There’s no standard path to becoming a successful designer. Some like Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs went to design school. Others had no formal training, just great mentors and access to fabric, needles and thread. For those who do manage to find his or her aesthetic, file a trademark and make a few dollars profit, the battle for fashion world dominance has barely begun.
The sad truth is that the majority of fledgling designers won’t make it. The failure isn’t always due to a poorly thought-through product (face it: that fanny pack line was never going to take off), but a mountain of other factors that many new designers aren’t prepared for. Pitch decks? Investor relations? Manufacturing chains? What does any of this have to do with fashion? As it turns out, a lot. Enter TrendSeeder, the brainchild of Columbia graduate and corporate lawyer, Avani Patel.
Based in New York, but aiding designers from around the world, TrendSeeder puts emerging labels through a four-month accelerator program to help them reach full potential. They also help customers connect with new brands and find those unique, once- in-a-closet cycle pieces. We caught up with Avani to see how her venture, a start-up itself, is helping to build fashion businesses.
Paste: What prompted you to create TrendSeeder?
Patel: Having been a former emerging designer I understood the struggles they have. Also, having a business and law background I saw how that background was helpful in building a successful brand.
Paste: Other than taking equity instead of charging fees, how is this different to the other accelerators out there?
Patel: TrendSeeder provides a platform that works with emerging fashion brands to grow their businesses. We provide a creative professional environment to foster promising fashion talent through education, mentorship and brand building opportunities and provide access to advisors, investors, experts in fashion and PR, editors and marketing and production professionals.
Paste: How has TrendSeeder evolved since its inception?
Patel: When we first launched, we started with more of an e-commerce model with a marketing component to our services. Throughout the process we found brands asking us for assistance with everything from strategic to marketing to fundraising assistance.
Paste: Why did you move away from e-Commerce?
Patel: With the creation of services like Shopify, we realized that the value for the companies was more on the brand building side. That’s when we decided to build out the TrendSeeder program. We found that driving customers directly to the designers’ websites was more valuable, instead of driving traffic to our own website.
Paste: How can people find your designers now?
Patel: Every company is different and their definitions of whom their customers are, are different. With each company we create a holistic marketing and strategy plan and help them implement the initiatives.
Paste: What do you look for when selecting designers for the accelerator?
Patel: We look for companies that want to grow and build their business and that we feel we can help to reach a higher level of success. The personality of the team is important. It has to be people who we feel comfortable working with and who feel comfortable working with us. Of course, overall it has to be a company that we think has growth potential.
Paste: What have you found new designers need most while they are in the accelerator?
Patel: All of our companies are at different points in their lifecycle but one thing that we have seen is that they all need our hands-on support. When you start a company there are so many things to do and think about that it’s great to have another brain and pair of hands.
Paste: Which TrendSeeder successes are you are most proud of?
Patel: Some of the most exciting things have been quadrupling unique visitors to the website in a month’s time, driving the highest number of purchases in one day by over 400 percent and getting one of our company’s products on Alicia Keys for a big sports campaign.
Paste: What’s your piece of clothing or accessory that has come from TS?
Patel: I love so many things from TrendSeeder, but I especially love the fur vest Sahar Dada named after me and all of the fun jewelery from Zoetik.
For more information on current designers, mentors and the accelerator program—including in-take times and entry requirements—click here.