Met and recruited via Mystyler the style fashion app.

What prompted the Mys Tyler Revolution? It is such a great platform for anyone in the fashion and beauty industry to explore other people’s style. Is there a story behind the start of Mys Tyler?

My background is telecommunications, which is not a very fashionable industry. Personally, I don’t really enjoy shopping and never come across the trends. I don’t have the knack for knowing what pieces go together or how to style them. I wear a dress without thinking. My friend pulls the shoulders down to make it strapless. I’m left thinking how I didn’t know this or think to try wearing it like that.

Even though I’m not into fashion, I still like to look nice. I always feel more confident when I like what I am wearing. I used to ask my stylish friends to go shopping with me. I soon realized they were experts at shopping for their own body. They were not very experienced shopping for my body type. As a result, they were not great at helping me. I began to wonder how I can find someone my height, shape, and size. I needed someone more fashionable. Then, I can just copy them. That is where the idea for Mys Tyler came from.

The name actually spells “My Styler” but I wanted it to feel more feminine and personable. I like the spelling of “Mys”, as it’s mysterious. It isn’t exactly “miss” or “Mrs.” so it can be any woman.

Was the startup process nerve-wrecking, exciting, scary or a piece of cake?

Startups are definitely never a piece of cake. There are so many unknowns. When you start and it’s just you, you don’t have the luxury of just doing things you are good at. You also have to do all the things you are bad at. So you end up doing a lot of context switching, researching, experimenting, and pivoting.

Some businesses you can bootstrap (fund yourself), but Mys Tyler is a community-based platform. That means it requires a lot of technology and a lot of acquisition. This means helping people learn about you and convince them to sign up. For this reason, we needed to fund-raise from investors. That added a whole other layer of complexity. It’s nice to have money to put to work. But, fundraising is extremely time consuming. It is also draining as it takes up a huge amount of time. They say only one founder should focus on fundraising. In a startup with two or three founders, this should be a full-time job. As a sole founder, trying to balance fundraising with building the business left me at a point of near exhaustion… twice!

All that being said, I love what I do! I love creating something that has value for others. Now I have the most incredible team. We are doing it all together which is the most rewarding experience.

In 2012 I had my first startup called “Doodad”. I had been through the process of starting a business before because of this. Investors like serial entrepreneurs because they already know that they know that what they are getting into is tough.

I didn’t pay myself for the first year of the business and now I am paid minimum wage. I was fortunate to have built up some savings while I had a corporate job in New York City. But, I am putting everything I have into the business. It’s a high risk game. You need to be willing to be a poor founder for a while and work really hard… but honestly you couldn’t pay me any amount to be doing anything different!

How many of you got together to create this community?

I started on my own but I had been talking about this idea for nearly a decade when I started. During that time, I received a lot of support from friends and family. Their encouragement helped me have the confidence to take the plunge. I also went through a startup accelerator program. Twelve other companies got started at the same time I did. I had all these other founders around me. They were going through the same things. We can help each other and share experiences.

I also had some amazing advisors from the beginning. They were exceptional leaders and business experts. They offered their time to discuss matters thoroughly. They also helped with tasks like getting business contacts. Over time the team has come together and so has the community. Now Mys Tyler is a combination of thousands of people adding value to the platform.

Let’s talk technology. Was the app built in-house? Are there any exciting new features in the works?

We have an incredible team of developers that build Mys Tyler. We wanted to launch on both iOS. We also aimed to launch on Android. So, we chose to build on “React Native” because it is cross-platform software. Things always take longer than you expect. This is partly because you end up adding features and doing work you weren’t expecting. This pushes other things back.

When you have a small budget, you can’t build as fast as you want. It is constantly a matter of prioritizing. We have a lot of exciting things in the works! The biggest one is that we will be moving into hair and beauty in 2022. We can’t wait for that!

What did you guys wish to accomplish with the app? Is the business motto and vision being fulfilled at the moment?

Our tagline is “inspiration that fits”. The idea is to look at things like Instagram or advertisements. Much of what you see there is not relevant to you. That can be demoralizing. We wanted to create a better experience that was hyper-personalized in which the inspiration is all relevant, accessible, and actionable. This enters into our vision, which we still need to wordsmith. In essence, it is to help people find products or advice. This guidance helps them live their best lives.

How else do you see Mys Tyler providing a solution for the gap in body-positivity around the globe? Any advice for anyone in term of body positivity?

Fashion has been traditionally (and intentionally) inaccessible inspirational. Advertising, catwalks, and social media project a very narrow view of what women look like. Layered upon that is makeup, lighting, retouching, and taking the perfect professional shot. We are left comparing ourselves to unrealistic standards and feeling bad about it.

We help women see real pictures. These pictures show women with a diversity of heights, shapes, sizes, ages, and ethnicities. This helps them feel “normal.” We have achieved this in the best sense. When you look at a diverse social media feed, you quickly start to normalize all body types. You will see how fabulous all the women look. That’s really empowering.

In our recent survey, 58% of women said they are more body confident as a result of using Mys Tyler. We have had so many women reach out directly to say thank you. We are just getting started, but we know we have the ability to play a role in driving positive change.

Speaking of international influence, how many countries is Mys Tyler in now? Are we expecting any growth in the short term?

We have women using Mys Tyler in over one hundred countries, so we have truly gone global. Most women are in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. These countries make up 70% of our base.

Tell us about the contributors and how they make a positive impact on the app Mys Tyler?

Contributors are women who post their outfits on Mys Tyler, sharing their style and their fashion “wins” with our community. When someone downloads Mys Tyler, we help them discover contributors most akin to them. We calculate a matching score with our FIT Algorithm. It is based on height, size, shape, and coloring. Value of our contributors is based on relevancy not popularity. We believe that if you find someone that is your body type, you can see how things fit. You can also learn how to style them. If you buy something based on their recommendation, it’s more likely to fit. This means you are less likely to return it.

This substantially helps the environment in three ways:

1. Less postage and handling (from returns)

2. Helps reduce discarded returns that end up in landfill

3. Buying less and spending less on things in your wardrobe that end up with the tags still on

Any rules contributors have to follow? How does one become a contributor?

We welcome any woman to become a contributor and share fashion “wins” with our community. If women buy outfits you originally linked or suggested, you will also earn commission from our partner brands. So you can actually make money by sharing your style!

To apply, you just need to create your first four posts and hit the “apply” button on the profile tab. We do this to make sure that the posts are fashion related. They should have no pictures of birthday cakes, deserted beaches, filtered selfies etc. The pictures must be clear quality because we want to keep a great feed for all of our users.

We want everyone to feel welcome. We use this as an on-boarding opportunity. Our goal is to teach our contributors how to create the best posts. Once approved, we let them post whenever they like!

During our last chat, you mentioned Mys Tyler will sponsor contributors’ photoshoot parties/sessions. What do you hope to accomplish with these sponsored shoots and parties? How does it work?

Initially, we only had a team presence in Sydney, Australia. In 2021, we were able to do some shoots in the US as well. Our ability to do shoots depends on having a Mys Tyler team in a location. Without a team presence, we can’t do as many shoots. This limitation affects our ability to carry out shoots as we would like. Now we are offering to “host a shoot” for contributors. If they can gather six or more contributors for a day, Mys Tyler will provide the budget. They will hire a studio and a photographer. This will make that shoot happen while assisting from afar. We would love to be doing one shoot per month (minimum) all around the world. For now in 2022 our focus is in the US!

How do people download the app?

You can download the app from the App Store or Google Play. It’s free for everyone. If you want to be shown in the app, you will just need to become a contributor. Complete your first four posts and submit your application. We would love to see you in our feed!

Pick one: Cosmopolitan or Mys Tyler?

Scrolling Mys Tyler while sipping on a Cosmo!

Instagram or Mys Tyler?

Instagram to see what my friends are up to. Mys Tyler to be inspired by the most fashionable and fabulous women!

Thanks so much for your time! We’re seriously looking forward to seeing the app dominate the market in the coming years!