It’s a partnership between large and small players: startups that gain the momentum they need in the market thanks to large companies that find innovative solutions to their real, day-to-day problems in those very same startups. This is the Atelier project at ISEM Fashion Business School, the first business school in Spain specializing in fashion business management, which is part of the University of Navarra. In short, it is a vertical accelerator for the “fashion business” sector that, in its second year, is expanding the number of spots available to participants in the project to eight.
The major revolution currently taking place in the retail and fashion industries—driven by the integration of new technologies and digitization across all their processes—led to the creation of Atelier, where startups can submit their proposalsthrough November 23. “These are startups that realize they can’t get access to large companies to test their products. We thought we could facilitate contact between the two: the large companies could benefit from their technology, and the startups could benefit from having a kind of partner to help them refine and test their products,” says David Luquin, director of Atelier.
This year, eight startups will be selected to participate
For both sides, it seems to be all advantages.Large companies don’t really develop their own technology“but rather seek it out and acquire it on the market. “They find it faster in startups—small companies that are focused on their product,” says Luquin. “Large companies,” he adds, “commit to investing resources to test and help further develop the startups’ products. They commit to the entrepreneurial ecosystem as part of their corporate social responsibility.”
As in the previous edition, the eight selected startups will have the opportunity to work for several months with leading fashion companies in a close collaborative relationship. The larger companies will outline their needs, and the smaller ones will strive to improve their products and adapt to those needs. The participating companies in this call for entriesare Aristocrazy, Boboli, Camper, El Corte Inglés, El Ganso, Tendam, Mango, and Mayoral.
“The true value of Atelier is that it allows you to integrate and interact with major clients from whom you learn a great deal. You learn and integrate very quickly with the clients. And they’re able to test new solutions more quickly and without taking risks,” saysBorja Cembrero,one of the founders of the startupNaiz Fit,which was selected last year.“It has allowed us,” he adds, “to better understand the fashion ecosystem—with partners, design agents, and more—and to integrate our technology into major companies by demonstrating its value.”
Alina Franco,founder of thestartup Vudoir—another company that participated in the project last year—also acknowledges that Atelier “has been a turning point; in less than a year, we’ve had to completely transform our technological infrastructure and operations to serve large companies. It has helped us evolve andhas allowed us to prepare for the demands of a large corporation.”
At Atelier, there’s a more ambitious plan, as Luquin explains: “We want startups to take everything they’ve learned and go out into the world with an international mindset and the ambition to create jobs. It’s the beginning of a great adventure.”
Two Disruptive Projects
The Basque startup Naiz Fit has developed an app that allows users to determine their exact size based on two photos they take. “That way, when they shop online, we show them the size they need for all the garments from the brands we work with,” says Cembrero. For its part, Vudoir has managed to improve the online shopping experience through a chat feature that offers advice from stylists to address consumers’ questions when purchasing a product. Users can share images and text in real time to seek advice.
