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How Startups Are Breaking The Rules and Challenging The Norm

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Last month 24 Seven proudly sponsored Ember’s Showcase Day, an event in which startups and emerging companies have the chance to pitch their products to a panel of esteemed judges. Presenters ranged from a sustainable beauty company, Loli, to a startup that’s reinventing how we pay for products, Quadpay, to a phantom commerce platform, TVPNYC. While the companies were diverse in their offerings, there were common themes and challenges faced by all presenters.

Make it Customizable. Make it Sustainable.

Sustainability and customization are founding principles for beauty startup, Loli. Loli is a product first, zero waste, organic beauty brand. They start with a base product and then offer their consumers the ability to customize which is a huge selling point. Their products are also locally sourced, for example their Plum Elixir base is cold pressed in the south of France because the plums come directly from a farm in France. Similarly, Stantt, a menswear line of custom shirts, is grounded in the principle that clothing should come in a large variety of sizes, tailored to the customer’s needs. They offer 99 different sizes for menswear custom shirts and they can make and deliver shirts in 7 days. The company has done data analysis on over 10k try-ons to come up with their many customizations. Stantt shirts are sold in 220 stores as of today – Rothman’s, Mitchell, Nordstrom, Trunk Club – and they’re scaling in Nordstrom & Saks.

Break the rules

The idea behind QuadPay is why pay in full when you can pay in four? The startup is disrupting consumer buying behavior with a fundamental shift in psychology. 63% of millennials (QuadPay’s target demographic) don’t trust themselves with credit cards. So the company is offering shoppers a low risk way to pay for goods overtime without racking up credit card debt. QuadPay is increasing the flow of new customers to merchant websites by 11% on average, including brands like Erno Lazlo, For Love & Lemons and LuMee.

Bet on digital marketing and partnerships

Lux Beauty Club, a beauty startup providing DIY hair extensions, is using digital marketing and partnerships to fuel their growth. They’ve partnered with Priv, as well as Univision & Telemundo for pop-ups targeting the Latina market. Tell, a platform that helps organizations source influencers and improve ROI, is also banking on the success of digital marketing.  Influencer Marketing is a $2.5B market according to Tell’s founder, Josh Henner. The platform helps companies with audience selection, economics, workflows, and tracking organic followers.

Talent

One common thread among all presenters, was the need for top talent to put brilliant ideas into action. Some of the most sought after candidates include Front End Developers, Engineers, Direct to Consumer Strategists, Digital Marketing Managers, and Pop-Up Operations. In addition to checking all the boxes for the skills required of a role, talent must also possess the ability to learn quickly and pivot to be successful at these fast moving startups. For more information on 24 Seven’s other event partnerships click here. And to start the search for your next superstar employee contact us today.