admin Dubai-based serial entrepreneur and online fashion retailer Elabelz and marketing studio Elephant Nation had planned to redesign the shopping experience for how customers actually shopped in stores and online.
Co-founder and Co-CEO of FlipFit Nooruldeen Agha said “If it was 1994 and we knew what technology is today and we want to reinvent this [shopping] experience… one thought was how we bought our whole life and how we go to the mall”
He further added, “Shopping is, for most people, a social activity. Friends go to the mall or department store together to try on clothes and ask each other for advice. Most online and offline shopping experiences are completely divorced from that.”
Nooruldeen Agha stated “Fashion shopping has always been a social experience. The decision for today’s shoppers to buy happens once they receive validation from friends and family, but e-commerce has made shopping very isolating. We are connecting the social behaviors of shopping, which were previously only possible offline, with a virtual experience.”
Agha wanted to create the new Los Angeles-based startup, FlipFit which have the social aspects of Instagram and the subscription box and retail elements of StitchFix.
Then at the Summit conference in Los Angeles he met Jonathan Ellman.
Ellman was the founder of the scout program at GreatPoint Ventures and has a history as an investor and an operator. He and spent years at HoneyBook. And he knew immediately likes Agha’s idea.
For the next year, the two laid the foundation for the business. As of now the company has 200 brands that have already signed including: AG, JBrand, Hudson, Retrobrand, Boyish, MadeWorn, Junkfood, Mavi and Edwin.
FlipFit works by creating a social network based on friends and followers. The company isn’t borrowing from Facebook or Instagram, but instead is trying to build out its network from scratch. Users of the app are encouraged to vote on selfies their friends take in different outfits. Each vote garners in-app cash that can be redeemed whenever someone purchases an item ($10 for each new voting user and $1 per vote).
The company is, to date, backed by a $3.75 million seed round led by TLV Partners with participation from Lool Ventures.
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