with a specialization in retail. He got involved in several acquisition deals in China. He is fluent in French, English and Mandarin. Vincent is passionate about Asian culture and mind-body alchemy. He practices Vipassana.

Here is the replay to watch: https://youtu.be/S03-MgV6E-g

The link to the newsletter to have the replays of all webinars (quarterly and free) and the links to the local Linked in pages. We are already 3600 subscribers and 1700 members of the global Linked in Group. https://www.beautytechcommunity.com . Join the conversation! Be part of the community.

And, 🙌 Thank you Camille for co-hosting with me. In Los Angeles, San Francisco. Odile