PROJECT: Angel Chang LLC, United States
Luxury apparel with “performance” elements and functional designs: special stain-proof, wrinkle-free and odor-free material, color-changing silkscreen prints, 3-D optical illusion prints, fiber optics...

www.angelchang.com

Angel Chang: “I’m now proud to call myself an entrepreneur”

Raincoats that light up, clothing that not only changes color, but has natural resistance to body-odor, or simply knickers with built in controls for your iPod… If Angel Chang has any say in the matter, clothes could get to be a whole lot smarter.

Angel graduated from New York’s Barnard College with a BA in art history & visual arts. Following internships in the design studios at Marc Jacobs and Viktor & Rolf, she returned to Columbia University in 2001 to complete an MA in modern art theory. Next stop: a job at Donna Karan as a Design Assistant for Womenswear the following year.

Whilst at Donna Karan, Angel had her first taste of the business start-up, co founding the art and culture quarterly Me Magazine. Since leaving in 2005, she has combined running her own label with working as a freelance journalist for Vogue.com France and as a consultant for influential New York fashion magazine, W.

Clothing that performs and looks good

“Working at Donna Karan, I noticed a trend in collaborations between fashion and technology”, explains Angel. “But these were more or less superficial. I tried unsuccessfully to interest various design teams in incorporating intelligent fabrics, but all the prototypes available in the market at the time were just too technical and lacked a sense of style. It was hard for our designers to envision their potential. I knew the fashion industry would love intelligent clothing, if only they were designed in a beautiful way!”

After taking several years to study wearable technology, Angel designed a test collection in September 2006 that she thought would be both innovative and stylish at the same time. “The press responded amazingly well,” continues Angel. “And in January this year I was awarded the prestigious Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation award to produce a show for my second collection.”

Angel’s line of performance womenswear is based on ideas that she has developed over the last year: heat-sensitive color changing inks, 3D prints, light-up clothing with LEDs, and garments that incorporate iPod controls. Each garment is designed in collaboration with a range of experienced technologists in New York. They are targeted at young, trend-setting professional women who want innovative, luxurious clothing that go beyond just looking good.

Putting it all together

A recent loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration in conjunction with the Baruch Small Business Development Center, an organization that supports business start-ups in New York, will enable Angel to design her third collection. She heard about the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards through a friend in business school who recommended she apply. “The business side of things is where I need some coaching,” says Angel. “I know how to put together a fashion collection, but putting together a detailed business strategy is not something I have a lot of experience with.”

“Being chosen as a finalist in the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards has completely changed my attitude to being an entrepreneur,” concludes Angel. “It used to be frustrating to have to spend more time crunching numbers than designing the clothes, but having this recognition is like somebody telling me I’m finally on the right track.”

PROJECT: Kika Villareal, United States
Luxury lingerie created to serve the specific needs and body shapes of America’s Latina population.

Katherina Ansink: “This is such a vote of confidence”

Having always dreamed of owning her own business, Katherina Ansink decided to take the plunge after completing an executive MBA from Cornell University. With Kika Villareal, a range of intimate apparel celebrating the Latin American beauty ideal, she’s targeting a fast-growing market that may just represent a perfect opportunity.

While Katherina is still a novice in the world of fashion, there is one thing that she has known for many years: the vast majority of innerwear companies do not cater to her taste and body type. “As a Colombian-American, I am petite and curvaceous,” she says. “Most American lingerie is cut for taller women.”

Moreover, creative design tends to be an afterthought. “American women usually prefer comfort and muted colors like beige, pink or white, while Latinas seek style. There are no brands that offer style and color and also provide a good fit.”

A dream becoming a reality

For more than ten years, Katherina’s ideas of starting a business remained on the backburner while she pursued a career in investment banking, working on structured bonds and other loan products for Latin American governments. “That sounds exciting, because it pays well and you can be on a plane to Sao Paulo at a moment’s notice, but after a while it gets boring. There is no creativity.”

Completing her executive MBA brought these dreams back to life. In her private equity class, she decided to write a business plan for a lingerie line for Latinas. “It was received so well that my professor offered to put me in touch with an investor. That’s when I started to realize that this could actually be a business.”

Taking the leap into entrepreneurship had, by that time, become less daunting: the year before, Katherina’s bank had restructured her team and she had been laid off. “Being unemployed was a luxury as it gave me time to decide what my next move should be.”

Since June 2006, Katherina has been working on her first collection while developing a member-owned bank for the Sergeant’s Benevolent Association, an NYPD police union. “The job is very flexible. I can work from home and choose my own hours.”

With a factory in Colombia now ready to produce samples, Katherina is gearing up for her first industry test, the Lingerie Americas show in August this year, where she hopes that her idea will strike a chord with buyers.

Seal of approval

Katherina saw an article on the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards in Women’s Wear Daily, a fashion industry business magazine. “I thought I had everything to win and nothing to lose. I figured that the entry process alone would be an opportunity to refine my business plan.”

Even so, Katherina was surprised when she found out that she had been selected as a finalist. “It was more than I ever imagined. I knew the competition had to be extremely tough so it’s a real seal of approval for what we’re trying to do.”

PROJECT: Tips Trading, United States
An electronic trading platform for Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) in the United States.
Note: Despite the quality of her project, Annabelle Fry did not participate in the Finals as she is no longer launching her project under her name.

Annabelle Fry: “Business school gave me the confidence to turn my idea into
a reality”

With eight years of experience trading government bonds*, 32 year old Annabelle Fry is already a veteran of the securities brokerage market. Expertise in a niche area of the industry and an MBA from Columbia Business School have given her the tools to design her own product – an electronic trading platform for a particular type of investment.

After graduating from Edinburgh University in 1998, Annabelle started her career at Merrill Lynch, dealing in European government bonds. Then, in late 2001, she moved from her native England to New York to work for Cantor Fitzgerald’s eSpeed brokerage service, helping rebuild client networks and systems devastated in the 9/11 attacks.

“It was at eSpeed that I gained extensive knowledge of the electronic trading of bonds,” says Annabelle. This kind of system, only available since the mid-nineties, allows major dealers (principally large banks) to trade with one another online, on a secure, real-time platform.

A rare combination of competencies

With valuable systems experience gained at eSpeed, and then at a rival firm, BrokerTec, Annabelle soon found she had a rare combination of competencies. “One product I was specializing in was TIPS [Treasury Inflation Protected Securities], a bond issued by the US government since 1997. The advantage of TIPS is that holders are granted returns which protect them from adverse moves in inflation.”

However, the electronic trading of TIPS is comparatively underdeveloped and under-serviced, so Annabelle is now using her expertise to fill the gap in the market. “I developed the idea for an advanced electronic TIPS trading platform while at Business School,” she says. “The platform will be user-friendly and trader-dedicated, allowing users to buy and sell TIPS in the market. The anonymity provided by the system, and the speed of execution it offers also add value for the trader.”

Annabelle was able to present her idea to peers and professors during her time at Columbia. “Their response was extremely helpful. Besides the enthusiasm they showed, they also offered advice about how to refine the plan. That was the time when I thought: ‘This can really work!’”

Simple idea, complex to implement

“The principle is simple,” says Annabelle. “The software is sold to dealers free of charge. Then, for each transaction, we make a commission.” Some major challenges remain, however. “On the technical side, there’s an ergonomic interface to design. We also have to secure legal approval from the US regulators. As well as this I want to increase awareness of TIPS as a sound investment in a well diversified portfolio.”

Now, Annabelle will be looking to the Cartier and McKinsey coaches to provide invaluable legal advice for her venture, and counsel her on the best way to secure further investments. “I first heard about the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards while at Columbia. Being selected for the finals is a welcome validation of my idea. In time, I’d hope to branch out into brokering other securities, simultaneously building a respected business, attractive to potential employees. I can’t wait to take the next steps towards this!”

* Bonds are shares in national debt purchased by investors, such as banks. The issuer pays an interest premium to the investor for raising capital in this way.