Meet the Man Who Changed Men’s Fashion: With Eric Niu of Swaggle:

 Meet the Man Who Changed Men’s Fashion: With Eric Niu of Swaggle:

My research into consignment shopping quickly led me to the conclusion that women dominate the market, both online and offline. I too saw Swaggle's potential right away.

It was a joy to interview Eric Niu, the creator and CEO of Swaggle, a marketplace for men to share their wardrobes. Swaggle was one of the six companies that just passed the Accelerate Baltimore 2017 Programme certification exam. Eric was a young political appointee in the Obama Administration and a management consultant for one of the top management consulting firms prior to working for Swaggle.

I appreciate you doing this with us so much. 

What history do you have?
Ever feel like you have too many clothing but nothing to wear? 

When I relocated from California to Washington, DC, in 2012, and began my first job as a young political appointee in the Obama Administration, I felt just like that. In today's world, people frequently place more value on how others perceive us than on our words, deeds, or even our true selves. I wanted a designer look but couldn't afford it because I was a young professional.

When I looked into consignment shopping, both online and offline, I quickly realised that the market is heavily skewed towards women. I began buying and trading clothes with my pals as a stopgap measure and soon realised Swaggle had promise.

Although they cannot afford the retail cost, many guys are interested in high-end clothing. Consignment shopping is enjoyable, but most men are unsure of where to begin. The majority of physical consignment stores do not, however, have an internet presence because it is expensive and time-consuming to set up and operate an online business. High-end men's fashion resellers and prospective buyers can connect through the mobile marketplace Swaggle for a curated and tailored buying experience.

It makes it simple for shoppers to find high-quality men's clothing at bargain costs while also giving fashion secondhand retailers additional clients.

What is the funniest or most intriguing thing that has happened to you since starting your business?

We at Swaggle thought it would be a good idea to work with dry cleaners to assist them sell unsold inventory. In reality, everyone benefits from this. I eventually obtained the phone number of an owner from a well-known dry-cleaning shop after making multiple store visits and cold calls.

I made the decision to call her since I was so happy. When she took up the phone, I was anxious to discuss with her the advantages of selling on Swaggle and how doing so would give her company an additional source of income. She attentively listened for around five minutes. I concluded my sales spiel and awaited her reply. She merely spoke the word "No thanks." She abruptly hung up on me just as I was speaking.

I felt stunned. I didn't know what had happened because I've been in sales for a while and I'm used to getting rejected. She listened to me for five minutes before interjecting. 

Did she really fail to recognise the benefits Swaggle would bring to her company? 

To find out why, I had to pick up the phone and give her another call.
She was a natural Korean speaker, and I later discovered that her command of English was really poor. I quickly called a Korean-speaking acquaintance and instructed her to make the presentation on my behalf. We discovered that she wasn't interested when my friend phoned her back since her stores didn't have as much unsold product as we had anticipated. Despite the result, I'm glad I persisted. Otherwise, I would still be puzzling over why she hung up the phone on me today.

What makes your business stand out? Can you share a story?
The world is always changing in the direction of a shared economy with global communities. Men are encouraged by Swaggle to upgrade their wardrobes with the newest trends and sell expensive clothing items from their closets. Men should become used to purchasing economical, ethically produced secondhand clothing. We want to change the way guys shop in the world.

What are the top five things you wish someone had told you before you launched your business? Why?
1.  Always reinvent yourself.
 To convince others to join you when you only have a concept requires a special talent. To make something physical and raise money, you need a different set of skills. You cannot serve as both the CEO of a multimillion dollar or even billion dollar firm and the founder of a small startup at the same time. With no prior startup expertise, I cofounded Swaggle for the first time. 

I am donning several hats at once today. I am in charge of everything, including product management, testing, machine learning, fundraising, sales, and recruiting. I wish I had spent more time studying if I could do it all over again.

2.  Starting with an issue.
 I was "too poor for Prada" and that's why Swaggle was created. As a young professional, I yearned for a designer style but was unable to pay for it. With my buddies, I began to trade, buy, and sell clothing. I recognised the potential of a peer-to-peer platform for closet sharing and wardrobe selling when sharing economy platforms like Uber and Airbnb became the new norm. 

What can we do with all of the extra clothing we have in our closets? 

How can we design a more efficient system for finding high-quality menswear at lower prices? 

Those are the queries I posed to myself. After doing some preliminary market research and getting approval from friends and even complete strangers, I made the decision to act on the concept.

3. Locate the ideal candidates. 
The next challenge was assembling a team after I decided I wanted to pursue my idea. Technical coders with the ability to produce a workable solution were what I wanted. I was also aware of how critical it was to assemble a group of people with a variety of backgrounds, traits, and skills. I began to present my ideas to the intelligent individuals I knew, and I enlisted their recommendations for more intelligent individuals. My other cofounders, who later developed Swaggle into a successful business, were introduced to me as a result of that.

Meet the Man Who Changed Men’s Fashion: With Eric Niu of Swaggle:

4. Strive to seize opportunities.
 Making sure we had the supply (fashion resale) that would fuel demand and vice versa was one of the major obstacles in getting Swaggle off the ground. We needed consignment stores to register as suppliers in order to accomplish this. I recall that we had our hearts set on partnering with a specific consignment store, but after introducing Swaggle to the owner, our proposal was turned down.

 We had no evidence that we would be a useful partner, and the platform wasn't fully established. A week following our conversation, the shop's proprietor contacted me and introduced me to her husband; he eventually joined our team as an advisor and helped to determine the course of our business. The consignment shop became our first partner six months later. You cannot anticipate that as an entrepreneur everything will go as planned. You cannot afford to miss any opportunities that could help your firm recover when times are tough.

5. Everything is mental. 
Although I am happy of my achievements thus far, it is my losses and failures that have made me who I am today. I experienced my first taste of failure in high school. I had 13 interviews for different jobs as a car salesman. Some hiring managers flat-out refused to speak with me, claiming my age as justification. Although the adage "perseverance is key" may be overused, my tenacity paid off ultimately. I was hired as the dealership's youngest salesperson ever.

I ran for the Board of Directors of the student government in college. I lost. I put up a bid for the position of chief communication officer. I lost. I ran for secretary of the Interfraternity Council. I lost. In my senior year, I defeated a strong favourite by a margin of six votes to win the student vote for Student Government President.
My standard reaction to inquiries about how my day is going is "Every day is a grind." When things are going well, don't become overly zealous since that is when awful things might happen, and when things are bad, don't lose hope. Take a deep breath and attempt to use your best judgement.

I've had the good fortune to speak with and do interviews with some of the largest personalities in business, venture capital, sports, and entertainment. 

Would you like to have a private breakfast or lunch with anyone in the world, and why?
The man behind Amazon, Jeff Bezos, is someone I'd really like to meet. He left a prestigious position on Wall Street and transformed Amazon from a small online book retailer into the world's largest software company. We share the same ideals of thinking big and pursuing our objectives tenaciously while viewing failures as lessons learnt. He would probably like having me around.

This was really motivating. I'm so glad you could join us!
Visit Swaggle's Twitter account to find out more information.

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Meet the Man Who Changed Men’s Fashion: With Eric Niu of Swaggle