'You just have to be the hardest working person in the room': Brooklyn Decker on becoming an entrepreneur
Brooklyn Decker and Whitney Casey co-founded Finery to bring your wardrobe to the web.
“I was using a bunch of different apps like TripIt and Mint for banking, and Spotify of course like we all do for our music. And I just remember thinking, why is this not available for your clothes?” Casey told ABC News Chief Business, Technology and Economics Correspondent Rebecca Jarvis on a recent episode of ABC Radio’s “No Limits.”
Casey, a former anchor/correspondent for CNN teamed up with Decker, a former model and actress currently starring on Netflix’s Grace and Frankie.
Together they built Finery as the world’s very first online wardrobe. The platform’s technology works by pulling receipts from past purchases and placing those items in a virtual wardrobe which then links to over 10,000 stores and brands.
For Decker, an initial push to co-found the company came from wanting to have control over her schedule telling Jarvis, “Something really interesting about entrepreneurship for us was, ‘let’s control our schedule. Let’s build something from the ground up.’”
Casey emphasized how the prospect of managing their own schedules fueled their early entrepreneurial spirit saying, “being an entrepreneur is one of the most empowering things that you can be because you can work on your own schedule.”
In building Finery to what it’s become today, Casey and Decker also learned about the importance of fine-tuning the company as it grew. Decker discussed how having to be incredibly responsive to user feedback was one of the toughest lessons she learned along the way.
“We thought this is that aha moment, we are getting your closet online. This is it. This has never been done before. And then we did it and people loved it, but our users were like ‘Cool. Now we want styling. Now we want to know when our favorite things go on sale.’”
“And we thought our job was done,” Decker added.
Today, Finery launched an official re-brand with new app and website features including personal wish list recommendations, upcoming forecast details to plan outfits accordingly, presenting users with street style inspirations based on what’s in their virtual closet, the ability to add multiple email and store accounts, and a brand new blog with original editorial content.
“We were able to take a lot of that feedback and really grow the site from it,” Brooklyn said.
Casey and Decker both came from backgrounds working in media and spoke candidly about being met with skepticism from potential investors early on. But they ultimately believed in the power of tailoring tech products to “what women want and what women need.”
For Decker, becoming an entrepreneur wasn’t necessarily about coming from that background but instead being willing to work hard enough to launch and then grow the company.
“You just have to be the hardest working person in the room and I think that’s something that excited both of us,” she said.
Hear more of Brooklyn Decker and Whitney Casey’s interview on this week's episode of "No Limits with Rebecca Jarvis," available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play Music, Spotify, TuneIn and the ABC News app.
