Building a Fashion E-commerce Business and Surviving Covid: Go Dash Dot CEO Hannah Fastov (Part 2)

Hannah Fastov: For six months, I couldn’t stop thinking about this idea. In January of 2016, I googled “New York handbag designer”. I found my designer who had been with me since the beginning. She helped me commercialize my ideas. She took what I wanted, made it into a bag that had the potential to sell, and created everything that we needed to send to a manufacturer.

I ended up with a manufacturer overseas. It took about nine months to get a bag that we were happy with to go to market. We started with one bag. I mentioned it was the Infinity bag. It was probably August of 2016 that I was like, “We’re launching in October.” As a first-time business owner, I didn’t quite realize what I was getting myself into. We ended up launching in October. I had 30 bags and went with it.

Sramana Mitra: What did launch mean at that point?

Hannah Fastov: It meant we were going to start first with a website. We organized a launch party. When I first started, I really thought of this as a gym bag because that’s how I was using the bag. At that time, the whole wellness craze was starting to peak. I was very involved in the New York city boutique fitness world. I had a lot of friends and connections. I had a big network within that community.

We launched with a fitness class. I pulled in some instructors I’d worked with. We set up our products all over. We invited members of the fitness community. That was our official launch. In January of 2017, we went to our first trade show which was in California. That was a B2B trade show. We had no outside funding with only a little bit of funding from friends and family.

Once I saw what that would look like from an advertising perspective, I decided that B2B wholesale would be easier. We attended our first trade show in January. I jumped the gun. Then I realized that we had purchased an 8 x 10 booth with one bag in two colors. We quickly worked with our factory who we developed a great relationship with and got some additional colors.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s stop for a second. What was the price point? What did it cost to get those manufactured?

Hannah Fastov: The bag cost $198 retail. To produce it, I put in a test order of 300 units. That was the minimum. The cost was around $27 and then we had to import it. All in, it was around $35. I wanted to build a margin to make sure that we have retail and wholesale pricing.

Sramana Mitra: You financed all that yourself?

Hannah Fastov: Yes, in the beginning.

Sramana Mitra: In the launch party, how many units did you sell?

Hannah Fastov: We sold 50. We oversold. I promised that they were going to be there. Luckily, they were people I knew because we were a bit late.

Sramana Mitra: That’s pretty good. 50 orders at that price point, you had broken even.

Hannah Fastov: Yes. What was important was that initial price point. I did a lot of research in terms of the price point for the product. We couldn’t justify a $500 bag. Because it had so many pockets and compartments and we used really high-quality zippers and trims, you really felt that it was a very strong sturdy bag with a luxe finish.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Building a Fashion E-commerce Business and Surviving Covid: Go Dash Dot CEO Hannah Fastov
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