Glyph, The Minimalist Shoe Startup
We had the opportunity to speak with Pranav Sachdev, CEO of Glyph. The Minimalist shoe company. Glyph is currently seeking additional investors via a crowdfunding campaign. Learn more at Republic.co/glyph.
Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and Glyph?
A: Glyph is a company that believes in minimalism. We design the only pair of shoes anyone needs to own, because they go with any outfit, and sell them directly to customers. We launched October 2019.
Q: How did you get the idea for Glyph ?
A: I have been a minimalist for my entire life. It is something I learned from my grandfather. He didn’t think that having a lot of things would make you happy, and he was right. We founded Glyph because it is important to us that the people who design the products we use every day are minimalists.
Q: Did you hit any roadblocks that almost caused you to throw in the towel?
A: We had many challenges early on. The most heartbreaking was probably a big factory we had partnered with, sort of pushing us aside and not really doing any development work without formally ending the relationship. We lost a few months early on there.
Q: How do you plan to grow and expand Glyph? What are the next steps for the company?
A: We are focused on expanding our digital footprint, and will likely explore new channels including Adwords, Tik Tok and Pinterest in the near future
Q: Where do you see the company in 5 years and how do you plan to get there?
A: In the near term we are going to release more colors and designs for our customers. A huge percentage of Glyph customers buy more than one pair of Glyphs – either as gifts for loved ones or so they can match their Glyphs with different outfits. The single biggest point of feedback we get is that our customers want more colors. We’ve seen in the past that you can build a billion-dollar or hundreds of millions of dollar shoe company off of one shoe that people love (Toms, Tory Birch, Sperry, Allbirds), so that is our priority for the time being. In the future we will consider launching other highly versatile products, but right now we are focused on footwear.
Q: Do you have any partnerships or retail store sales?
A: Given the pandemic we're going to hold off on retail until 2022
Q: What has been the greatest award or achievement that your company has attained so far?
A: We are right at the beginning of a massive growth phase. We have put together our supply chain, validated our product, sold out the first few batches and built a brand that people love. Now is the time for us to focus on really scaling.
Q: What kind of traction have you had since you first launched?
A: We have sold out three times. We are backed by Cornell University and 500 Startups. We are fueled by our loyal customer base, our sales have grown 60% month over month. 35% of our sales have come from word of mouth. In addition we have over $350k in total gross revenue.
Q: What makes your company different from others in your space? What are your competitive advantages?
A: Our mission is to bring minimalism to mainstream America. We want to change our relationship with the things we own. We are focused on making the most versatile shoes on the planet and building the definitive minimalism brand of our generation. Our shoes are digitally printed to fit any foot, and is patent pending, as well as longer lasting than leather.
In addition, customers can return their Glyphs after they wear out to be recycled and to get a discount on their next pair!
Q: If you could go back in time and give yourself one piece of business/financial advice, what would it be?
A: Don’t waste time on investors that drag their feet - create urgency by pitching more of them.
Q: Is there any advice you'd give to other aspiring entrepreneurs?
A: Keep going.
Disclosure: Startup Watch is a platform TalkMarkets provides for startup company executives to discuss their companies in depth. TalkMarkets provides a suggested list of questions but the format ...
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Hi @[Pranav Sachdev](user:141985), how is your company different from Allbirds shoes? They sound similar and the company just announced that they are already expanding into eco-friendly clothes.
@[Pranav Sachdev](user:141985), not sure I would consider investing - what stage is your company at? Either way, I would buy a pair of these shoes, depending on price. That's one thing you forgot to mention. How much do your pairs cost? And is satisfaction guaranteed? Free returns and return shipping? Thanks.
Thanks for the comment. We are a 2 person company closing in on a 7 figure run rate. We sell Glyphs for $125 You can check out our Republic page at https://republic.co/glyph.
Impressed as well.
You are only a 2-person company?? Impressed!
As an ESG Investor, this is my kind of company. I love the minimalist approach and the fact that customers can recycle their own shoes back to the company for a discount on their next pair. Great concept and implementation. And I see the minimum investment is only $200. Not much risk there.
Corey, thanks for the love!
In a free country those who choose to be a minimalist are free to do so, and those who do not choose to do so should certainly be found to be supporting the economy. And there is one certainty, which is that "the man with only one shirt will certainly find it easy to keep his closet neat."
My guess is that the shoes are comfortable and good looking and well made, and at a reasonable price. So OF COURSE the company will do quite well. Probably a good value stock as well as growth.
That's a very generous assessment. With only one style to choose from, far from everyone will like it. And they are quite expensive as well, pricing out much of the market. And with only one product, all it will take is a bigger company to make a similar product, and these guys will be out of business. Unless @[Pranav Sachdev](user:141985) can prove me wrong.
Hey, thanks for the comment! Right now we have an amazing product that people love. The challenge is going to be to quickly scale and build a brand that people love.
They are not expensive if you consider they are suppose to replace an entire closet full of shoes.
Not everyone is "brave" enough to wear this style with everything. And if you need multiple colors, it's more than one shoe. But if you really were to wear these everyday, they'd wear out pretty quickly.
Stylish!
In my experience, this is the kind of product that, if it catches us, especially with influencers, it can really take off. And then the company can easily diversify into other products. Get a celebrity to endorse it or feature it on their show and you have got it made!
Cool shoes, I'll check them out.
Yes, nice shoes. But this company sounds like a one-trick pony to me. Not sure it's a worthwhile investment. What's to stop other shoemakers from simply copying their design? Seems like all their eggs are in one basket.
We hope to follow in the path of other brands with one killer silhouette that have scaled to hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue such as Sperry, Toms, and Tory Burch. Our focus is on making one product and being the best in the world at making that product as opposed to making a variety of products that are all mediocre.
Agreed. Very little traction too unless it's a very early stage company.
Valid points, but to be fair, it sounds like they have a loyal fan base and a patent in the works, so may not be as easy as you think. And they won the backing of Cornell and 500 Startups, so there's likely more here than you realize.
Maybe, but with only one product, it has to be universally liked by all users for all occasions. That's pretty hard to do when it comes to fashion. I for one would never where those shoes with a suit! What would my clients think?
That's only because you aren't rich enough! I would. ;-)