Kyle
20 year old Nikki Durkin wants you to shop and sell in her infinite closet, 99dresses.com
20 year old Nikki Durkin is looking to solve a problem potentially affecting hundreds of millions of women across the globe. The problem, their are too many clothes in her closet. As Durkin explains in her pitch video, she has all these clothes and nothing to wear. That’s where the idea for 99dresses came from, and it came to her when she was just 16 years old at an Australian boarding school for girls.
As Business Insider reports, naturally at an all girls school Durkin was swapping clothes all the time. High school and college girls are accustomed to borrowing each others clothes. So when Durkin graduated from high school she wanted to expand on the idea of girlfriends swapping clothes on a much larger scale.
99dresses uses virtual currency called buttons. A woman who wants to sell a dress, pair of pants, blouse or other piece of clothing, puts it up on the site and instead of getting paid cash, she sets a price in buttons. When she sells her piece of clothing the buttons change hands and the seller pays for shipping. Now the seller has buttons to buy or virtually rent clothes.
More after the break
99dresses is perfect if you’re looking to change out your wardrobe or that special evening dress for a function coming up. If you opt for the evening dress, wear it and list it on 99buttons. Because it’s virtual currency and you are dictating the price you can just about sell the clothes you buy on 99dresses for the same amount of buttons the next time around. 99dresses gives you what Durkin calls an infinite closet to choose from.
Durkin launched 99dresses in her native Australia where in four months 4500 dresses were uploaded and 3500 were sold. Just because the name is 99dresses doesn’t mean you can only sell dresses. Durkin’s website says clothes, shoes and accessories.
Durkin received funding form YCombinator and she tells Business Insider that she is also currently raising a round of funds on her own. She plans to go back to Australia for a while and then return to the states, possibly on the east coast.
source: SAI
