After leaving Warner Bros and working as a freelance business consultant for sixteen months, Tom Adeyoola knew it was time to establish his own start-up. He has worked for various SMEs but now invests his time in making his own business, Metail, a success.
Tom founded the company in 2008 and as its CEO, has been driving the business from strength to strength. Metail is the leading body shape and garment-fit visualisation company, which provides virtual fitting room services. Customers can visualise outfits and generate accurate sizing recommendations to get the right fit, remotely.
Based in Shoreditch, East London, Metail is expanding and Tom hopes to double his current team to 45. They are moving to bigger offices in London, have plans to open more in Singapore and are happy to hire MBAs.
If you are interested in a fast-moving tech company, this could be the SME for you. Tom tells us why salary sacrifices can be worth it, the plans for their summer internships and how they stay competitive in the tech world.
What does the business do and what are their core/flagship products?
We create virtual fitting-room experiences where people can create 3D versions of themselves that they can use to try on clothes, and see how they fit.
We sell them to retailers with a view to helping them make better sales, increasing conversions, increasing basket sizes and reducing returns. This creates a much improved and engaged customer experience.
Which regions are covered?
We work in the UK, Germany, Brazil and recently signed a big deal with Singtel in Asia, who want to expand into different market places and who have 400 million customers.
Our offices are in the UK at the moment, but one of our VC investors has joined us full-time and will open an office in Singapore
Are you the only company providing this service?
We are the only company doing what we’re doing. The problem of buying online clothing has existed ever since Boo.com (a British internet company from the dot-com boom) came about in the late ninety’s, and they raised $130 million in funding, which was even then unsuccessful.
There have been businesses that have come and gone and there are competitors. But we are the only ones who enable you to visualize your body shape and see visual combinations of garments on your virtual body.
I wanted to really focus on the visual element, as I think that by seeing the visual you get a quick snapshot-view of whether that’s going to work for you or not. This has proved to be a very effective method.
Who is your target demographic?
We are looking to grow in the same way that we imagine the Facebook generation grew. So it will be the young, tech savvy, time rich customers we target, through to the 55 year-olds.
I very much see this as a tool that everyone will use. We want to be the enabler to help you shop better, drive more relevant choices and reduce your time spent finding clothing that works for you.
What is the vision for Metail?
To be the clothing companion from morning to night, across all formats. We want you to be able to read a magazine and after seeing a garment you like, scan it and see it against your body shape there and then.
The past year has been about building the product to see if it works, but this year is about building operational scale and now is the time to really start motoring in terms of business development.
We have been in stealth mode, but now we want to put our head above the parapet from a PR, marketing and business development perspective.
How accurate is the technology?
We can get up to a 94 per cent accuracy which takes you to within an inch of size. We really can provide a useful tool: you can get up and running with us in under a minute.
Do you actively hire MBAs?
We are always looking for good people and are actually looking to double the team to 45, and will be moving offices in London to cope with the expansion. We have seven PHDs working on the tech side of things in Cambridge and have hired two MBAs.
One was from Kellog and the other from INSEAD. The guy from Kellogg worked on a project I gave him and at the end of the task, which was focused on what a US entry would look like, we went to New York to talk to some businesses he had made contacts with.
Rather than me paying him any money, he put some money into the business himself so it worked out net positive.
The other guy was at the Boston Consulting Group before INSEAD and thought this space was very interesting. We got on really well with him, and after his graduation he joined us full time. He was with us for a year and a half before leaving to do his own thing - which is something he wanted to do from the start.
We are always looking for good, hungry business development people.
What can MBAs bring to the business?
In both cases they didn’t have operational experience. They had both been consultants and so they had the ability to tackle problems and answer the big questions.
Actually, though, I felt we were teaching them more than they were teaching us - from an operational perspective. How the client fits in, prioritization, how to distill big areas: those skillsets are very important to us.
Are you looking for an intern at the moment?
Definitely. We will begin looking for interns for the summer. We are always looking for good people and if we can see a fit for both parties, then we can make something work. It is important to me that the intern gets something out of the experience, because there may not be a job at the end.
If you are joining a startup, it is important to know why?
There is obviously a financial sacrifice and the newer the startup is, the more you will have to sacrifice in terms of salary. However, the rewards and learning experiences are phenomenal, and that can make it worthwhile.
(A startup) is an MBA by doing and I have now got full exposure to all functions of a business by working in five different startups. This has given me the knowledge and confidence to now startup something on my own.
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