Conversation with Blake Smith, CEO of Cladwell
Tell us a bit about how you started working with Science.
It was fall of 2017 and we were 6 months into our app Cladwell when I sent an email out to my investors and asked them if they knew anyone who was a deep expert in paid subscription apps. Ben Coppel from GC1 emailed and introduced us to Mike Jones, CEO of Science. I had a call with Mike and he asked me to go through our entire funnel and retention — and just rapid fire said “that’s good”, “that’s bad”, “try this.” I had never met someone with so much context on our specific model — so we implemented a bunch of tests and hopped on the phone a month later with improved results. Rinse and repeat we did that for 6 months. It was a couple months in before I heard that they invested or took companies in their incubator who were post-launch. James suggested my team come out and meet him, Mike, and Peter — and we signed an incubation and investment deal in Spring of ‘18.
What are you trying to do with Cladwell? Has that evolved from when you got started?
We want to manage the world’s closets. It’s insane — people in the west only wear 20% of our clothes on an annual basis, and on average we spend 15 minutes each morning deciding what to wear, citing felt emotions like “rage” and “anxiety.” That’s bad, and we want to fix it. That has been true since the beginning of Cladwell. More recently though, we’ve looked at the retail industry — which is in total freefall right now. Turns out it is really hard to confidently pre-order millions of SKU’s and stock them when consumer tastes are evolving faster than ever before due to Instagram, Pinterest, influencers, etc. They need better data. And that’s where closets come in. The vast majority of your relationship with your clothing takes place each morning when you decide what to wear, throw out, put in storage, or even what you think you need to buy next. We believe that closets are the center of the fashion industry — and we think by managing the world’s closets we can create a platform where retailers can make better production, buying, and merchandising decisions. If we do it right, it will result in a world with less waste, retailers who are actually helpful, and humanity walking out the door confident each morning.
What’s a unique insight about how we buy, wear or manage our clothes that your predicated on?
People don’t buy clothes because they want more clothes. We buy clothes because we want novelty or confidence. So at Cladwell we figured out a way to style people with novelty: by creating outfits you’ve never thought of. And we promote what clothes to buy with confidence: these are the items you need based on your lifestyle, and they integrate perfectly in your current closet. By focusing on the human experience, I think we’re more helpful than many retailers who are promoting clothing items, rather than aiming to solve the felt needs.
How would you describe the majority of your user base? Has that changed from who you originally thought the product was targeted at? Any interesting insights you uncovered in that exploratory process?
Our prime prospect is a millennial working mother with one or two children. She’s got taste, but not necessarily time to invest in fashion. When we launched Cladwell we focused on young professional men — so, big change. We had probably 30 women a week emailing asking if we’d make Cladwell for them, so that led us to include, and later focus primarily (but not exclusively) on women. When we initially started we were focused more about wardrobe composition vs. what to wear each day. Resoundingly the primary un-addressed need was for the daily styling. However we found that using that data resulted in our ability to help with wardrobe composition as well.
Walk us through how people use your product daily.
We notify our customers at 5:30 am each morning that we’ve prepared outfits for them to wear based on the weather and for each occasion in their life. They open up the app, browse our recommended outfits, maybe edit the outfit slightly, then log the outfit and go on with their day. That evening she opens up the app to shop which items we think she is missing in her closet based on her daily habits. (60% CTR on recommendations on average viewing 5.5 items.) She also then often plans tomorrow’s outfit, or creates outfits and favorites them. A third of our customers use the app every day, with an average of 3.5 sessions each day.
Do you just help with managing and getting the best out of clothing people already own or do you also have plans to help them buy more?
We do both now. Managing closets encompasses what you wear, what you get rid of, and what you buy. What’s unique about us is that we use the data from what you wear to shape our recommendations on what to buy. We’re piloting this with some retailers currently and they think it could be a game changer.
What popular trend are you capitalizing on?
Amongst millennials there is a huge trend toward having fewer but better things. The trend in fashion is called a “capsule wardrobe.” Which is all about crafting an interchangeable wardrobe comprised of quality pieces. Our early adopters are often women who resonate with this trend, but could use some help getting there.
What kinds of behaviors are being underestimated or disregarded in fashion and clothing industry?
I don’t actually see many trends that are currently being underestimated in retail. At the c-level in most of these retailers they’re acutely aware of what is happening in the industry regarding share of wallet (vs. tech and experiences), a need for personalization, and the flight from brick and mortar. Unfortunately many of these retailers are not structured to propose creative solutions to those problems. So instead, they’re doubling down on what worked in the past — tunnel vision on selling more SKU’s through coupons, emails, promotions, and ads — rather than focusing on the human experience of clothing. I think Nordstrom is doing a good job focusing on the customer, but they’re an exception to the rule in many ways.
How has being in Ohio meaningfully helped or hurt you in terms of hiring, day to day operations, fundraising and business development?
In order to create something totally new, you need space away from the noise. Our team is quiet and focused on listening to and serving our customers — with relatively few distractions. However, in order to hire the best team and raise funding you need to be in the middle of the industry, and Cincinnati is not exactly the fashion tech capital of the world. So we do short tours in other cities ; LA in ’18 for 2 months this summer, SF in ’16 for 6 months. I love the dynamic of immersing yourself in a city for awhile, making a bunch of connections, then getting back into the act of creating. It works well for us, and my kids have gotten to experience a bunch of different cities.
What is your strongest belief about how we will think about fashion and clothing in the future?
Technology is really good at taking things that at one time only the mega-rich could afford, and making them accessible for us all. I have a vacation home in every city (Airbnb), a personal driver (Uber), an in-home movie theatre (Netflix), etc. So look at how the rich dress, and that is the future of fashion for us all. Celebrities have personal stylists that make sure they look good every day. It’s inevitable that personal styling and personal shopping will be accessible to everyone through technology. We intend to be the ones to do it.
