You know when you shop for clothes online, but you don’t know which size to buy or if an item will look good on your body? Couture Technologies helps apparel brands solve this massive financial and sustainability challenge by seamlessly integrating its patent-pending virtual try on technology with a brand’s website. This innovative technology not only shows customers exactly how items will look, but also how they will fit on their body.
Couture’s founders, Deanna Meador and Marcelino Rodríguez-Cancio, first met while working on an innovation project for a large fast fashion company alongside executives from Accenture and a team of students and faculty members from Vanderbilt University’s Innovation Center, the Wond’ry. This project took them on a journey of discovery to learn everything they could about the apparel industry and the biggest challenges it faced. After completing this project and building a predictive analytics solution to assist customer service representatives, the challenges they discovered along the way that weren’t addressed by that solution stuck with them. At that time, most apparel brands received less than 20% of their revenue from e-commerce with high rates of returns caused by issues with sizing and fit keeping them from expanding their e-commerce presence. The founders could see this would need to change if brands were going to be able to not only survive, but also thrive. In 2019, Deanna approached Marcelino with an idea, a bold, big idea. An idea with the potential to completely change the way people shop for clothing online by building an accurate and authentic virtual try on experience. Marcelino, a PhD-level computer scientist, assembled a team to explore whether the idea was technically feasible and what type of skills they would need to recruit if they decided to move forward. Before ever writing a line of code, Couture’s founders hit the road and the sky. They traveled around the world and talked to over 300 brand leaders to make sure reducing returns was in their top 3 challenges to solve. Not only was that confirmed, but the brand leaders described an accurate virtual try on technology as the ‘holy grail’.
There have been many companies that have tried since the early 90s to develop virtual try on technology and most have failed. The Couture team knew they would need to develop novel, cutting-edge technologies and methods from the ground up if they had any shot at success. This can be a daunting proposition for founders planning to bootstrap knowing they will need a highly skilled technical team and likely a couple of years in R&D in order to deliver. Based on all the evidence from their customer discovery, Couture’s founders decided it was a risk worth taking. When they had their first prototype of their technology, a brand partner said, “I want in!” The brand saw no returns when customers used Couture’s technology to virtually try on the brand’s signatureFlux jumpsuit. It was this early proof of concept that drove Couture forward.
Since Couture officially formed, it has grown from 3 people to 26 and its people-first culture has attracted and kept top talent from across the globe. A lot of entrepreneurs will say qualities like grit, curiosity, determination, resiliency, and so on are the most important in order to be a successful entrepreneur. Couture’s CEO doesn’t disagree that those are important, but as a serial entrepreneur with several ventures under her belt, she has grown to recognize and appreciate that it is really strong soft skills that can make or break a venture. Founders must be able to genuinely connect to their customers, their team, their investors, and the list goes on. To make anything big happen in the world, it takes a lot of hands working together and that doesn’t happen without putting people first.
Couture’s technology was named the Most Innovative Apparel Sales Software by Acquisitions International during their Business Excellence Awards.
“Taking an idea from your head and heart and bringing it into the world where it can have an impact on society and the lives of your team is one of the most fulfilling and rewarding feelings as an entrepreneur. People will tell you no and they’ll be right. People will tell you no and they’ll be wrong. Through it all, all the ups and downs, you will change, you’ll have stories to tell, and you will inspire others to chase their dreams.”– Deanna Meador, CEO
Couture was recognized as one of the Top 9 Tech Startups in the world across all categories during the Olympics of Tech. The early years of the company were bootstrapped by the founders with support from the National Science Foundation’s competitive SBIR grant program. Couture opened a subsidiary in Uruguay in 2021 and received a grant from the Uruguayan government to fund this exciting international expansion. The team received double their ask in less than a month when raising their first round of outside capital and Couture’s initial collaborators out of stealth mode were renowned workwear market leader, Workwear Outfitters, and three exciting D2C fashion brands.
Unlike some deep technologies, the problem Couture is solving is something that almost everyone has experienced; being unsure what size to buy when shopping online or having to return items that just didn’t fit your body well after they arrive on your doorstep.
This has led to Couture’s solution really speaking to both brand leaders and their customers. Couture was on a call with a brand CEO and after seeing a demo of the solution, she got really quiet and then said, “This is going to change everything.”
This technology is not being developed in New York or Los Angeles. It is being developed right here in Nashville, Tennessee. Couture’s founders want to use their story to showcase that Nashville truly is a great place to start and grow an innovative tech company. People are collaborative, taxes are low, there is access to both dilutive and non-dilutive funding, and it’s an attractive city for a team to call home.
