#2 Riya Collective's founders on building Rent the Runway for South Asians
Tik Tok on the Clock and the Rent-the-Runway of South Asian Fashion
Welcome to Trailblazers! We bring you trailblazing by and for South Asians every other Monday. For more, subscribe / follow @southasiantrailblazers.
Catching Fire đ your must-sees
đ©đœâđ»Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk? Tech Talk? Tik Tok?
South Asian tech titans (re: emperors) have been thrust into the public eye over the last few weeks. Google Chief Sundar Pichai testified in a congressional hearing along with Zuck, Bezos, and Cook. Points of contention for Google included, but were not limited to: its plans to launch in China, data privacy issues, anti-conservative biases, and antitrust violations.
Meanwhile, Microsoftâs Satya Nadella was notably absent. *Cough* Teacherâs pet *Cough*
Enter Tik Tok. Trump floated a ban on the Chinese-based video-sharing platform, which Microsoft had been in talks to acquire. Nadella phoned the President and earned himself a September 15 deadline to wrap up M&A discussions. But the sharks are circling, just ask Jack. Anyone else remember a time when Tik Tok was a just a Ke$ha song and not the fate of U.S.-China relations?
Iâm giving an honorable mention to Rep. Pramila Jayapal who participated in the warm roast of Jeff Bezos at the hearings. We love having South Asians on both sides of the table. It keeps things interesting. And letâs not forget how she corrected Rep. Debbie Leskoâs butchered pronunciation of her name. I hope Sundarâs seeing this.
â Priya Krishna makes a statement (literally) and exits Bon AppĂ©tit
If youâve YouTubeâd how to make your favorite SA dish because facetiming mom didnât work, you know Priya. In June, the food magazine, Bon AppĂ©tit, suffered serious allegations of discrimination, particularly against its PoC contributors. The masthead gave a nice âWeâll do better,â but after months, nothing has changed. So Priya and two of its other stars called it quits.
đ° âA Quarter of Bangladesh Is Flooded. Millions Have Lost Everything.â from the NYT
Hi, Karen đ This is your bi-monthly reminder that climate change is real. First locusts, now floods. Somini Sengupta and Julfikar Ali Manik encapsulate it best, âThe people least responsible for climate change are among those most hurt by its consequences.â
Business Bonfire đ„ featuring Riya Collective
Riya Collective is a social shopping platform where customers can buy and consign clothing and home goods from around the world - starting with Desi products. Trailblazers Sarina Siddhanti & Arian Agrawal are former MIT classmates turned co-founders. They started Riya Collective in 2019 to pursue their dream of starting a business together and to solve their own problem of accessing Indian wedding clothing from the US. Since then, the vision has grown exponentially. The start-up has been featured in Vogue, participated in the renowned accelerator, Y Combinator, and has raised $2.2 million to date.
When was the moment of like, âOkay, we're gonna quit [our jobs] and go do this full time?â
Arian: There are two moments when we were working full time jobs that I will never forget. One is the first time we got an order on our Shopify store from some complete stranger in Texas that ordered one of the five dresses we had on our website. And we looked at each other. First of all, it was a Saturday morning and she needed [the dress] for the following weekend. We looked at each other and were like, âDo you know her? Because I don't know her.â And we couldn't believe that a stranger, not even in our network would have heard about us, let alone actually trusted us enough to order a dress. And there were many weeks where I remember taking bags to work with clothes that I needed to take to FedEx and ship to customers all across the country because we were getting orders. And then another moment where, I think at the end of 2018, we were going down this path of, âOkay, what do we need to do because it's actually not fun anymore. We are working full time jobs. And we're waking up on Saturday morning and we're helping five strangers in our living room for three hours.â We were like we need to make a decision⊠And I just remember feeling like, âOkay, we could give this a real shot. There's something here.â
What are some key things you've learned through the process of innovating for the South Asian community that you think are important for other South Asian entrepreneurs to know?
Sarina: The beauty of innovating in the South Asian space when you are South Asian is this thing about solving your own problem, or solving something where you are the customer. I mean, like Arian mentioned, we worked in fintech and AI before this, and I love both of those spaces. But I was always creating, building, or growing something for a customer that I didn't fully understand. What's awesome about doing this is every product, feature, or dress that we put out there, the first thing we ask ourselves is like, âWould we wear it? Would we use it? Would we buy it?â you know, and that's not to say like, we know everything, but it's a really gratifying feeling. And then also, when you do solve it, even if it's a micro thing that you solve, you get this really great feeling like, okay, I really know this customer and I know that they're going to feel better or feel happy when they see this thing. And it's awesome. So I think that's something I love about innovating for this space is that we are innovating for South Asians by South Asians, like you said.
Stay tuned - the full interview drops next week!
ICYMI, our fireside chat with Sopan Deb đ§
You heard right: we have a pod! Catch up on my chat with Sopan Deb, a journalist for the New York Times, who recently published his first book, Missed Translations.
Opportunities and Events
The Salon - Mentorship Program | For aspiring TV/film creatives
Third Eye Collective - Design Fellowship | For visual and UI/UX designers
South Asian Medical Students Association | Newly-formed for med students
Desis for Progress - Volunteer Info Session (8.12) | For political/civic engagement
AAPI Victory Fund - Biden Support Event (8.14) | For political/civic engagement
For questions, contact us at trailblazersmediaco@gmail.com. Until next time!