Since the show’s airing, Frill has grown beyond Bui’s and Steadman’s wildest expectations, as has their list of potential fabric and manufacturing suppliers. They’ve immersed themselves in learning all facets of the business, from designing, to accounting, to marketing, to sourcing, to production, et al. And the future of the company appears about as bright as any start-up’s can be.
Not bad for a couple of young women who just wanted to design clothing.
“We learned something new every single day,” Bui told eTC in their office here. “If you want to be a good entrepreneur, you better be learning something new every day.”
Feeding frenzy
On Shark Tank, Bui and Steadman entered singing a song before making their well-planned pitch. They provided background on sorority rush week and the tradition of matching clothing, and noted that there are more than 3,000 sororities in the U.S. and Canada – and that each sorority girl spends around $500 on rush week clothing. They answered questions about margins and pointed out they had done more than $400K in sales in three years of business and were expanding into bridal wear. Their ask of the sharks: $100,000 and 20 percent of the company.
A feeding frenzy ensued. Corcoran offered $100K for 33 percent of the business, before O’Leary matched the offer. Robert Herjavec countered with an offer matching the young ladies’ request. Corcoran and O’Leary then teamed up on their offer – meaning the entrepreneurs would have two investors. Bui and Steadman asked if they would go to 30 percent and they quickly agreed. Done deal.
Since then, Corcoran and O’Leary have regularly kept in touch with Bui and Steadman to see how the business is going and provide advice as needed. They’ve also heard from many new potential customers that have turned into business, along with others who have asked if they could sell product on the Frill website, especially on the bridal side.
“Most did not align with our branding or our brand at all,” Bui said.
“Learning to say ‘no’ after Shark Tank was a quickly learned lesson,” Steadman added. “But there are some partnerships that have been created as a result of the show that have been great – brand extension and product line extension partnerships.”
And they’ve heard from U.S.-based cut-and-sew operations that they’ve aligned with, but they wouldn’t say which companies.
“One of them is actually able to produce pieces within a 24-hour timeframe,” Steadman said. “They have a huge system setup. And another company similar to the factory we use found us and they can do production on a 90-day turnaround. It just depends on the circumstance and the availability of materials.”
They had contract seamstresses working in the backroom of the headquarters until business growth forced them to source all production.
Plus, they added products from a number of vendors to expand their offerings in such areas as jewelry, bags, hats and other accessories for sorority and bridal shopping.
Fashion forward
Steadman and Bui had known each other since third grade, but their paths parted after fifth grade when one of their families moved to another local school district. They reconnected their junior year in high school when they attended a “textile camp” at N.C. State.
Posted January 6, 2016
(Editor’s note: Following is the latest installment in eTC’s occasional series on young entrepreneurs.)
By Devin Steele (DSteele@eTextileCommunications.com)
GARNER, N.C. – Starting any business is certainly challenging, intimidating and frustrating. And starting a made-in-the-USA apparel business can be all of those things, times two – especially if you’re a 19-year-old with exactly zero experience in the business world.
But that didn’t stop Sharon Bui and Kate Steadman from turning that dream into a reality. While they were juniors in college – Bui at N.C. State University (College of Textiles) and Steadman at Appalachian State University – they launched Frill Clothing, a made-to-order apparel and accessories company specializing in sororities and bridal parties.
After each pitched in $250 for seed money, they worked long hours to learn how to run a business and get the company off the ground. And that hard work paid off in the form of two “big breaks” in the company’s fledgling years – one via social media and one in the realm of reality TV.
First, in 2013, about a year after their founding, their business gathered unexpected steam when a photo of three sorority girls wearing coral Frill skirts went viral on the relatively new social media network Pinterest. That caused an “explosion” in the business that led to their adding bridal party apparel to their product repertoire.
Then last March, after making several cuts that involved loads of paperwork, the pair appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank, a TV series that allows aspiring entrepreneurs to make business presentations to a panel of investors. And not only did they pitch their company on the show, they had three “sharks” fighting over the chance invest in their business – and they accepted a dual offer from Barbara Corcoran and Kevin O’Leary.
THEY FOUND THEIR FRILL
Young entrepreneurs see apparel company soar after Shark Tank
Photo by Devin Steele
Frill Clothing co-founders Kate Steadman (L) and Sharon Bui appeared on ABC's Shark Tank last year and signed a contract with two investors.
Photo by Devin Steele
Kate Steadman (L) and Sharon Bui founded Frill Clothing while in college and have seen the company grow exponentially.
Both were interested in fashion and apparel around that time, and they ended up taking internships with a local clothing designer.
“I liked fashion, couture and runway shows, but I didn’t really see that as something I could make money at or have a viable career in,” Steadman said. “But after I took that internship, I think I really started to recognize how many people come into play in the creation of even one garment. Someone has to design it, someone has to produce the fabric, someone has to sell the garment. I think that’s when I realized that this is what I wanted to do.”
Bui said she grew up watching MTV, and was especially enamored of The Hills reality show, which featured cast mates pursuing careers in the fashion industry.
“I wanted to be them,” she said. “I knew I wanted to get into fashion, and if I didn’t get into N.C. State’s College of Textiles, I wanted to be a fashion teacher. But I did end up getting into N.C. State.”
Steadman went on to Appalachian State, where she earned a degree in communications and advertising with a minor in apparel. At N.C. State, Bui majored in fashion and textile management with a concentration in brand management and marketing.
At N.C. State, Bui became of member of Chi Omega sorority. After several years of having to pay exorbitant amounts of money on designer dresses that were often ill fitting and often in the “one-and-done” category, she was frustrated, she said.
“That's when the light bulb went off,” she said. “I knew this was a huge issue. We had already spent so much on sorority dues and to have to spend so much on a dress that I would literally never wear again seemed ridiculous to me.”
That’s when she turned to Steadman.
“I knew she was really good at the production and design and was good with numbers and finance, so I pitched this idea to her,” Bui said. “Why don’t we start a business?”
After several months of discussion, they decided to pull the trigger, with the assistance of a seamstress Bui knew from her church. They got the necessary business licenses and an LLC and launched Frill in January 2012.
They catered strictly to sorority wear at first, designing a couple of dresses and writing a press release that was picked up by the local newspaper. That generated some interest, so they designed more pieces, and Bui’s sorority asked the pair to design some dresses for them. Business spiraled up from there, they said.
“We both kind of designed our own things, but all along almost all of our designs were based on what our customers wanted,” Steadman said. “A lot of times they would approach us with something they had in mind or an inspiration picture and we would customize it or tweak it and go from there.”
Business picked up drastically after the Pinterest image went viral.
Dipping their toes in the Tank
As college seniors, Steadman and Bui were taking heavy course loads and trying to graduate while running the business – and challenges were plenty, they said.
Bui, an avid watcher of Shark Tank, thought being on the show would be a great way to ignite their business, so she put the idea in Steadman’s ear. After several discussions, they decided to apply once Bui graduated in December 2012.
They sent in a 10-minute video pitch, made the first cut, then made it through 11 rounds of extensive paperwork.
“Throughout that process, we weren't going to get our hopes up,” Steadman said. “That was our mentality the whole way because we would have been devastated were we not chosen to be on the show.”
When the time to tape the show in L.A. approached – nine months before the actual airdate – they said they were extremely prepared to dip their toes in the Shark Tank. What prepped them the most was going through a mock Shark Tank session with their families and closest friends, they said. They practiced their pitch before the “mock sharks,” who grilled them throughout the process.
“The hard part about it was, if you're standing in front of the actual sharks and you mess up, they don't know because all they have to go on is what you're saying,” Steadman said. “They take everything at face value initially. Well, your family and loved ones know our company extremely well, so if you messed up they knew it and they called you out on it. And then they would hound you. They wanted only the best for us. In the end, we asked them what would they recommend we do better. But it felt like an avalanche. There were so many things that we apparently needed to do better, although we thought we were so ready.”
Added Bui: “Family night was way worse then the actual taping.”
They also watched every Shark Tank show, studied the types of investments the sharks made and wrote down just about every type of question to expect. And they practiced everywhere, they said. If a question was asked that they weren’t expecting, they knew who would answer, depending on the type of question (i.e. Steadman, sourcing, production, design, bridal, financing; Bui, marketing and sorority).
By the time of the taping, they were ready.
“People always say to us, ‘you were so prepared and so poised’ and that's because we were trained to give presentations in college,” Bui said. “And we also didn't want to look like fools in front of all of America. I was nervous during the pitch, a little shaky. But once the pitch was over, I was completely fine. It felt normal and I felt the Zen in the room was right because we are standing and they are sitting farther away than it looks on TV. It just felt right.”
When they returned home, due to confidentiality agreements, they were unable to give any details about the taping or the outcome to their families or friends.
“It was one of the biggest things to happen to us our whole lives, so not being able to tell some of the people who would care was really hard,” Bui said.
After this photo went viral on Pinterest, Frill Clothing saw a huge jump in awareness and business.
It's (almost) all Greek to them
When their episode aired, Frill’s business was about 70 percent sorority and 30 percent bridal and individual pieces. Since then, the sorority business has increased to about 80 percent, Steadman said.
“That's one of the main things we learned from the sharks – to take a step back and ask ‘who are the customers we want to be reaching most?’ ” she said. “Those are the customers we started the company for and those are the customers that we were able to connect with the most, so they’re the ones we should focus on the most.”
Frill has worked with about 100 sororities since its founding, and many of them are repeat customers, Steadman said. That number has doubled each year since they’ve been in business, she added. And they cater to each sorority with varying pricing options through three collections: Frill, the higher-priced, classic items with higher-quality fabrics; Magnolia, which is more budget friendly and feature casual fabrics and styles; and Belle, which are even more price efficient. Last year, the company produced more than 4,000 pieces, she added.
Pastels and bright colors in classic designs are customer favorites, and they try to create garments that are universally flattering, which is important when outfitting 70+ sorority girls of all body types, Bui said.
Besides social media and other marketing avenues, the Frill owners have started a “brand ambassador program” for Frill customers to help spread the word and are working with sales reps who travel to campuses.
Asked what their future goals are, Bui grinned and quickly said, “To take over the world, one sorority dress at a time.”
Steadman added: “Our main goal long term is to become the one-stop sorority shop and to make it where we don’t have to focus on familiarizing ourselves with each (sorority) chapter. We want them to already know us and what we have to offer and to come to us for their needs.”