Fashion is surprisingly technical - and surprisingly damaging to people and planet. That's what digital marketing pioneer Dana Todd found out when she launched a marketplace for custom garment manufacturing in 2019. A simple quest to make clothes fit better led to a global journey that revealed a multitude of opportunities ripe for technical disruption and growth. Join us as she shares what she and a team of experts found when they tried to make pants from body measurement AI, and where the garment industry needs the help of serious tech in creating solutions and standards.
Presenter:
Dana Todd, CEO and founder
Balodana (pronunciation rhymes with “banana”)
Before starting Balodana, Dana Todd built a high-profile career in journalism, marketing, and digital product development.
She started as a newspaper journalist, then changed directions when she fell in love with the world of advertising, marketing and tech. She co-founded one of the first US digital agencies in San Diego in 1997 building enterprise websites and digital marketing campaigns for major brands. Always on the forefront of emerging technology, she created a search marketing practice at the agency which took them to industry leadership. Long before Google was a household name, she co-founded SEMPO, the largest global trade organization for search marketers. SEMPO and its members are credited for growing the industry into the massive economic ecosystem that it is today. Dana spoke around the world, advised media and brands, and rang the bell at NASDAQ on Cyber Monday 2008 as board chairperson.
In 2006, Dana’s vision to create a unique monetization system for online news media became Newsforce. The patented platform optimized press releases to rank higher in Google & Yahoo News and converted traditional banner ad units into native advertising, thereby tripling the ad space value. Newsforce successfully raised seed capital and equity partners, and sold its IP to a major PR software company.
In 2011, Dana moved to Chicago to start a new chapter, first leading global marketing for Performics, a Publicis digital agency, then taking CMO roles for a venture-backed crime scene cleanup company and an international calling mobile app. But she never lost the entrepreneur bug -- and when a personal fashion crisis turned into a “light bulb moment” for a new business idea, she bootstrapped and launched Balodana, a marketplace platform powering the first online department store dedicated entirely to women’s made-to-measure clothing.
Dana has a degree in Advertising/Journalism from University of Georgia.
Company Profile
Balodana is the only clothing marketplace that inspires and perfectly fits women who want to master the art of the first impression. We represent designers and tailors worldwide who specialize in women’s made-to-measure clothing. Online shoppers choose from hundreds of custom style patterns, from underwear to evening wear, in all price ranges and categories. In an era in which consumers expect personalized experiences, tailor-made clothing is not only personal but the most sustainable way to buy new garments today.
The transformative power of custom-made clothing can be an emotional experience for women who have felt marginalized by today’s fashion machine, which churns out millions of garments that are low quality and fit almost no one, ending up in landfills or discount bins. The result is billions of unspent dollars, environmental damage, and a slow degradation of women’s fashion confidence because they blame themselves and their bodies instead of our terrible supply chain.
Balodana is a two-sided marketplace that curates designers for skill level, style and experience delivering women's tailored clothing via the internet with a high level of accuracy. Since our launch in 2019, we have onboarded designers and microfactories in 10 countries who have hundreds of different styles for women to choose from, and we're delivering at 74% first-fit accuracy (and rising), which compares very favorably against traditional manufacturing/retail. In exchange for a sales commission, we offer to small-business designers our expert marketing and merchandising services, customer service support and collaborative partnership.
The experience for customers is unique and easy: they simply shop like they normally would online, and clothes are made and delivered directly from the designer. Over time, women build up a measurement profile of over 55 data points that are centralized and securely shared with the design team. Many items can be customized for color, fabric and shape. Prices range from $60-$3500 so there's something for everyone, and many can be delivered in as fast as 2 weeks.
Balodana is a privately-held startup based in Chicago.
Schedule:
6pm-6:30pm: Registration and Networking
6:30pm-7:15pm: Presentation
7:15-7:30pm: Questions and Answers
7:30-8pm: Wrap-up
