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Nasty Gal, an Online Start-Up, Is a Fast-Growing Retailer
- lukeholder 14y agoThis seems like advert for 'eBay pages'.
- knowtheory 14y agoExcept that it mentions several key insights that the founder used to exploit market opportunities. She clearly has solid domain knowledge that allowed her to buy low and sell high, through not just thrift stores (which is labor intensive, but certainly not a new concept), but also identifying people who didn't have her expertise and thus didn't appreciate the value of the goods they were selling. It also sounds like she had a model that allowed her to build an engaged userbase and enlist them to help her build the business. Granted this is all just what one article says, but this is exactly the sort of thing you're supposed to do as a start up of any kind. Sounds like a relevant success story to me.
- prawn 14y agoShe said that eBay was a terrible place to start a business.
- fizz_and_buzz 14y ago"Ms. Amoruso also outgrew eBay, which she said was a terrible platform to start a business. Competitors started flagging Nasty Gal for breaking the site’s rules by, for example, linking to Ms. Amoruso’s Myspace page. Fed up, she decided it was time to start ShopNastyGal.com."
- paulhauggis 14y agoIt's not just this. Many users are terrible and will leave you negative feedback based on what they are feeling that day, even if you did everything right. I bend over backwards for my customers and still get negatives. College students seem to be the worst. If they don't get things exactly their way, you get a negative.
- gamblor956 14y agoDowntown LA is home to a thriving fashion startup scene, but it doesn't get much coverage (aside from male-led startups like ShoeDazzle) because fashion isn't something that the (largely male) startup world understands.
- awongh 14y agowhat other companies are in that scene that I wouldn't have heard of?
- sachingulaya 14y agoCombatant Gentlemen ( http://www.combatgent.com http://www.combatgent.com )
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- lowglow 14y agoThis seems like a great founder/product fit. She's hip/cool/fashionable and knows her product and demo pretty well. I really like the fact that stuck through the grind, and slowly built up a loyal following. I think that is something missing from a lot of start-ups in the valley right now. People tend to shut down their projects when people don't come flocking. This also might be a testament to just building something people want.
- mgkimsal 14y agoThere's nothing in that article that suggests she "did a startup" though, which is the other side of the coin. She resold some clothes on ebay to make a few extra bucks, and it grew from there.
- tjic 14y agoWhat's your definition of startup? She started a company and it grew. Works for me.
- mgkimsal 14y agoI run in to loads of people that want to "do a startup". They've subscribed to the culture of 'tech startup', they know all the buzzwords, go to the right networking events, learn about VC and term sheets before they even have a product or service, and so on. She did have a Virgin tattoo, and was/is a fan of Branson from an early age; I'm assuming from that she had a head for business early on, and built from that, but that is miles different from the 'startup culture' I run in to these days ("how many accelerators have you applied to? are you on angel list?" etc)
- DanielRibeiro 14y agoSophia gave a very good, albeit a bit long, interview recently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y04gnM57Sow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y04gnM57Sow This has a lot more insights into how she built Nasty Gal, and how she raised her series A.
- marcamillion 14y agoWow....thanks for this. I LOVE this girl. She built Nasty Gal in the most healthy way possible. LOVE IT!!
- jseliger 14y agoIs there a transcript somewhere?
- tantalor 14y agoThe eBay misspelling trick is nothing new: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ebay+mispelling http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ebay+mispelling
- fab101 14y agoA great success story. She just mapped her own personality online, and tried to make money out of it - which her company did, boatloads of. Could be a classic example of "look around, and try to solve a problem that you face yourself and people like yourself. that would be a great idea for a startup".
- shard 14y agoPaywall-less Google link to article: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&ved=0CEQQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2013%2F03%2F25%2Ftechnology%2Fnasty-gal-an-online-start-up-is-a-fast-growing-retailer.html%3Fpagewanted%3Dall&ei=gu9PUbP9O-nqiAfN14HwBA&usg=AFQjCNGjOtMuWLxE4AyBpfUngaBZyUmLdA&bvm=bv.44158598,d.aGc http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&#...
- tantalor 14y agoHow does this company compare to Rue La La? http://www.ruelala.com/ http://www.ruelala.com/
- leeny 14y agoRue La La is a flash sale site (a la Gilt Groupe, Amazon's MyHabit, and so on). Their inventory changes pretty quickly (something like 48 hours, I think), and different brands are featured during each iteration. NastyGal doesn't appear to have rolling inventory; rather it seems they have relationships with some set of brands, but the brands themselves aren't front and center. Moreover, NastyGal also appears to have its own brand, which RueLaLa does not (though Gilt Groupe does have its own Gilt Home (ie furniture) line).
- jval 14y agoI don't know anything about fashion but I spoke to some friends who are lifelong fashion addicts. Apparently in the fashion blogosphere they're more well known for copying small designers than they are for the quality of their clothing: http://la.racked.com/archives/2013/01/09/nasty_gal_engages_in_some_supernasty_instagram_bickering.php http://la.racked.com/archives/2013/01/09/nasty_gal_engages_i...
- adventured 14y agoAmancio Ortega has made $50 billion copying other designers. Sincerest form of flattery and all that.
- brador 14y agoHow does protection work on fashion? Anyone got a tldr on fashion copyright/design protection?
- netcan 14y agoThere's an interesting 1hr podcast (with transcript) here: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2010/06/blakely_on_fash.html http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2010/06/blakely_on_fash.htm... The tldr is: In the fashion industry there is limited protection for innovative designs and as a result, copying is rampant. Despite the ease of copying, innovation is quite strong in the industry and there is a great deal of competition. I would add that, (1) the clothing industry is similar now to the the time IP was being legislated so it was directly addressed rather than derived by similarity to other areas. Its a little more logical and true to the original goals of IP than areas that derive. (2) There is a big element of hivemind/zeitgeist/emergence in fashion because people invent their own outfit every time they dress. (3) The combination of innovative fashion & quality is what makes high fashion brands valuable. (4) the lack of IP protection actually fuels innovation as a design will remain somewhat exclusive for a season only.
- brador 14y agoInteresting. I think anyone interested in software patents should listen to the first 10 minutes of this. Good info about utilitarian-ness being the reason clothing design is free of protection.
- Trindaz 14y agoI'm surprised to read Nasty Gal being seen as a fad - what indicators of stability are stronger than 6 years of consistent growth? Don't fashion fads have a single season 6 month life expectancy?
- adventured 14y agoFor a brand like Nasty Gal, it's dependent on the people running it and their ability to constantly shift with the tide. Very few can do it, but some entrepreneurs do pull it off (and they often end up as huge fashion brands). Fashion trends have a short life expectancy, but if you can change with them season after season, then you'll be a monster in the fashion world.
- atx 14y ago-e 's/fashion/startup/gI' -e 's/Nasty Gal/SomeStartup/gI' For a brand like SomeStartup, it's dependent on the people running it and their ability to constantly shift with the tide. Very few can do it, but some entrepreneurs do pull it off (and they often end up as huge startup brands). startup trends have a short life expectancy, but if you can change with them season after season, then you'll be a monster in the startup world.
- muhfuhkuh 14y agoSo, you're Friendster one year, Facebook the other? Don't most industries work in the same "it-girl" cycles?
- subsystem 14y agoNot as extreme as fashion, there's a reason vogue is called vogue :)
- rdouble 14y agoIt would be interesting (but unlikely) to hear about the company's entire financial picture. After working in online fashion retail, it's clear almost nobody is making money, despite what their revenues are.
- adventured 14y agoIf you spend some time on their site, you'll notice they have huge margins. eg: http://www.nastygal.com/clothes/paisley-sky-overalls http://www.nastygal.com/clothes/paisley-sky-overalls $78 for overalls. Or $65 for a bikini bottom - http://www.nastygal.com/clothes/righteous-bikini-bottom http://www.nastygal.com/clothes/righteous-bikini-bottom It wouldn't surprise me at all if their net margin is great (compared to most retail).
- rdouble 14y agoThat doesn't really mean much - most online fashion retail has similar markups, and nobody else is making money. Edit: In the case of the 2nd piece, Nasty Gal probably isn't making much money on it at all. It's made in the USA (which is usually a higher cost item), and the direct from manufacturer price is 63 dollars. Thus, it's probably a drop ship item with a razor thin margin.
- possibilistic 14y agoHow are they not making any money with the large margins they see? Could you elaborate?
- rdouble 14y agoSites like these have huge expenses. In addition to having to pay staff ranging from programmers to models, they take on a lot of risk when they buy and warehouse the products. Consumers are fickle. If the site buys the wrong stuff, they are perpetually losing money on it as it takes up space in the warehouse. The business model for online fashion retail is for the founders to extract as much cash as they can for themselves while it's hot and leave investors holding the bag when it's not. I would take any article about such a company with grain of salt. One thing these companies do well is PR. Getting media placement often comes easy for them as employees of magazines, newspapers and blogs are often into fashion themselves and are eager to run a story about something they are personally interested in.
- kylebrown 14y agoThis might be off-topic, but it reminded me of some recently uploaded documentary footage of a 1996 LA teen subculture "Dirty Girls".[0] 0. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3MxEHQk644 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3MxEHQk644
- alseeger 14y agothat's true and a really interesting company.
- svantana 14y agoInteresting story, but I find the whole cinderella angle extremely tiresome. Isn't cinderella about women dreaming about being courted by a rich man? Seems to me there are plenty of rags-to-riches stories/legends that are better fits - but then again, those are not about women...
- rdouble 14y ago"Cinderella Story" is now a pop phrase which simply means exceeded expectations. It is most commonly used in sports. In this context it fits perfectly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella_(sports) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella_(sports)
- jongold 14y agoNasty Gal are killing it - my girlfriend is totally obsessed with them.
- nsoun 14y agoGrig Gheorghiu, their VP of ops, just did a great Q&A: http://boundary.com/blog/2013/03/18/grig-gheorghiu-on-the-murky-world-of-devops/ http://boundary.com/blog/2013/03/18/grig-gheorghiu-on-the-mu... Yes, very hot company.
- mstank 14y agoHere is a great fireside chat with Nasty Gal's CEO Sophia Amoruso http://video.pandodaily.com/t6t2/fireside-chat-with-nasty-gal-ceo-sophia-amoruso/ http://video.pandodaily.com/t6t2/fireside-chat-with-nasty-ga...