Typically, when an ex-Microsoft (News - Alert) employee moves on to another career, it usually is to another computer giant like Dell or HP. However in a recent story, two former Microsoft workers transitioned to a whole other kind of job—one in which they have leveraged the skills they learned in their previous positions to create an algorithm that they are using to assist women in finding the most suitable bra for their individual needs.
The best part of this new project? You can do this while sitting on the couch with a potato chip in one hand and the remote control in your other. Forward thinkers Aarthi Ramamurthy and Michelle Lam unveiled their baby – or at least what feeds them – their online bra shop True & Co. just this week.
First reported by NyDailyNews.com, Lam told reporters that “the bra shopping experience is one of the most uncomfortable shopping experiences out there.” She then went into her own personal experience in which she revealed that while she was trying on 20 different bras looking for a strapless bra for an occasion, when only one worked she then asked herself, “why did it take that many bras to try on before I found the perfect one and “did that measuring tape thing they did for me even matter?”
It was after that less than stellar adventure that the twosome met through a startup community in the Bay Area. They then teamed and decided to utilize Ramamurthy’s background as a developer and Lam’s experience in e-commerce to power a much better way to fix this sometimes tiring process.
“We went to bra fitting after bra fitting and spoke to experts, and the best ones didn’t use measuring tape,” Lam added. “They had these unwritten rules where they could look at a woman’s body and say, we think this would be best. We were able to take these rules and distill them into code.”
The company kicked off by powering a survey that asked these women desperately in need of some support (literally) to complete a two-minute online survey that contained a variety of questions on shape of their breasts and the obstacles that had arisen when attempting to shop for new attire.
According to the piece, the algorithm works by producing a page of custom recommendations and then enables shoppers to try out three bras, while the True & Co. experts simultaneously get to work on two “mystery” bras that are selected after carefully reviewing the survey participants answers.
The five bras are then sent to the women, who can try them on at their own leisure without having to be poked and prodded by a judgmental stranger. Bras can be extremely expensive, but luckily everything on the site is sold for around $45, even brands such as Calvin Klein and Natori.
“The whole idea is to wrap some really complicated technology into a very simple online quiz to make it fun for women,” Lam added.
Just yesterday, the company revealed it has already raised $2 million in a first round of funding.
To see how this innovation reshapes the bra world, stay tuned to TMCnet!