The fashion industry is growing at an exponential rate, but it’s not just the big brands that are reaping the benefits; small fashion businesses are popping up everywhere and changing all preconceived notions of how the market’s served. Recently, we produced a piece on the ways crowdsourcing is changing the way fashion startups gain insight and grow in their space. The newest venture that we can’t get enough of, and has seamlessly integrated crowdsourcing in their funding plans, is Manufacture New York. This NYC incubator and factory hybrid is empowering designers through collaborative spaces and access to production.
Check out how the founder, Bob Bland, thought up the idea for Manufacture New York and all the different ways you can get involved. read more »
Money. Every startup needs it, and it’s usually at the most vulnerable, early-stage, high risk point when it needs the most. Tech startups, for instance, are notorious for seeking out a number of different ways of receiving funding including: venture capital, angel investing, and other seed funding opportunities. This is because, typically, these types of startups are too small to raise capital in the public market, so they go to venture capital firms or independent venture capitalists and ask for funds in exchange for equity in their company.
But because venture capital has been less available in recent times, startups have to find the best ways to turn a profit and satisfy stakeholders, and even more more critical, they must be particularly creative and sharp before spending any money at all. Here are 3 things to consider before spending your company’s hard-earned cash. read more »
We all love a good party. There’s nothing better than great horde’euvres, some refreshments, and plain ol’ good company. Interestingly enough, these features are typically what make a business/networking event so successful. So why is it that so many startups choose not to host events? It’s an interesting paradigm but we’re siding with ‘you should definitely be hosting more events’. Here’s why: read more »
Here at Third Wave Fashion, we understand the amount of research and preparation that goes into launching a successful startup. There are trends to discover and analyze, as well as previous business models to dissect — from all the things that worked to all the things that fell short. Not every great idea will translate into a solid business. VentureBeat coined the term, ‘Enthusiasticus Founder Syndrome’ (we’re not kidding) wherein a novice entrepreneur allows the enthusiasm of his or her idea to take over, and ignores the critical mistakes of inexperience. Other times that isn’t the case at all. There are plenty of fashion tech startups whose business models are so effective and downright innovative that even major brands have adopted their models into their older, more mature fashion tech functions. Here are two of the most recent that we’d like to explore: read more »
They say The Fashion 2.0 Awards Show is attended by the fashion industry’s social media stars, and they’re absolutely right! Last night we had the opportunity to sit next to the social media and digital elite of the fashion industry, and it was an event of true celebration, admiration, recognition, and laughs…lots and lots of laughs.
It’s finally here. All week long we’ve been building up to this moment. From the hottest fashion tech startups participating at SXSW to the 7 SXSW events you cannot afford to miss, we made sure you know exactly where to be in the coming week. We, for one, can’t be happier to finally be in our sky-high cowgirl boots, chewing on straw and talking tech. But our coverage of all things South by isn’t over just yet. We want everyone to feel like they’re included in all the festivities because SXSW and Third Wave Fashion are firm believers of growing our fashion tech network.
Check out the list of 16 twitter handles to follow to keep you up to date as the code unravels and the fashion gets smart at SXSW. read more »
Last night we attended WIM Accelerator’s Meet the Innovators: Social Video Marketing event at the Apple Store in SoHo. Some of you may remember our recap of the Social TV event that happened earlier this year and we were thinking the same thing you were: “How’s this going to be different?” Well, it was… completely different.
Here are stories of the companies that participated that helped us embrace the amazing growth and potential in social video marketing. read more »
Yesterday we had the pleasure of attending the WIM Accelerator Founder’s Breakfast with guest speaker Hilary Mason. It was jam-packed with great food, good coffee, and most importantly, a community of tech lovers from all walks of life.
The team at WIM brought Hilary in because she’s a tech enthusiast herself and a firm believer in bringing different people into the tech game and nurturing fledgling tech talent. On the bio page of her site, Hilary will tell you that she’s the Chief Scientist at bitly, co-organizer at DataGotham, Co-founder of HackNY, and a member of NYCResistor. And while all those titles are quite impressive when mentioned separately, imagine for a moment them co-existing within one person. Well, they do and we have to admit, she’s awesome. She’s well-spoken (and encourages you to be as well), she’s tenacious, she’s funny, super smart, loves beautiful things, respects fashion, and loves data… and we mean love!
Here are some of the things we enjoyed most from her talk: read more »
On April 22nd Third Wave Fashion will be collaborating with Women Innovate Mobile and New York Tech Women for an event we’re calling “Behind the Pitch”. At this event entrepreneurs will have a chance to pitch their startups and ventures in front of a who’s who of investors from companies that include AOL, Comcast, Gen Y and many more. This event will touch on market insights and connect some already awesome people with experts in funding and financial capital.
Want to know more? We have all the details here, plus an insider’s pre-event interview the Founder of Women Innovate Mobile, Kelly Hoey. read more »
The Oscars. It’s like Hollywood meets fashion with all the attention of The Big Game. That, honestly, has to be the best correlation for the event considering that ABC was able to sell 30-second spots for the cost of about $1.75million. Regardless of all that business coming in for ads, last night was particularly charged and stood out with beautiful fashion, beautiful people, amazing movies, a couple of spills (sorry, Jennifer Lawrence…you recovered beautifully though) and heightened emotion, and with all the social and digital engagement that we saw taking place, you didn’t even need to turn on your TV to follow the highlights! (And boy were there highlights!)
