Divya Gugnani is the co-founder of Send the Trend, a New York based startup that was recently acquired by QVC, just a year-and-a half after launching in 2010.
Gugnani, whose founding team includes Project Runway winner Christian Siriano, describes Send the Trend as “an online destination that offers curated and customized woman’s fashion accessories and beauty.” Items are priced at $29.95, and every month users have the option to purchase everything from earrings to bracelets specifically tailored to their taste.
Gugnani tells Founder Stories host Chris Dixon, that the idea for Send the Trend struck her after she left a career in finance to become an entrepreneur. No longer armed with a budget to shop at high end retail stores and receive the personalized assistance that goes with it, Gugnani wanted to “create the Saks like experience, but have it be done online.”
She adds, “the reason I chose accessories is that accessories are light to ship, have a very low return rate and they are pretty much size agnostic so a woman who is 300 pounds can wear the same earrings that a woman who is 90 pounds can, and so the whole model works very cost efficiently because you don’t have very high returns and sizing is not a real issue.”
After wrapping the topic, the two go on to discuss issues surrounding the subscription commerce space at large, before Gugnani tells Dixon lessons she’s learned while building her business.
She says of paramount importance is having a strong technology infrastructure. Noting that had Send The Trend positioned itself correctly, the site may not have crashed coast-to-coast after being featured on the Today Show.
Make sure to watch the entire video to hear additional insights and be sure to catch past episodes of Founder Stories featuring founders of ZocDoc, TripAdvisor, Kayak, Tumblr and Instagram.
Part II of this interview is coming up.