Estilorobe: A Wardrobe-managing and Self-styling App for Working Women

One of the challenges of being a working woman in India is to find some ‘me time.’ Most of the working women are pressed between workplace and household duties, which leaves them with a very little time for active social life. Just time how difficult it is for them to break through the wardrobe clutter and dress themselves for a corporate party or social occasion. However, the entrepreneur duo – Pooja and Pahul – took up the challenge of easing the lives of working women by means of mobile application technology. They came up with an innovative app named Estilorobe to help women digitize their wardrobes so that they can choose what to wear, schedule their plans to wear something exclusive on special occasions, create new styles with existing outfits through mix n match, etc. from anywhere and at any time.

This is what motivated Pooja and Pahul to launch Estilorobe, a mobile app, which is the first of its kind. The app helps users to create virtual closets and access them on their smart phones. “The foundation stone for Estilorobe is based on the idea to ease working women’s lives by empowering them with a simple yet very useful app to revamp their wardrobes and reinvent their style statements in short time,” says Pahul while talking about what made them start Estilorobe.

The USP of Estilorobe is its individuality and unique functionality, according to the co-founders. “The app not only digitizes and organizes one’s wardrobe but also offers styling options and provides updates on the latest trends. It connects users with fashion bloggers and fashionistas so that users can share their looks with them and get feedback on the same for modification or improvement. Integrating several other interesting features, the Estilorobe application is a complete package. For instance, users can store the looks which fashion bloggers or fashionistas have thumbed up for future trials. This is how ours is absolutely different from the existing apps in the personal fashion & styling niche,” says Pahul.

On being asked how Estilorobe competes with others, Pahul says, “Having a unique business model and distinguished functionality, Estilorobe has no competition from others. However, being a newbie in the market, we are in competition with others though our app is functionally different.” “We are teaming up with professional stylists and reputed fashion bloggers to help our users create different style looks from their existing outfits and accessories in the wardrobe,” add Pooja.

Estilorobe is not just an app but a platform where users can schedule particular days when they plan to wear special looks approved or suggested by stylists or fashionistas and set a reminder in advance. Currently no single app exists in the market which provides all these features on a single platform. Users can seek personalized fashion advice from their favorite stylists.

When it comes to talking about challenges before, after and during the launch of Estilorobe, the entrepreneur and cofounder duo shares, “The biggest challenge was to leave our regular jobs for a road not taken and take risks for an uncertain future. Getting like-minded people with the same enthusiasm and passion as ours to build a team for Estilorobe was no less challenging. Funding was another major challenge since we are a self-funded startup. Building a good product with limited resources and marketing it to the target audience has been very critical. The journey so far has been full of challenges and learning experiences. The only thing that has kept us going through the tough times is our belief in the idea and positive feedback from women of different age groups and from different walks of life.”

The Estilorobe app will shortly be launched this month. The co founders are aiming to build a user base of 5000 to 8000 by end of 2016 if everything falls in place as planned.

A startup is like a baby. It has its own career which can be built only with the support of a vision and mission. Both Pooja and Pahul share a mutual vision and mission about the future of Estilorobe. They have made a detailed marketing plan with defined timelines and milestones in order to reach out to target audience.

We have created a sustainable revenue model to ensure profitability of our venture in the long run. Currently we are self-funded but will be looking for investors soon to accelerate our growth and marketing plans. We will add several new features to the app in the second and third phases we receive the required funding.

On a closing note, Pahul quotes Swami Vivekananda’s words, “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life. Think of it; dream of it; live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves and every other part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.”