Inspired by three daughters, years of amazing experiences and invaluable relationships, DAAP graduate Kristine Sturgeon has set out to break down the culture of average for teen girls.
Sturgeon’s startup,
Design My Style, is a Web-based application that engages girls 13-19 years old in the design, sharing, advertising and purchasing of handbags. It allows young women to hone their creative skills while teaching them pertinent business lessons.
“Define My Style is a healthy rebellion against mainstream sameness for young girls,” Sturgeon says. “Young girls should be curious, confident and have a strong voice. We’re building a platform for this with DMS based around everything I want for my own daughters.”
CincyTech just announced it is leading a $690,000 seed-stage round in DMS with an investment of $250,000. DMS also received $100,000 from the Queen City Angels and $140,000 from Tech Coast Angels in Los Angeles. The remaining balance came from private individual investors. The company employs four people at its Mt. Auburn offices
Born in Tipp City, Ohio, Sturgeon moved to Cincinnati to study architecture at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP). Sturgeon credits her education there for giving her both business and creative abilities and sensibilities.
Graduating in ’96 with a bachelor’s of architecture, Sturgeon has spent the better part of the last 15 years working in strategic marketing and communications out of Chicago. Her experience in creating customer value, mutually beneficial relationships and learning what consumers need and want has given her a great understanding of both the business process and consumer desires.
The idea for DMS came to Sturgeon in autumn 2007, when her oldest daughter was getting ready to head back to school. Unable to decide on a school bag that gave her the functions she needed and was a design she loved, Sturgeon’s daughter was at a standstill. She knew exactly what she wanted out of a product – as most consumers do – but brands sold commercially weren’t interested in listening to her desires. Sturgeon saw a business opportunity.
With a sketchbook and a PowerPoint, Sturgeon created the first DMS beta and tested it with 23 overachieving, involved, young girls. The test group included the daughters of powerful U.S. executives, two girls from China, two from London and one from Italy.
It was evident the beta was a success when Sturgeon began hearing stories of how her product had inspired the young girls to be confident in the identity and designs.
From that point forward, Sturgeon spent nights and weekends developing the web application, investing more than $320,000 of her own money into the company. Today, the DMS site has nearly reached 50,000 members and recently launched a new product line – laptop sleeves and cases.
DMS is one of the first companies to establish the trend of individual branding with consumers wanting increasingly more control of their purchases in everything from handbags and shoes to cars and homes, says Sturgeon.
“No one is allowing complete consumer design collaboration on the web, and especially not for teenage girls.”
Define My Style is the 29th investment for CincyTech, a Cincinnati-based seed-stage investor focused on information technology, Web-based consumer services and life sciences/biotech companies.
By Sarah Blazak
(Courtesy sister publication SoapBox Media, Cincinnati)