2nd BtoBe Demo Day gathers young fashion businesses in Sao Paulo

The young fashion businesses that are members of the Brazilians to Be (BtoBe) Project took part in the 2^nd edition of BtoBe Demo Day on September 1. The event is an initiative of Texbrasil, the Brazilian Fashion Industry Internationalization Program, developed by Abit in partnership with Apex-Brasil (Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency) and is aimed at interaction between entrepreneurs and mentors from various areas, exchanging experiences, networking and developing business. “The goal is to promote internationalization of these younger labels, giving their designers greater competitive abilities and a global mentality,” says Evilasio Miranda, the program’s fashion and design manager.

Karin Feller and Helen Rodel are both seen as cases of success at BtoBe. They kicked off the event by presenting their brand concepts and discussed how participating in the program has leveraged their companies and visibility abroad. “When I left university, in 2008, I decided to take part in the contest (which at the time was still called Ponto Zero). I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be a designer or an illustrator, but when I entered the project and received advice from professionals with market expertise, I ended up developing my brand using precisely my drawings and original prints, made using watercolors, as an element of positioning and uniqueness. Today, I export to major chains in Japan and am in the process of entering the North American market. I now have various successful partnerships with other companies as well, such as Ray Ban, Passarela and Lunender,” says Karin.

The event continued with individual pitches from the Iara Wisnik (SP), Larsan (BSB), Femman (BH) and Ocksa (POA) brands – the latest members of BtoBe – with designers presenting their brands to mentors from different areas, such as finance, management, investments, marketing, products, media and technology, in a matchmaking session with mentors where they exchanged experiences and received feedback not only on their collections, but also on other aspects of business, such as communications, sales, strategy and management. The four companies have been going through incubation in the last four months, in a program made up of consulting firms and mentoring from specialists in startup growth, so that they are able to develop hypotheses about their companies, products and customers, achieving an economically sustainable business model.

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