I had the privilege of being introduced to Susie Pan, a recent Queen’s University Commerce graduate about her new fashion start up – a mobile app called Blynk – that is being launched tomorrow.
Me: What is your educational background?
Susie: I am a Queen’s Commerce 2014 grad, specializing in marketing. I did my 3rd year on exchange in Paris.
Me: How did you like Paris?
Susie: Loved it! It was the best time of my life! I want to go back.
Me: Where else did you study?
Susie: I only spent 5 semesters at Queen’s so I’m surprised I still graduated on time. I did a year in Paris, a summer in Malaysia, and one semester online while working in Beijing. In total, I was abroad for 16 months, and was away from Queen’s for 20 months before my last semester. I graduated from Queen’s with an Honors Bachelor of Commerce, a Certificate of Corporate Social Responsibility, and was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, an academic honours society for the top 10% of the graduating class.
Me: How did you get involved with Blynk?
Susie: I am currently part of the 4th cohort of The Next 36, the most prestigious Canadian incubators for young innovators. It’s basically an entrepreneurial boot camp where you have access to amazing resources and connections. I was originally with another team that focused on data processing for scientists, but for many reasons, it didn’t work out. About two weeks ago, I joined Blynk because I really liked the product and the team. I think my biggest take away from Next 36 and entrepreneurship so far is the importance of the team.
Me: Tell me about Blynk.
Susie: Blynk is a mobile fashion app that becomes your personal stylist in your pocket. An average personal stylist charges over a hundred dollars an hour. We want to replicate that value for free. We want to help people feel confident about how they look, and how looking good and feeling good is really easy. Blynk understands your style through swipes, like Tinder. Based on your style, we give you full outfit recommendations, which you can buy in app or use as inspiration for your shopping.
Me: Do you have a co-founder?
Susie: Yes, Jaclyn Ling and Shums Kassam. Jaclyn is a recent business graduate from Mcgill University. She is a fashion person! She started multiple fashion businesses while she was a student, selling bags and purses all over the world and made over ten thousand dollars. She also has a Youtube channel of over 10,000 followers. Then there’s Shums who handles the technical aspects of the business and builds the product. He’s very experienced with machine learning and mobile development, learning iOS development in one day.
Me: What do you hope to accomplish with Blynk’s launch?
Susie: Our vision is to be everyone’s pocket personal stylist. In the future, we hope to branch out to retail stores where we can recommend you outfits from each store to make shopping much easier and enjoyable. Guys love it because they don’t have to shop and girls love it because they can try different styles. Since this is our first launch, we are looking to gain users and feedback. The other side of Blynk is to get bloggers and stylists on the platform since we are looking for other people to generate content for Blynk. Stylists will have the feature of being able to personally recommend outfits to users, giving that human touch that is often lacking in fashion.
Me: How did you decide to become an entrepreneur?
Susie: I’ve always wanted to become a social entrepreneur as I started a national NPO called Science Expo while still in high school. I remained involved in the entrepreneurial community, but like any good Commerce student, I took one of the traditional path (consulting) in my early years. However, after working at both start up and corporate companies, I learned that I value the freedom and impact I make in a start up much more than the title or the salary of corporations. I decided not to do recruiting, and being one of the few students who don’t have a job lined up in September, I took full advantage of the Next 36 opportunity to do entrepreneurship full time.
Visit Blynk’s official website to learn more.
Download the app for your Android or iPhone.
Keep a lookout for the official release of Blynk: Your Personal Stylist Monday, June 23rd on the Google Play Store and the App Store.