Meet Deanna Meador of Couture Technologies

Today we’d like to introduce you to Deanna Meador. Them and their team share their story with us below:

Couture’s founders, Deanna Meador and Marcelino Rodríguez-Cancio met while working on an innovation project for Accenture and one of their large fast fashion clients alongside a team of students and faculty members from Vanderbilt University’s Innovation Center, the Wond’ry. This project took them on a journey of discovery to learn everything they could about the biggest challenges facing the apparel industry and areas that were calling out for innovation. After completing this project, which involved a predictive analytics solution, the challenges they discovered along the way stuck with them. At that time, most apparel brands received less than 20% of their revenue from e-commerce and high rates of returns caused by issues with sizing and fit were keeping them from expanding.

The founders could see this would need to change if brands were going to be able to not only survive but also thrive. In 2019, Deanna approached Marcelino with an idea- a bold, big idea. An idea with the potential to completely change the way people shop for clothing online by building an accurate and authentic virtual try-on experience. Marcelino, a PhD-level computer scientist, assembled a team to explore whether the idea was feasible and what type of skills they would need to recruit if they decided to move forward. Before ever writing a line of code, Couture’s founders hit the road and the sky. They traveled around the world and talked to over 300 brand leaders to make sure reducing returns was among their top 3 challenges to solve. Not only was that confirmed, but the brand leaders described an accurate virtual try-on technology as the ‘holy grail’.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have been many companies that have tried since the early 90s to develop virtual try-on technology and most have failed. We knew we would need to develop novel technologies and methods from the ground up if we had any shot at success. This can be a daunting proposition for founders planning to bootstrap, knowing we would need a highly skilled technical team and likely a couple of years in R&D in order to deliver. Based on all the evidence from our customer discovery, we decided it was a risk worth taking and felt confident there was a ‘shark bite’ need that we could solve. The biggest challenges have indeed been on the technical front. Building accurate avatars that represent a customer’s body and making the process quick and simple, while at the same time balancing questions of psychological acceptance and how to keep the attention on the fit of clothing rather than on critiquing one’s own body have been important areas of discovery.

When we had our first prototype, the founder of the fashion brand Black by Maria Silver said, “I want in!” The brand saw no returns when customers used our prototype to virtually try on the brand’s signature Flux jumpsuit. It was this early proof of concept that drove us forward.

We’ve been impressed with Couture Technologies, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
You know when you shop for clothes online, but you don’t know which size to buy or if an item will look good on your body? Couture Technologies helps apparel brands solve this massive financial and sustainability challenge by seamlessly integrating its patent-pending virtual try-on technology with a brand’s website. This innovative technology not only shows customers exactly how items will look but also how they will fit on their bodies.

For workwear and military clients, Couture’s technologies enable employees and service men and women to quickly get fitted with the right uniform size so they can comfortably and safely tackle the work ahead.

Couture has won a number of grants and prestigious awards. Couture’s technology was recently named one of the Top Ten 3D companies in Tennessee, the Most Innovative Apparel Sales Software in the world for 2022, and one of the Top 9 Tech Startups in the world during the 2021 Olympics of Tech.

The early years of the company were bootstrapped by the founders with support from the National Science Foundation’s competitive SBIR grant program. Couture received a grant from the Uruguayan government to fund an exciting international expansion and the creation of a subsidiary located in Montevideo. The team received double their ask in less than a month when raising their first round of outside capital and Couture’s initial collaborator out of stealth mode is renowned workwear market leader, Workwear Outfitters.

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
Since Couture officially formed, it has grown from 3 people to over 25, and its people-first culture has attracted and kept top talent from across the globe. A lot of entrepreneurs will say qualities like grit, curiosity, determination, resiliency, and so on are the most important in order to be a successful entrepreneur. Couture’s CEO doesn’t disagree that those are important, but as a serial entrepreneur with several ventures under her belt, she has grown to recognize and appreciate that it is really strong soft skills that can make or break a venture. To make anything big happen in the world, it takes a lot of hands working together and that doesn’t happen without good people.

Couture’s team has been so fully embraced by the Nashville startup, academic, and tech communities. Every time we show up at an event or pitch competition and feel all the love and support, it is a reminder that we wouldn’t want to grow this business anywhere else but here.

We have more mentors and supporters than we could name, but here are a few people and organizations that have been instrumental since Couture’s early days:

Shawn Glinter, Tracey Figurelli, and Stryker Warren have been the best mentors we could ask for.

Sometimes you hear horror stories about investors and their relationships to the companies and founders they invest in, but our angels have been so good to us and we couldn’t have gotten here without them- Frank Grant, Stryker Warren, Frank Gordon, Tracey Figurelli, Kittrell Smith, Chad Puryear, Dean Weiland, Jim Aylward, Jason Epstein, and LaunchTN.

The brand partners that have believed in our technology and played critically important roles during its development to make sure we were truly building for the customer all along the way- Hemp and Hope, Black by Maria Silver, and Workwear Outfitters (special shoutout to Shannon North).

Pricing:

• Fashion and workwear brands can get started with our virtual try-on technology for as little as $1000. We’ve worked really hard to make sure this solution is accessible to brands of all sizes, while at the same time making sure we built the technology the right way and are providing a solution that truly meets the needs of customers and the industry.
• There is a lot of vaporware in our space right now, so if you or your company are thinking about adding virtual try-on technology, make sure to do your diligence. We had a well-known brand in Europe come to us to ask if we could ‘fix’ the solution they adopted.
• Our process involves a short 15-minute exploratory call and demo. If a client wants to move forward, Couture’s team typically builds a 3D garment of one of the brand’s items and the brand’s team gets a link to experience the technology for themselves (not just in a controlled demo).

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.couturetechnologies.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/couturetechnologies/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/couturetechnologies