Bold had a chance to speak with DrezzApp CEO Olga Birintseva to learn about what it’s like to be a female entrepreneur and the future of her company.

Bold: When you first thought of the idea, did you specifically want to create an app?

Olga Birintseva: Yes, because the app brings two things. First, convenience for the user to find fashion with one tap.

Second, having an app opens a channel for us to push messages to users when new collections arrive or promotions, which will increase our overall engagement.

Bold: The tech world has completely changed how we buy/sell everyday items. What are some of the advantages you think your app can bring to the retail industry?

Olga Birintseva: The primary advantage is that our customers will save time looking for an item that is up-to-date fashion and fits their budget. Additionally, we expect people will be able to afford to buy more things for less money.

For users who prefer to shop by using their computers, we have a share button integrated into our app, which allows each user to send the item you like to your email, so later on you can buy it by using a computer. Another unique feature is the “Request and Suggest” option that allows users to request alternatives for the items we don’t have in the app by simply sending us a picture or link to the designer item they want us to find alternatives for. The turnaround rate for this feature is 24 hours.  

The “suggest” feature allows users to contribute to the content by proposing an alternative for current designer items in the app. By doing this, we will share the revenue obtained by selling the suggested item with them.

Bold: What sort of promotion do you use when trying to highlight DrezzApp?

Olga Birintseva: As of now, we have been using Instagram.

We are designing a broader strategy, and it will be executed in the next few weeks. I’ve started to reach out to social influencers to strengthen our social media presence. In the six weeks we’ve been live, we put in place analytics to understand the behaviors of our consumers, and we expect to be more effective in our marketing efforts with this information.

Bold: Being a female entrepreneur, what are some of the problems you face when trying to boost your business models/platforms?

Olga Birintseva: I am very new to the entrepreneurship arena, and so far, the experience has been amazing. I am between two wonderful ecosystems as my tech co-founder is in Boston and I am in New York City. Going back and forth has shown me that both places support female entrepreneurs deeply.

I am curious to see how different the treatment will be once I get to the point of raising substantial capital with DrezzApp.

Bold: DrezzApp helps you find every day moderately priced items that are comparable to more high-end items. Is there a lot of merchandising research that takes place behind the scenes? How often do you add new items?

Olga Birintseva: There is a lot of merchandising research involved. I have a small team that helps me with curating the content, and we also created a computer vision (image-comparison) technology to help us in the process.

Bold: Can you tell us the next big plans in the near future for Drezz?

Olga Birintseva: On the technology side, we will improve the algorithm to help us curate the content. We just got accepted to the IBM Global entrepreneurship program, enabling us to use their machine learning and artificial intelligence software called WATSON to build and improve our current algorithm.

On the marketing side, two more people will be joining the team to strengthen our marketing effort and execute the strategy.

DrezzApp is currently available for free download in the AppStore.

Photo courtesy of DrezzApp Instagram.

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