The shoppable style magazine curated by fashion bloggers

Chik.com addressed a gap in the market for mobile and tablet users where it was hard to discover, browse and buy products from looks posted by fashion bloggers. Before Chik, users had to jump between social networks, personal blogs and websites depending on the platform a blogger used leading to a frustrating experience on mobile and a missed opportunity for brands and bloggers alike to sell.

Chik (sheek) launched as an iPad magazine to explore and shop the most coveted looks curated by fashion influencers. It allowed you to hand pick your favourite blogs, brands and designers to create a personalised magazine that reflects your individual style. It's like Flipboard for fashion but more beautiful and shoppable.

We created an individual’s Fashion Identity from their activity, collections, likes/dislikes, past purchases, browsing history and social networks. This data was then used to deliver a personalised experience through a powerful fashion recommendation engine that combines machine learning algorithms with human input provided by fashion experts and users.

I co-founded this venture-backed startup with a business partner, and as CEO, I was involved in every aspect of the business from building a team to raising the investment and building the product.

Specifically, I led the entire product development, strategy and design, and took the app from conception to launch. I built a solid team of 14 people in London, Ukraine & Tel Aviv with developers making most of the team. I also hired number of interns and temporary staff to cover marketing, influencer outreach and other content related activities.

Results

Chik.com was built iteratively and the product roadmap was heavily driven by fashion influencers and users. The app focused on quality of content rather than breadth and managed to reach 200K monthly active users with many die-hard fans. The number of app downloads on all platforms reached a far higher number.

I was successfully able to raise funding twice from multiple investors who saw the value in the idea, need for it and the popularity of it amongst the fashion community.