Startup spotlight: Circle of Style

We recently introduced the companies taking part in our 6-week AND Startup Accelerator, in partnership with Google Cloud. Now, we want to shine the spotlight on each startup, to find out more about what makes their product innovative, their journey so far, and finally, their goals for the future.

Up first is Circle of Style; we spoke with Muna Nageh, Founder & CEO, about her inspiration and journey.

INTERVIEWER: Can you tell our readers a bit about your background, and what inspired you to start this company?

I spent nearly 20 years in marketing making TV ads before launching Circle of Style, the highlight of which was creating the ‘Ad of the Decade’. I then moved on to digital, where I led the team that created the Nike Training Club, an app that allows young women to access personal training without the cost. After that I turned around brands at Diageo and Bacardi from long-term decline to growth. That's where I met Bay Garnett, the ex-Contributing Editor to British Vogue, and ‘Queen of Secondhand’. 

Sitting at Bay's kitchen table, listening to her talking about the ‘hunting and rummaging’ that goes into finding good secondhand pieces, inspired me to work out what could make shopping secondhand easier than new. Solving a customer problem in a growing category? I'm in. It almost feels natural now to have moved from personal trainer to personal stylist in your pocket. Bay is also still involved, and is the one who gave us our name. 

Can you briefly state your product, what it does and the problems it solves.

Circle of Style matches people with products using 1P (first-party) data and AI/ML. We were built for AI, having had the ex-CTO at IBM Watson on board from day one, so we're built to collect proprietary data and use it with AI. 

Secondhand shopping takes 3x longer than new, due to the fragmented and chaotic nature of the market, no size ranges, and no pricing consistency. We fix that problem by only showing you items in your style, size and budget, in your own personal store. We pull in inventory from retail partners, so we're inventory-free, and we concentrate on marketing and technology with a highly-scalable model. 

We also send ‘Six Picks’ to our customers every week, with hyper-personalised styling notes, based on what you told us previously in your style profile. 

Brand video featuring Amy Jackson & Laura Whitmore

Are there any innovative features or functionalities in your product that you’re excited to share?

We use AI/ML to pick recommendations for our customers, so your personal store is made up of items that are your size, style and budget, ranked by how likely you're going to like them. Along with a ‘like’ or ‘favourite’ feature, which helps our algorithm learn, we are the only brand to have a ‘dismiss’ feature, which replaces that item with something you're more likely to purchase. 

We use AI to write personalised styling notes that are so personalised and reliable, it is pretty incredible. We’ve also taught AI to understand our ontology and specific styling approach with sophisticated guidelines, which are improved constantly on - you guessed it - data. 

We hold very rich and personal 1P data on our customers, by asking smart questions on both our site and Whatsapp, but also because our proposition has really grabbed our customers' imagination, and they love what we do enough to keep talking to us, because they know we're listening. 

The PoC (proof of concept) we're building is super exciting. We want it to feel like magic. The way it does when a human stylist ‘gets you’ and picks exactly the thing you're thinking about, or understands you so well they surprise you with something better than you thought of yourself. It's all in the nuance and intelligence, and working with AI means we can achieve that. 

Amy Jackson wearing archive runway Chanel, shot at the Dorchester during LFW

What challenges have you faced so far in your startup journey, and how have you overcome them?

The challenges are endless, and if I knew them all before I started, I might not have begun! Financial challenges include me selling my home to avoid us running out of runway. I've made staffing mistakes; found deciding our brand difficult; had to pivot the model. Defining your ICP (ideal customer profile) can be tough too when you want to appeal to everyone by instinct (don't do it!), along with finding the time to keep sharing your vision and energy with the team when you're stretched. What I haven't found difficult is finding super smart people to join our mission, and getting really excited and executing against what AI can do.  

Can you share a recent achievement that you’re particularly proud of?

We've had a lot of achievements, including an Innovate UK government grant, being picked as Walpole's brand of tomorrow when we were only 3 months old, getting ambassadors like Laura Whitmore, Amy Jackson and Jameela Jamil to support us every month without payment, and reaching 2,000 subscribers spending an average order value of £130 without us spending a penny. Innovating on Whatsapp and in other ways comes naturally to us, and I'm super proud of the work we're doing using AI on that platform in particular, with a lot more to come.

Laura Whitmore wearing archive runway Gucci to the BAFTAs

What are the short-term and long-term goals for your startup? How do you envision your company evolving over the next few years?

We want to do a lot! We will become famous for making shopping secondhand easy, so women can spend more time on their careers, family and having fun, while looking and feeling great. We are democratising luxury by giving more people access to pre-loved designer pieces, and will also continue to help women communicate who they are or want to be through fashion, and not just follow trends, so they feel great in what they wear. We want to make shopping secondhand better than new, so that more people choose it first, helping our planet survive the challenges we throw at it. 

We want to leverage technology and data for good, where it feels so intuitive it's like having a best friend who's a stylist. Although our plans could see us exit happily with a sensible share of the UK market, we want to internationalise, and grow into other categories (e.g. furniture). Eventually, we want to exit to a strategic buyer who will continue what we've built, to make shopping secondhand easier and personal.

Laura Whitmore wearing archive Westwood to the Glamour WOTY awards

How can our readers learn more about your company or get involved?

We are always looking to talk to experts, strategic partners, retail and fashion brands, and investors, and they can reach me at: muna@circleofstyle.com.

Thanks Muna for being so transparent in sharing your challenges and future ambitions! We’re excited to see Circle of Style’s journey, and we’ll check in as the AND Startup Accelerator progresses.

In partnership with