Vinita JoshiCo-Founder of The Modiste Published On: Friday, May 06, 2016 Views 2669

"Feel the fear and do it anyway."

Vinita Joshi did her Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University. She accumulated vast experience in the field of product management as she worked for Samsung for 4 years.

Upon realizing that so many e-commerce companies are entering the retail arena and ignoring the need to appoint a person who can understand the customer’s body type, lifestyle, and budget to help them in making smart choices, made her conceptualize The Modiste, which is one of a kind subscription based styling platform that delivers a shopping experience that is completely personalised.

Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.

Once a customer registers on our website, she is assigned a dedicated personal stylist, who will have a telephonic conversation with the customer. The conversation revolves around her style, lifestyle, body type, and budget. Post that the stylist handpicks 5-7 apparels and accessories. which are put in a box and, delivered to the customer’s place. They get 30-45 minutes to try the clothes on. With each box goes a feedback form and style cards.

What inspired you to build the above product/ service?

Personal stylists have only been associated with celebrities and influential people, people who have the power to spend. Also, with so many e-commerce companies mushrooming in the retail arena, focusing, exclusively and only on selling apparels, makes us question and think about the need to have a person who can understand the customer’s body type, lifestyle, and budget to help them in making smart choices.

What is your life mantra?

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?

The challenging part is to make people accustomed and aware of the idea of a personal stylist.

How did you overcome those challenges?

To get the word out and to create awareness about our brand, we started sending e-mailers in corporate offices like Google, Nielson, & Smartcube etc, where our friends were working. We are proud to say that, in this short time span of time we have got 60% return customers who have been very supportive of us by getting us word of mouth referrals.

Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.

We are bootstrapping the business, but recently Equity Crest, a crowd sourcing platform got us on board. So we are looking forward to raising our first round of funding soon.

How do you protect yourself from the problem of Brain Drain?

Right now the team is very small and consists of mostly close friends. As we grow, other than offering competitive packages, and a healthy environment, we want to instill the spirit of ownership in our employees. We want them to take initiatives rather than being told to do something.

According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?

Perseverance, Motivation and Risk taking ability

Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.

The ability to prioritize tasks.

Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.

Temper

If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?

I would think less and do more.

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