How Neha Singh is Making Online Shopping So Much Better

their own way. Consider this your Real World MBA designed for the new Now. I'm Kim Azzarelli and thanks so much for joining us today. We're all living online these days, and given the realities of the pandemic, online shopping has never been more vital. But many aspects of online shopping have changed little since the dawn of the digital age. That's why Nahasa set out to build a better online

shopping experience. So she left her job at Vogue, where she was in charge of tech products like the magazine's VR app, to create an e commerce platform called Obsess. The goal of Obsess to make online shopping fun, easy, and truly interactive. Niha drew on both her computer science backgrounds and her love of fashion in creating Obsess and She's charged her team with nothing less than reinventing e commerce.

Since Obsess launched in the company has worked with major brands like Levi's, Samsung, and Alta, and this year, Naha was honored by Springboard Enterprises and a Centure as one of the women who are Transforming industries. Enjoy my conversation with Naha Sang, founder and CEO of Obsess. So Naha, thanks so much for joining us, Hi him, thank you for having me. I just want to say right from the get go that we really think your company is

incredibly interesting. But for our listeners, can you tell us what Obsessed does and why you started it? Yeah? Sure. First of all, thank you so much. Um So, Obsessed is an experiential e commerce platform. What that means is that if you think about online shopping today, right, every website pretty much looks like a grid of thumbnails on a white background. You're scrolling forever, you know, you're just

going through infinitely, through lots of pages. And if you think about this fundamental interface, it was actually created by Amazon twenty five years ago to sell books, and then somehow from books that got used for every category, it got used for every brand, and that kind of became the standard, but it's not necessarily the best interface for shopping when you're not looking for something specific, when you

just want to browse, when you want to get inspired. UM. So essentially what we are doing is creating a more engaging, immersive online shopping interface UM and also more visual because for most of the categories that we are targeting in their visual products and you need to instead of just seeing them in a white background, you need to see them in context. And so the way we do this is in the form of virtual stores UM. So virtual stores are essentially, you know, as they sound, their three

D three sixty experiences UM. The proprietary pattern pending technology that we have developed enables us to show these virtual stores on the web, on your phone or on your computer, without downloading an app, without needing a headset, so it's really easy to access UM. And essentially this technology lives on retailers websites where they can provide a more branded, UM and interactive shopping experience. Well, it could not be a more important time to have this product come to market.

But I want to bring you back. Tell us a little bit about your background, how you started your education, and really how you thought about founding this company. Yeah, definitely. UM So I'm a computer scientist by background. I got my undergrad UM degree in computer science from UT Austin and graduate green computer science from m I t UM. After that, I was a soft engineer UM and tech

lead at Google for five years UM. So. There I worked on Google adverbs and Google News UM and that was really kind of an amazing training for me in computer engineering and really applying UM, you know, sort of all the techniques of computer science to actually build software and ship software to customers. But while I was there, I UM also I always loved fashion, and I thought I wanted to be a fashion designer, so I started taking fashion design classes on the side at a yeah

at f I in New York. I realized after a couple of semesters that I was really bad at drawing, So then I decided to stick to the tech side of fashion UM and I joined the startup called ah Life, which was also founded by some might Alarms, and it was a luxury e commerce market place. UM so that was I was ahead of product in tech there for two years, and that was my first experience building an

e commerce site. And what I really realized through that experience was pretty much what I was mentioning before is that today's eCOM platforms, you know, they're very limited in what they offer you. They've done so much generation on the back end, by the front end has largely remained the same. So if you really want to do something different, and if you want to create a different experience, you just need a lot of resources and a lot of

um you know, custom engineering. And after our life, I was the head of product at Vogue, um so, I was the first tech person they hired in their history. As I love fashion, it was a dream draw for me. Um and I was basically head of digital product there, which means I oversaw the website. I launched all of the current digital properties, including Worgue, dot com or grund Bay,

their mobile apps. Um you know, worked with many brands who are advertisers to create interactive digital experiences for them, all of which, by the way, I like a lot. So I know who was the origin of those? Thank

you for that, yeah, thank you um so. Yeah. So that's kind of my background and the reason, um you know, I started obsessed is because beyond kind of all these things and the clear kind of market opportunity that exists in sort of innovating the customer experience to the next level, especially on mobile, is that as a consumer, you know, I love fashion and I love shopping, but I hated

online shopping. Um. It's just so boring and so tedious. Um. And I just feel like these designers fashion designers, you know, they're like artists, and they're creating all these beautiful creations nowadays, even up to six seasons a year, and they spend millions of dollars in these runway shows that last for fifteen minutes and only a few people can go to. But then when you go to their site, the experience just doesn't match anything to what their actual vision was.

And I want to give these designers a way that they can actually put that vision and put the inspiration into an experience while the customers actually shopping their collections. UM. So that's really kind of the reason why Obsess exists and why you know, really we're trying to bring this visual discovery driven approach to online shopping. So you start the company, you have this idea, you get started, what do you do first? Okay, So that's a great question.

So I would say, like, really, the first six months for me were just learning about virtual reality and three D. So I knew that, you know, I wanted to do something in this space and that this was the solution to this problem of not having like realistic shopping experiences.

But I really didn't know anything much about three D or we are, And so really I spent the first six months like learning about it and making some kind of demos myself, UM, getting a few people to make demos, because it's such a new concept that, you know, it's one of those things where I didn't really know exactly what the end result was going to look like. UM,

And that's often the case. You know, you know, you want to solve a problem, but you don't know like exactly what the solution looks like, so you just have

to experiment. Pretty much what we did for the first six months, and actually after that is when I started in the Spring broad program New York Fashion Tech Lab, and that's where it really helped us, UM kind of take you know, what sort of demos we had built so far, but now we got feedback from UM from them on, from like real retailers who were looking UM

for actual kind of use cases UM. And so that that gave us feedback into our product, and that way we were able to actually develop something UM that we shipped to customers. UM and really we go ahead, like our first customer through through that experience, we built kind of the product for them and UM kind of yeah it the wall from there. Wow. So as you think about scaling us, because now you have quite a few customers, UM, what has been the priority in scaling and have you

found funding to be an important piece to this? I would say the way that I built the company, we were pretty revenue focused from the beginning, UM. And so until actually, like I would say a month ago or now it's a month and a half, we hadn't raised a lot of money at all. We had just raised a pre s round UM and we were actually pretty much break even last year and profitable this year UM.

And actually, for me, what the reason the revenue focus helped more than you know, just building obviously a more solid foundation for the company, was that it helped us really gone into a product that we could sell today.

So I'll give you a little bit more details of that, because often, especially in tech, you know when we are when we're starting companies, we're obviously trying to do something big and maybe like especially for what we're doing, we're trying to build for the future, but at the same time, you know, we also want to build something that people

can use today. So initially, actually when I started after you know, what I was doing during that first year and really till the first year and a half, we were building for virtual reality headsets, and as you know from the market, like you know, the predictions for how quick the adoption of these devices would be were sort of too optimistic at that time and it didn't really

pan out. And then we shifted to making something that just works on your phone, that just works on your computer and you don't need a headset, and that pivot um where you know, while keeping our kind of mission always the same, but we pivoted our strategy of how we were actually implementing it, and that was driven really by revenue because we wanted to you know, ore were B two B SaaS platforms, so we wanted retailers as our customers, and we saw in the market that retailers

would pay for something that you know, actually they can make available to a majority of their users today versus like a device that nobody really has UM, and so constantly as we developed up UM the product, we always kind of have that in mind. We experimented with price points, you know, how much how much retailers are willing to

pay for this technology, and so always been revenue focused. UM. We did raise a seed dround just a couple of months ago, and UM at this point that is because we are in a really good position now actually and we want to capitalize on this moment further UM, and so that will kind of help us accelerate what we UM, what we already have, and now that we have so much demand, it will help us kind of UM really be able to fulfill it and grow the team to do so well. I mean, again, the moment could not

be more important for a product like this. So I'm going to ask you a very obvious question, but how has the pandemic affected Obsessed and how are you responding to this demand? It has been, you know, honestly really

good for our business. UM. I think it's one of those things where you know, UM, and what we keep hearing from retailers is that this was something that was kind of on the experiment list or on their roadmap UM for something to try and just like with a lot of other digital transformation technologies, the pandemic has accelerated the adoption UM, so our inbound interest from retailers and correspondingly,

our revenue has increased by fo this year. Gratulations, thank you, and we have expanded to a lot of other categories. So UM. Initially UM just you know, again because of my background, we were kind of more focused on fashion. That's obviously a clear use case, but what we have seen this year is also demand from just you know, many different categories, so a lot of beauty, UM, some home UM telecom like big box retailers, our customers like include Party City, Sam's Club, so really kind of across

the range. And that's because the technology itself is also category agnostic, like it can really work for any category. So that that's been really UM kind of a very fast UM sort of development and learning phase for us as well as we work with retailers UM across all these different categories and all different price points as well. So while initially we were doing luxury, now we're really doing everything from luxury to premium to off price UM segments,

so you know, different retailers using it for different use cases. UM. But Ultimately, it's really kind of proving out the value of this technology and really the need for it in this market is what we have seen. We'll be back with Senecas made by women after this short break and just to get a little granular around the actual product.

So how does it work and what does a retailer too? Yeah, so the best way to see our product is to know how our product works as if really to see it because it's so visual, but basically it lives on a page on the retailer's website. So eventually we would like to replace the entire website, but as of now, UM, you know it's we're not replacing like the whole eCOM site. It's really kind of a new destination, UM, new starting point where you can have a more discovery given experience.

It is a three D three sixty experience, so you can basically drag around or movie your phone around. UM, you navigate through the space, you can click on any product. UM. There's lots of other things that retailers can add, like videos, UM. And the best part really is that the entire experience can like look like anything that the retailer wants it to look like. So some of our virtual stores, you know, look like real stores, and some of them look like

completely different experiences. So for example, UM, for Sam's Club for their holiday experience, UM, it was actually based on a movie, UM, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and UM, we recreated the house from that movie, and you can go inside that house and shop kind of all the products and there's like all these interactions and sound effects and it's so festive and there's Christmas music. UM. So it's

really like it's really fun. So you can basically see like the you know, the you can capture the imagination of the customer. You can you know, give your own inspiration and the experience, and you can make it something that looks like a real life place. You can make it something completely fantastical. A couple of experiences we are working on now look like video games. They don't have to, though,

they can look very very realistic. So it's what's great about this is like every experience can be completely unique, and so as the customers shopping it, just like you know when you go shop in real life, every store is different. Um, and virtually you can make it even more different. UM. So I think we're just you know, at the tip of the iceberg in terms of what's possible, and over the next years you'll see kind of experiences that are really unique, really much more interactive, dynamic. Um

So it should be really exciting. So for people who have a big idea, because obviously your idea as a transformative idea. For people who have a big idea, is there anything that you would recommend for those in this moment who are looking to disrupt because it can be you know, it can be a little overwhelming. I think for for people right now, given what's happening in the world,

is there something that you wish you had known earlier? Yeah, so a few things, um, I would say, like for a big idea, first is that you really have to for the big idea, I think the most challenging part is where do you start, um and what are the steps you can take? And I think that takes some time to figure out, I don't I think you you should give that time versus just kind of jumping into something and figuring out kind of the step by step. And then in sort of tech we call it m

v P, which is a minimum viable product. But what is the first thing that you can create that can be a proof of concept for your idea, because that's pretty much where it starts. Like, you will definitely want to build, like so many things, UM, but kind of what you learn actually from being an engineer is that you know, really those tradeoffs of how much effort something takes to build versus you know, what are you actually

going to learn from it? So the first thing I would say is like, think about your m v P. Think about what's the minimum possible thing you can build to start getting learnings about this and see if the market wants it and how can you improve it. And then the second is as you go along the way, you know what you're doing is going to change. How you're going to do it, is going to change. The

people you're doing it is going to change. But ultimately, you know, the way you keep going is that you always have that big idea and that big vision in mind that you never lose sight of it, and that's what you're always working towards. So even for us, like as we pivoted, as we you know, really experimented a lot out with what we want to do with this very emerging technology. UM. Having just kind of that ultimate

goal in mind is what has guided us. And now we actually have a product that you know, people are using and wasn't what I had thought like four years ago it would be at all. But it's certainly like, you know, achieving the same goal. Um. Yeah. And then the last thing I would say in terms of things I wish I had known earlier was at a high level,

it's like going with your gut and your instinct. Um. You know, especially in the start of world, there are a lot of people like giving you advice all the time, and you know, when you get get so much advice, you obviously it goes in your brain and you process it and you tend to, even if not consciously, unconsciously

kind of um do those actions. But ultimately I think you know, you have the best knowledge of your business and of the problem that you want to solve and of the target customer because you really are solving a problem for yourself or someone closed to you, right, so you know the time get customers. So UM, trust your got an instinct over um. You know definitely like you know, take advice, but um or you know, trying to get multiple sort of points of view of the advice and

not just one advice. I think, Um, that's kind of one of my learnings. Well, I I totally agree with everything that you just said. And I think what you said, particularly about the mission, is so interesting because for us at Seneca are are sort of reason for being is to advance women, women and girls, and so you know that's always our larger mission and so everything else changes

in the world, but our mission stays the same. And so that's really interesting what you said, because I think that's so true, especially now right with everything that changes so quickly in technology, you've got to stay fluid but be able to keep that mission in mind. So you participated, and I think you mentioned it earlier in Springboard Enterprises. You've recently been recognized by Springboard. You were one of

the honorees. What has Springboard meant to obsess? Yes, the Springboard has really been I mean true to their name. They as I said, they were really the springboard, the launch pad for us. Um. They were how we got

our first customer, our first investor. Um. Really you know what they what was really helpful to us was they were able to bring to us, like you know, three real potential customers or retailers that we could talk to in a setting where we are not you know, just selling to them, but we're it's more collaborative and we're building something together and they understand that we are super early stage at the moment um, and so we're really

building this as we go along. So that was extremely valuable UM and that that program you know itself was three or four months. But what's been really amazing is that since then, for you know, that was three years ago for us, UM, since then, we have we have gotten so much by being part of this network because they're constantly kind of looking out for all the companies that have UM that have been in their cohorts and giving us opportunity and even like last week they introduced

me to a huge retailer. So they're just always kind of keeping keeping your top of mind. And we also obviously have the support group of other founders who went through the same cohort with us, which is which is great. So yeah, I would say, you know, we have done a couple of accelerators UM, but the value that that they provide for taking no equity at all is just absolutely long phenomenal. Well, you are clearly someone who's transforming

your industry and hopefully all of our shopping experiences. We're obviously going through some very difficult times as a world right now. Is there something that makes you optimistic right now? Yeah, definitely, so, I mean other than sort of what we are creating, which is to improve the customer experience. UM. The side effect of a lot of UM, what we are seeing now and this digital transformation accelerating and things, but going more three D, is that we are going to see

a lot less waste. As you know, sustain nobility has been you know, a big issue, especially in the fashion industry, and really I think what this pandemic has done has accelerated UM, the virtualization of products. So some of our customers like what we are seeing now, especially when we are doing UM you know, when we're creating virtual showrooms which are more for wholesale buyers for next season, is

that they're basically not producing UM samples physically anymore. So the entire experience from the actual you know, before buyers would fly all across the world to different fashion weeks and attend these shows and go to the showrooms, UM, you know, to to place these orders, and there's so much waste, right and that activity. But now this is all being done virtually. You know, they're going into these

virtual showrooms. The products there are often virtual, so the physical samples are not even being produced because they can just see them virtually, and then once the order is placed then they can be produced physically. So you know, you see a lot of UM. I think I mean specifically this from our technology and other related technologies that are coming up. UM. I see that as a really you know, beyond, of course the more awesome customer experiences

that are more fun. I think that is um something that really makes me optimistic about what what this change has meant to the industry and how it will I think at this stage pretty much stay long term, even beyond ones kind of travel opens and stores or reopen. Well, we are really excited about what you're doing and excited to follow where Obsessed takes us all in the shopping world. Thank you so much, it was wonderful chatting with you, and thank you for having me. Thanks to NJA and Obsess,

the future of shopping is looking very good. Here are three valuable lessons I took from the conversation. First, if you're going to launch a business, especially when involving new technology, be prepared to educate yourself thoroughly. Even with her tech background, she didn't know much about three D r VR and spent the first six months learning the ins and outs. Second, think about your m v P. That is your minimum

viable product. What's the most basic version of the product you can build to start testing and learning what does the market want and how can you improve the product? And finally, go with your gut. You should seek out grade advice, of course, but as Naja says, ultimately you have the best knowledge of your business and the problem you want to solve. If you'd like to join the Seneca Women Network, go to Seneca Women dot com. There you'll get access to exclusive events and workshops, plus updates

on new podcasts and other opportunities to get involved. Made by Women is brought to you by the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio, with support from founding partner PNG