Guest Profile:

Cassie Fossum is a self-confessed shoe addict. Naturally, she loved how designer heels made her look but was less enthusiastic about how they made her feet feel. A particularly painful night on the town set her on the path to find her ideal shoe, a pair that was as comfortable as it was fashionable. Her research revealed that the technology of women's shoes had not changed in decades, so she assembled a team of experts who have developed a patent pending 360° comfort system which is incorporated into every pair of Mavettes.

At Mavette, fashion and comfort are synonymous. They create shoes which not only look fabulous but feel fabulous as well. This meant giving high heels and flats a much-needed makeover based on their patent-pending 360° comfort technology. This wizardry is combined with a custom fit process to ensure customers a terrific buying experience from Mavette. Every pair of shoes are handmade by Italian craftsmen with generations of experience and shipped directly from the factory in Europe.

Presently, Mavette fittings are done in person, however, Cassie and her team are working to develop an online app which will allow custom fitting of each foot from home.

Show Summary:

Today's guest is Cassie Fossum, CEO, and co-founder of [Mavette.com](https://mavette.com/), a company which is exploring a new way to sell women's shoes which are as comfortable as they are fashionable.

In this episode, Cassie explains how she discovered Mavette's niche, her journey in launching her start-up, and how she integrates online sales with custom fittings and untraditional retail marketing using Pop-Up Stores.

Topics:

I know you have a whole laundry list of cool experiences from starting Mavette, could you walk us through how you got started on this journey?

00:54 I've always been interested in the intersection between creativity and business. Throughout my career o have always sat at that intersection, working with creative people on the business side.

01:45 In my last job I was just bored and not feeling challenged anymore. I was running a business within a business, which challenged me but there was a promotion which was not coming through as quickly as I wanted, so I started thinking, what do I want to do next?

02:05 I opened myself up to problems in the world that I wished I could solve, and one of them was uncomfortable shoes. When you go out in high heels, after about 20 minutes your feet are stinging and hurting. I love wearing high heels, but it was something that was prohibitive if you are at a long conference and something is hurting your feet.

02:30 I started asking my other girlfriends, and it is something that many women experience, anyone who has worn high heels. As I looked, I realized that the high heel hadn't really been redesigned since the 1900s.

03:10 I took my idea and decided to go look for an accelerator program and found one that took people who just have an idea, most of the accelerators want to see that you have an idea and have already started building traction behind it.

03:30 I found the [Founder Institute](https://fi.co/) and they were willing to take on companies that just had an idea. The program is about three months long. You meet every week, they bring in different experts; one week it might be about legal, what do you need to know about legal to start a company, another week it might be about market strategy, what are ways to go to market with your idea. Then, you have homework, you meet with a working group and brick by brick you start building your company. Right after I graduated, I found my designer, headed over to Italy, and have been building Mavette ever since.

How did you go from Silicon Valley to moving over to Italy, or finding a designer in Italy and sourcing the product there?

04:42 When I was working on the idea, I knew I did not want to do a Made in China shoe. There are so many shoes out there that are low quality and I kn