Mitali Saxena is the Chief Executive Officer of Fashom. In 2015, fed up with the disparity between fashion industry beauty standards and the needs of real women, she left her engineering career to found Fashom, a style-centered online community. Within a year, Fashom expanded into the body-positive focused personal styling service you can see today. Core to Fashom’s mission is offering cruelty-free, vegan fashion shipped in recyclable packaging. In line with Fashom’s ethos, one dollar from every Fashom box goes directly to Second Chance Rescue in NYC. Growing from a mission-driven determination, Mitali has created a styling experience that allows members of the Fashom community to feel good inside and out.

Mitali holds both a B.S. degree in Computer Engineering and an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology.

Can you tell our readers about your background?  

After completing my master’s degree, I took a job with a telecommunications company and was deep into the more traditionally corporate trenches, which is simply where I thought I would be for the majority of my professional career. One weekend after meditation, I had a strong sensation that I needed to do something that had a bigger impact on the world and on how people viewed themselves after such a deep reflection of myself. After a few months of research, I found how photoshopped images in magazines and adverts alone can deeply impact someone’s self-image. So many people are left feeling inadequate or unworthy or un-loveable even before they can discover who they are beyond their adolescence when their body is only just starting to change, and that stays with them for the rest of their lives. This gave me the spark to make body positivity and self-love the focus of the brand I was about to create, and this was how Fashom was born.

What inspired you to start your business?

The image, portrayal, and seemingly standardization of beauty is something that affects so many people at various points in their life, even if they don’t realize it at the time. For me, it is something that I had noticed more and more as I grew older but it truly started to become predominant with the initial growth of social media, particularly Instagram because people now had the ability to alter their appearance even more than usual with in-built filters and tools. So now, not only did you have brands pushing this photoshopped sense of beauty upon people but individual influencers could do it now too, which began to feel even more intrusive because these seemingly innocuous figures were warping themselves throughout your feed without people realizing. It seemed like madness to me! One day in the middle of a mediation session, the thought of creating a platform where people could simply just be themselves exactly as they are struck me. I felt the need after this introspection to start something that not only helps people express themselves but also helps them embrace themselves as the beautiful, unique, incredible individuals they are. 

Where is your business based?

Although I started my initial idea for Fashom as a body-positive platform when I was still living in New York, it was only after I moved to Miami that things progressed from the online community we started with to the fully-formed styling service we have now. Both our HQ and warehouse are based out of Miami but we have two divisions of teams - one on-site and one remote. However, with the current pandemic state, we all have been essentially remote except for the few days a week that we go into the office to pack boxes and process returns, which of course we do with extreme precautions in place to ensure both our and our customers’ safety.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

It seems like a blur now, to be honest, because it feels like just yesterday that it all happened at once. There were some messier portions initially just even figuring out the basics of how to launch it, where to create it, who to promote it too, etc. because, truthfully, sometimes the easiest portion of any venture is the idea; the execution is an entirely separate story. Once I took the time to break down the steps and organize my thoughts after months upon months of research, the process to get the app finished and launched all started to flow more and more. The process in graduating us into a styling service happened much in the same way but in this sector, I also took on a plethora of new challenges that went beyond what I had initially anticipated because it was no longer just a social media platform anymore - it had become a living, breathing company with physical elements of the fashion industry that I did not have any previous experience with. There was definitely more of a learning curve there then when we had first just started with Fashom as an online community but once we had that flow of consistency within our team, things seemed to finally feel like they were falling into place.  

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?  

The most effective way of raising awareness for Fashom has been through social media but in a way that I honestly never anticipated because it actually happened without me even knowing about it! Within the first few 2 months of launching our styling service side when the business was still being run out of my apartment, I got a call from a friend at an absurd hour of the night telling me that Fashom was popping up on YouTube. This was extra strange to me because we barely had our social media set up, let alone paying for any social media marketing. All of what was happening had simply come up organically through unboxing YouTubers who wanted to try out a bit of a different variation from their usual clothing subscription boxes. Even today, YouTube is still our largest driving force because it has been a part of us since the very beginning and the Fashom community is so strongly rooted within that platform now. 

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?  

There have been quite a few challenges that have come along with this journey but I would have to say my top two would be: 

Trying to keep my priorities in check! For so long when I first started out, I just kept trying to do absolutely everything I could at the exact same level of intensity all of the time, and that pace is truly impossible to keep up for too long. I had to go through a few difficult lessons in order for that to truly sink in, but once it did, I knew I had to make some serious changes or both I and the company would burn out at that rate. Now, I have learned to prioritize 3 major things a day and 2-3 minor things a day so that way I can make sure the most important things get done and anything leftover can get pushed to the next day if need be. 

Hiring for quality over quantity! In the beginning, I believed the more people we had, the faster we would be able to grow. However, that strategy proved to be massively ineffective and only caused more problems than solutions. Today, we have a bit of a smaller team overall but it is so much better now because the heart, passion, and dedication of our team are so much stronger.   

How do you stay focused? 

Now, that is a hard one because as the CEO of a startup, I have about 121.35 hats to wear a day from working with the data team to the marketing team to graphic design approvals to sizing skirts to processing returns and everything in between. My attention is typically being pulled in a few hundred directions a day but implementing a system of priorities is truly the best way I have found to stay.  

How do you differentiate your business from the competition? 

We have quite a few differences compared to our competition but I believe the strongest ones would be our non-subscription structure, our $20 styling fee, our mission-driven sense, our community focus, our preview & pick option, our discount structure that gives 25% when you buy you 3-4 pieces and 30% off when you buy 5 pieces, and how we donate $1 from every single box to Second Chance Rescue in NYC! 

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?  

We have been so incredibly lucky to have had a massive presence since day one on YouTube from organic social media growth. Although we now implement several strategies at this point in time from the marketing side, reinforcing that organic social media presence is where so much of our growth still comes from to this day.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs? 

The best piece of advice I can offer to aspiring and new entrepreneurs as a relatively new entrepreneur myself is to make sure that you are truly interested and passionate about the mission behind the company. Don’t just jump into something because it sounds like a great idea at that very moment because both fiscally and/or emotionally, it is going to be a massive drain on you. If it’s not something you truly believe in, then its now the right choice for you.  

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

My Favorite app is, of course, Fashom! I know that is a biased opinion, of course. It is like asking someone which child performed best in a talent show when your own child was the third act in.

My favorite blog is easily by Joe Dispenza. I love his work around Spirituality and Science because it relates quite closely to my own thoughts on both topics and how they intertwine in life. 

My favorite book would definitely be “The Power of Now”. It is my go-to guide for living a mindful life. I believe in that principle in general but this book opened my eyes to both smaller and larger ways that I can practice this on more levels than I had even thought of before.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

Google suite, without a doubt! It has absolutely got everything you need between emails, cloud drives, external apps, and more to connect with. We have used it since the very beginning for our entire team but, during this pandemic, it has made life quite a bit easier throughout a relatively difficult period of time.

Who is your business role model? Why?  

Sarah Blakely has been a role model of mine both in business and in life for several years now. I connected so much with her journey of self-starting a brand from an organic place with so much passion behind it. There have also been many similarities between us in almost uncanny ways between our red backpacks to our views on spirituality.

How do you balance work and life?  

Balancing work and home life have been challenging during a period of time where so many are working from home because the two spaces can become one and the same too easily. You can work for hours and not realize fully when it's time to go home because...well… you are home. It's important in times like these to remember that breaks are SO important and then, at certain points, you simply have to just shut off work and involve yourself in something else. If you work on a near round the clock schedule, then you will be less productive because the pressure of work simply won’t leave you unless you separate the two.  

What’s your favorite way to decompress? 

Meditation and yoga have always been critical factors in my life that have helped me mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Both have been ways that allow me to ground myself at the moment and allow me to take that ‘me’ time we all need to stay sane. Even if it's just for 15 or 20 minutes, that is enough to help decompress from those stressful times and center me once again before returning the madness. 

What do you have planned for the next six months?

I can’t say just yet but I can assure you that BIG things are coming up very, very soon ;)  

How can our readers connect with you? 

Social media has its pros and cons but the one thing it has done, especially in the midst of the pandemic crisis the world has been facing, is helping people keep connected with one another with such ease. For anyone looking to connect a little extra with me, my Instagram is probably where I’m most active, especially when it comes to showing off my fur baby, Chewy. He just so happens to be extremely photogenic ;)