Kristine Locker, social shopping app founder, discusses her app Locker and how it aims to simplify online shopping. She highlights the challenges of convincing investors outside the target demographic and discusses the features that differentiate Locker from competitors. The episode also explores the fundraising plans and challenges faced by Locker.
Locker aims to simplify online shopping by providing personalized recommendations and a peer-to-peer shopping experience.
Locker differentiates itself from platforms like Pinterest by offering a 100% shoppable platform and generating revenue through affiliate partnerships and direct brand collaborations.
Deep dives
Overview of Locker App
Locker is an app that aims to simplify and personalize online shopping. With the shift in consumer behavior, where inspiration can strike from various sources and shopping has become fragmented, Locker provides a solution to help consumers save and organize their favorite products from different online retailers. The app offers a curated Discover feed and allows users to follow other shoppers for inspiration. With 40,000 organic users and over 1 million products saved on the platform, Locker is seeking $3 million in funding to expand its product and capture a share of the $1 trillion online shopping market.
Monetization Strategy
Locker generates revenue through affiliate partnerships and direct brand collaborations. By adding value to the consumer journey and offering a 100% shoppable platform, Locker differentiates itself from platforms like Pinterest that mainly focus on inspiration. With its monetization efforts starting three months ago, Locker has already generated $300,000 in gross merchandise value (GMV). The app's technology ensures that every saved item is a shoppable product, enhancing the user experience and driving potential purchases.
Building a Community and Democratizing Influence
Locker aims to create a strong community of online shoppers. By enabling users to follow others and explore their shopping preferences, Locker allows for personalized recommendations and facilitates a peer-to-peer shopping experience. Furthermore, Locker plans to democratize influence by empowering users to become influencers themselves. The platform will allow users to earn from their recommendations and collaborate with small businesses, thereby fostering a supportive ecosystem.
Fundraising and Investor Feedback
Christine, the founder of Locker, has personally invested $250,000 and raised $1 million from an angel investor. Currently raising $3 million, Christine has faced challenges in finding investors who fully understand the unique shopping experience offered by Locker. Some feedback suggests the need for further traction and proof of success. Despite the initial difficulty, Christine remains determined to raise funds independently and prove the viability of Locker while staying focused on her vision for the future of online shopping.
Online shopping was supposed to make things easier. But with so many options, it’s also made our shopping experience more fragmented than ever. Kristine Locker set out to fix that with her social shopping app Locker. However, her target demographic is a couple generations behind most VCs. Can Kristine convince investors she has the solution to a problem they don’t experience or will they abandon this startup in the cart?