Welcome back to Fashion and Founders the Podcast. My name is Victoria Smith and this week I am joined by Claire Stepanek, the founder and CEO of Ergo.

Have you ever wondered how brands decide on the price of an item. Or why it seems like brands always have a 10% off sale? Maybe you would buy something if it was $25 instead of $28?

Claire is building Ergo, a shopify tool that allows potential customers to make an offer of their best price when shopping. Providing brands with real time pricing analytics and empowering customers to have a voice in the shopping transaction.

If youre used to sending an offer on second hand platforms like ebay or depop Ergo is bringing a version of this to everyday online shopping by allowing customers to tell brands their desired price.

Claire went to MIT and worked at Goldman Sachs, Apple, and Doordash before starting Ergo in 2023. She has so much knowledge to share on fashion tech, fundraising, and more.

Follow Fashion & Founders:
Podcast IG: @fashionandfounders
Podcast Website: fashionandfounders.com
Victoria TikTok: @vfsmith11
Podcast LinkedIn: Fashion and Founders
Podcast Substack: Fashion and Founders
Locker Links: VictoriaS
Victoria Pickle Closet: @victorias

Follow Ergo:
IG: @ergo.offers
LinkedIn: Ergo
Website
Wishlist Giveaway

Follow Larson:
IG: @larsonthebrand
IG: @camrynlarsonn
Website

Thank you for listening!

Welcome back to Fashion and Founders The Podcast. My name is Victoria Smith, and this week I’m joined with Jade Beguelin the co-founder of 4AM SKIN. You may have seen Jade from one of her TikToks about what hot girls in New York City are gatekeeping or wearing her viral under eye masks for her brand 4AM SKIN. She is how I found out about Pickle and the big silly trivia game, and she shares her best tips for growing on TikTok and some rumblings of what the hot girls are currently doing.

4am is not your regular skincare brand. Their launch party was at a club, they’ve partnered with 818, and their inspiration comes from the downtown girls that are up all night but still look great in the morning. Focusing on minimalism, they’ve created skincare that’s easy enough to do at 4AM and actually works. You can find them on REVOLVE and urban outfitters and they just became part of Sephora’s 2025 accelerate class. Jade and her cofounder Sabrina were also named Forbes 30 under 30 class of 2025.

Jade and her co-founder met at Georgetown and as a fellow alum it was very fun to connect with someone else in the beauty fashion space. She shares some really great knowledge on starting a business in your 20s and more so let’s get into it.

Follow Fashion & Founders:
Podcast IG: @fashionandfounders
Podcast Website: fashionandfounders.com
Victoria TikTok: @vfsmith11
Podcast LinkedIn: Fashion and Founders
Victoria Pickle Closet: @victorias
Podcast Substack: Fashion and Founders

Follow Jade:
IG: @jadebeguelin
TikTok: @jadebeguelin
LinkedIn: Jade Beguelin

Follow 4AM:
IG: @4amskin
Website: https://4amskin.com/
LinkedIn: 4AM SKIN

Follow Philippa Made:
IG: philippa__made
Website

Thank you for listening!

Fashion Tech Talk: short, bite-sized information answering your most asked questions about fashion tech! This series is with Naama and Manya the founders of Threads of Tech a community for fashion creatives and technologists.

Topics this week

• How to pitch your skill set to fashion companies or fashion tech startups?
• What can current students do to get involved in fashion-tech?
• Current job openings and summer internships for students?

They also share they have an upcoming Fashion Tech event for NYFW in February so follow them to stay updated!

Follow Fashion & Founders:
Podcast IG: @fashionandfounders
Podcast Website: fashionandfounders.com
Victoria TikTok: @vfsmith11
Podcast LinkedIn: Fashion and Founders
Victoria Pickle Closet: @victorias
Podcast Substack: Fashion and Founders

Follow Threads of Tech:
Instagram: @threadsoftech
Job Board
LinkedIn: Threads of Tech
Substack: Threads of Tech

Follow Naama:
Instagram: @mieuxnaama
LinkedIn: Naama Paulemont

Follow Manya:
Instagram: @manyaownbusiness
LinkedIn: Manya Jain

Thanks for listening!

Hello and welcome back to Fashion and Founders The Podcast. This week I spoke with Jen Keane the Co-Founder and CEO of Modern Synthesis.

Modern synthesis is a London-based biotech company bringing life to new materials by working with bacteria to produce an entirely new class of nanocellulose based materials for fashion without using any plastic or animal inputs.

Jen’s background leading up to founding her own company is so impressive and she has accumulated so many experiences in textiles and circularity.

She did her undergraduate degree at Cornell University with a major in fiber, science and apparel design. She then worked at Adidas for five years getting so much experience in this large company. And then did a masters in material futures at Central Saint Martins of University of Arts London.

If you are interested in the bio technology and material innovation side of fashion Tech, this episode is for you.

They’ve worked on some really cool projects like “growing a shoe.” A collaboration with Ganni on their iconic Bou Bag, and theres so much more to come so let’s get into the episode.

Follow Fashion & Founders:
Instagram
Website
Youtube
TikTok
Substack

Follow Modern Synthesis:
Instagram
Newsletter
They’re hiring!
Website

Follow Baggy:
Instagram
Website

Thank you for listening!

Hello and welcome back to Fashion and Founders The Podcast, my name is Victoria Smith and this week I spoke with Mary Korlin Downs. She has become a fashion tech thought leader through her Tiktok, Instagram, and Substack where she posts weekly job boards, fashion tech news, and more.

Mary used to work at Bipty, a fashion rental company and I actually have an episode with the founder Natalia. She then went to Recurate a company powering brand owned resale. She then started her own agency Cropd working with fashion tech clients.

Mary talks about how she got started in fashion tech by working on a startup while at a full time job in medical device sales. So if you have questions on how to transition into fashion tech listen to this episode. She shares great advice on how to build your portfolio, get started as a student, and her transition into being a founder and starting an agency working with fashion tech clients.

This is the fashion tech episode to listen to, it’s a bit longer than other episodes because I went through all the comments and DMs I had gotten on fashion tech so I could get Mary’s take to share with you all so lets get into the episode.

Follow Fashion & Founders:
Podcast IG: @fashionandfounders
Podcast Website: fashionandfounders.com
Victoria TikTok: @vfsmith11
Podcast LinkedIn: Fashion and Founders
Victoria Pickle Closet: @victorias
Podcast Substack: Fashion and Founders

Follow Mary Korlin Downs:
IG: @marykorlindowns
TikTok: @maykorlindowns
Substack: All Things Fashion Tech
LinkedIn: Mary Korlin-Downs

Follow Pink Antique:
IG: @pinkantique_
IG: @emilyanndeutsch

Thank you for listening!

Welcome back to Fashion and Founders The Podcast. My name is Victoria Smith and this week I spoke with Kate Sanne the Co-Founder of Beni. Beni is a google Chrome extension that shops alongside you, helping you find secondhand pieces.

Kate shares some great insight into what the future of the fashion tech industry holds. She recently moderated a panel at Harvard Business School’s Retail and Luxury Goods Club and shares learnings including AI in fashion, consumer discovery, and the future of search.

If you haven’t already downloaded Beni, it is a hack that once you use it, you wonder how you lived without it, and Beni just launched their resale registry for the holiday season so that you can make a wish list of some vintage secondhand things you want and then it’s super easy because then you can just text it to someone.

Follow Fashion & Founders:
Podcast IG: @fashionandfounders
Podcast Website: fashionandfounders.com
Victoria TikTok: @vfsmith11
Podcast LinkedIn: Fashion and Founders
Victoria Pickle Closet: @victorias
Podcast Substack: Fashion and Founders

Follow Beni:
IG: @join_beni
TikTok: @join_beni
Website: joinbeni.com

Follow Grandpa’s Shirts
IG: @grandpasshirts
LinkedIn: Grandpas Shirts

Thank you for listening!

Welcome to the first episode of season three of fashion and founders the podcast. This week I am joined by Kristine Locker founder of Locker, the Pinterest for online shopping.

In this episode, Kristine talks about the founding of Locker the amazing community that she has built, all about fundraising, working with Maggie Sellers as an angel investor, and so much insight into her founder journey.

Kristine has some really exciting things lined up for Locker and they’re really innovating how we online shop. If you haven’t already definitely sign up for the Locker shopping club, they send out monthly challenges that you can participate if you choose to and the winner will get a $500 gift card to a certain brand of the month. You can also join the waitlist for the Shopping Payback feature locker is offering. We were able to film this in person in New York and I got to meet Hanna, the Locker social media manager.

I’ve recently been getting a lot of questions and interest in fashion tech and Kristine has described Locker as shopping tech before which I think definitely falls into this category of fashion tech so this is definitely a great episode to listen to if you’re interested in learning more about companies in this space and hearing how people got it directly from the founders themselves.

Follow Fashion & Founders:
Podcast IG: @fashionandfounders
Podcast Website: fashionandfounders.com
Victoria TikTok: @vfsmith11
Podcast LinkedIn: Fashion and Founders
Victoria Pickle Closet: @victorias
Podcast Substack: Fashion and Founders

Follow Locker:
IG: @wantlocker
TikTok: @wantlocker
Website: wantlocker.com

Follow Kristine:
IG: @kristinelocker
TikTok: @kristinelocker

Thank you for listening!

Hello and welcome to the first episode of Season 3 of Fashion & Founders The Podcast, Conversations in Fashion Circularity, Tech, and Innovation!

Formerly Interwoven Stories, but all those episodes will still be available!

Intro in what's coming and some changes, I have lots of amazing episodes lined up! Conversations with founders and innovators working in different sectors of the fashion industry, offering an opportunity to get involved in this growing space. Hear directly from the people building the future of fashion about entrepreneurship, job opportunities, fashion tech, circularity, biomaterials, and more.

Follow Fashion & Founders

Podcast IG: @fashionandfounders

Podcast Website: fashionandfounders.com

Victoria TikTok: @vfsmith11

Victoria Pickle Closet: @victorias