What is Shoes of Prey?
Women express their style by designing their own shoes with us at shoesofprey.com.
How did you get the idea?
I was solving a problem of my own – I couldn’t find shoes that I loved, so I found a way to design my very own.
What’s the biggest win you’ve had so far?
Raising $24.6M USD and being on track to build the dream – to make on-demand, made-to-order manufacturing the norm in fashion, and see Shoes of Prey become a go-to brand for beautiful shoes.
My biggest mistake is that I didn’t back myself enough.
What’s was your biggest mistake?
Not backing myself enough.
How’s your experience been funding your startup?
We started out bootstrapping and have since taken funding from a syndicate of investors.
What needs to improve/change for Australia to become a global leader in innovation and tech?
More reasonable infrastructure for building startups that are naturally more fluid than traditional businesses. There have been some great steps towards this infrastructure – for example, tax on equity granted to employees, but we should be looking for as much as we can reasonably do in this space.
Invest in the operations that customers will never see.
Do you have any tips for acquiring new users and/or scaling your business?
It’s an ongoing balancing act between acquiring, improving lifetime value and investing in the operations that customers will never see.
What would you be doing if you weren’t doing this?
Starting another fashion tech business.
Be more greedy.
If you could go back to the start, tell us two things you would do differently.
Be more confident in my decisions and be a bit more greedy. 😉
What’s the best advice you could give to someone starting out?
Just start taking action. Do everything before you’re ready.