Venturing into Fashion Tech

Sehrish Raza, a female fashion founder from Pakistan, shares her journey as an underrepresented founder navigating entrepreneurship in South Asia. She discusses the resilience required to scale her business from 20,000 to 200,000 users. She shares her experience pitching on Shark Tank Pakistan, and having the wherewithal and self-confidence to choose herself over a bad deal. Through BizB, she empowers women entrepreneurs and fosters financial inclusion in the region.

Lessons in Resilience & Growth- What we learned: 

• Fundraising and investment realities – the unique hurdles women face when raising capital.
• Shark Tank insights – navigating high-pressure pitching with confidence.
• Confidence as strategy – believing in your numbers and your vision.
• More than 100% Growth Y-oY – achieving exponential success and knowing your worth.
• Operating as a female founder in a male-dominated nation- Outsourcing funding and getting creative

Connect with Sehrish on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sehrish-raza-bizb/

Visit BizB: https://www.bizb.store/en

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

With nearly 15 years in the British fashion industry, Ahmet Emin Hondor shares his journey advocating for entrepreneurship and resilience among emerging designers with the British Fashion Council. He reflects on how representation and cultural identity have shaped his path, while also addressing the mental drain of navigating microaggressions masked as politeness as a Turkish man in London. For Ahmet, community engagement is crucial to driving meaningful inclusion in the British fashion industry. Beyond his work with the British Fashion Council, he organizes London's Gay Pride, championing diversity, mental well-being, and authentic storytelling. Through his efforts, he is helping to shift global narratives, empower LGBTQ+ voices, and build sustainable opportunities for underrepresented founders in the UK.

Redefining Inclusion in Fashion:
  • Beyond tokenism – meaningful inclusion requires empowerment, not just visibility.
 • Culture as creativity – personal identity shapes design, styling, and storytelling.
 • Mental health matters – navigating exclusion and toxic environments with resilience.
 • Pride & responsibility – corporate inclusivity should last beyond seasonal campaigns.
 • Emerging designers – cultural heritage can be a competitive edge in business.

Connect with Ahmed: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/ahmeteh

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Founder of Debonair Afrik, Nuel Bans discusses his journey as an underrepresented founder championing African fashion on the global stage. From launching a blog to landing a Vogue cover, Nuel shares the resilience required to transform passion into a multifaceted brand. He highlights the importance of entrepreneurship, the impact of representation in elevating African creatives, and the power of community in fostering collaboration, purpose, and authentic cultural storytelling. Nuel also opens up about the struggle of minority designers, including repeated exclusion from opportunities with LVMH, and how adversity has shaped his vision to expand into Paris and grow his international presence while supporting emerging designers across the diaspora.

Fashion with Purpose & Community- in this episode, we discuss:

• Evolving from blog to brand – How Debonair Afrique’s evolution reflects the potential of passion-led projects.
• How cultural identity fuels creativity – African craftsmanship and storytelling deserve global recognition.
• Shifting narratives – challenging outdated perceptions of Africa to highlight appreciation, value, and innovation.
• Representation at the top – Black designers and founders must be visible in leadership positions.
• Overcoming exclusion – turning missed opportunities into motivation to push boundaries internationally.

Connect with Nuel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmanuel-ekuban-b3749a150/

Visit Debonair Afrik: https://debonairafrik.com/

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Dorcas Payne, a creative business consultant, shares her insights on building successful businesses in niche fashion markets. She emphasizes the critical role of operations and supply chain management in creative entrepreneurship, and the resilience needed to scale. For her, it’s crucial for emerging fashion talent to continuously listen to the feedback loop and use data to grow.  Dorcas is on a mission to make supply chains sexy again, showing how strategic operations, thoughtful execution, and community-driven collaboration are just as exciting and essential as the designs on the runway.

The Backbone of Creative Business- in this episode, we discuss why:
• Operations matter – supply chain and operational strategy are the foundations of growth in the fashion industry.
• Data is king – understanding customer behavior through feedback loops drives better decisions.
• Scale down, execute excellence – resilience comes from doing fewer things at a higher standard.
• Representation in entrepreneurship – systemic challenges for global ethnic majority founders demand allyship and collaboration.

Connect with Dorcas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorcas-payne/

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

From Tahiti to the global stage, Jessica Vaitiare Chin Foo shares her journey navigating entrepreneurship in the United States. She highlights how her French Polynesian heritage shapes her approach to business, the resilience required to overcome systemic challenges, and the importance of representation for diverse founders in creative industries. Jessica also emphasizes the importance of leading with heart, role of communities and networking in creating opportunities. Her ultimate goal is to empower other underrepresented entrepreneurs.

The Heart of Inclusive Entrepreneurship - in this episode we talk about:
• Cultural identity fueling innovation- helping startups thrive
• Why networks and community matter – building authentic relationships can unlock opportunities and drive growth.
• Why mental wellbeing is essential – sustaining entrepreneurs through rejection, loneliness, and setbacks.

• Navigating Racism in France and Italy- The importance of representation and empowerment to make entrepreneurship inclusive and accessible for underrepresented founders.

Connect with Jessica: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicavaitiarechinfoo/

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang unpacks his top 5 key takeaways from the VC Series in conversation with Rohan Bansal. He unpacks:

1. No set path into fashion and retail tech venture capital – success requires building relevant experience and perspective rather than specific qualifications.
2. The power of networks and relationships, crucial for both founders and investors to opening doors for funding and partnerships.
3. Creating a winning pitch deck is essential when investors spend just three minutes reviewing it – clearly answer "why now" and "why you".
4. Despite $3 billion in equity financing in 2024, there's a surprising lack of specialized fashion tech VC funds and a $20-30 billion annual funding gap
5. Smart money versus hype – seek investors who provide strategic value beyond capital through connections to clients, experts and industry insights

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Lack of Fashion & Retail Tech Funds:

The fashion tech sector raised nearly $3 billion in 2024, yet there's a surprising lack of specialised VC funds focusing on this growing market despite proven exits and significant market potential. In this final guest episode with Rohan Bansal, he chats with Peter on what some of the blind spots are for many investors.

The Struggle with Specialised VC Funds:

• Generalist VCs lack specialised expertise in fashion industry dynamics and operations.
• Traditional investors struggle to build the right networks for strong deal flow and exit opportunities.
• An estimated $20-30 billion annual funding gap exists in fashion tech and closing this gap requires collaboration between corporate investors, government subsidies, accelerators and public funding.

Connect with Rohan on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rohan-bansal-50328179/

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

The Perfect Investor Pitch Deck:

The perfect investor pitch deck combines storytelling, market understanding, and founder credibility to stand out in the competitive venture capital landscape. Venture capitalists typically spend just over three minutes reviewing each deck, with only 1% securing funding. In this episode Peter and Rohan breakdown what makes a great deck and the red flags that investors see.

Tips & Tricks Explored in this Episode:

• Storytelling is crucial as humans connect with narratives and founders must demonstrate how their experience is relevant to the problem they're solving.
• Market sizing should be realistic and calculated using a bottom-up approach.
• Red flags include co-founders with too-similar backgrounds and unrealistic growth projections
• A disorganised pitch deck often reflects disorganised thinking, and the questions "Why now?" and "Why you?" must be convincingly answered.

Connect with Rohan on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rohan-bansal-50328179/

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

The Lifecycle of Fashion Tech Startups:

This episode with guest speaker Rohan Bansal, he discussed with Beyond Form CEO Peter Jeun Ho Tsang the differences between early stage and growth stage companies and what it takes to secure funding at each level. 

Early-stage v.s. Growth Stage Fashion Tech:

• The lifecycle: Pre-seed rounds typically fund companies with just an idea, while seed rounds support those with early traction and some revenue.

• Series A represents a critical graduation point where investor expectations significantly change and growth stage companies need to demonstrate not just revenue growth but also a path to profitability.

• Revenue expectations: European markets typically expect higher revenue thresholds (€150-200K) for seed funding compared to US markets. It's harder to get VC funding in 2025.

• The investment landscape has shifted from "growth at all costs" to "growth with profitable costs" and fashion tech startups need to build positive signals to investors before fundraising.

Connect with Rohan on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rohan-bansal-50328179/

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Rohan's journey into the VC industry: 

Rohan Bansal shares his journey into the venture capital world, sharing how his nomadic childhood across eight countries equipped him with the global perspective crucial for successful investing in fashion and retail tech.

What you'll hear about VC investing:

• Living in different countries provided Rohan with unique insights into market idiosyncrasies and consumer behaviours.
• VC roles are highly competitive:  over 450 applications for each associate position and 40% of new VC hires in 2024 came from startup or tech backgrounds.
• Key technologies transforming fashion retail include: AI for shopping personalisation, demand forecasting, and smart factories with IoT solutions for sustainable and cost-efficient production.
• Emerging VCs should focus on long-term trends rather than following hype cycles and being a sector specialist could help outperform generalists in terms of investment returns.

Connect with Rohan on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rohan-bansal-50328179/

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io