Pitch Please

00:03.69
mike_flywheel
What's up everybody. It's Mike we're back on the pitch please podcast today. We've got Marley Marley is from rackx a peer-to-peer wardrobe rental platform. That's my pitch hers is going to be a lot better. Ah, but before we talk about racks. We're going to talk about Marley Marley introduce yourself tell us a little bit about your background.

00:19.78
Marley Alles
Yeah, thanks so much for having me on I'm Marley I'm the founder of Rax and my background I've always really been into startups and entrepreneurship even in like university I was teaching assistant for additional marketing course where students actually had to create their own business on shopify and the prof gave them like. I know a couple hundred dollars to get started and I was kind of helping these students like build real businesses and see their real sales come through and like how they found kind of a gap of the market and created a whole business on it. Um, and that kind of led for me getting recommended to consult on like startups in the kingston area I went to queens um. And then once I graduated I went into advertising and developed like ad strategies for some of the world's biggest brands then went to ei where I had kind of a variety of roles in the marketing team ultimately led to me leading. Go-tomarket for Ontario which was a great opportunity. But then obviously you know you has a huge. Huge company and I was really falling love with startups. So I transferred over to bell curve which is a growth agency for startups and we help startups grow. So really great because it just helps with rocks as well because I see how to build like these other brands. Um that I was just building. Other people's companies and I really want to do it for myself and that's kind of what led to me starting racks.

01:40.40
mike_flywheel
That's cool I I want to kind of go back to the beginning there so you were kind of ah a teaching assistant for an entrepreneurship class. Um, but you said you sort of have always love Startups. So where did is that the moment the the love for startups started is there something earlier in your life where you're like I love working with or I want to be an entrepreneur someday and and if so what kind of sparked that.

02:03.40
Marley Alles
Yeah I think I Always like even as a kid I was always just doing random like entrepreneurial things like I remember just obviously the normal kid that has like lemonade stands and all those like random endeavors I would like knock on people's doors like can I maybe sit your kids and I probably wasn't even old enough to do that They were probably like no but I just always wanted to like. Make my own money and kind of like do creative things around it and then definitely like University even high school years like I was listening to every podcast some entrepreneurship or like reading every book doing all the business courses like it was kind of always in the back of my mind but I just never had my own idea.

02:39.31
mike_flywheel
What was like the craziest entrepreneurial type thing you'd done so you were knocking on doors asking to babysit kids What was sort of like the craziest one.

02:45.49
Marley Alles
Yeah I feel like they always have ideas and then they just never really go anywhere like I remember when I was like nine years old I was talking to my dad if I wanted to like start a random factory and just creating some sort of product and then bring in people who are less fortunate to like. Work at the factories like I always kind of had like a business slash sustainability like ethical angle to all my businesses that I want to even at a young age and my dad was like do it I'm like I'm nine like I don't know how to do that. But I always have the support of my like family um all my crazy ideas that I want them to do that. Just never. So light of day.

03:24.37
mike_flywheel
You know what? I think it's about a lot of people that start businesses have all of these ideas and it's It's just like I think um, a mindset right? You're just sort of thinking through different challenges you see in the world around you and it's the obsession with eventually solving one of them when you feel like.

03:28.37
Marley Alles
Yeah.

03:34.50
Marley Alles
Now.

03:42.40
mike_flywheel
The idea meets a passion meets an opportunity. Um, so I think that's pretty cool that that you know you've always sort of been that way. Is there anyone that sort of like inspired that or someone you looked up to either friend friend family someone like external to your to your life.

03:42.95
Marley Alles
Totally.

03:57.81
Marley Alles
I've always just loved I guess finding out how people start companies like I've always been really fascinated with that like how did these big companies start and I think back in the day there almost wasn't like it wasn't brought to life like these huge companies like you don't know who. Kind of started it or who stood behind them right? It was like I don't know who started ei or like who started all these big companies. But I think in the age now like social media and like podcasts you get to kind of lift the curtain behind like who's actually running the brand. So I've always really looked up to those people. Um and companies that have kind of created. Loved. Products or brands in categories where there wasn't really anything. So for instance like fable for like homeware like dinnerware like they created like trendy plates and stuff whereas before people would just buy plates from like Ikea or whatever right? like there wasn't a brand that you were like oh this is like a cool plate um or like blue land for house cleaners. They made like. Sustainable house cleaners and maybe packaging all cute whereas before you just get like dawn soap or something. Um, so I really appreciate and like looked up to brands I kind of are able to create these cool brands and kind of legacy industries that haven't been innovated on or no one really resonates with um.

05:06.77
mike_flywheel
Yeah, so you named a few there is there like a brand right now in this current present moment that you're sort of like this is very interesting to me either because of you know.

05:06.94
Marley Alles
Ah, brand in that category.

05:18.20
mike_flywheel
Relatability with the founder relatability with what they're doing as a company something that's just iconic and interesting to you is there something that sort of stands out right now.

05:26.80
Marley Alles
I like companies that are started from their own pain point. Um, so I think that's where kind of the best companies start so like they've experienced their own pain point and they're like there is no solution to this like I think that's where like the beauty of entrepreneurship starts because you're not creating a company and just to start something you're creating. Company because you've actually felt that pain point and you're much more bought in um to it. So yesterday I was listening to a podcast on poppy the soda company. Um, she started because she had like health problems um kind of like was on mat leave so she wasn't really working. Um. And was taking like Apple cider venneur because I don't know if her like gut problems said that that would like solve it and it obviously tasted so bad. So she's like we should put this into like something people are already drinking create like a cool brand around it and she started poppy um and kind of innovated on the category of sodas which haven't been touched and you know. So long and made them healthy with only two gram of sugar whereas traditional like coke and pepsia I don't even want to know how many gram of sugar in that but she had her own pain point. Um, really grassroots like would just go to farmers market with just like a can like not even a can like a mason jar for product. Made in her kitchen like someone just luckily from whole foods was there and was like I don't normally do this but like you need to get your products and whole foods. Um went on shark tank and then one of the sharks. There were like some big guy in the ah beverage industry and he's like I've been looking for something like this like just kind of like luck all throughout and really.

06:57.55
Marley Alles
Grassroots started from a problem and I that's just a recent example because I listened to podcasts on the yesterday. But yeah I love kind of businesses that start from their own pain point and then just really grassroots grow it from the ground up.

07:06.94
mike_flywheel
Yeah, and I think there's a couple interesting things you were touching on there too right? which is like this journey of entrepreneurship and sort of this mentality of keeping pushing because you don't know where and when the break is going to happen and you can't fully predict it all. You can do is be working really hard and solving a real problem and at some point. The problem and the opportunity might might meet Now. You said you listen to a lot of podcasts. They're Favorite. You've got right now or a favorite few that you listen to and and why do you kind of listen to those.

07:36.62
Marley Alles
I like yours and I like how I built this as well with guy raz and he interviews really interesting founders and even like just ceos of of big companies as well. The one I was listening to yesterday was female founders world. So she interviews like female founders. Um. There's probably my top 2 right now just for entrepreneurship that I listen to.

07:56.25
mike_flywheel
Nice so sort of just getting in the right head space around entrepreneurship and and hearing other people's stories.

08:01.70
Marley Alles
Exactly I'm just always fascinated of how companies start. So yeah.

08:09.90
mike_flywheel
It's funny. It's basically why I started this I just love I could watch you know Shark Tank or dragons den all day. Although it's you know, obviously the show and there's some drama around it. But I'm like I could just listen to people's ideas and stories all day and there's not a lot that are shark tank is but there's not a lot that are like.

08:12.99
Marley Alles
Man.

08:20.18
Marley Alles
Yeah, leave.

08:26.85
mike_flywheel
Consistently just talking to canadian founders. Um, so that's sort of where I was like I just want to hear what's up in in Canada people don't give it maybe as much of a spotlight and so that's that's sort of the purpose of this is just hear what people are up to small big I just got an idea and I haven't even started yet to to people that are making it already.

08:27.66
Marley Alles
No.

08:34.40
Marley Alles
Not great. Yeah, what.

08:46.80
mike_flywheel
Well on their way. So let's talk a little bit about um you know your background So you've got some skills in consulting and and marketing and right now you're kind of working with other startups. What's that sort of experience like what's sort of the work that you do and maybe how do you feel like that's helping you with.

08:47.40
Marley Alles
Whirling.

09:06.30
mike_flywheel
Starting your own startup now called rax.

09:08.62
Marley Alles
Yeah, so we get startups in normally they're kind of like series a or precede no matter raised a couple million in funding. Um, and they're looking to build out like maybe they're still at the idea stage and they just received money so we kind of help them from like the ground up on their. Website like what is your messaging saying or your targeting like what are your personas um, we do a lot of like the competitor and market research on like how can you have a unique position in this category. Um, what's the future consumer likely to buy into because we don't want to just do it for that time and moment we want to look to like kind of trends in the market and trends. Consumers on how you can kind of fit your brand around maybe a cultural thing going on the market or like something trendy. Um, so kind of build it up their whole like go-to-market plan and then we actually execute on edit it as well. So our sister company demand curve and they have a network of like almost 100000 like found. You know it demand clerk. Yeah so demand curve has a network of like almost 100000 founders and marketers just through like their newsletter that they built up and like connections in the space. They run like events and stuff. So.

10:03.00
mike_flywheel
That's that's Clever Bell Curve Demand curve I like it.

10:19.74
Marley Alles
We pull from like that network as well to be freelancers. Um, so these startups are able to hire a bunch of different areas really cost effectively versus hiring like 1 full-time person in all these areas like you have a team of strategists like ah bell cur that kind of lead these freelancers. So everyone's like connected. Um, know what's going on because when I used to work at a different agency I think people kind of tend to work in silos um, and you don't always get like the data and the learnings from the different teams so we kind of work as like strategists to build companies from the ground up or maybe there are companies that've been running for like 20 years and they're just. Hitting a growth plateau and they need some fresh new like ideas. Um, so it really depends on the startup but back to your question how it's help with racks like I get to see exactly what pain points these companies are facing how they solve it even from like writing articles or how to write the best email. Um. Different ways like your website can convert better like I really get to see all areas of growth holistically even from like the product side we help with like how to grow your or make your product better how to hire the best people. So I really have to see across anything that a company does so apply it to that. So.

11:30.41
mike_flywheel
Feels feels super relevant to what you're up to right now. What would you say is sort of like your biggest takeaway. So like you obviously get to see a whole bunch of this so you get the benefit of being able to implement it with what you're building but you also see a whole bunch of other startups. What do you think like the most.

11:32.66
Marley Alles
Yeah, yes.

11:45.55
mike_flywheel
Useful piece of advice or you know guidance that you're sharing with others or working on that you're kind of taking into your own startup right now.

11:52.56
Marley Alles
That is a good question I think my biggest takeaway is that I think you think that everyone at companies kind of know what's going on and how to like solve it even like at you out you think it's a huge company like everyone is so skilled and know's going on and they they are but also people are just kind of making things up as they go along. And you know they get firstly startups to get hit with different things every single day and I think a lot of people you know don't sort to start up because it they just can't they don't know how um but a lot of times just taking that next step. Um, if you look at the whole big picture and all the billion things you need to do like It's really overwhelming and it just throws people off, but. My biggest takeway if you just focus on like 1 thing and just the next thing you have to do um and that's all that really matters and you can be more focused versus doing a billion things feeling overwhelmed and then like not getting anything done. Um, and no one really knows everyone just making things up right? like you, you just kind of do best you can and I think. That's probably my biggest takeaway from working with startups is just the ability to be dynamic and like just do what comes at you.

12:50.27
mike_flywheel
Yeah, just keep iterating and I think the the 1 thing you were talking about there that we talked about on a previous podcast someone else brought this similar theme up. But it's sort of just just focus on putting one foot in front of the other.

13:03.69
Marley Alles
Um, yeah, yeah.

13:06.77
mike_flywheel
Um, if you're feeling overwhelmed about all the things you have to do or that you don't know how to solve just focus on like the immediate one foot in front of the other and it's those baby steps that are gonna gonna get you there. So really, really good advice. Um, so I want talk about racks a bit. We're gonna get to your pitch in a second but before we do what inspired you to start. Racks was this similar to what you talked about earlier a pain point for you that you just couldn't let go maybe talk about like the origin story of of what inspired racks before we talk about it.

13:37.80
Marley Alles
Yeah, definitely came from my own pain point. Um I'm kind of at the stage where all my friends are starting to get married which is very scary. Um, so I was just buying a dress for kind of different weddings or like formal events. Um obviously wearing them once because you get a picture of them or like trends go. And style so quickly. Um, so I thought like there must be somewhere I can rent dresses and I knew there were like brick and mortar locations. You can go in like try them on but the inventory the sizing is kind of lacking. The trends are outdated and I feel like I rented kind of everything I wanted to rent from there. Um. Of looked at Poshmark and like maybe buying some nice use dress that people wore once? um, they were just expensive and I was like I don't want to wear it and just have it sit in my closet. Um, so then I thought there must be something like Poshmark like peer-to-peer resale but peer-to-peer rental where you know people buy these gorgeous dresses more than once and it sits in their closet for. You know 364 days of the year maybe they were one day of the year if that probably not um and thought like they should be monetizing these stresses that are just sitting there and then on the flip side and there's a whole bunch of people that will want to borrow them tour them once. Um, so that kind of led me to researching like. Competitors the market if the future consumers likely to buy into a service like this market trends and kind of everything pointed towards yes at the time there wasn't any like 1 really doing it in Canada there might have been a few small startups with like very limited inventory and that's kind of still um where they're at whereas.

15:08.20
Marley Alles
Global competor market like it's pretty built out in the U K and the us just because they tend to be a bit further along um than Canada but yeah it it really came from my own pain point that I want to solve.

15:19.20
mike_flywheel
Was there like a specific day that was the breaking point where you're like okay I really need to look into this like what was that moment because you it clearly was like in the back of your mind but something was the trigger. So what was the day whose wedding was the trigger to the starting of racks.

15:25.32
Marley Alles
Um, I was yeah yeah, it was my boyfriend's sister's wedding. Um, that's when I had the first idea and then I was just obsessed like I literally could barely sleep for weeks just like. Researching talking to everyone that I know like would you use something like this have you heard of this like would you rent out your clothes because there is kind of still stigma around like thrifting or secondhand. It's definitely a lot like trendier now like there. There's definitely been like ah a shift towards ah like buying news clothes and going thrifting. Um, so kind of the mindset whereas if it started maybe five years ago it wouldn't have have been um so everything just kind of pointed towards like I needed to start this I knew I'd just be thinking about it for the rest of my life if I didn't or I'd see someone else start it and I'd be like ah I should have done. It.

16:18.66
mike_flywheel
Yeah, that that happens far too often. How many times that happen on all of your other ideas but this was the one This is the one that wasn't going to get away. So let's let's maybe um, we're gonna we're going to give you a moment to give your pitch and then I want to learn a whole bunch more about racks.

16:23.36
Marley Alles
Yeah I mean they were um, but maybe a couple. Yeah.

16:34.18
Marley Alles
No.

16:36.41
mike_flywheel
But Marley you're on pitch please so your pitch please.

16:39.11
Marley Alles
Yes, I have so many different versions of it I feel like I've iterated one hundred times so I'll do the the quickest to the point one because I feel like I'm in rambling but so Rax is canada's peer-to-peer border rental app so you can land out your closet and monetize items in your wardrobe. And on the flip side people can borrow these items for you and save up to 90% on fashion. Yeah.

17:04.34
mike_flywheel
That's amazing. Super simple I Love it I now can probably repeat what you do which is always sort of my litmus test for a good pitch. Um, let's talk about the industry you started mentioning a little bit about it before but sort of what is in this used rental.

17:14.99
Marley Alles

17:21.89
mike_flywheel
Market You know, tell us a little bit about who are you don't you have to name them but competitors the the Canadian Eco space other markets Brick and mortar educate us a little bit for anyone that's sort of new to sort of fashion. Um purchasing peer-to-peer platforms that type of thing.

17:24.37
Marley Alles
Yeah.

17:38.57
Marley Alles
Yeah, so the rental market in Canada really is still relatively new like I mentioned like there's a few smaller competitors but they really don't have ton of inventory or like high quality inventory I think they're still kind of at like the early stage. Um, but it definitely is kind of. Ah, newer thing. So. Not only do you have to kind of educate on like what racks is for instance, but also what um what the category is and how it works so. It's a little bit more difficult because you're not only promoting like racks you have to promote what it is and how it works and all all those hard things. Um, but it's also an opportunity because. People don't know what it is you get to capture those like first users and have floil people to brand because there really aren't any competitors. They can go to but globally it really started I think out of the Uk. Um, probably in like 2019 I know there are people that tried to do it. Beforehand and there's things like rent the runway which I'm sure we're all familiar with started in like around 2010? Um, and what they do is they own all the inventory so they purchase bunch of fashion house in the warehouse do all the dry cleaning I know rental runray is actually the largest dry cleaner in the us just from their own.

18:45.95
mike_flywheel
Wow.

18:48.64
Marley Alles
Rental which is kind of funny. Um, so that was kind of the craze around like subscription boxes too and like the 2010 2012 era of getting clothes like mailed to you shipping it back. So it definitely was starting like ten plus years ago um but then peer-to-peer kind of came out where people were like well It's really, it's hard for these companies to get to profitability like run the runway I don't think even is profitable still because they have such high costs with dry cleaning and warehousing and buying new inventory and if something happens to their inventory and just if styles go outdated and they have to like get rid of the items buy new ones. So. I think companies are starting to think like people have us in their own wardrobe the exact same inventory that like rent the runways have but it's just sitting there. How can we just be the platform which is super low cost. Really if if you really want to like your only cost is the techck and keeping that running and obviously someone like customer service and stuff like that and marketing. Um. But it's really low cost and then people kind of saw that you know people aren't so attached to their items anymore they're looking for more so like access versus ownership. We've seen it with like the airbnbs. The ubers of the world kind of disrupting these legacy industries. So now. It's kind of like the canadian and and global fashion frontal market. But. The fashion industry as a whole like I think we all know how bad it is um you know it's like not good for the environment or ethically but I think people don't know just how bad and how things need to change and brands are being forced to change so brands are also getting into resale or rental either. It's like buyback programs where they buy or.

20:25.15
Marley Alles
Your old items from like the brand that you got or they're starting exclusive lines with companies like Brax to rent out their inventory. So it's definitely growing but still at the early stages which is a good opportunity but also hard for you know, marketing and user acquisition because you're still teaching the market.

20:41.76
mike_flywheel
Yeah, you've got a little bit of education but you do have a little bit of a first mover advantage now tell us about who rackx is for you've mentioned dresses a few times. Um, so you know is this mostly for for females males. Is it mostly dresses is it full wardrobe is it sort of like the the range of what.

20:53.39
Marley Alles
Um, yeah, 1

21:01.70
mike_flywheel
You know you're dressing or maybe you're you're you know bull's-eye for for what rackx is offering.

21:05.41
Marley Alles
Yeah I think when I first started I wanted it to be like be for everyone I wanted like children's clothes because children grow so quickly. Um, and moms can start monetizing like their baby wardrobes like the zero to three months where it's they can't wear it again after after that I want it to be for like. Maternity where so things are only a need for a few months and men and women's dresses. But I think that was just a lot at once and everyone's advice to me was just to focus on one key area. So I did launch just kind of focusing on like the women's dress rental market. So our typical consumers kind of like that 16 to 35 year old who might be. Renting a dress for prom or um, the beauty braxes also were not only focused on luxury rentals whereas global competitors are so they'll maybe rent out like a $600 dress for like $100 whereas. We also see the value in renting like. Ah, beautiful $70 dress and maybe you rent it for like $5 because $100 is still a lot for someone to rent. Um, so it's also for that you know woman going through university maybe she's renting going out clothes to wear or um, wedding guest dress like I've rented for weddings or even brides that are rented so it's kind of nice. You can be for people. Throughout all stages of their life. Um, really, it's for anyone because we're really trying to democratized fashion no matter what size how much money you have um so it's kind of the beauty of fashion rental is there's a ton different from inventory and you can see what it looks like on a real person versus on a model that you can't resonate with um so really for anyone interested in.

22:37.79
Marley Alles
Fashion and sustainability. Yeah.

22:37.95
mike_flywheel
So is your your dream is bigger in in scope you do want to over time service a lot more categories but to your point get really focused on a very specific problem at first until you gain momentum so you're focusing largely on dresses and gowns and kind of evening wear type things right now.

22:49.39
Marley Alles
Yeah.

22:57.49
mike_flywheel
Um, I know we skipped over this and I think I know how you came up with it but tell us about how you got to the name racks.

23:02.86
Marley Alles
It really was just the first name that pop into my head like I know that's something I always hear entrepreneurs talking about is like how difficult it was to have their name. They're doing like brainstorming sessions like talking to everyone and I was like oh it just came to me like the first name that I thought of I knew I wanted something just through like. Working in startups and working with companies like something super easy to spell like if you I mean some times people don't think it's a Rex I think it might be like racks or something R a x yeah, we wanted somewhat something that was like easy to remember short. Um.

23:30.30
mike_flywheel
Yeah, and just just for listeners. It's RA x at our ax.

23:41.27
Marley Alles
1 syllable and that's something that meant something so racks is kind of a play on like clothing racks and then I actually googled like the meaning of ah Rax and it actually means like give something to someone um, which worked out really well. So why it just happened and i' was like oh it's perfect. This is the name and then there was no company like.

23:52.45
mike_flywheel
Was that just ironic like that just happened to be.

24:00.97
Marley Alles
Named name rock. So it worked out really well. Um, yeah, it was really just the first name that came to me which is kind of lucky.

24:07.56
mike_flywheel
That's that's super cool and easy enough. Sometimes it's been a much longer journey for people and I'm sure you're seeing it where you work now. But at Belker but the the.

24:11.97
Marley Alles
Yeah.

24:18.99
mike_flywheel
Trickiness of coming up with a name seeing who else has it figuring out the spelling finding a web domain someone else has that web domain. So it sounds like you actually had a pretty easy go with this.

24:20.45
Marley Alles
All ofbilities. Yeah, yeah, oh someone does have the Instagram Handle rocks and I've been deeming them like can I have your instrument handle that amhers respond to me So and no.

24:32.97
mike_flywheel
Are they gonna give it Oh they have just no response. They're waiting to you get massive? Oh why it's okay, soon enough they'll they'll give in they'll reply and they'll be like free dresses for a year and you you're gonna just gonna be like yeah no problem exactly. So.

24:38.86
Marley Alles
House like can buy yeah walls.

24:50.80
mike_flywheel
Tell us a little bit about um ah how it works So your peer-to-peer platform Um, tell us a little bit about how that works where do people go What is the kind of workflow of of me listing address and someone renting address that type of thing.

25:00.26
Marley Alles

25:08.55
Marley Alles
So now we're just mobileba we are building out a webbased version as well. Um, hopefully to launch in the new year so that will come soon and but we want to make it really simple because again it mentions like there is a lot of education needed for fashion rental. We want to make it like 3 easy steps easy to remember so. And list your wardrobe. We just click the plus button at the bottom of the screen on the app and then you fill out things like brand size color. Um like description. Add your photos how much you want to be rented for you put in the value of the item and the app automatically suggests an 80% discount on that you can change it around how you feel but that's just. Most likely for your item to get rented. You can also choose to sell your item you can only rent and sell not just sell because you want to keep the inventory high on the app. Um, but if you also want to sell it. You can do that as well. Then you just choose the unavailability dates because maybe I'm listing address now but I know I want to wear it in like October for a wedding or whatever. Um, so you can choose what dates it's unavailable for and then you just list it and then on the flip side for borrowers if they want to borrow items you just scroll through we've hundreds and hundreds of listings. We're getting up to like 500 now. So we have a ton of inventory different sizes colors. You can filter for what you're looking for. And then you can borrow. Um, you can choose how long you want it for so we give the lenders different ah like timeframes of how long they can rent it for so like four days ten days Twenty thirty goes all the way up to six months and so if you want more like trendy seasonal pieces that you only want for like.

26:42.90
Marley Alles
Fall for instance like a fall jacket you can rent it for three months depending on how long the lender lets it list for and then yeah you can how long exactly? Yeah, so maybe you don't want someone to run an item for like six months because you know you want to wear it. So maybe you'll just make the rental period like a month maximum

26:47.92
mike_flywheel
And and as a lender you can cap how long is like your minimum and your maximum like an airbnb I guess.

27:02.21
Marley Alles
Um, so you get gift flexibility there and then you just click on you want to form when you want it so you choose your dates and then you just pay and the lender will ship it out to you Canada posts their shipping partner. Um or you can choose local pickup if you live nearby and then just meet up in a secure local area for free. So It just Depends. Whereas a lot of our other competitors are only either or so they only do shipping which is expensive or they only do little pickup. Not everyone wants to meet up locally or they're too far so wanted to get people the option to do both.

27:31.92
mike_flywheel
Yeah, how does the shipping work actually can you explain that to us does the the renter pay the shipping. Do you guys facilitate the shipping I imagine that that was a big challenge for you to go figure How to how that's going to work.

27:44.28
Marley Alles
Yeah, it is a challenge. Yeah, so right now it's split between the lender and the borrower. Um, if the items valued like over $50 because then the lender doesn't mind making like a little bit less and the borrower will pay um as well. And but item is valued under fifty few dollars and the line's not making enough like for them to pay for shipping to make it worth it. So the borrower just eats the cost but we hope to get to the place where like we can offer like standard shipping or eat the cost in sum shipping. Um, but for now it's just split that way. But it's all done in the app we're using prepaid labels so you don't even really like.

28:13.98
mike_flywheel
Got it.

28:19.25
Marley Alles
Notice it and it'll just be like that's the cost and then the lender's earnings. That'll just be that your earnings like it's not you don't even really like think about it so we wanted to make it super seamless for the users. Yeah, totally.

28:29.39
mike_flywheel
That's amazing. So there's like a prepaid label it adds the price to the checkout and you just have to basically go drop it off with Canada post or or your nearest location. that's that's cool super super seamless I imagine that was like I mean it sounds like it would be hard.

28:36.00
Marley Alles
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

28:47.20
mike_flywheel
To manage the prepaid shipping Workflow I think we're talking about it as if it's super easy but I wouldn't even know where to start how did like you work through that What was like did you have that rate from day zero of launch this like prepaid shipping integration and how did you go about getting that started.

28:49.81
Marley Alles
Um, not.

29:05.61
Marley Alles
I did yeah I just reach out to basically every like Canada like non Canada post like every shipping provider in Canada um, to do their different raids I know I want to go with Canada post because they just have the most locations to make it easiest for people even in like more remote areas. Um. And then I was like well who's going to pay for what and then I kind of had to like crunch the numbers and what makes sense and depend on what people are earning and all that stuff. So yeah, and then I was like kind of do a cost average of shipping and to make it standard grades that it didn't make sense if someone was shipping like Toronto to Toronto versus like Nova Scotia to like Bc right like. So it had to kind of be a little bit flexible at first and we can pull in all that data for canon post and like how long it actually takes to ship and like how much it is so it's pretty easy to integrate with them. Um, but yeah, maybe we'll iterate on the future to have more of like a standard shipping rate. But for now. It's pretty easy just to pull in from Canada post and then people turn over again exactly yeah.

29:59.25
mike_flywheel
Cool. So. It's like real time api integrated directly into your app. I mean amazing. Um, now we talked about Canada post racks today available canadawide Justin Ontario where where is it available. Maybe it's. You know is your plan to always be just in Canada that tells a little bit about that.

30:18.98
Marley Alles
It's yeah, it's available canadaw wide um, most of our location like lenndders and borrowers are located in the gta but we do have people from all around Canada um, do want to expand hopefully to the us in the next. Um. Year or so we do it is a marketplace so it's a bit harder to expand because you do kind of have that chicken and egg problem like you need to have inventory then you also have to have people borrowing for it to work right? So it's not easy to just expand. Um, so hope to expand the us and then like Uk globally um, but for now we're just Canada wide as we kind of like figure out all the kings here and then kind of take that blueprint and expand to different markets and localize it to the different markets.

31:02.52
mike_flywheel
That's super cool and how long have you been working on racks or how long have you been live I Guess actually maybe maybe both of those since some people you know don't even understand how long before launch Some of these things have been in the work. So how long you've been working on racks and how long have you been live and and able to rent from racks.

31:07.38
Marley Alles
Um, yeah.

31:15.18
Marley Alles
Yeah I first had the idea almost two years ago now which is kind of crazy. But so kind of like those first few months just like researching seeing if it was a viable idea like building out a full business plan I don't think you necessarily need to do that I definitely probably wasted too much time like looking so into it. Um, but once I kind of was sold on it then the next step was to like do op development and figure out how to do that. So I'm not technical at all like I mentioned my backgrounds and marketing so kind of figure out the whole op development thing and then has to get people onboarded a lot a lot goes behind the scenes in that and then. Officially launched in December so I've been live for like I guess eight months now

31:59.62
mike_flywheel
Well Congrats um that I want to talk about that technical cofounder bit. So you said your background is in marketing and I hear this problem commonly obviously there's a lot of tools out there that make it easier for almost anyone to.

32:05.90
Marley Alles
Um, yeah.

32:12.73
mike_flywheel
To develop. But you said you've got mobile apps and that was the core here. The simplicity was really important and you found or you have a technical cofounder or technical individual on your team can you tell us about like.

32:15.83
Marley Alles
Um, no.

32:21.67
Marley Alles
Um, yeah, remember.

32:25.33
mike_flywheel
How you went about that search was this easy. Did you just stumble upon them were they a friend or like what process did you go through to find your technical counterpart.

32:31.33
Marley Alles
It was really difficult. Yeah, when I first had the idea I'm like I need obviously to get someone on the tech side. So I was looking for a cofounder I was joining like a ton of like cofounder matching sites like accelerator programs messaging like every developer on Linkedin being like hey I have this idea like are you interested in. You know, working alongside your current job just like on this like I really want to find someone that was passionate about like fashion and sustainability and startups and like willing to you know, grind and have that fully startup lifestyle I probably talked to mar I don't even know how many like I message hundreds and maybe even thousands of people.

33:07.34
mike_flywheel
Wow that was the first year and a half just messaging people to find your technical cofounder.

33:09.57
Marley Alles
Um, and I probably talked to like fifty plus. Um, yeah, just talking everyone I'm surprised I didn't get like banmned from Linkedin. Um, but yeah, just messaging everyone I couldn't find anyone um that I really like you know 5 whether it's. Really like getting into relationship. A co-founder. Um, you have to really vibe with them and get along with them and make sure they have complimentary skills to you? Um, so I really couldn't find anyone and I just spent months looking and I was like okay I'm gonna just do this by myself I hired like a no code um app agency. So because I want to just. And Mvp got it out cheaply um without having to do like a full coded app that would take like a year super expensive like my biggest advice to founders too is just launch as quickly and as cheaply as possible because you don't want to be building something that might not even want so launch Mvp. Get customer feedback and then iterate as quickly as you can and kind of build a real product around that not real but you know in my case of the fully coded app. Um, so I did that went through a few developers I mean there's a lot of horror stories in the developer world. Um I found out my developer wasn't working full-time had a full-time job was only working at night. Had to get like 2 new ones to make up for like that delay like there's always there's always going to be something and then I launched my like nocode app and since my app is pretty huge like we have thousands of users hundreds of listings like it's it's not meant for like an app of that scale. It's meant for more of like.

34:44.15
Marley Alles
You know a few buttons like a nocode app. So. It's definitely a bit slow and laggy. Um, so not the best user experience right now and that kind of led me to like ground 0 again where I had to look for a new cofounder or like cto to really build out my coded app now that I have like. Users and feedback and I can actually build something that I know people want. Um so let me again to stalking people on Linkedin going joining every accelerator co-founder matching site and then I finally found someone that really saw the vision of rocks like thought it could be something big. Um, was into like sustainability and fashion as well. Like really bought into the idea has experience in like startups and strategy and fundraising and all those other things you kind of want in. You know, an early stage person bringing onto your company. So right now wherere we're at as we're building up that coded app so taking time doing all the. Mood boards and wire frames and doing customer interviews to really build a product and we know people want the Mvp is still running in the background obviously and we're getting transactions and users. But now going to launch like a fully coded app with more features and a lot quicker and and all that. But it definitely was a journey to find kind of that technical person.

36:02.13
mike_flywheel
There's there's a whole bunch of things I want to dive in on. So um I love that that advice that you gave and we glossed over it a little bit but like just get it out the door and get people using it like you're to the point where you've got thousands of people on the platform hundreds of articles of whole thing on your Mvp which.

36:07.83
Marley Alles
What.

36:16.25
Marley Alles
For no.

36:18.56
mike_flywheel
Shows that you can make money and build a sustainable Business. You're like being self-critical, you're like it's a little laggy which maybe maybe there's some lag but that inconvenience is it quickly fades to the background when you have people that actually have a problem and now when you go launch your your final version. What platform. Did you use to do this like no code app and you said you, you know you paid someone I imagine everyone has the same question I do which is like okay if I want to do this as a non-technical cofounder and sort of get out the gate What platform would I use and like what's like ah a.

36:44.67
Marley Alles
And.

36:51.14
mike_flywheel
Rough price range I would expect to kind of pay to have someone help me build a no code app that I could get my Mvp out the door.

36:55.42
Marley Alles
Yeah, so we used dallo which is a sort of itself. So a lot of lot of kinks on there and I probably wouldn't recommend it for like a really big app. Maybe if you have like a few screens or whatever like it's fine. Um, but there's other alternatives like bubble which is probably a lot better. Um, and then in terms of. Price range if it really depends on your app and how much you want like I think I was still so stucked that I wanted like so many features and I wanted my and mp to be the best like so many founders are at the beginning and then you realize like okay I she a launch and I can't be spending all this money on all these things that don't people want. Um so I would say. No code like depending on how big your your app is anything from like a few thousand dollars if it's something super like lean and maybe just like a few screens. Um all the way to like 30 k um, depending on if you want like kind of fully build it up app like integrations like I had like a bunch of screens. Um. And I will say like app development is like building a home and never built to home but they say it's like 3 times more expensive and takes 3 times as long so just have that in your mind as well. But for reference for like a fully coded app um getting like react native or Javascript developers. Um. That could be anywhere from like minimum 30 k to like hundreds and hundreds of thousands millions um so it's definitely good to look into no code solutions for any kind of like tech you're you're building at first and then just get your Mvp out there launch and then use the funds you make to build out a full full app or.

38:30.66
Marley Alles
Whatever text solution you have.

38:32.64
mike_flywheel
That's great advice. So a dollo or or bubble something like that. Um, give yourself a budget of maybe up to 30000 but depending on how simple it is. You could maybe get away like sub ten k maybe um to get rolling.

38:33.96
Marley Alles
Yeah, yeah.

38:42.84
Marley Alles
Yeah, okay.

38:47.53
mike_flywheel
And I think a piece that you talked about that's so important everyone dreams of this perfect end state app and they want that built until the you know the price tag and the speed and all those things come up. How did you rationalize? you know? Yeah okay I got to walk myself off the edge here a little bit.

38:51.88
Marley Alles
And.

39:02.84
Marley Alles
Yeah.

39:05.10
mike_flywheel
Here's what I actually need to get started what sort of process but was there like some some process that you went through to to to go through kind of narrowing down the list.

39:12.49
Marley Alles
Yeah I had a full like document of everything that I possibly wanted on the app like a full like what my dream state would be and then I kind of like gave out to the developers and they were like hey it's going to take this amount of time and like this long and for this amount of money and I was like okay now let me see what's like. Actually what I actually need for this app Run like what's the least amount of things I need and just like the borrow flow of lending flow like that's pretty much much what you need to start I Want to have all these things like followers and following and comments and likes and make it almost like a social platform and like. All the bells and Whistles. So I scaled back all of that and then just launched like what it actually needs to run and then just have slowly been like adding on features and stuff that I've heard that customers want versus just thinking they want um and I don't even think they would have noticed like all these bells muscles that I wanted to have. On launch because really just if the app works and there's not really any other competitive solutions like they're they're going to use it right.

40:16.91
mike_flywheel
And now that you're going to like what will be v 2 or maybe you're like be 1.5 I don't know but a lot of these features that were.

40:22.50
Marley Alles
Yeah.

40:27.12
mike_flywheel
In your initial document. How many of those are you building into your v 1.5 or v 2 based on like your real user feedback right now I think that's like a good like eyes wideopen moment for people which is like you had your full list. You shortened it now you're doing a rebuild how many of those features. Do you really need in in v one point 5 or v 2

40:37.26
Marley Alles
Um, yeah.

40:45.42
mike_flywheel
And and you know what percentage are sort of making it forward. Wow.

40:48.82
Marley Alles
Honestly, probably only like five percent like we're still launching pretty lean just on coded. So really The only difference will be like the design. Um and like the user experience but the features will become similar. It'll just be a lot quicker. Um, just more more like. Easy to understand too. That's kind of like our our biggest thing we want to work on is making it as easy as possible, but from the user standpoint like you're really just going to notice like a quicker um app with a few more features but we have a full just to launch that just replace this this nocode app and then we have a full product roadmap prioritized but like. Um, like different priority um of what we want to launch which will take like a year of like all the things we want to do but we're just rolling them out like slowly. So. Also we can test like that 1 thing that we change versus you know, having all the bells and muscles on the next one and then not being able to test like things properly. So really, just want to launch with like. New features at a time to test how those go versus a ton and then wasting time on like a full new version. Just want to launch something pretty lean to start but a lot quicker and easier to understand.

41:54.67
mike_flywheel
This is like such a and I know we've we've been talking about this a bit but it's such a valuable thing that I don't think enough people with ideas or even some founders get which is like get it out the door. Get people using it go a lot simpler. It doesn't have to be perfect. Don't trip up.

42:04.41
Marley Alles
The more.

42:13.56
mike_flywheel
On trying to get to perfection because honestly, you'll lose out on the speed to market which is one of the most important things in real user feedback because um, you know the road the road will change over time. So how does racks you know you've launched you've got thousands of users hundreds of items of clothing on there.

42:18.27
Marley Alles
Um, million.

42:32.52
mike_flywheel
Where does racks make money in the process of that workflow.

42:37.78
Marley Alles
Yeah, we'll too back to their point I totally agree if you're not embarrassed by your first product then you took too long to build it. So don't worry if you're a founder and you're just embarrassed of launching like you're at your hardest critic and people probably won't even notice. Um. But and how rackx makes money as we take 20% commission on each transaction. So the borrower just pays, whatever the price is and the lender makes 80% of it so we're that commission based model.

43:02.14
mike_flywheel
Amazing and so eight months in Market Year year and a half of building before that you've talked about some of the the challenges along the way. What's sort of been the most challenging thing you've had to overcome. And any advice for others trying to break through.

43:22.92
Marley Alles
I think just the product side. So the fact that I was kind of owning it um leading like all the apps development all the tech side being a marketer was a challenge and then launching my nocode solution which was you know, not what I thought I was going to be like a bit legy slow, not all the like necessary features that I needed. Still breaks a ton because like I mentioned dao as a startup so there's things every day that we need to fix more so than like a coded app would be so I think that's my biggest challenge just just being a solo founder beginning trying to everything on my own trying to lead tech marketing and and all that. Um, so definitely really happy that I have Matt my cto on now to kind of lead that bring in this expertise and I can focus on kind of being on the business versus working in the business cause I think you know I got so tactical just checking things off my list and I don't always come up for air on like what the big picture is and what we're actually trying to to achieve. Um, so yeah, probably the text out of things was my biggest challenge.

44:19.61
mike_flywheel
And actually just on that. What were like the top. You know you you have your Cto mat Now what were like the top 3 things that you were sort of using to gauge who or how you wanted to bring someone in as the technical part of your business. You did mention earlier a little bit around. Bit. Um, but I imagine there was like some other variables that you were kind of going through and you know you sort of did the the dating world of finding your Cto. So What's like your your tips your pro tips for anyone else, starting out.

44:47.68
Marley Alles
Um, it was huge I kind of had this funny thing where I said like if I couldn't grab a beer with someone. Why don't really drink beer a wine, a cocktail with someone then I didn't want to work with them because. You know Matt and I talk every day we messaging all the time or Jumpingdown calls like you really want it to be someone that like you get a long length and I can you know, grab you with we can like have fun and enjoy the journey of of building this. Not someone that I didn't get along with like they really say a cofounder or like bringing on like a cto or someone at early stage. Um, your first. First employee is like a marriage. Um, so that was my 1 thing like the beer test and then someone that also had a passion for entrepreneurship and startups like not every developer every tech person like wants to work at you know a startup like it is that grind lifestyle like I wanted someone that. Was okay with working all night some days or okay with working on the weekends like that is what running a startup is so also that kind of grind and then someone that was passionate about the idea like someone that had passion for sustainability and like new ways of. Like new business models and kind of like iterating on legacy industries and fashion as well. So someone that actually believed that racks could succeed because if you're not passionate about what you're doing it will it will never work so those are kind of my 3 main things I was looking in finding someone to bring on so early stage.

46:13.98
mike_flywheel
So like actual relationship fit um someone that actually had the desire to be a part of a startup and then the third was someone that actually had passion for what you were trying to solve and so you use those as your litmus test across all these people amazing. Um, we talked about your hardest part.

46:15.49
Marley Alles
Yeah, exactly yeah.

46:30.30
mike_flywheel
You're going to have to have and I'm sure there's going to be many across the journey. But what's been like your most memorable or enjoyable story so far over your last kind of 2 years of building out racks that sort of stands out in your mind.

46:41.64
Marley Alles
That's something I'm trying to get better at is just enjoying the journey like I think I really have reframed me to think like I get to work on this versus like I have to like it's exciting to be able to this and although sometimes like it. It might suck working you know 15 hours days um it's also like enjoyable to.

47:00.47
Marley Alles
Have that journey? Um, but I think kind of the best part of it. It's just the stories I hear from users who got to borrow a dress they would have never been able to afford otherwise because people do list it for up to 90% off so hearing those stories about how amazing like you know what you wear really affects. Your mood and how you present yourself to the world your confident so hearing those stories around how people were able to wear their dream dress. Um, really makes it all worth it or on the flip side of people were like I would have never bought this item but now that I know I can make money on it like I can build out my wardrobe with like these dream pieces. All while doing it sustainability and not contributing to to the fashion crisis and kind of really innovating on the circle or call me fashion and being one of the first to do it. So I think that's kind of like my my best part of working on racks so far.

47:50.52
mike_flywheel
I love it. So what's the um sort of next 6 to twelve months ahead look like for you, you're building out like a next version of the tech platform but tell us about the next six to twelve months of of the journey for racks.

47:56.10
Marley Alles
Yeah.

48:03.00
Marley Alles
Yeah, so the next few months I'm hoping to launch tracks 1.0 again I think it we probably at point 5 right now. Um so kind of just like the main I guess like Mvp now I would say we're kind of up with the prototype right now. Um, so launching that in the next few months hopefully in the wintertime.

48:07.94
mike_flywheel
Okay.

48:20.12
Marley Alles
And then I can only start on like marketing and kind of growing the app right now its just all been organic just because look I don't want New Year's on this but I do want them to have a good experience so kind of waiting for this launch to really go into like all the fun marketing things that I want to do build out partnerships too like I'd love to have um. Stylists and designers on it as well like people are already kind of like building these things or kind of styling people. Um on their own but allowing them to monetize it through racks as well. So kind of building out partnerships like that even with brands who might want to rent out pieces of their or like exclusive lines for racks. Um, so yeah, looking into other creative ways we can get other brands involved and really just grow grow the company once we have the fvp. Yeah.

49:06.28
mike_flywheel
That the actual version 1.0 don't don't don't beat yourself up too much. keep keep going you're doing great work. You have thousands of users and hundreds of items of clothing on your version 0.5 so great work if people are looking to help either or or get started where they want to rent.

49:15.76
Marley Alles
Um, kind of Facebook.

49:25.23
mike_flywheel
Or buy or lend or support the next 6 to twelve months of your journey where should they go what kind of support and help are you looking for over that next time period.

49:25.48
Marley Alles
Um, yeah.

49:35.89
Marley Alles
Yeah, you can download the app on Ios or Android you just search racks and then you can list your items or quoro items. Um I guess the most help would just be any feedback you have on like using the app. And then once we launched the new version. We'd love to run like user tests and and get all the feedback I think that's 1 thing founders don't do enough is like actually making time to like talk to people and make sure everything you're doing is because someone told you they wanted it versus thinking they want it but um. Yeah, definitely just downloading using the app and then letting us know any feedback.

50:10.49
mike_flywheel
That's amazing. Um, so just racks is all they have to look up in ios or Android if they want to go to the website. It's racks app. Um.

50:18.18
Marley Alles
Raxac? Yeah, yeah, and then on socials for rent underscore rocks because someone has the rock user nameme but I'm coming for now change.

50:21.10
mike_flywheel
Okay, amazing and well and we for now for now. Not not forever and what we'll put all that in the show description. Um, Marley any kind of closing thoughts on your side as we sort of wrap up today or words of wisdom you want people to sort of take out and take away as they kind of dive into their own journey depending where they're at.

50:39.63
Marley Alles
Yeah I think if I were put myself in the shoes of someone like listening to a podcast like I did when I was just thinking and of it an idea to have and like just wondering how people got started like I think definitely just pay attention to the painpoints that you face and I think we've always been at a point where like. Talk to your friends like oh we should do that right? and then it like never happens when you have that pain Point. So I think just believing in yourself like I remember when I first started I was like why would I either want to create like a fashion rental company right? like I've no experience. Not Development. No experience in Fashion. Um. Or running a company like why would I be the one to start. But I think if everyone thought that way that there'd be no new companies and what I realized too is the big players. You think would get into it like are so focused on what they're doing that they don't think to start these like innovative like companies right? So I think my one advice would be. Um, just focus on the next thing you have to to start like I mentioned before like if you think of the endpoint me launching racks like that's too overwhelming, but if I just were to think about like the next thing I have to do and break it up like it's a lot easier to to digest and um, yeah, definitely if if you have the passion for it. Anyone. Anyone can do it so that would be my advice. Um, yeah.

51:55.55
mike_flywheel
I love it. Don't overthink it take the leap that was Marley from racks the peer-to-peer wardrobe rental platform Marley thanks for joining us today on the pitch please podcast listeners I hope you had a blast catch us on the next episode and talk to you later.

52:09.21
Marley Alles
Thanks so much for having me on appreciate that.