Take every opportunity

Adzurra is a fashion app marketplace that gives shoppers quick access to sales from local and international fashion boutiques.

Please introduce yourself and your startup Adzurra to our readers

My name is Sharine and I am the CEO and Founder of Adzurra. Adzurra is a fashion app marketplace that gives shoppers quick access to sales from local and international fashion boutiques. However, the Adzurra app is unique due to an integrated geolocation feature which allows users to shop online seamlessly as well as discover local boutiques in their own city, so shoppers can purchase the item they found on the app, in-store. 

My background is in Law and International Relations, graduating from Bond University on the Gold Coast with a Bachelor of Laws (Hons.) and International Relations in 2016. I previously worked in a law firm in corporate law, worked part-time at an International Development company throughout University and took a job as an Insolvency Officer in personal bankruptcy after graduation (2017). I then started working on Adzurra part-time in 2017 until I was able to give Adzurra my full attention in early 2018. 

How did you get the idea for Adzurra?

Adzurra was born from my own need of wanting to be able to find local boutiques in my area, and especially areas that I would visit when I travelled. I visited Europe straight after University and realised that they were so many amazing local boutiques (especially in Greece) that had great fashion, were online, but I and many others just simply didn’t know of them. Adzurra was created in order to allow shoppers to shop from local boutiques seamlessly, allow brands to cheaply and quickly list their products but also allow shoppers to identify stores around the world so they can shop in-store no matter where the boutique was located.

How difficult was the start and what challenges did you have to overcome?

I am definitely not going to lie – it’s very difficult. Difficult in the sense that it takes a while for a founder to grab their bearings and identify the right path for their startup and there are so many things to consider. Should you raise funds? When can you raise funds? Where do I find my team? Will people even like this product? How will I get the product to the consumer? It can even be as simply as ‘What should be in a pitch deck? And the problem lies in the fact that there are a lot of people telling you what you should do but have actually no experience in running a startup. 

My biggest challenge is definitely creating a strong and lean team. As a sole non-technical founder, building a team has been a difficult task because by default, as a startup, funds are low. At the start, it was hard to convince software engineers, sales people and marketers to join the team when all I thought I could offer them were low salaries. It’s definitely a growing process. 

I find that it’s important to just make sure you remember the reason why you build your product in the first place, listen to other founders of startups (and not people who believe that they are experts) and create strong relationships with people who are genuinely trying to help you. 

Who is your target audience?

Our target market, which is shown through our analytic platforms show that it’s women from 25 years to 35 years old. However, we wouldn’t necessarily say that they are our only target audience as our Instagram and social media attracts a strong amount of traffic from women who are 18-24 years old. As a fashion and beauty marketplace, our target audience is quite varied as we have amazing millennial-driven swimwear labels to stand-alone childwear labels as well as eco-friendly and vegan driven labels that tend to attract an older audience. 

What is the USP of your startup?

Our unique selling proposition for shoppers is that they can purchase from local and international fashion boutiques and find their sale items quickly and purchase them through one transaction. We also give our shoppers the ability to find local boutiques in their area, or in places they want to visit, so they can find out trending boutiques in their area to visit and shop in-store. 

Our unique selling proposition for our clients (ie brands/boutiques) is our quick and easy integration of inventory between our systems. Boutiques no longer have to manage an entirely different system to control their admin changes nor manually update information. All they need to do is give us access to their inventory management system and we sync up to their information. From this, we can update information about their brand automatically and send orders directly to their store. All they have to do is manage their store and we can increase their sales with no hassle or ongoing management. 

Can you describe a typical workday of you?

A typical workday is; I wake up, read for approximately 30 minutes and then head into the office. Than I check my emails and make sure they are out of the way for the day. I like to organise my day with the most difficult tasks in the morning and easier tasks in the afternoon. And I also like to achieve the most difficult task in the morning which I will then reward with a coffee straight after. I then check in with marketing and development, hear their progress for the day and ensure that we’re still on track. At 5pm, I head to the gym for boxing, go home, have dinner, and return back to the office around 8pm and finish work at 10pm. I repeat the next day. 

Where do you see yourself and your startup Adzurra in five years?

I definitely see myself as the CEO and Founder of Adzurra in 5 years. I would like to grow the research and development team and continue to build on the software that our startup has built to this day. And I find a lot of satisfaction from seeing our product work on a technical basis so I would love to see Adzurra continue to grow and become the biggest fashion marketplace that blends the online and offline shopping world seamlessly together. 

What 3 tips would you give other Start-up founders on the way?

Take every opportunity

Make sure you identify opportunities and you take them. If you don’t know what to do with the opportunity at that moment, just seize it and think later.

A startup is only as good and strong as its team. Make sure you have a strong team around you before you start developing your product. 

What makes a startup successful is not in the big moments of success, where a publisher may publish a great article about your team or you land a big client. It’s all in the small acts of hustle each day that leads to these big events. So keep going, I know it sometimes looks like a long stretch, but everyday you go to work and you keep going, is bringing you an inch closer to success. 

More information you will find here

Thank you Sharine for the Interview

Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.