WoW Woman in FemTech | Charlotte Chiang, founder of Missfits
Interview by MarijaButkovic
Charlotte worked in financial services until 2017 when she decided to quit her job and study lingerie design. This decision eventually led her to found Missfits, which delivers a better bra fit as a service. Originally from the US, she’s lived in ten different cities across the U.S., Asia, and Europe. Currently, she lives in Milan, Italy, where she loves to cycle, hike, and think about what makes people tick.
Charlotte, what is the idea behind your project / product and how did you come up with it?
Missfits started as answer a common problem: finding a bra that fits. For myself and more than 75% of women around the world, the first thing we wear each morning is often the most uncomfortable.
While studying lingerie design a few years ago, I began speaking with more and more women about their experiences buying bras. I was surprised by how much we shared the experiences of feeling frustrated, embarrassed or confused when it came to finding the right bra.
This is because bra size, the only tool we have to judge fit, is a system that neglects the nuances of our breast shape and density, and how these change throughout our lifetimes. What’s been missing is a tool or method to make sure that the right bras are finding the right people. Instead of creating more bras to put into the world, we decided to make a better way to find them.
So, at Missfits we deliver more seamless bra shopping by curating bras based on each customer’s unique shape, preferences, and lifestyle. By making sure that the right product gets in the right person’s hands, we’re also working to reduce waste in the lingerie industry and help build a more sustainable future.
When did all start and do you have other members in your team?
Missfits as an idea began around 2018 - in 2019 my co-founder and CTO Alex joined the team full time.
How long did it take you to be where you are now?
It took about a year and a half of pivoting business models, building our recommendation model, and negotiating supplier relationships, to get to where we are now - native e-commerce serving customers in Europe.
What was the biggest obstacle?
Localization in a continent as linguistically and culturally diverse as Europe has been an ongoing lesson. Every decision, from how we build our supplier networks, to marketing, to pricing, needs reconsideration for each market and comes with many tradeoffs.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
I’m really proud that 100% of our early customers said they would recommend us to a friend, and 80% already have. It’s great to know that with just our MVP we were hitting on a market need and that we’re differentiated enough to break through the noise.
What are the challenges of being an entrepreneur in the niche you are in? How about being a female founder / entrepreneur?
The lingerie industry operates at a much different pace than startup land. Most transactions are based on longstanding relationships and traditional business models, rather than quick pivots and ideation. I’ve found it . . . interesting to manage the relationships with our suppliers, while maintaining a fresh and agile approach within Missfits.
Being a female founder working on a problem affecting primarily women means that my identity overlaps with that of our target market. This has come with a unique set of challenges, especially when it comes to pitching the scope of the problem. I’m often asked whether bra pain is a ‘real’ issue, whether women ‘actually care.’ Generally speaking, it strikes me that often those who are most qualified to solve a problem because they have personally experienced it, get the most questions about whether the problem truly exists. I think that this is true for any entrepreneur whose identity and target market intersect outside the ‘mainstream.’
What are the projects you are currently working on?
Pregnancy bra boxes, zero-waste packaging, bra recycling programs! Always a lot in the works :)
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
Absolutely yes. As with any movement designed to promote inclusivity within an industry, giving it a name and building a community around it, highlights the fact that women experience the tech space very differently from men. That in turn, creates space for us to share our stories and normalize them.
What is the most important piece of advice you can give to all female founders and female entrepreneurs out there?
You don’t have to be the smartest, most qualified, or most experienced to do the thing. You just have to be the one who wants it the most.
What will be the key trends in the health tech and fem tech industry in the next 5 years and where do you see it heading?
Right now femtech is very much focused on R&D for issues that predominantly affect women (and rightly so). I anticipate that in the next 5-10 years, femtech R&D will tackle generalized problems and how they affect women differently - anything from chronic pain to mental illness and gut health, for which medical research has been heavily skewed towards male subjects.
Who are your 3 inspirational women in health tech and fem tech?
Estrella Jaramillo Rios - I love her fearless attitude and commitment to giving back to others working to forge their own paths within the industry.
Ida Tin - had the pleasure of visiting Clue’s office in Berlin and loved the transparent, egalitarian feel of the place. It was clearly intentional and gives me a model to aspire to as we grow Missfits.
Kathrin Folkendt - I’ve watched her go from a two-person newsletter to being one of the go-to consultants in the industry on femtech in a matter of months. What a thrill!
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This interview was conducted by Marija Butkovic, Digital Marketing and PR strategist, founder and CEO of Women of Wearables. She regularly writes and speaks on topics of wearable tech, fashion tech, IoT, entrepreneurship and diversity. Follow Marija on Twitter @MarijaButkovic.