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Taelor wins champion of Draper Accelerator’s startup competition
Draper Accelerator, established by the legendary investor Tim Draper, announced that Taelor won the champion for its Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship Program Demo Day startup competition.
In addition to Taelor’ great news, Taiwanese startup DeCloak won second place and TuringCert won third place, which shows that Taiwanese startups get fruitful results from the Draper Accelerator.
Other teams that made final pitches in the individual award category included HonetPay, Pedestal, Ucfunnel, Domi, Swipe, Momentor, Zoom Orthotic Labs, Turing Drive and AL HAQQ Modesty.
Several of the companies that participated, including Taelor, DeCloak and Turing Certs, were able to attend the Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship Program through funding from the Asia Silicon Valley Agency, a non-profit program under the Taiwan National Development Council that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship.
Tim Draper : Taelor’s business model is brilliant!
Tim Draper, a venture capitalist and the founder of the Draper Accelerator, served as a judge for the competition and said he was very impressed with Taelor’s innovative business model. “This is brilliant — very interesting!” he said.
Taelor’s cofounder and CEO Anya Cheng is an experienced entrepreneur, who has led eBay and Facebook product teams to expand overseas consumers' market successfully. She spotted the circular fashion trends, as a result, she established Taelor with her University of Chicago MBA classmate Phoebe Tan.
Taelor helps busy men look good without the commitment of buying clothes. For $69.99 per month, Taelor’s stylists, along with artificial intelligence, select clothes for the customers based on their personal preferences. Customers receive eight shirts per month, which are shipped directly to customers, who can either wear them for two weeks and return them or purchase them for up to 70% off the retail price. Customers then receive another box of clothes.
“Taelor’s mission is to help people to be confident and achieve goals, while helping save the environment,” said Anya Cheng.
Coincidentally, Rent The Runway, a company that offers rental subscriptions for women's dresses, filed for an IPO on Oct. 4, showing the popularity of circular fashion trends.
Taelor partners with clothing brands to rent their clothes to Taelor’s customers, allowing them to test upcoming collections and gain brand awareness with younger consumers.
Using a clothing rental model enables Taelor to have unique and rich data about its customers and its products, which can be used by clothing brands to better design garments, predict demand and reduce waste. “We know people’s true preferences, which are not impacted by the purchase price of the item. It’s like how you decide what to watch on Netflix,” Cheng said.
Judge Asra Nadeem, CEO of Draper University, was impressed with the model. “With that much unique data, you can easily monetize or launch your own brands,” she said.
Second place was awarded to DeCloak, a software and hardware technology that allows companies and governments to process and analyze people’s data without breaking privacy regulations. Third place was awarded to two startups: Turing Certs, a zero fraud and zero paper solution that helps 80+ schools adopt tamper-proof Blockchain Credentials, including Berkeley Law; and Artemiss, a market-maker that provides liquidity exchange and analytics. It works as bitcoin’s search and social layer that unbundles the outdated financial and regulatory sector.
More than 80 entrepreneurs from more than ten countries participated in the competition.
As the winners of the competition, Draper Accelerator will consider investing in each of the four finalists and will offer them a scholarship to participate in Draper University’s Hero Training program, an immersive five-week entrepreneurship program at Draper’s headquarters in San Mateo.
Draper’s entrepreneurship programs have brought together 2,300 entrepreneurs from 87 different countries. They have raised over $350 million in venture funding.
The Demo Day competition was open to all of the entrepreneurs who had taken part in Draper University’s Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship Program. More than 80 entrepreneurs from more than ten countries participated in the competition.
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