Interview With New York Startup Spark Rebel

Social discovery is one of the hottest online and mobile crazes right now. There are social discovery sites for everything from restaurants, events, people, things, food and fashion. Spark Rebel is an amazing blend of social and discovery revolving around fashion that real women are wearing today. Sure it’s nice to be able to shop the top tier boutiques in Chelsea, Manhattan and Rodeo drive and Spark Rebel does have feature some high fashion, but the thick of this social discovery site for fashion is what everyday women are working to work, out on the town or for a relaxing evening.

As people’s lives got busier and busier and they began to take to online shopping over in store shopping, an entirely new way to discover things popped up. The problem with traditional online shopping sites is that you’re seeing what the stores want you to see. You’re seeing the fashions that the buyers are seeing and not necessarily what everyone’s wearing.

Then, you go about your busy day and see that awesome outfit a woman is wearing at Starbucks or you see a must have dress on a woman in the elevator with you, and then you never see it again.

Spark Rebel uses a mixture of social, discovery and recommendation to bring the hottest trends and fashions to their users.

Spark Rebel was born out of site for teenage girls, which is a segment even harder to curate than traditional women’s wear.  We got a chance to interview Spark Rebel. Check out that interview after the break

What is SparkRebel?

SparkRebel is fashion-inspired discovery and social shopping destination.

The site empowers fashionistas and casual visitors alike to ‘Spark’ i.e., collaborate and become a visual sounding board for like-minded people. SparkRebel is designed to replicate the fun and inspiration of browsing and buying with friends by removing traditional barriers to content organization and online shopping. Members organize and share collections, from 20 fashion categories, based on personal interests, discover related content from around the Web, and purchase new found must-have items with ease.

Elad Baron (CEO)

Elad has served as CEO of several successful digital enterprises. In 2006 he co-founded and served as CEO of BitWine.com, an Internet marketplace for real-time expert services. In 1998, he co-founded network security firm Whale Communications (today part of Microsoft) and served as its CEO through 2005. Prior to founding Whale, Mr. Baron was a co-founder and served as CTO and then CEO of SoftLink, a market leader in secure file transfer solutions.

Omer Yariv (CTO)

Omer has been writing and designing software for more than 15 years.

Lindsay Anvik (Director of Marketing)

Lindsay has been a creative strategist in fashion and entertainment for more than seven years. She is a 3rd generation entrepreneur. Before joining SparkRebel, she co-founded SparkRebel’s sister site PlumWillow, and Spree, a shopping website. She holds a BA from Connecticut College in American Studies, with a focus on feminism and popular culture.

Liat Tsarfati (Product Manager)

Liat is a consumer Internet product management professional with five years of experience in fashion industry online marketing and user experience/graphic design. She’s a fashionista at heart with a strong addiction to social media, mobile apps, and E-commerce. Liat earned a BBA in Marketing and Advertising Summa Cum Laude with a minor in Graphic Design from Baruch College.

Charlie Federman (Chairman)

Charlie has more than 30 years experience building, financing and advising technology companies. He is the former Chairman of Broadview International, a boutique investment banking firm and former Managing Director of BRM Capital, a venture capital firm.

SparkRebel is based in New York City at 86 Chambers Street, Suite 704.

SparkRebel originated from a need that its founders saw after successfully creating PlumWillow, a site for teenaged girls to plan and purchase outfits. The team pivoted and formed SparkRebel when they realized the market need for a similar site for adult women who wanted a place to both discover and purchase fashion and beauty items in a social and visually-driven platform.

SparkRebel solves a problem with the trend in social curation sites that allow people to see interesting things, but lack a seamless way to purchase the item without additional, and often frustrating, time spent searching the Internet to identify the correct retailer. While not all items seen on SparkRebel can be clicked through to purchase, many of them link directly back to sparked items where shoppers can purchase them.

Additionally, SparkRebel provides a place for members to follow their favorite brands and subsequently receive a constant stream of the newest items these brands release. Unlike a Facebook stream of status updates or ‘likes,’ this is an automatic stream of actual items sold by these brands.

Passion for product perfection

We believe there will always be space for specific-vertical solutions alongside all-purpose solutions. SparkRebel focuses only on Fashion and Beauty, and we believe this model will always allow us to stay one step ahead of the game in terms of product-offering depth. We have many fashion-related features in the pipeline that would not make sense for a company that addresses everything for everyone.

The word spark was used to denote stimulation and inspiration. The site is focused on social discovery, and the images are meant to ‘spark’ ideas. Rebel was used to invoke the idea of pushing fashion boundaries, being edgy and understanding that while love of fashion unites SparkRebel members, everyone has a unique flair, and the site harnesses these differences in a joyful way.

SparkRebel raised close to $2 million from angels and venture capitalists in its seed round.

In addition to working through affiliate networks, SparkRebel has ongoing direct discussions with top brands. Several brands including Paris Hilton Handbags, Unique Vintage and Ice.com have set up their own dedicated brand page and actively curate collections to directly engage with their loyal followers.

SparkRebel offers many benefits and provides a stage for brands to gain exposure and open sales leads for their products on a site dedicated solely to fashion and beauty. Brands can also collect content about them from all over the Web and organize it in one place to keep it fresh and easy to access.

That being said, we keep our focus on member satisfaction and will not add any brand-related features if they don’t add to the member experience. We know that without members, positive brand engagement won’t provide long-term value.

SparkRebel is leveraging bloggers, social and mainstream media to attract users. The site also recently launched a series of contests to drive people to the site. The contests are being promoted with themes such as Mad Men Style, and member collections are featured on the site. But the main way is simply word-of-mouth from satisfied members who tell their friends about us.

SparkRebel will remain focused on the fashion and beauty vertical and continue to cater to this niche audience. We are a technology driven company and will keep innovating for the benefit of our members.