GRID110 reveals second fashion tech-focused cohort

Reel started in New York City, but founder Daniela Corrente decided a move to LA made more sense for the company. She and co-founder Alejandro Quilici are creating a platform designed to answer a simple question: How can we make the unaffordable affordable for a young, hard working generation?  

 

 

Our goal is quite simple, we want to be a success story. Making Reel appealing to our users and connecting with the right partners, and complete the program knowing that we gave 1000 percent and received the same effort from Grid’s team in return. 

 

And of course, we want to put Downtown LA and fashiontech on the map. So in the future we can empower other startups the same way the GRID110 is empowering us.

 

 

LA tech is here to be taken seriously. We started in NYC and saw the bigger opportunities LA offers, so we moved our operations and decided to build our business here. Downtown is raw and open to growth, it’s up to us — entrepreneurs hungry to succeed — to shape it, to define the community, and that in itself is extremely exciting. 

 

 

Fashion is experiencing a rebirth period, slowly but surely catching up to a new digital era. Big retailers are more open to collaboration. Influencers reshaped social, and social has reshaped retail. But there is still plenty of room for innovation. 

 

 

 

NailSnaps is the world’s best way to transform social images into salon-quality custom nail wraps that can be applied at-home in minutes. Next level personal expression, literally at your fingertips. NailSnaps manufactures top quality nail wraps you can't find elsewhere. In June, co-founder Angel Anderson was featured in Built ln LA's "50 LA women startup founders you should know."

 

 

Learn and mine the collective networks of each person at GRID110 to help us achieve the milestones that we've set for ourselves. I'm hoping to stay involved beyond our cycle to help the GRID110 cohorts thrive into the future.

 

 

With new coworking spaces popping up every day, it's well-known that LA is home to an exploding startup scene. People early on focused on Silicon Beach and the West Side where a lot of investors happen to live, but GRID110 is about being closer to where the industry lives. In DTLA, we have a thriving fashion district full of designers, so fashion tech startups are naturally closer to the raw materials, manufacturing and fulfillment that's core to our businesses. The fact that GRID110 is endorsed by Mayor Garcetti's office give the whole program even more credibility in the eyes of investors and potential partners.

 

 

There’s a growing trend in personalized fashion as manufacturing capabilities evolve to provide on-demand, one-of-a kind pieces. NailSnaps aims to bring personal creativity back to nail art with custom-printed nail wraps, letting your nails become a gallery for wearable art. To be successful, startups must win at execution. Choose partners and vendors who balance out your strengths and weaknesses so that together you can execute your ideas and grow the business.

 

 

 

Lumenus is a company pioneering the space of smart-clothing and wearable tech by embedding LEDs into clothing and accessories and connecting those with advanced software. Jeremy Wall, dubbed “Steve Jobs of the Outdoor Industry” by Outside Magazine, began development over 3.5 years ago and moved to LA to found Lumenus with Caro Krissman, an LA native and expert in the consumer electronics field.

 

 

 

It’s a testament to the fact that LA is on the rise, it’s a city with some incredible resources and a litany of amazing people. Los Angeles is a burgeoning tech hub that just so happens to be the center of influence for most of the world as well! 

 

If you’re a betting man, then I’d bet on LA. This city is just really coming into its own in terms of startups and is on the brink of being a center of innovation, capital and influence for the rest of the world. Seeing incubators, accelerators and other startup communities is the physical embodiment of the fact that there’s so many new promising young companies and now they’re finally getting the support they need to flourish. 

 

Los Angeles is evolving, and being at the front-end of it is exciting, the energy is palpable and we can’t wait to be part of this growth!

 

 

As one of the few companies in the physical consumer space we are incredibly excited to watch the entire market grow around us! There is a ton of software development that has enabled new interactions or marketplaces that previously couldn’t have existed. However, we are trying to pioneer smart-clothing and accessories and understand that collaboration is a key element to that success! If we can be an enabling technology for brands that were traditionally fashion or tech we can be the seamless partner that combines those elements together so that it’s truly fashion-tech; not some Frankenstein combination of separate industries.  

 

 

 

Persu creates fashionable, practical gym bags. The fitness and daily travel accessory company recently raised $90,938 from 694 backers on Kickstarter. Founder Stephanie Su answered our questions. 

 

 

 

Programs like GRID110 show that LA has a tight-knit, supportive tech community.

 

 

The fashion tech space is still emerging but is growing quickly. Startups need to figure out how to find their target audience and focus on marketing to them appropriately.