Hero's Journey | Alumni Success Stories: Arthur Bizdikian, Lemonade Fashion 🚀

Alright, we're good to go. So, Arthur, Lemonade Fashion, and with Draper University. Okay, so I'm gonna go ahead with the first question. How did your entrepreneurial journey begin with Lemonade Fashion?

So, we started the company a couple of years ago, and it originally started because personally, I was frustrated when it came to shopping. I don't know if it shows on camera, but I have huge shoulders and a huge chest, and it's mostly because I work out a lot. And it wasn't always the case though. Like when I was younger, I was very overweight, but because I was fat, and then I lost weight and I started working out. But in both phases, I used to face the same issue, which was I could never really find outfits that fit me. At least I could not find the outfits that I wanted. to fit me. So it would either be too expensive or very ugly, right? But the things that I wanted was impossible. And I remember having to go store to store, trying things on, and online shopping was never an option because 9.5 times out of 10, I would have to return the items, right? So luckily my dad used to be a fashion designer and his friends are tailors and designers. So they would create custom outfits. Like they would create my suits, they would tailor my shirts and so on. And it was amazing because I would buy like a very nice custom-made suit with Italian fabric for like $300, $400, which is usually like a $4,000 or $5,000 suit, right? But the only reason was because it's through independent tailors and designers rather than big brands. But then I got super busy. I used to work as a consultant for different startups and my life got all over the place. I used to travel all the time, so I never had the time get anything done anymore. One day I was meditating in the morning and I was thinking, what am I going to wear tonight? And then suddenly I remembered this suit that I really wanted, didn't have the time to get it done. And then suddenly I just saw it. I saw this online platform where people can come in and buy tailor-made outfits from independent designers, buy outfits that are custom made to fit them perfectly, affordable pricing, great quality. And yeah, that was it. I got so excited, finished my meditation. I remember it was 5 minutes after my meditation, I pick up my phone and I call 2 of my friends. I'm like, I need to talk to you. I have an idea for a startup. And yeah, that's how the journey started.

And this was meditating in, uh, in which year? 2020 or was it 2019?

No, this was, this was in 2018.

2018.

Wow. Okay. Awesome.

Yeah, for your meditation, 2018. Wow. Okay, awesome. So let's— that's very inspiring, by the way. I was able to go through that journey with you. I was able to, you know, in my head, I was just picturing that happen. So thank you for that.

And just as though what happened Okay, and what did—

so we know why you wanted to start Lemonade Fashion, and from that, how did you see Lemonade Fashion sort of sorting that problem for other people as well? So talk about your early clients and, you know, how you solved that problem for them as well.

Yeah, so it's actually— Lemonade actually pivoted a couple of times until we got to where we are today. In the very, very early model of what we were creating, Lemonade was shaping out to be more of a brand rather than a marketplace and a movement. So the original concept that we had was we would create different designs, and it was limited to about 10 to 20 designs, and then people could go online and customize everything about it. They could change the color of the fabric, they can even change the cut, plus they can have their measurements taken and it would be customized for them. We quickly realized a lot of things when we launched that MVP, which was people actually like having options. So 10, 20 designs, although you can customize them, was not enough. So that's the first thing that we learned. And then second, although you give them customization features online, they actually would rather see the design done. And people cared a lot more about the fit, like the custom fit, than they cared about changing the design, right? So that's where we realized, okay, maybe we need to have more of an emphasis on the fit itself. But what also happened is that a lot of people would send us pictures of dresses that they found on, like from different designers and so on, and ask us if we could create the same one. Now we would never accept replicating another dress, but this gave us an idea of what type of designs are really in demand. So we quickly pivoted from there. We became a hybrid model where we would work with a few designers, right? We still had our own manufacturing facilities, so designers would collaborate with us and their designs could be on our platform. We create the platform, we do the custom size, we do the manufacturing, and then we partnered up with about 10 designers and they give us their designs, we add them to our platform. So it was a sort of a hybrid e-commerce concept. And it was actually funny because if I look at my early day business plan, it says that the platform would be limited to 20 designers maximum at any given time. But what happened is that when we created that model and we launched it, suddenly we started being contacted by a lot of more established designers that already have their own manufacturing, right? And that's where Lemonade started pivoting again, because now we have designers joining us, but we're not in charge of manufacturing. And then at some point we have 100 designers that are working with us, and that's where Lemonade completely became an online platform for custom-made designer fashion. And our role actually became to take this entire industry and find the best emerging designers from around the world. And do a quality control on their designs, quality control on their outfits and their pricing, and then turn these local designers, and by local, I don't mean in one country, I mean local on a global level, right? Because every designer is local to their market, but limited to their market. So we would find these designers and these tailors from around the world, and then we would turn them into global designers. And to do that, we would handle everything from content creation, photo shoots, video shoots, And now we also have a lot of communities that work with us. So we have a community of content creators that collaborate with our platform. We have a community of influencers and media and PR agencies that work with us. And all of this is consolidated through the LemonAid platform. So now we bring in designers and automatically they're part of a community and ecosystem of content creators and influencers so that they turn into global We have right now about 300 designers that work with us, 8,000 products on the platform, and we've actually helped more than 15 designers launch their careers through us. So the launching of their first collection was through our platform. A lot of them today are very successful. They're participating in fashion weeks around the world. Their collections are featured in concept stores in Dubai and London and Paris. So yeah.

You're like becoming the Product Hunt for the emerging artists in fashion.

Yeah, the way we see it is today, we're creating the new generation of fashion. It's a movement and it requires the support of everyone. So it's a platform that consolidates all of the best designers, content creators, and distributors, and distributors in our case have to do with influencers and magazines and so on, but it's a new generation, right? And the aim, is to create fashion that fits you. And when we say it fits you, we mean a couple of things. First, it fits your body because everything is custom made to fit you, right? It's tailored for you. Second, it fits your style because you're shopping from unique designers from around the world that are, and those are designers you will never find on ASOS or any other platform. So they're unique to the Lemonade Fashion platform. You either shop them through us or you have to on your own find their Instagram pages or find their stores, whatever they are. And then third, it's fashion that fits your values, because this is fashion that generates zero waste because there's no mass production. It's fashion that does not promote animal products, and there's also no sweatshops or child labor or anything like that, right? Because we're working with designers and artists and artisans, and we actually check all of these things before we onboard the designers. And yeah, I don't know, when we did our research, we noticed how, I don't want to say corrupt the industry is, but fashion is one of the most beautiful industries, right? It's one of the most inspiring ones. Anytime you think of your next journey or anytime you want to take a new step in life, you always picture yourself in a specific style and you actually see yourself wearing a power suit or a power dress or whatever it is, right? So it's one of the most inspiring industries and everyone wears it. It's been part of our culture since the beginning of time, right? That's why kings and queens used to be dressed in different ways because they would inspire. But it's one of the most horrible industries. It's the second most polluting industry in the world, right? And a huge part of it has to do with mass production. It generates more than 500 million pounds of waste every year because of all the outfits that are not sold. The return rates are insane, especially in fast fashion and online fashion, about 40% of outfits are returned. But it's also an industry that exploits both animals and it also exploits humans. And there are countless stories of sweatshops and countless stories of people and children working in horrible situations. So yeah, the model that we created, that's why we call it the new generation, because the moment we're supporting these artists and artisans and we're working on tailor-made and made-to-measure, it means that we are completely eradicating, right, or putting an end to mass production. And the moment you do that, it brings the values back. It brings the values. First of all, it gives a value to the designer. And by the way, it's very funny because the top 20 brands in the world control 98% of the sales in fashion, right? So it's a very monopolistic industry. So we are empowering these designers, we're empowering the artists, we're empowering the people that actually create amazing value in the industry. But at the same time, we're giving the clients what they want. Right? We're giving them fashion that fits everything about them, from their style, their bodies, their price point, because it's very affordable, right? The pricing that we have is insanely affordable, but it's also supporting the environment, it's supporting the future generations, it's bringing back decency. I think I spoke a lot.

No, no, it's perfectly fine. That's the thing with entrepreneurs, once And this is not the first time I've seen once you start talking about your startup, your business, and all of these things that you've created, it's hard to put a stop to it because you're just so passionate about it. So this is very normal. And this is great. I would be worried if you spoke less.

Actually interesting, you know why? Because when you're in the day-to-day of running the company, sometimes you no longer see it on a macro level, you see it on a micro level, like you're focusing on that challenge you're in or the problem that you have to solve now. something in operation or the next product release. But whenever you do these types of interviews or whenever you have these types of conversations, it really helps you take a step back and look at it from like an umbrella, right? And then you see, you remember exactly what it is that you're creating. So yeah, I love doing these interviews.

You're suddenly talking about 2018 and then you're just you know, you're going through the journey with me right now. And I can just see how proud you are, how happy you are. And with that, we'll move on to the next question. So I know, I kind of get the gist of it. But I would like to ask this question. What were the top 2 challenges, top 2, or maybe top 3, but you can even talk about top 1 challenges that you faced? You know, you know, I know you had to pivot, but what You know, just as an entrepreneur?

That's not an easy question because we faced a lot of challenges and we still face them. Well, the first one is that a lot of people did not believe in us when we started, right? They thought it was too good to be true, but all these fashion experts, they thought that this could not be done because it's never been done. The concept of an Etsy of fashion, does not exist. It was never—

Also, when the moment you, you know, you step into the fashion industry, there's— it's so crowded, there's so much noise, you know, it's difficult to just prove your point, just to say this will work. And this is the reason why I'm asking you this question, because we have alumni, we have people who want to do this. And you just saying this is giving them so much hope right now. Like, I have goosebumps. Just when you said this, I was like, yes, These are exactly the words that I need to hear, so please talk about this.

I love your enthusiasm, by the way, like it gives me energy and excitement. Yeah, so a lot of people told us that this could never work, right? And this would never work, so those were people that actually work in the fashion industry, and I even had a lot of people in my life, they were like, why are you doing this? You have— you live an amazing life, right? Because I used to have a high-end position as a consultant and so on, and they're like, you want to give everything up to follow this dream, and I don't work in fashion, I don't really have a fashion background, right? Like I was a customer of fashion through my dad, but I haven't studied it or anything else, but it was just one of those things that I knew deep inside that I wanted to do it, and the reason why I believe it worked is, and by the way, if you look at different success stories, it's mostly like this, anytime people don't believe it, the reason why it works, it's the ecosystem that you create. So the value that you bring to others is the reason why this moves forward. So if Lemonade wanted to create custom outfits with already established brands, it would probably not have succeeded, and the reason is because you're not adding value to these brands. With you or without you, they don't really care, but the moment we went in and we're like, we're gonna help these designers scale because they're the ones that actually create these products, and we started handling all of their photo shoots, their content creation, the logistics, the shipment, the payment gateways, and it's a lot of investment, right? a lot in making sure that our designers are showcased in the highest quality as possible so that the quality that we show to the world is the quality of an established successful designer. And they're the ones that made us successful. It's the designers, right? It's the community. It's the people that we are here to serve. And that's when it started picking up. Designers started talking about us. Their friends and families were happy that they finally have a platform that's allowing them to scale globally, and the reason why we know it's working is because most of our growth so far was organic, and different influencers love working with us, and it's not because we give them a lot of money, we actually don't, they just join us because they love the mission and the vision that we have, and they want to be part of the solution, they don't want to be part of the problem, so yeah, that was the first big challenge.

Also, I think it also has something to do with the people that you're working with, and the team that you work with, I just think people love working with you, apart from the value that you're adding. I think it's, you know, it's the culture that you're upholding from the top. And they just keep coming back because of that, so.

Yeah, I actually love that you said that. Culture plays a huge role. And it's not just the culture of the designers that we're building. It's also the culture of our team, right? I owe a lot to my co-founders and to my partners and to my entire team. I couldn't have done without them. And I also owe a lot to Draper University because Draper focuses so much on ethics. Actually, I don't want to say ethics. They focus so much on values and they focus so much on the change that they want you to make in the world. And when you join the Heroes Program, the oath alone that they make you take is inspiring. I still have it, like my name card with the oath written at the back. It's always in my room and every now and then I like to read it because it just reminds me of the values. And I try to bring these values to our company and to our team because at the end, it's all about the people, right? It's your team, it's your clients, it's your suppliers, it's this entire ecosystem that you're building. But yeah, so in brief, this was the first main challenge. A lot of other challenges came The moment you start scaling, a lot of these pain points come in. And the phase where you have to go from being like a very young startup that has no processes to a startup that has more than 20 employees, and now you need all these processes to come in and you're already way behind because you never set them up in the beginning, right? So that's another challenge we had to go through. We're much more organized today than we used to be. And then you have all these issues of bootstrapping versus raising investment. And yeah, but luckily we've been doing well. We have amazing investors, Draper University Ventures included, and all the other amazing investors that we work with. And yeah, and we're not one of those startups where the founders were born and raised in Silicon Valley or something like that. Like, I was born and raised in Lebanon. Most of my co-founders are from here as well, and we started local, but very quickly we were able to go regional and then global. So we've raised funding from Silicon Valley. Our company today is incorporated in the US. We have partners and influencers and designers from all over the world. So yeah, the geography—

While you're on that, that was my next question. So I would just like you to rather just elaborate on the success of 2021, Just your milestones that you've achieved so far. What stage is your business at right now? Just the gist of it.

Yeah, so 2021 was a very interesting year for us because it's the year where we actually started growing and scaling. We saw a 500% growth last year. We went from having about 70 designers to around 300 designers working with us. So we closed the year with about 7,000 products. Today we're at 8,000 almost. We had clients from so many different regions around the world, although we didn't really target them, right? Because we were mostly growing organic. And it's the year where we took some bold steps, although we completely missed our timelines, if I am to be honest.

That's the thing with creativity and timeline, you know, creativity and timeline just don't go together. And if they do, it's often that you have to sort of bring your ideas, you have to sort of downscale them to meet a deadline at times, most of the time, I believe.

Yeah, we tend to be super ambitious. And I'm glad to say that we hit the targets. It's just that I think we're gonna be able to do it in 90 days. And it turns out that it takes at least twice as much, right? but at least we do it in 6 months rather than doing it in a year, but we were, we actually, so last year, and we're very happy with this, we actually signed the biggest Gen Z influencer in the Middle East, right? She has 23 million followers, and, but people love her, right? She's not even an influencer, she's a YouTube celebrity, and people just adore her, so today Lemonade has an exclusive partnership with her, where we have the exclusive rights for her brand, and actually her brand is developed by us, Distributed by us and it's even designed by us. And this was supposed to be launching in Q4 and instead it got pushed. So the launching of it is in the next couple of days. So we're very excited about that. And we were also aiming to launch the app. So we have a web app, but we wanted to launch our native apps in December. But again, that got pushed a bit. So we were able to launch it last week. So yeah, so we do hit the targets. It's just that sometimes it takes a bit more time. And yeah, and when you ask me which stage we're in, it's very hard to explain the stage we're in because when you look at our activities on what we're doing and the level that we play in and the fact that we have this many customers, this many designers, we have all these partnerships, we're also partners with the biggest PR agency in Dubai, for example, right? And they don't just take on any client, they're very specific. So we are actually playing at the Series A level, when you look at the growth that we've had and all of the activities that we do, but we did this on the budget of a pre-seed startup, right? Because so far Lemonade has only raised $500,000.

I remember you telling me this, and this is specifically why I wanted you saying this in the interview. I want people to hear this.

Which is good and bad, by the way, because it adds a lot of pressure, but at the same time, it means that we're very efficient with what we're doing. And I believe that if you raise way too much money in the beginning, you might not succeed because you're no longer efficient and you don't know what works and what doesn't, because you're just gonna keep on throwing money on it. Since we didn't have that much funding, we had to get really creative. And those were some of the reasons why we had to pivot to this business model, because we could do a lot more with way less. So we've only raised half a million dollars so far, and we haven't spent all of it yet, right? But we're already playing at the Series A level. And today the team consists of about 20 people, which also is too small for the type of operations that we do, and yet it's been working. So now that we're ready to raise more funds, right, and we already have all of our processes in line and We know what we're doing and we have the core team set in. So now when we raise, it's about even going bigger. It's going bigger, it's doing it better, it's being more efficient and really supporting our team as well, right? Like giving them a life that is worth living and investing in them and investing in talent.

For sure. I just love everything about this interview today. But so congratulations and good luck. And, you know, just keep growing. And apart from that, now I'd like to focus on you, on the entrepreneur. So I've understood the journey, and I'm really excited. Now let's move to Arthur. What do you love most so far? Now, I know if I asked this question in 2018 or 2019, I would have a slightly different answer. But right now where you stand, although I might even know the answer, I would still like you to elaborate on what do you love about being a founder? Or specifically Lemonade Fashion, but just the lifestyle and just the journey and the effect you have on people. And just what do you love about it the most?

It's that feeling you get when you walk into the office and you see the entire team there. Because it's crazy, right? A lot of times during the day, I actually have to stop what I'm doing and I just look at the team because we have about 20 people working from the office now. And if you walk into our office, it's very funny because you see outfits everywhere and racks and so on, right? Because we always have photo shoots and new collections and it's so active. People are always coming in and out and you just look at it like this and it's like, this all started because of an idea, right? Like an idea that you had. It's, I don't know.

During meditation in 2018.

Yeah, it's crazy because, and I look at my co-founder co-founders a lot of time and I'm like, can you believe that we created this? And then you look at your team, it's like our team members are like family, they're like our children. It's like we want to provide for them, we want to give them a better life and they're all here because they believed in a crazy idea that came to me while meditating. So they're the reason why I got excited A lot of times they make me very proud. And then anytime we hit like a huge milestone, and like, for example, we had a huge— we were shooting all of the commercials, the ads, and the photo shoot for the influencer collection that I was telling you about. And we had approximately 45 people on set, and it almost felt like we're shooting a movie because we actually built an entire New set, right? So there was production involved.

Yeah.

It was crazy. And then I'm just walking around on set and there's like 4 different rooms that were actually built. It was a huge empty space and then they built 4 different rooms. And then I'm just walking around.

Almost like a TV show.

It was actually a TV show. So I'm walking around, like I'm looking around like, how is this all? How is this ours, right? Is this really ours? Is this dreaming? And then I remember I actually teared up at some point because I'm like, this is too good to be true. We have this many people. It's—

I am just tearing up. I don't know if it's out of happiness or just the feeling, you know, that you're giving me all these proud moments. So I'm equally happy for you guys, and especially for you. And apart from that, okay, let's make this the last question. The second question that I will ask is something fun about you that, you know, only your friends know about. So, you know, maybe you like stand-up comedy, it could be anything, you know, is there Something that no one knows, anything fun about you that you would like people to know?

I'm actually very flexible. I can do a split. And we don't have a single photoshoot that we do at the office without me doing a split, and it's always caught on camera.

That is interesting indeed. I would even request you for a video of you doing the split.

Yeah, sure. Why not? That's amazing.

That's fun.

Yeah.

I don't know.

People think I'm too serious, which I do have a serious side, but I also have a very joyful, stupid side, and I don't really have a filter. I love having fun. I make a lot of inappropriate jokes, like so many. It's great. If you come to our office, it's like one of the most non-PC offices ever. You keep on hearing insults everywhere. There's a lot of vanity, but it's because we just enjoy it, right? We enjoy the open, free communication. So yeah, I love the whole joyful thing. It makes me happy. I don't take myself too seriously and I make sure to work with the team to make sure that our entire environment is work-friendly, right? So we do want to be very efficient at what we do, but we also want to have fun because the journey matters, right? It's not just about the destination, the journey matters. And Lemonade is all about the journey, like even the brand, even the platform. Because when we started the company, we wanted to cater to people like us. We're not successful yet, I'm not gonna go spend $5,000 on a custom-made suit because I'm not there yet. So we— and the reason why we named the company Lemonade is because we were catering to entrepreneurs and we were catering to the ambitious people, to the optimists. We were catering to people who are on their journey to success, right? Not people who are successful yet. They might be successful in their own terms, but they're not there yet, right? Because people like us, where life is always giving us lemons, we are actually always making lemonade.

So I was actually going to say that, and then I was like, maybe that's not what Arthur was thinking. But you're right. See?

So yes, that was it. I'm making lemonade. You're making lemonade. Everyone that I know who's on this journey is making lemonade.

But oh my God, this makes so much sense now. Oh, this is great. All right. And then the final, final question to wrap up things. What's the one advice that Arthur would give to all of these upcoming young founders and startup businesses who are pre-revenue, who are looking to fund, who are just— or maybe who just have an idea and, you know, they're struggling? You've said a lot of things today that would already inspire them. But if we had to bottle that up into advice, what would that be?

I would say find a purpose, right? If you turn what you're doing into an actual mission and you find your purpose on why you're trying to achieve this, the rest will come. Because the moment you have that purpose, you have that fire within you to never give up, and everything else just falls into place. When you have purpose and you have excitement, you attract the right people, right? The energy that you emit when you're having a conversation makes people want to join you. When you have purpose, it means you're willing to learn. When you have purpose, it means you have the perseverance to not give up. And anytime someone tells you it's not going to work, you're going to have that fire within you that says, I'm going to prove you wrong, right? But it all comes from the purpose. If If you don't care about what you're doing, you're going to give up when the first challenges appear and you have to remind yourself, right? Because— and I heard Tom Ballieu say this once, that boredom kills more entrepreneurs than anything else. Because when you start the journey, you're excited. And then along with time, you're mostly just handling problems and drowning in the day-to-day, and it gets boring sometimes, right? If you don't remember the original purpose and the mission and the vision that you had, if you don't constantly remind yourself, it's gonna be tough because it is tough. But the purpose allows you to make it through that. I don't know if that's the answer you were looking for.

That is bigger than the answer that I was looking for. Thank you so much, Arthur. This has been such an inspiring interview. And for anyone hearing, actually, even if they were not an entrepreneur yet, this might make them want to become one. So thank you so much.

Maybe we can post this on YouTube as is.

I was actually thinking, you know, because so many things you've said are so much bigger than this interview, you know, It could just be, what, 30 minutes that we've been on this interview, but it's just so much bigger than that. And I would like to share this with as many of our people in their network as possible. So thank you for this wonderful session. And I wish you all the best. And I know there are great things waiting for you this year and so on.

You created this environment that allows me to open up to you. So yeah.

It was an absolute pleasure, to be honest. And thank you. Have a rest of your great day, Arthur.