Today we bring you the second interview of the week, as we get to know a Little more about the winners of our Fashion Ideas Tuning crowdfunding competition: Moskito Wear
We spoke to the founder and the brand’s team to find out about this innovative entrepreneurial project that will protect you against mosquito bites anywhere you go without needing to carry any products along with you, just their clothes and the nanotechnology behind them.
They are also planning on launching their e-commerce platform this coming April 25, World Malaria Day.
When and how did you come up with the idea?
7 years ago I started my first project, No + Mosquitos, an e-commerce platform that specialized in selling anti-mosquito products, where we sold third-party brands.
The experience in this market, the demand for more practical and easy-to-carry repellent products, as well as global warming and the subsequent invasion of the tiger mosquito in Europe, carrying diseases like dengue fever and the Zika virus, were reasons that motivated me to look for repellent solutions that are easier to carry. That is when I found several articles about technology applied to textiles, and came to the conclusion that this anti-mosquito technology could be applied to clothes and prevent the annoying, and now dangerous, insect bites.
I knew the name I wanted for the brand: Moskito Wear, and I had found the anti-mosquito technology needed for our clothes, and all I needed was the team, so I started searching through my contacts, looking for the right profiles that I needed to develop the project. That’s when I found Raquel, our designer, who was capable of bringing life to our characters and create shirts with an incredible fun touch. Juanan, an all-round social media expert who is always ready to listen, help and care for our fans, Alex, our Marketing expert, who designs and defines our communication campaigns, and Enrique who is in charge of giving us internet visibility.
Why did you choose crowdfunding as a way of getting the project started?
Crowdfunding and pre-selling the product allowed us to achieve many objectives, like testing the product’s market potential and reception, starting to create a client and fan base for the brand, and obtain more publicity for our product and brand, taking advantage of the impact this kind of platform has.
We looked into the possibility of launching a funding campaign in an international platform, but finally we decided to choose a national platform like Lánzanos, with a reasonable funding target as a first step. But we still may repeat the experience in a global platform like Kickstarter or Indiegogo, as a step prior to the brand’s internationalization.
Did you encounter any obstacles while you were developing the idea?
Like any idea, there are always difficulties that show up as the idea develops (funding, lack of support…), which we solved as they appeared, but one of the things that gave us the most headaches was finding the right textile for the anti-mosquito technology we use. I have to admit that we had to dismiss many options, but through trial and error we ended up finding the perfect material.
What advice would you give to someone who also has an idea and wants to make it come true?
First, they shouldn’t be afraid to tell others about their idea, which is a problem entrepreneurs have in our first projects, and it is essential that you tell as many people, friends and family members as you can, since it helps to validate the idea. That inner circle will give you feedback that is very important, but in order to have real data you need to survey your product’s target market, or use platforms like ideas4all, which are highly recommendable since the community can make observations and offer you points of view that you may not have envisaged.
Another important issue is knowing what you are going to offer, be this a product or a service, and whether there is a demand, by seeing how many Google searches there are. This can give you a lot of information on the product’s visibility.
Creating the perfect team is finding the right people for the product’s needs, and trying to identify profiles that aren’t identical. If the CEO knows about online marketing, but not about positioning… you have to keep that in mind and look for the right profiles.
Once you have the right team and idea, I would recommend creating an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) to observe market acceptance. And lastly if you start selling your product or service, that is when I would look for a consultant to help with legal matters.
And now that you have obtained the necessary funding, what are your next steps and objectives?
We are currently working on our e-commerce platform, which–according to plan–we will launch on April 25, World Malaria Day. From that moment on, we will invest part of the prize on marketing campaigns in social media like Facebook and Twitter.
During the following months we will focus on maximizing knowledge of our product and online distribution. After the Summer we will focus our efforts on traditional distribution of the product and on preparing the international launch for Spring-Summer 2017, while we expand our anti-mosquito fashion collection with new models.
