I’m working on a new startup called dress.me. Now that I’ve purchased the AppSumo Lean Bundle, I’m ready to share the post below for the AppSumo Lean Startup Challenge.

HEY! If you like dress.me, why not help me out? Vote dress.me for the AppSumo Lean Startup Challenge!

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Since the beginning of time there has existed one simple, undeniable truth:

Guys hate to shop.



For most guys, it’s really a matter of feeling trapped. You know you need to get dressed each morning/pack for a trip/impress someone, but you’re not in the least excited about it, and somewhat fearful that what you do select will be horrible and you’ll offend your wife, a family member, the woman you’re taking out on a date, or whatever. Compounding the problem? You’re a little bit of a geek and spend tons of time on the web doing whatever it is that you do for hours on end (get your mind out of the gutter). This leaves you with absolutely no time to find anything that looks good on you, and may also cause some mild anxiety.



Enter dress.me.



Dress.me makes it ridiculously easy and painless for regular guys to figure out what their style is, find clothes that fit that style on the web, and go right to the websites to order them. No malls, no stores, and so much less pain. If they want, guys can also access a network of dress.me stylists for unbiased opinions and suggestions. Oh, and let’s get this clear: dress.me isn’t for guys that enjoy shopping with their girlfriend for five hours on a Saturday. Dress.me serves the typical dude who’s just straight-up trying to make it in this world. And, with so many stores online to choose from, how can you blame them? There’s no way a normal man can find a way to pull it all together. So he lets dress.me do it for him.



How It Works



Guys sign up for dress.me and immediately answer a few “this or that” questions, all posed with helpful visuals so it doesn’t feel like work; responses narrow down precisely what their style is so that dress.me can find the kind of clothing guys want, which was—until the advent of dress.me—scattered around the internetz. When a guy finishes the questions, he then gets a personalized “visual list” of clothing recommendations pulled from large retail chains down to specialty boutiques with an online presence (oh yeah, and he can specify how many items he wants at the outset, so as not to overwhelm). Once he gets his recommendations, he can either decide to “buy” or “share” these finds with friends on Facebook, Twitter, or via email. If he doesn’t want to do that, he can always talk to one of dress.me’s stylists who can offer some unbiased feedback about the selections quickly and affordably.



What’s Next?



Fail quickly to gain validated learning–that’s the goal of dress.me, and I know I can do it by using Chargify to test multiple price points to see how much guys are willing to pay (if anything) for services like this one. I’ll also be utilizing KISSmetrics and KISSinsights to tell me more about my customers’ behavior and provide me with actionable data to iterate new versions of the dress.me platform.



And then, there’s the motherload: $50,000 and incubation from Band of Angels and Pivotal Labs and $50,000 from 500 startups. As an entrepreneur with a successful start-up creative services agency, The Cultivated Word, I’m eager to expand my knowledge of agile development and planning; I could learn this from the folks at Pivotal and get invaluable advice from Band of Angels to take me beyond where I am today.



Lastly, the AppSumo audience is just the right fit for dress.me, so I’d also like to work with their crew to offer a deal for users to try out dress.me and, in turn, provide me with even more learning about my target demographic.



Lean & Mean



So, do guys even want a service like this? Yes, many do. I’ve gotten out of the building and talked to all sorts of guys to see what kind of feedback I could get. Some guys said they’d never use or pay for this service, but those were the dudes who actually liked shopping and had a very developed sense of style. But those aren’t my target. The guys I spoke with that loved the idea of dress.me are the ones who wear that same favorite shirt until it’s filled with holes to avoid shopping. They’re also the guys who have no idea what the concept of “personal style” is but know they need to try to look good for what life throws their way and are willing to ask for a little help. Dress.me’s typical user is the regular guy who wants to get dressed painlessly and as a bonus, also look good. Simple as that.



I’ve further validated the concept by using a simple series of AdWords tests to find out more about related search queries, and how I could build a product off of this kind of interest. But I didn’t stop there, naturally. I’m building a product that is pared down to the bare minimum so that we can ship it right away and ultimately get the real feedback from users about what’s going to work, and what’s not, which is precisely how you build a lean startup. And as Eric Ries has said—it doesn’t end there. Sometimes you end up releasing the MVP over and over until you get it right.



Helping Guys, Changing the(ir) World



As Eric Ries has stated time and again, lean start-ups build products to delight customers, get their feedback, refine the product, and ultimately, change the world. That’s what we hope to do here at dress.me by answering a question most guys ask virtually every time they get dressed: What in the hell am I wearing today? By helping guys find clothes just for them, we’re making the daily ritual of getting dressed just a little less painful.







