Why I Moved Across the Country for My Startup
In early 2016 I was doing almost exactly what I thought I wanted to be doing — I moved back home to the prairies, and was starting my professional life in Calgary, Alberta. After 6 years of living in Quebec and Ontario completing 2 University degrees, I was in desperate need of the mountains, the prairies, and the place I loved to call ‘home’. In January 2016, I received a Facebook message from an old friend asking me to do some work on the side for her new business idea. Little did I know, within 2 years I’d be back in Ontario, in our own office, working with a team of 6, with our own line of bridesmaid dresses being launched in less than 2 months.
I’ve always been the type of person to weigh the alternatives to any decision, but ultimately go with my gut. When my now business partner asked me to join her new startup, something just felt right. We had worked together previously during university, and were definitely what I would call ‘School Friends’ — essentially, once we both left school, our relationship almost completely dissipated. That is, until she messaged me to see if I would jump on board with a new Business Idea. She quickly explained it as a bridesmaid dress rental service. The wedding industry has been relatively stagnant for many years, and although men have been renting suits for years, women did not have the same option when it comes to dresses. I was hooked. A new creative outlet that ALSO evened the playing field a bit for women? Count me IN.
For the first 8 months of the business, we worked separately — I was in Calgary, she was in Toronto. We kept a weekly communication, and worked on our own separate tasks. In August, my co-founder applied for Canada’s First Accelerator Program for Female Entrepreneurs, which would take place in Kitchener, Ontario. One of the stipulations of our admission was that I would have to move back to Kitchener for 6 months to participate in the program. In early September we found out that we were accepted to the program, and within a week I packed up my life into my little car, and started on a 3,400 KM solo road trip back to Ontario. Within a month of the program, I knew it’d be much longer than 6 months before I would call the west home again.
At first, we thought the biggest issue women had with bridesmaid dresses is that they were expensive. So all we had to do is buy the dresses, rent them out, repeat. Easy, right? It wasn’t until digging a bit deeper that we realized there was a whole section of the buying experience that we weren’t solving — the alterations. Multiple women would tell us about that wedding they were just in where they had to pay $300 for a dress, and an additional $150 for alterations. I have a friend who got a dress altered for a wedding, and then had it split wide open day of the wedding, needing to be sewn into the dress as a literal last-stitch effort. We needed to fix the way these one-time use dresses were made to make sure they weren’t just the only rental dresses on the market, but also the best bridesmaid dresses available to wedding parties.
Fast forward just over a year from the start of that program, and here we are, sitting in our new office, with a team of 6, in the middle of production on a new line of dresses built by us. We’re not trained fashion designers, nor do we have a designer on our team, so we had to come at the problem with the view of a user. What do we dislike about the current offering of bridesmaid dresses? What are the common complaints, and how do we solve those? What would I want my bridesmaids to wear? More importantly, how do I want them to feel in their dresses? It hasn’t been the easiest learning experience by any means, but I don’t think I would have wanted it any other way.
It’s been just under 2 years and I’ve been able to add the following titles to my resume:
- Fashion Designer
- Buyer
- Digital Marketing Specialist
- Social Media Marketing Expert
- Manager
- Hiring Manager
- Logistics Expert
- Supply Chain Manager
- SEO
- Blogger
- Production Planner
- Process Improvement Manager
- Change Manager
- Sales Manager
- etc.
So why did I pack up and move across the country for my startup? It’s simple. I’ve now unknowingly set myself up for almost any job in the future that I could want. Dropping everything and risking it all for a startup isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m sure glad I decided to take a sip.
