Starting a new business can be a tough challenge, but there are many amazing small business that are embarking on this journey with great success every day. In this article series, find out what happens behind the scenes as we let socially conscious startups tell their story. This time, we hear from David Dietz, founder of Modavanti.com, a recently launched online retailer dedicated to fashion that is contemporary yet sustainable. The company’s mission is to promote eco-friendly and ethically-sourced fashion by building an active community around a carefully curated shopping experience.
What we wear is a defining part of who we are, what we believe and how we represent ourselves. Yet until now there has been no recognized destination for socially conscious shoppers to find fashion that fits their values without sacrificing on style. We want to be that trusted destination — shop at Modavanti.com and you will look good, feel good and do good! (We also give away 2% of our revenue to charity.)
The idea for Modavanti.com was born out of our desire to make a social impact through business. The fashion industry in particular has been slow to change the way it does business. To give you one example, it takes 400 gallons of water to grow enough cotton to produce just one cotton t-shirt. This is clearly an unsustainable path and we believe that by promoting designers who are producing clothes in a more socially conscious manner we can bring about real change within the fashion industry. We believe that profit and progress not only can go hand in hand, but that the former can catalyse the latter.
Like any startup, Modavanti.com has encountered several iterations, pivots and challenges. The biggest concern at the start was our uncertainty as to whether there would be enough brands to maintain an entire site around sustainable fashion that conformed to our carefully curated aesthetic. It wasn’t until we went to our first fashion trade show that we realized we could pull it off. Prepping for the trade show was a nightmare but it was also the first time we were confident we could build a lasting site. Researching which brands were sustainable was a painstaking task — it meant downloading a list of over a thousand brands and poring over them one by one to study their sustainability credentials.
By the end of the week, we had a list of several hundred brands we wanted to talk to, and the reception we received from those designers was incredible despite our lack of a website. The next challenge was moving from concept to reality. We could have started off small and focused on becoming more of a boutique retailer but we decided to take a big risk and build our site from scratch rather than buying a pre-built packaged platform. We believe that the results of that gambit can be seen today in the quality and professionalism of our site. Waiting six months for your vision to come to fruition was frustrating and at times demoralizing, which is why we are so excited to be live. Now we get the opportunity to see if all that hard work has paid off.
If you are interested in what weʼre doing at Modavanti.com, please visit our site. We are live and open for business.
Guest post by David Dietz, founder of Modavanti.com
