Fashion Tech Startups Emerging From Harvard B-School Runway in Droves

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Moda Operandi — CEO and co-founder Aslaug Magnusdottir (on right) cites the Gilt co-founders as an inspiration, even though Magnusdottir finished up at HBS before them (in 2000). Her startup, launched last February with Vogue contributing editor Lauren Santo Domingo (left), showcases runway collections online, where women can pre-order apparel that may never even make it into stores. Having worked as a consultant for fashion brands, “I would frequently hear designers voice frustration that the pieces they felt best expressed their vision were not being ordered by stores and thus were not being produced,” says Magnusdottir. A year after launching, Moda Operandi now works with around 200 brands.

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Author: Erin Kutz

Erin Kutz has a background in covering business, politics and general news. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University. Erin previously worked in the Boston bureau of Reuters, where she wrote articles on the investment management and mutual fund industries. While in college, she researched for USA Today reporter Jayne O’Donnell’s book, Gen Buy: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail. She also spent a semester in Washington, DC, reporting Capitol Hill stories as a correspondent for two Connecticut newspapers and interning in the Money section of USA Today, where she assisted with coverage on the retail and small business beats. Erin got her first taste of reporting at Boston University’s independent student newspaper, as a city section reporter and fact checker and editor of the paper’s weekly business section.