This week, Masters and Founders host Dan Dillard is joined by fellow entrepreneurial enthusiast Ryan Francis as they interview Finery founders, Brooklyn Decker and Whitney Casey. The dynamic duo are full of great advice about working as co-founders, staying organized, and thinking outside of the box when making your pitch.

Guests: Brooklyn Decker and Whitney Casey of Finery, The Wardrobe Operating System
Host: Dan Dillard, joined by Ryan Francis
Producer: Myrriah Gossett
Music by: Scott Holms

foundingAUSTIN
Masters and Founders Facebook Group

 

Transcript: very the company started can be daunting from initial idea to final product there are many steps to have to come together before the public and even take a look at your product recorded during south by southwest I infill entrepreneurial enthusiast Ryan Francis sat down with finery co founders Brooklyn decker and Whitney Casey another names might sound familiar outside of the tech space and that is because you’ve probably seen in both on television Brooklyn decker has appeared on the net Flix show grace and Frankie as Mallory and has also graced the pages of many magazines as a model Whitney is a long term journalist who has had two years of broadcast experience in New York and in Houston the two of them came together to found finery an online wardrobe management tool the two of them are quite a collective creative force here is our interview with Brooklyn decker and we doctor would you talk to us a little bit about your background and your history and what you’re doing right now yeah so I started as a model many many years ago Brooklyn Decker and became the ultimate cliche I transitioned to acting years after that Brooklyn Decker and so I am currently on a show called grace and Frankie on Netflix as an actor Brooklyn Decker however one of my dear friends I met in Austin Whitney Casey and she denied for many years have wanted to go into business together and we both kind of have media backgrounds totally different from one another but still like in the media space on a lot of times you don’t know when the next job is going to come and we both have an entrepreneurial spirit and also wanted to do something for those down months we were like what kind of business can we start Brooklyn Decker and finery was the brain child of Whitney we had talked about several different ideas and she brought this idea to me and you know that like aha moment when something comes to you and you say why doesn’t this exist already up that’s what I felt with finery and so she and I pursued this passion and launch it exactly a year ago very awesome I love it she said brain child and me in one’s love it that’s not cliche belong to bring this is your child do what we do is we when we we we said we wanted to do things together we have been crazy dumb ideas just like down we just like Hollywood try this and then we got really passionate about it and we were talking earlier about fear and the two of us we were we were never we’re just not fearful people but we also just knowing dumb idea and really has just done let’s not do that and down because it exists already there were so many ideas we had more like people are you doing this and doing it really well why would we try to break into that space right like and then when it hits you it had to because you realize I want this and every one of my friends wants it to not because they’re just being like super nice about it but they talked about it they said I have a real pain point here and why is it why does this exit and before we jump into the idea I want to live out background you on your own yeah I ate my background is media news specifically television news if it bleeds it leads all me mercy love ahead of us so I did that for a decade to recall if it bleeds it leads yeah it it was pretty bad wow I have never heard that before yeah before you really ask if I could enter a burning building and and you know the truth yeah yeah right is very cool let’s jump into into let’s go back to this the brainchild so when were you when they come out and what was the worst instrument it was a year ago that we actually been in the works two years but we launched a year ago Brooklyn Decker right forces south by southwest we got together and we thought well you know south by southwest is where a lot of people want we will not do that home but after like about it on three weeks after we launched last year and it’s been a year now that we’ve had users and real feedback and our users say but they love it and that they want everyone to sign up for it so if a company called finer we haven’t talked with the name of the yeah the name is very finery and a little back on what it is it’s we call the words of operating system your wardrobe with smarter and if you think about how you see I tunes because I’m a little older but knew kids would say Spotify but if you think about I tunes before it existed you had your CD books in on your your member on your your at like in your your rear view mirror in your car Brooklyn Decker you had CD albums everywhere and then all of a sudden it’s like a way to convert all of this in one place on my desktop or my phone how cool is this and I can have my music with me everywhere I go why does that not exist for clothing women spend more money on their clothing then all spent on their education over their lifetime which is a pretty shocking statistic and yet there’s nothing out there to help us manage it so that’s refinery comes in yes and what in the in the beginning of in the early stages of development where where was the aha moment that you guys are like this where did you see the problem where did you see the opening for well when we started talking we were saying well you know when you signed when you finish shopping at you know like a revolvers are up an online when you check out you finish and you would want to say put this into my wardrobe for me because you’re getting an email and that’s very perfunctory never go check the email and tell like something’s missing from your order so the email is just sort of a part of the process but we thought at the end it you could just the company could say would you like to put this into your closet and your wardrobe but then we realize like okay that’s impossible because you would have to have a sales team that would go approach every retailer and right now we support seven hundred and twenty five retailers can you imagine what they’ll steam from so we did not do that instead we solved with technology and we have been using things like tripit which is an email parser that goes in and find all of your travel itineraries and your rental cars in your hotel and put them all into one email for you but it looks through your email receipt and Fleiss was doing it in mint was doing it for banking and so we thought well there has to be a way to do this for fashion because we all get that obligatory email that tells us your order is coming and here’s what’s in your order so we said let’s figure out how to understand those receipts and they all are like fingerprints they have like the DNA of their own their truncated senses B. L. U. is blue on one side and it’s V. L. are violated on the other which makes no sense doesn’t change multiple times like their receipt trains like I exactly what a reader will change their receipt composition like four times a year so we’re constantly to keep up with that it’s quite intend that’s and that’s why it has not existed before so we asked why doesn’t this exists votes why not easy to wear for patents on it so it was a lot more we thought it would take a lot less time to make and everybody every founders thing fat and it’s always the case for but in this case it’s still a work in progress because as for saying it it’s not it’s not like we created attack and it sits there it’s involving because they’re constantly changing room and with the I’ve learned about software is you’re never done it even even face today still of all and the same with with most software we always costly long so if someone’s going to get used to the ushers this article that we’re going to go into so we’re also doing some content for our next show in Austin issue and it’s about the law and so one thing that we noticed and Brooklyn Decker in founders is you have to allow things to flow and work and work life balance all that how do you guys I know that you will one of the little brother you lost I live in all you do work in the California your can you with the live in New York and cut travel up how do you balance it all go ahead slack slack does help flak yeah I mean Flack and just really being vigilant about updating each other making sure that were costly checking and and really what it is it’s actually so great to not all be in the same office because what we’ll do is sort of by the end of the day or when there’s a real problem that is like being hashed out by all these people in the office Brooke is basically the west coast office or Austin office they can call and say okay here the seven issues that are happening and she is just a fresh perspective from it or the opposite like she’s out there trying to build this community for us and she’ll say Hey I’m like really I don’t know where this is going on but Brooklyn Decker that’s easy this way but for the same off office were it’s just such a redundancy of problems that we that you don’t really it’s actually I would say founder should try to like maybe not office together is you are fresh you really solve problems from a totally different perspective when everybody has different skills like right it’s at some people are better at others than I mean and that’s what everybody is pretty universal so that makes a ton of sense to me it’s a really good piece of advice that really possible yes tried yeah yeah works I think it makes sense a lot of great companies actually just have all of their employees work from home and they have an office if you want to commend but they work from home there’s accountability of course but yeah you always have kind of fresh especially with like something like technology everything’s evolving so quickly how we do all work from anywhere Wednesday Brooklyn Decker we we find the best code is pushed on Wednesdays the best ideas come out the most refreshing parts of the day at like parts of ideas come out on Wednesdays when no one is working together but then we do have slack last Thursday’s which is don’t use lack on Thursday there’s a huge slap slash liking people stop talking to each other so on Thursdays you’re not supposed to slack on Wednesdays all you do is black and then all work and I do it’s like but and also video chat is so amazing for screen share is like your backs runnable featherweight slack for anyone out there who doesn’t know what it is we’re talking a lot about that it’s basically like a messaging software that an entire team can use and it’s just quicker and more organized like an email or text chain obviously with all effects with your own here to higher office yeah you could just quickly message somebody it’s kind of how like just what was it with our AOL messenger yeah it’s okay I am yeah yeah yeah AOL instant messenger what I love about this is that you can categorize conversations yeah your topics and so unlike instant messenger a Latino yet unlike those are the ones it’s like you can just hear the topic in and it lights up that there’s new messages there and the kids all organized that are here actually pleaded of it never when you’re founder everyone of those topics is your topic you know I don’t talk about design today I’m gonna give this twenty minutes the design stand alone and I don’t want to look at when you guys of finally took it from paper napkin to idea to say let’s go me what was that experience like did you you have to go ma’am measure out photos yourselves your girlfriend coding team yet by what you imagine that that will totally getting weird now I feel we are not we have a great had a product Gillis Brooklyn Decker who Whitney met years ago and he had an out of the news that before you came to us and it didn’t go well because all this and you had news on Facebook an apple news and all the stuff the kind of trumped his apt but he did really well Brooklyn Decker he’s a total Brainiac and he literally gave Whitney an elevator pitch years ago and so when this thought came to her she went to Gillis I was like I know she was an adviser on his board Brooklyn Decker she’s like I know I can do I know you can do this and it was really helped us out of this product we started hiring engineers and then and our team is seventeen well which is a lot of harm and it’s a very heavy back end so there’s a lot it’s not even like sexy awesome full stacker front and beautiful coding is a lot of like all data all data systems like what kind of help what containers are you using how fast can you scale how fast can we get through those emails if you tackle somebody with a big email account and we’re basically saying we need to get your items in your wardrobe fast you may have to go through you know hundreds of thousands of emails in each server and handle the one email fax like you have to be to get it in their closet in thirty seconds otherwise you lose them or there’s huge drop off so from ideation to you know actual first there were only four of us and then and it was harrowing and also there’s that time where you’re like I I’m not going to launch yet we’re not launching we’re not logic and then somebody comes to you and says I want to give if I want to do an exclusive on you guys and we’re like alright we’ll be launching new launching disaster happened yeah I’m asking about that with the momentum when to do you feel that you said you would idea of safe for two years and it lost a year ago it was the year it was the year well until launch exactly and then that when the when we got this thing exclusive and this is you know they wanted to really they wanted to launch as they gave us the date and we said to the dog team alright guys this is the date and then that’s always good because I really do feel like it’s never going to be perfect and is the founder you have to just like be ballsy and say we’re not this isn’t going to be the final product but we can’t just keep it a rating here in our own little bubble you gotta put it out there and it’s going to be flawed and you gotta ask for forgiveness and just improve and then tell your users all the time we got to improve we got to improve the work just we want to and that we listen to our users a lot Brooke talks are users we we we generally call on the phone I just I mean that’s really the way to to like get down to brass tacks about what actually is your product really producing what you set out to and is it solving a real problem or is it just like your thing yeah definitely when was when was what’s your biggest roadblock like they you actually sat there and and you’re like this is this could stop everything or have you had any of those moments when he when we wish to wear your your Instagram we we were still in private beta yes and we wanted to load test and it just we had no wait it so there’s interesting load testing is really easy for sites you can hire companies that will load test but are low test you can’t use fake email accounts you have to actually look you can’t because **** will not let you access that we use we use their access like Brooklyn Decker office called so we can’t create a bunch of fake emails and then the people have to have a really males to parse them so to load test your own system you you really can’t so you just have to actually build up your user base and then keep testing that and so the first time we did it but put an Instagram post out to her give billions of people and yeah we crash like eating crash we we just didn’t load habitat for also say like in in this me working on now and it’s certainly not a problem but it was an unexpected sort of turn in the road for us we had we kind of set out you know for finery to be a productivity tool to help women manage their inventory the stuff that they have and we thought that that was going to be our product and what we found is when you send like we’re able to iterate quickly on user feedback what we were hearing was like no no I agree you have all my stuff now what I would go to style I want you to tell me what to wear tell me what to buy and so we’re actually in a big redesign now that totally changed the way the you enter our site Michael as it currently stands you enter our site and you see all your stuff and for someone like me I I love that I love just I love having this inventory management system but a lot lot of women don’t to see their stuff they want to be taught how to put it together and so we’re working on that now and that was really surprising because it kind of made our products take I would say like a left turn but like a little fear in the road you know those little fork in it right yeah and apparently worked yeah and and we’re building on that and so I just didn’t know we just isn’t out just yet what it is or what that’s exactly right so and it’s always changing like Spotify they just wanted to listen to music but they want to play lists actually and so we have to start making place yeah beautiful thing that I’ve learned over all the answers no list of interview is that Brooklyn Decker wants to launch a business is just the starting point and then it just pivot in private and grow and grow and and you will start a year from now your your business will look different a year from then will it look different images is bill still have a threat to it but you’ll start seeing where it just kind of takes shape of its of its own and so I’m I’m I’m hearing that from you guys just like we have this idea and also we have it at a pivot and this is what we learned and your your I I think it is like kind of start to become sort of an over used word I mean I feel like a kid it is something went wrong you have to change and what I feel like we’re doing is something went right your users are talking to you because when things go wrong you don’t have users talk to you they just peace out at the end user like okay no no no okay here’s what we want guys we want this to me like in addition to that so how about I I like to say is one less of a pity yeah it was a like it’s more of a pass not of heaven because like that they’re leading our path they’re going to tell us where to go next and so it’s not even turning around and trying something different it’s basically a path to where they want to be your right you are exactly right one of the things that I like that when people tell me that all the time right so you’re going to get a ring tone she is going to take this and make her ring tone you’re right you’re right one of things that Brooklyn Decker my philosophy on business is that it involves because their own faults of the words I use a lot for whatever we do is like a system folder because it doesn folder from you lots of people want to stay in that planning note for the first year because the safety switches planning which is finally having lunch or just plain but once you pull the trigger insist of all it’s going to evolve and change do so safe you’re right and that’s also what happened with our athletes like we can’t because we we want with desktop what what we learned was seventy percent of women shop on their desktop still you know everybody that mobile mobile mobile seventy percent of purchases are made on your desktop still in apparel so we launched I’m a desktop products and then of course it just seems like natural that you would have your you want to be mobile with your wardrobe Brooklyn Decker then you’re not gonna be rolled around your laptop at the airport trying to pick out an outfit so then we had this happen and we have not launching it maybe have not well I mean it was just and I finally was like look lets you secretly put it we actually technically have not launched it it is in the app store thank you yeah we’re just like fine I mean the only way to do it is just put it there launch it we don’t have to push it yeah I’m going to promote it but let’s launch it let’s get it out there because the only way you can grow is by listening to that user feedback for how has your personal Brooklyn Decker sense of style change with your own out since of style maybe that’s the wrong word may have you had has the option is to you and how you look at clothing and how you buy clothing or not you still just like an organized has it has it has changed mostly because what it’s done it’s it’s really reduced my spending because I see what I have and I’m someone who I like what I like and so I buy redundantly you know I’d love a black blazer I love a black long skirt and I have several of them and so I forget that I have them because they’re sitting the back of my closet collecting dust but when I can actually see it all on finery right in front of me I’m like oh and I don’t need one of those I can just not spend Raynor Oregon by something really funky so for me it’s actually reduced my shopping significantly Brooklyn Decker just because I’m not making all those redundant purchases but Whitney has a really good role that she now applies because a finer to her shopping I don’t buy anything unless it goes with I can put it in three outfits nice so basically because you’ll find find you like things but do they really go with anything you own are you going to have to create a whole look around that thing your finances so now it’s like oh I can easily do this I can go in my wardrobe look to see of him I want to buy these green of shoes do they go with everything they have to go with three they have to of course all like try and I can just little it’s like having a try on before and buying was I put it on my wish list and then I take any I put it on a little bored and I take things from my closet and I see if they match so my wish this is what I want and my closet is what I have initial shares with me I be like okay should I buy that’s really good rule I’ve never heard it and it makes a hundred percent since the day I wish I could tell my mother that if it actually is treatments and everything so organizes you and yours spending last I find Sir not to do that so now submitted Russia you can have crossed over to you it may cost you an extra ten fifty Bucks of liberty however you’re only getting precision on what you’re bringing up doing all these purchases that are just of off the cuff purchases that’s so true but the other thing the trigger but you what you just said it is there should be an applicant’s Fuhrman’s tools because often we buy tools over and over again like I’ve I’ve done this many times as I don’t have this and I will buy again and then load the whole two weeks later there to us and I’ve got to him since the duplicates waiting seat in your toolbox is like again right going yet you go buy another one a duplicate Adam from the organization and simplicity standpoint and I really love that we’re comparing the women’s closet to tools and that’s kind of like a toolbox yes it’s our toolbox to yeah yeah yeah that’s just as important members I should use that well we’re raising that’s not actually yeah I would’ve been so good we were using like you picking out for before you get ready for dinner we were heading for a guy you pick a restaurant before you go out to dinner we were trying to connect the two food but I like it to block that they go to vote to keep buying minutes he had in mind find that same screwdriver so he said I love that look you keep buying the wire needle nose pliers speedy the thought of secure you know those and now you don’t have to go move for sure I I heard that it immediately triggered in my head like well that happens from them to us speaking of ray’s own so that’s going to be mentally process right I mean is your business got ideas that we where do you how do you take it from idea launch with this much money to Moscow raise it or was that already connections you already had or that seem to be a process for some people we tried it we decided we’re gonna like before our angel around we’re just going to sort of meet with a bunch of the sea is just to see because like if what if anybody’s going to shoot a hole in wide keeping massive hole into your beautifully laid plan it will be a free speech writer and that what’s so great about that is before we even started fomenting the idea we did it like in and how the and and they came up with I mean they basically tell you that’s never going to work and that which is great because then you’re going to take all their feedback and sort of craft your company around like some pitfalls that they’re seeing ahead of time so always understand what the market wants yes but then understand that these people at the seas have seen everything so they’ll say well there was something like this and they give you all the competitor data also tell you how you’re going to fail eight times over and then Brooklyn Decker the other things they give you great ideas because they’re some of the brightest minds in the business solution they’ve seen every deck every whatever and remember the woman from eighty Pete Courtney he struck someone all the time sitting in a meeting with her and she said you know because I really wish she would just tell me what I need to return things because like all these companies have seven days for this or thirty days for that and she’s like I just want a reminder of like Hey you have seven days left so you need to return this are you no longer get your money back and we’re like that is a great idea nice I think he is Brooklyn Decker features like to what would your advice be to someone is listening to this song in the carved work and now they’ve got this idea and they just haven’t there in that safe mode still what what would you say to that person research the market first do a ton of research even exists if it doesn’t is because many things have felt before and there’s just not a market for it Brooklyn Decker do your research I think before you start anything and my second piece of advice would be find a co founder Brooklyn Decker you know Whitney spearheaded this mean she’s a CEO she’s in the office every day I kind of hot in the fortunate position to kind of be able to take a step back and add that sort of fresh set of eyes every day at the end of the day our sanity check she’s my sanity check and yeah that’s so immeasurable and also like you just have someone when you think S. H. I. T. is hitting the fan you have someone can I say that I can say is I guess my lungs as I should have been it is hitting the fan you have a partner there who can ground you you know because I think there are moments and every entrepreneur’s path when they met whether it’s fearful or it’s just I don’t know that I can control all of this to be able to have someone to bring you back down and say it’s good we can do this here’s a solution I think that’s really really really healthy and just helps keep you on track the S. and but they also it depends on who you I mean brokers like an incredibly solution based person and is just also no bullshit so I’m not going to have to dance around and we’re not going to have to step on each other like be careful to seven inches we think no this is this and we respect each other to the point where like such an intense respect that whatever she says I know she’s not disrespecting me so I know that it’s just being honest earnest and it’s all going to make the product better and the same with her although you know I really you know we think there’s or whatever and **** like okay let me think about that and it and I think when you do decide you’re going to have a co founder it’s like you have got to have a such a deep mutual respect because things are gonna get really hairy and like not pretty you’re gonna fire people and you’re gonna disagree on direction and if you don’t respect each others like a marriage is longer than a marriage sometime then at the end of the day you have to have each other’s back pretty much no matter what so that absolute me pretty much and that’s because going back to fear it’s like fear of its fear of failure feel fear of success is both ways and a half I don’t know anything about fear of success well what what if what if it explodes and I can’t handle this or how I gonna do this and that’s why I’m going back to the co founder and it’s and it’s it’s good to keep you grounded on both on both levels I think and and that’s I think it’s important with success comes a man’s responsibility as well my brain grad work comes great response from Zac ring if it does I never fear because I definitely a fear of failure do you guys have in the Brooklyn Decker mentors influencers books anything inspires you you think if you go interviews con use each other and do that we have a lot of women who have helped us get to this point especially when preparing for a race Brooklyn Decker one quick little white piece of advice you were asking about the raise I think one thing that we were really fortunate to be able to do anything people should really hunch others down when you’re going to be seeds or any investors the person who makes the introduction on your behalf is very crucial and if you can find a successful entrepreneur who has made that VC money make an introduction for you does that make sense to us you will get your foot in the door so much faster and for us Gen Hammond the CEO run the runway was one of those people co founders of away Brooklyn Decker Degnan Carly at the scam all women all female founders are like I’ll make an introduction for you I’ll tell you how I did my pitch I’ll send you my deck I mean these women really were instrumental in our ray is an incredibly helpful to us line at Lola yes the women at primary gas I mean there is an amazing female entrepreneur or Brooklyn Decker just it’s a it’s a it’s a phenomenal force these women they meant it is that it’s incredible I love it yeah yeah it is like that and there’s actually there’s so many actual items that they can say like okay the first three slides need to be this and here’s why because if you’re gonna be sitting in a room full of men and they’re not gonna understand why people care about seeing their closet because like what we do not the toolbox reference that you were using we used our restaurant restaurants like we owe you look at your phone to decide like any visual inventory of what you want to eat tonight on seamless or something and we look at our in our inventory decide what we’re going to wear to that dinner I mean it was a stretch election widely that if you tell a single woman about the fact that she wants to see her closing her clothes without being in her heart that you think you had done absolutely what yet we had to spend at three five on that so if that’s the frustrating part and you can’t I let it get to me I did I thought I was in a meeting with John Hammond and all the sudden she looked at me and she’s like are you okay notion that we should look through me are you okay and I actually just started crying in your own head I just like I’m not okay why do I have to spend time on this when I know it you know it we all know it and she was like Whitney do you know what they said to me what I want to rent clothing women and they have took Seto rentals but yet they looked at me like Brooklyn Decker how cute like people want to rent dresses like I get it I get it I’m not being a mailbox I’m just saying right isn’t you there’s a whole study out this year that that of unbelievable connoisseur records name just escapes me but he basically said and you can’t blame men for this that we only as humans we only value what we own so like what we own we value and so like whether or not you can try to put yourself in someone else’s shoes is very hard they don’t value they don’t own a wardrobe operates and they don’t care about like five thousand different white kind of shirts so they don’t value that and it’s not that they can’t try to but just you have to be able to explain is that in case of ideas and what I thought was interesting is the first time I heard the city was like okay well that’s interesting I want to learn more but it to me it was it was the opposite of what is actually doing other words are of this is a way to spend more money on clothing and more this more this more this and what you said was the opposite I spend less I look at things and I organize them and my eyes before I buy and wear or see what one of my closet and all of a sudden you’re talking to the financial area of my brain but this is a really good thing honey go do this yeah so it’s just communicating on a different level but it’s it’s it’s just musician that I that’s the biggest tip you would get like try your page out on everybody anyone who will listen on the street got an investor I’ve actually we were doing like a practice pitch for someone in Austin just like a friend who is helping us out of by the end he goes by the way I’d be really interested in investing the money he ended up being one of our investors Brooklyn Decker Mexico Mexico’s ventures the the former Austin ventures Thomas ball Tomball he’s an amazing T. all the column he was giving us feedback and poking holes he was so brutal and like really really like thanks guys feed is not my **** idea and said a friend said I suppose like he’s really really tough he’s gonna be great to practice on it by the end okay can invest is great Yasser practice on anyone who will listen you never know what you’ll get out without any expectation we really do for thank you again Brooklyn and Whitney maybe they can build me the toolbox inventory out next a man considering the message about his team includes me damn Dillard and producer Mariah gossip thank you to find Francis for co hosting this episode with me and special thanks to the whole team and family in Austin if you’re enjoying the show don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and please rate and review us on I tunes it really helps also for more interviews clips and videos you can join the masters and founders Facebook group for all kinds of extra content thanks for listening