Latest news with #TyHaney
Business of Fashion
2 days ago
- Business
- Business of Fashion
Outdoor Voices' Founder Raises Series A for New Start-Up
Ty Haney is ready to scale her new venture. The entrepreneur, who previously founded activewear label Outdoor Voices, announced on Wednesday that she has raised an $11 million Series A funding round for her three-year-old rewards platform Try Your Best. The round was led by Offline Ventures and Strobe Ventures, which previously invested in TYB in 2023. TYB lets consumers earn rewards from their favourite brands based on how much they engage with them — including sending referrals or simply posting about coveted products. The platform currently works with 200 brands, including buzzy names known for their rapid fan bases like Rare Beauty, Glossier and Saie. The funding will help TYB bring more brands and customers onto the platform. The fundraise comes as brands rev up their community building strategies to increase loyalty among Millennial and Gen-Z shoppers who buy from companies they have a genuine connection with. TYB has raised $24 million to date, including a $4 million seed round in 2023, according to PitchBook. Learn more: Case Study | How Brands Build Genuine Communities Community is too often reduced to a buzzword, but when cultivated correctly, it can be one of fashion's most powerful means for engaging customers and building loyalty, particularly in times of economic uncertainty. This case study looks at examples of brands that have successfully created thriving fan communities and their approaches to creating lasting and rewarding relationships with their customers.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Exclusive: Outdoor Voices founder Ty Haney raises $11 million for her second startup
– Loyalty program. Outdoor Voices founder Ty Haney launched her second startup, Try Your Best (or TYB), more than three years ago. It was peak Web3, a space that Haney became highly interested in after she left the athletic apparel retailer that, in some ways, defined 2010s startups. Today, Haney is still building TYB, with 38 employees—and it's outlasted the rise and fall of blockchain/crypto/NFT-mania. The platform is intended to be a layer of loyalty infrastructure for consumer brands, what Haney calls 'community commerce.' Two hundred brands use the platform, as do 2 million users—mostly Gen Z women. Haney just raised an $11 million Series A for TYB, Fortune is the first to report. The round was co-led by Offline Ventures and Strobe Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, and Unusual Ventures. This brings its total capital to $23.5 million. Talking to Haney about TYB, you can feel her excitement. Years after the drama that engulfed Outdoor Voices, which included board battles and Haney's exit and return, she's thrilled to be at step one again. 'I love this stage. I love building something from zero,' she says. The brands that use TYB include several of the buzziest brands from the beauty industry—like Glossier, Rare Beauty, and Saie. 'Beauty as a category has popped off significantly for us,' Haney says. '[Beauty] consumers are already creating so much content and participating in rituals around the brands.' There's also Poppi, Urban Outfitters, Set Active. Coming soon to the platform are Crocs and Away. Consumers on TYB participate in gamified challenges, earn collectibles, and have blockchain-enabled loyalty profiles that can potentially follow them from brand to brand. A TYB-using customer has 40% higher frequency of purchase and a 28% higher lifetime value, Haney says. Monthly engagement rates for brands crack 40%. Haney tells brands that TYB can drive 5% to 10% of revenue—'in a more profitable fashion than putting all your dollars against Instagram or Facebook.' TYB is developing 'affinity webs' that can map a user's loyalty to one brand and apply it to another. 'Within the Glossier community where I'm level three—can that mean something to Nike?' Haney explains. She's brought some lessons with her from Outdoor Voices and the tens of millions it raised. 'I've become a lot more sophisticated, or precise, in terms of who I who I raise money from, how much money I raise, and ultimately considerate of ownership and as little dilution as possible,' she says. Emma The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune's daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today's edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here. This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business of Fashion
28-04-2025
- Business
- Business of Fashion
How Brands Build Genuine Communities
The fashion industry is going to have to learn the real meaning of community in 2025. Even before US president Donald Trump's tariffs roiled global markets and generated widespread uncertainty, executives saw consumer confidence and appetite to spend as the greatest risks to fashion's growth, according to The State of Fashion 2025 by The Business of Fashion and McKinsey & Company. Shoppers pressured by years of rising costs have been cutting back, trading down and seeking out the best deals, regardless of which brand offers them. The political and economic turmoil only amplify the challenges facing fashion. Retaining customers is becoming more difficult at a time when acquiring new shoppers continues to be expensive. Consultancy Capgemini found in a 2024 survey that over 53 percent of consumers switch brands and retailers regularly — despite subscribing to their loyalty programmes. 'Loyalty is not a new concept, but for too long, it has been rooted in just how much a customer spends with you,' said Ty Haney, whose second act after leaving her brand Outdoor Voices in 2020 was to found Tyb, a digital community-rewards platform whose clients include beauty brands such as Glossier and retailers like Urban Outfitters. ADVERTISEMENT Brands need a better way to keep their shoppers engaged and coming back. They need to build true communities. Today, consumers are searching for genuine brand connections centred on a sense of camaraderie and purpose. A 2024 survey by Edelman, for example, found that 84 percent of consumers across all age groups said they need to share values with a brand in order to buy it. Fashion companies that understand how to address these consumers and pull on the right emotional levers can turn first-time buyers into repeat customers who commit to brands that stand for something larger than product. These customers can also become a brand's most passionate advocates and ambassadors. But creating real community around a brand takes a lot more than hosting another in-store event or collecting followers on Instagram. Too often the term has been reduced to little more than a marketing buzzword. While there's no one formula for success, the approaches that tend to create the strongest communities in fashion and beauty fall into three camps: activity-driven, typically based on a foundation of sports or other physical activities; personality-driven, coalescing around a magnetic brand founder or leader; and values-based, where customers congregate around a brand because of shared beliefs or perspectives. The categories aren't mutually exclusive, however, and each approach provides insights that are more widely applicable. This case study explores the community-building methods of brands including the fast-rising Bandit Running and outdoor label Arc'teryx; intimates retailer Aerie and inclusive beauty brand Topicals; and popular designer label KidSuper, whose animating force is the personality of founder Colm Dillane. While they have different methods and sometimes different goals in mind, each has found ways to create deeper connections with customers that offer lessons about what community means and how brands can cultivate it.
