(images courtesy Blynk)
Fall fashion tips from a personalized stylist in your pocket: Blynk, built by a U of T entrepreneur
Users swipe their way to new purchases as Blynk app gains industry steam
Published: September 15, 2014
According to Shums Kassam, a U of T engineering degree equips its students with many valuable things, but a solid fashion sense isn’t one of them.
“I wasn’t really into fashion, but after getting styled by a fashionable friend, my confidence increased and I found value in dressing and presenting myself better,” says the fourth-year engineering science student. “This was not something I learned from my engineering education.”
What Kassam has already learned at U of T are the skills that allowed him to build a digital personal stylist for mobile phones and the connections that inspired him to launch it as a business. Kassam and his co-founder Jaclyn Ling designed their business around an app that combines user style preferences, instant purchases, and the addictive “Tinder”-style swipe-right/swipe-left format.
“Through a Tinder-like interface, users swipe through inspiration photos (left to dislike, right to like). Blynk learns users' style preferences and recommends a full outfit users can buy, based on what they like. Users also have the ability to build and share outfits, and even request outfits from fashion stylists – all for free. Blynk's vision is to provide free and accessible fashion advice to everyone through a simple, fun and addicting platform,” he says. “An average personal stylist costs over $100 an hour. Blynk replicates this value for free, anytime and anywhere.”
The company developed as part of the Next 36 entrepreneurship development program, co-founded by U of T’s Ajay Agrawal.
Since going through Next 36, Kassam and Ling launched Blynk to great market and media interest, including features in Toronto Life, Global TV, the Globe and Mail and more. Kassam says the attention has been driven largely by the company's entrepreneurial drive, as they've already pitched at industry showcases and even won a $100,000 investment for top spot in the International Startup Festival competition.
Kassam spoke with U of T News about what’s next for the growing company.
It all started with a wardrobe problem
Jaclyn and I arrived at this startup idea when she took me shopping early December and gave me style suggestions. My confidence improved, and I really liked dressing better. We started working on Blynk in early April – developing it on Android while finishing up exams at school. Since then the startup has been going well. We won $100,000 from the International Startup festival and have had over 8,000 downloads while the app has been only out for about two months.
An app empowering fashion fans and fashion-challenged alike
Blynk is for a variety of people – for someone like myself, I use Blynk because it helps me find products that I like and helps me define my own style. However, Blynk is also for fashion enthusiasts that want inspiration, or to share their love of fashion with others by posting content. Essentially, Blynk is for those that want to improve their style or those that enjoy expressing their style.
Blynk taps into the fashion blog community
The fashion photos come from different bloggers. We have partnered with a few fashion posts to upload content. In a newer version of Blynk (coming out within the next few weeks), users can upload their own content and, if approved, the content will be put in the feed. We are also planning (and already are starting) to partner with professional stylists. We continue to approve more stylists to our app.
Monetization driven by users and vendors
Many retail stores have contacted us because of interest in native advertising and in affiliate programs, where we can make a commission.
The real reason a fashion-challenged engineer devotes his time to a styling app
I have a real passion for entrepreneurship – I see so much value in it, because it is a way to provide jobs and improve economic growth, while also trying to disrupt systems.
Brianna Goldberg writes about startups and entrepreneurship for U of T News; read more about entrepreneurs at U of T.)
The Spotlight on Startups series features the many entrepreneurial efforts growing from the hundreds of companies spun out from research and connections sparking every day at the University of Toronto:
U of T hosts more than 50 enterprise-fostering courses, programs, labs, clubs, contests and speaker series across its faculties, departments and campuses — and then there are all the innovations developing in informal settings. U of T ranks No. 1 in North America for number of startups launched. And its roster of spinoff companies driving innovation in Toronto and around the world continues to grow.
Visit the University of Toronto entrepreneurship site to learn more about U of T's enterprise-fostering courses, labs, programs and more.
