In this special coverage, Ragtrader unpacks the key insights and news from its Breakfast of Big Ideas event this week on June 26.
The two key imperatives when launching a business today are developing a strict unique selling position and building online.
This is according to Modibodi founder Kristy Chong, who spoke at Ragtrader’s Breakfast of Big Ideas on June 26.
“You need a unique position,” Chong said. “And that's either unique brand, unique customer experience, and unique product. That's really important.
“I'd also say in this day and age, it starts with building the online community first. Because marketing is really expensive. It was even more expensive for us [at Modibodi] because we were growing a category. So we had to spend on brand category growth, and then on acquisition.”
Chong then shared an example of a brand doing really well in this space called GeedUp, which was born in Western Sydney in 2010 by Jake Paco and has since expanded globally, with a US-dedicated website.
Forbes Magazine recently revealed the brand has hit $20 million in annual sales and net profits of $6 million.
“Jake has created a brand that's really speaking to his customer, and addressing a need that doesn't exist,” Chong said. “I don't know any brand addressing the teenage boy market.
"I still don't know why any brand isn't trying to capture that market. It's all Nike, Nike, Nike all the way. I think that's ripe for disruption. So build your online community first.
“Lastly, I'd say quality. I think we've all had enough of cheap and cheerful, so quality first.”
When asked about whether Chong had faced any challenges building Modibodi, she said the key hurdles were around operations and systems.
“We changed the warehouse and changed inventory systems at the same time... disaster,” she said. “So too much change over the operations at once.
“But having the right talent at certain stages of our growth, we tended to have the right people with the right experience in those positions.
“I don't come from a textile apparel background, so I think that was a little bit of a difficult learning curve for us. But yeah, talent and operations.