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#01: Buckle Up!

We're here to make reselling clothes as easy as buying them.

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Cache
June 11, 2024

Welcome! We are so happy you’re here.

Every other Wednesday, you can expect to receive a little *hump day treat* in your inbox — our newsletter with the latest updates on Cache. Craving more? Follow us on Instagram and TikTok for an even better time (coming soon!).

Since this is our inaugural post, we thought we would introduce ourselves:

  • Devyn Olin, Founder & CEO: Devyn is a lawyer with an MBA. She has worked in the fashion industry with experience ranging from content creation (ELLE.com) to personal styling (Moda Operandi) to branding and creative strategy (Métier Creative). More importantly, Devyn is an old soul masquerading as a millennial. Devyn’s passion for a great film is exceeded only by one with an

    exceptional soundtrack. She wishes she grew up in the 70s, devours all things Nora Ephron and is a sucker for a good flea market, garage sale, or antique fair.

  • Ryder Damen, Co-Founder & CTO: Ryder is a full-stack software engineer with years of experience mining and interpreting data. During the pandemic, Ryder built random AI inventions and vlogged his content. His quirky and fun approach to engineering allowed him to amass a social following of more than 1 million people across TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.

Let’s Cache up! In today’s newsletter…

What We’ve Been Working On:

  • We touched down in the concrete jungle of Manhattan and took #NYTechWeek by storm! Between the two of us, we had the opportunity to attend 25+ events. It was a wonderful week spent networking, ideating, and learning alongside some of tech’s best and brightest.

    Us being cute (*sweating buckets*) in Madison Square Park

  • We have been accumulating and creating content over the last few weeks in preparation to launch our social channels ~very~ soon. Keep your eyes peeled for fun vlogs, memes, and more coming to a device near you!

  • The product is taking shape, and she is starting to look reaaaal good. Think: major hot girl energy. We cannot wait for you to check her out.

What We’ve Learned:

  • When it comes to building consumer tech, in the early days, user growth > monetization. Of course, the goal is to build a profitable and sustainable business. To do so, a business model must be conceived and actualized. Nevertheless, without anyone using your product, there is no business to be had.

  • How do you get those users? Well, according to founder Anam Lakhani at Alinea, TikTok has proven to be a viable distribution strategy. At the Codi x f7 Ventures Panel last week, Anam shared that her team pumps out anywhere from 30-50 TikToks a week. While that may seem like a ton of effort and creative energy (and no doubt, it is), Anam’s and GenShe founder Avni Barman’s advice is to find a formula that works for your business through ongoing experimentation then repeat, repeat, repeat. 🫡

  • Another crucial part of the user experience is the onboarding journey. Anam made clear that for Alinea—an investing app for beginners, Gen Z, and women—this has been key. While this is perhaps even more relevant in a fintech environment which involves more upfront effort to use a product, we took this information to heart and are working to make your “meet cute” with Cache as cute (and seamless) as possible.

What We’re Reading: 

  • Consumers love to shop while they “work”: According to the WSJ, billions of dollars in online sales happen as consumers shop working hybrid or remotely. A noteworthy finding is that this is widely popular amongst the Gen Z cohort: “More than a quarter of women surveyed last year by shopping portal Rakuten said they typically shop online during work hours. For Gen Z, the share was 41%.”

  • Sustainability is a key force shaping commerce: Rex Woodbury, founder of Daybreak Ventures and the voice behind Digital Native, cites Sustainability, Supply Chain, and Overstock as three of the ten forces he sees shaping commerce today. We agree with his assessment and recognize how some of the other forces he highlights (namely, search reinvention and dynamic pricing) can be incorporated into what we are building at Cache.

  • Aftercare (i.e., repair services) as a solution for the secondhand sizing problem: Luxury resale platform Vestiaire Collective announced its recent partnership with clothing repair service Sojo (think: Uber for alterations). Vestiaire Collective revealed that 65% of their returns were due to sizing issues with pre-loved pieces, which remains a massive problem in the secondhand market.

  • “Resale remains an opportunity for those businesses that get it right”: Federica Levato, senior partner and EMEA leader of fashion and luxury at consultancy Bain is optimistic about resale: “The market’s expansion provides ample room for multiple players to coexist and thrive … Established platforms might rely on brand reputation and extensive customer bases, while new platforms might focus on niche markets, superior technology or enhanced customer experiences.” In addition, CEO Kruti Patel Goyal at Depop acknowledges that removing seller fees and improving search efficiency have been a priority for the peer-to-peer marketplace, particularly for users navigating their 34 million SKUs.

  • Consumer entrepreneurship is the place to be: While Consumer has become a “dirty” word in the venture capital ecosystem, Rex Woodbury makes a case for consumer entrepreneurship as a compelling opportunity. Woodbury highlights that shopping is a category to watch (to be unpacked in his next newsletter). Meanwhile, on the data front, Woodbury reports that Kirsten Green and Jason Bornstein at Forerunner Ventures analyzed over 12,000 venture-backed startups that have raised a Series B since 2010, categorizing the companies into consumer and enterprise. “They found that consumer companies are more likely to go public if they’ve raised a Series B. And of the consumer companies that went public, 18.8% did an IPO at a valuation of more than $10B, nearly double the 9.6% rate for enterprise companies.”

What’s Happening: 

Events in the community - some of which we are attending! :)

What’s Next: 

  • We are launching our Beta for Toronto-native users in just a few weeks! Want to be one of our early users? Join our waitlist.

  • We will attend and exhibit at the 2024 Collision Conference in Toronto between June 17-20th. We hope to see you there!

Until next time… Cache ya later!