By Rotation CEO: Don't seek early perfection

Eshita Kabra-Davies is the founder and CEO of By Rotation. Since 2019, she has been building a peer-to-peer, digital platform that lets people rent their clothes to one another.

It currently has 500,000 users, she says, who are predominantly women who share designer fashion items. There are currently 150,000 items on the platform, worth $70m (£55m) in total, she says.

It has become known as the ‘Airbnb for clothes’ and has built communities through its app and website in both the UK and US.

Kabra-Davies’s advice to other entrepreneurs building companies in the consumer space is not to be too much of a “perfectionist” about your initial product or service.

“Put the minimum viable product out there and get feedback from your early adopters, who will be your strongest supporters,” she advises.

“If you look at the first few versions of our website platform and app, they were hideous, they were ugly. But they did what they needed to do,” she says. But that, she means they fulfilled their core task to facilitate lenders exchanging clothes with people renting them.

Over time, Kabra-Davies was able to improve the branding and marketing and add lots of additional features and functionality, giving By Rotation more of an identity.

She’s also found that the product has evolved in a way she hadn’t expected. It’s become a kind of social network where people can share stories about the clothes they’ve shared, from ball gowns to wedding dresses, while also swapping style tips.

“It’s become a sisterhood,” says Kabra-Davies, “where you can find your style match [in someone] and make friends too.