Your DMs Are A Goldmine: Gab Waller on Building A Fashion Tech Biz

0:00Hey, business besties. Welcome back to the Female Founder World Podcast. I'm Jasmine. I'm the host of the show. I'm the person behind all things here in our founder world. And today I'm chatting with Gab Waller. She's the founder of Sourced by and GabWaller.com. She sources luxury fashion pieces for some really high profile celebrities. We're going to get into opportunities in the luxury space in what this sourcing business actually is and what she's doing. Gab, welcome to the show. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. Okay. Explain sourcing. what are you doing sourcing is we work by request so it's basically inbound requests that are coming directly from clients and it's for pieces that are hard to find sold out in demand trending etc I think the assumption that it is only new season luxury items but we also source you know previous season and vintage pieces also so it's anything that anytime a client or anyone has gone onto a website and seeing the dreaded words sold out or out of stock the next step is to contact a sourcer interesting I'm going to get into how you how you kind of got into this line of work soon but I want to like zoom out and understand what the opportunity is here like what is this space like I had never heard of a fashion sourcer before I connected with you a year or so ago yes what's opportunity here?

1:23Why is this a space that is interesting? Why is it growing? How are people making money in this area? Absolutely. So when you think of sourcing, going back six years ago, when I started, we've had personal shoppers and stylists around for a very, very long time. So sources kind of sit in the category of those two industries, but we've more so sit under the umbrella of personal shopping. Whereas personal shopping is more proactive with the clients, you're making offerings to the client, you're saying, hey, this is my suggestions for you. Sourcing is all inbound. So it's where the client knows what they're looking for.

1:57They know what they want, but they need a well-connected expert to find it for them. So we're really servicing like the time poor consumer. We've all had those days where, you know, you go onto a website, it's sold out, it's out of stock. No one has the time to be deep diving the internet and contacting different stores, contacting different countries for that piece. So that's where a sourcer really steps in when you kind of look at why sourcing is so successful it's time efficiency it's the personalization the easy aspect of it um and it's also the the rise of you know social media shopping clients we're meeting clients where they're already at they're on instagram the fact that they just have to dm us and say find me this uh that's why it has you know grown the way that it has so we're in la today but you're aussie like me yeah how does an aussie girl from Sydney get into this kind of work?

2:49Yeah so started six years ago from Sydney back in 2018 and I grew up in a really small town in Australia called Rockhampton and I would say that I've always had I've always had this underlying desire to do something unique or to kind of stand out growing up in a small town it was hard to do so so once I figured out that fashion was the industry that I wanted to be in. I dabbled in all different areas. I was like stylist, personal shopping, you know, buying, retail. But I always knew that I wanted to do something that nobody else was doing. And my light bulb moment was actually on a trip to LA.

3:29I was in a store and I said to myself like, wow, they have so much stock here that I know Australia doesn't have. So the original concept was that I would source pieces internationally for the Australian market. Never did I think that it would grow into what it was which I think is a good and a bad thing but yeah that's how I kind of got my start and I started out in Australia and you know six months in it was a global client base. Wow so there was a moment I think when the business like really took off and you started getting celebrity inquiries what was that moment that kind of like took you from kind of like figuring this out and dabbling in it to okay this is like a scalable business?

4:10Yes. So when I started out, I was still working full time. I, not many people know this, but I, my second passion is interiors. And when I started, I knew that I didn't want like any kind of conflict of interest. So I didn't want to work at a fashion store or anything like that. So I was working for an interior business in Sydney. And within three months was when I knew that I was onto something and I could at least support myself. I still had my roommate and everything, but I could at least support myself to, you know, step away from that. But essentially six months in was when the Rosie Huntington-Whiteley story happened.

4:49Tell us that story. Yes. So six months in, I was pretty much just servicing the Australian market. I really had got, I had built at least a reputation within Sydney as being the girl that can find you things. but I think I had a thousand followers on Instagram very tiny kind of scale that I was working on but Rosie Huntington widely posted on her stories that she was looking for a particular Celine coat and I said to myself at the time I said I know I can get that coat but I have no way of reaching Rosie so I let it simmer for about a week and then a mutual friend that I had been speaking with on Instagram she's based here in the US she messaged me just like hey I've been watching what you're doing.

5:35I think you can like find things. I'm in contact with Rosie. Do you think you can find her this code? And I knew that I, at that time I could find the code. I had a boutique in Denmark had it. So it happened very quickly. I, she connected me with Rosie. I let her know that I found it. And I did say very gently, you know, it would mean the world to me that when you receive this code you could post a story tagging me and good for you I know it's very yes and like she did pay full price there was no even uh you know discount or anything no incentive for her to have to do that but when she received the code not only did she do like a 10-part series story series being like hey guys remember when I was looking for this code this girl in Australia found it she also posted it on her Instagram feed so that kind of I remember waking up that morning and everything was just blowing up.

6:30But within 24 hours, she said, hey, I want to connect you with a friend of mine who was also looking for the same coat and it was Hayley Bieber. Wow. Yes, that was within 24, 48 hours, my life had completely changed. Wow. I hope you bought a drink for that friend who was the first mutual connection. Yes, I know. I know. She lives in Arizona now and, yeah, like truly have everything. Thank you if you're listening. Yes. You literally built the business DMing people on Instagram. That's how you started getting customer inquiries and doing your customer service. When did you go from that to something more like robust?

7:10Yes. So essentially how I started is, and I always say, you know, I am very grateful for starting in a market such as Australia. I think it had, there was an advantage just starting in a smaller market more, you know, people were more inclined to give me an opportunity but when I started I was kind of swarming Facebook pages there were a lot of Facebook groups that are I think still around to this day that are fashion women are on there saying sharing their latest purchases that's how I started I would message them on there and be like hey I saw that you were looking for this shoe like I can find you it but I think you know going along the journey so starting in 2018 the rosy thing happening in like the beginning of 2019 if I look back on my journey perhaps like the biggest regret or mistake that I had is that I did wait too long to hire my first assistant I think I held on to the feeling of like I can do it all this is my baby and like this is I can this is all manageable just by me um so I think once I finally let go of that and knew that in order to scale I did have to hire how did you let go of that I oh it was tough I would say that I really had no other option I think that was like really hitting almost burnout it was December of 2019 and I had just been like running after like the wheels turning for that was like a 12-month period at that stage and I just knew that and I that that that year was so massive for me that I just knew that if I didn't get help I would essentially crumble like I wouldn't be able like the business wouldn't sustain itself so I think once I kind of let go of that and started to hire that's when I said okay this is you know a robust machine that I want to to grow even more and you're up until now a new tech product that you're building which we'll talk about in a second really your biggest cost is like your team and your manpower so it's such a clever way of of building something that I find really interesting about your business model is how low risk it is.

9:14So many of the people in our community are building consumer products that are really cash intensive and you need to have mass brand awareness, be able to sell at a high volume, but you have this really high value customer and fewer of them when we're talking about CPG in comparison. I'm interested in how you think about that and how you think about scaling a business that has those like really, I think, favorable elements? Yes. So within the sourcing industry, the business, it's a service-based business to kick off with. So we only get paid when we provide that service. So similar to, you know, personal shoppers, stylists, they operate in a very similar way.

9:58But for a very long time, it's been a commission-based industry. And when I started, I have always opted to do flat rate. Why? I would say that in the early days, I was never chasing profit or never started thinking that this would be what it is. So when I went back and I started, I said, I'm going to get paid a flat rate fee per item that I find. um looking into the business model now I think of you know you could the the way I explained it over the years is like it's a hourly rate based off how long it takes us to find an item but the flat rate fee I will advocate to the moon that it is the highest generating like revenue for this model because when you go the commission rate which is anywhere between like three percent to 10%, even higher, some others charge, you lose the client, you lose the client because there's no transparency.

11:01It could be different per item, or if it's a flat rate, the clients know that it's going to be that every single time. They're more inclined to submit more requests more frequently because they know, okay, great. No matter what Gab finds, it's just this flat rate where it's like, no matter what Gab finds, it could be 6 % or 10 % or 3%, they don't know. So it has really proven to be the best revenue option for us. I want to talk a little bit about your plans now for a new app. You're building something. Has it launched yet? We're launching our beta at the end of the month. Okay, congratulations.

11:37That's huge. Thank you. Why did you just, you had this kind of like business that's working really well. I think you got to the point where you had, was it 10 employees? Yes. Amazing. Yeah. So you had 10 employees, the business is growing, getting all of these amazing celebrity clients. And then you decide, you know what, I'm going to build an app, which is one of the most complicated things to do. Okay, business besties, let's switch gears for a second. Real quick, I want to talk to you about this season's presenting sponsor, Vistaprint. They are sponsoring this entire season of the Female Founder World podcast and we love a supportive sponsor.

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12:52Plus they have designers on hand to help you if you really need it. Right now, Vistaprint is giving all female Founder World podcast listeners a little something, 25 % off your first order at vistaprint.com. Use the code FFW25 at checkout and step up your branding game. We put a link in the show notes if you want to learn more. so the the interesting thing is is that from the outside looking in you would think that oh gab's a miracle worker she can find everything she's she's a genius she's and that is of course you know six years worth of building my reputation but the statistic that i do not like to admit is that we because of the technology that we use and because we don't have technology to really power the sourcing industry gab willer can only find 30 of our requests at present So 70 % of requests missed revenue is sitting there.

13:48And when you kind of even look at the GM fee, it's high. So I think for me, it wasn't an issue of, oh, this is going to be complicated. It's like, I can't scale this any further unless I have technology to support this business. So we're really building the technology to the slogan is to find more. I want to get our requests up to like a 90 % level. And I believe that we can, but we can't at the moment based off, you know, it's so people don't realize like how time intensive and manual and complicated it is behind the scenes because we don't have the tech. We're using all these different platforms and it's unfortunately messy behind the scenes.

14:26Okay. So how do you, like, I want to understand actually like what the tech is and how it helps you source. Like what does it do? Yes. So Sourceby, at least for phase one, it is B2B. So it's purely just for behind the scenes. It won't touch the client. so the client experience when we kind of zoomed out and I looked at the overall sourcing experience the client's happy the client loves being able to dm us and just say you know find me this you know we're meeting the client where they're at which is on social media um to go and have to tell them hey you now need to download an app to communicate with us that's not going to go down well so that's not the plan for phase one the plan for phase one is source by is an all-in-one an AI automated platform that streamlines every aspect of the fashion sourcing process.

15:11So what that essentially entails that once the client submits the request through Instagram predominantly, we at present are manually typing that into our platform that we're using. And that's taking one of my team members around two to three hours a day. So we're using AI to do that automatically and then really streamlining all the back end. So from the back end, we then jump into zero to invoice the client then we jump into monday.com to facilitate the orders like there are so many different platforms and we just streamline streamlining it into the all-in-one platform so that's at least for for phase one to kind of consolidate the messiness that happens behind the scenes interesting yes what's phase two phase two is the consumer side is certainly something I'm not turning a blind eye to.

15:58I just know that it needs to be done right and it's not going to be an overnight okay everyone's now going to be submitting their request through this app because we've had you know six years worth of consumer acquisition through social media and that's how clients that their behavior has been prone to social media so to flip that overnight it's not going to happen so it's something that i'm open to but we just want to be doing it very strategically and in the right way i know that you've hired a cto right someone on the tech side um but ai is something and agentic ai at them is coming up a lot in conversations that i'm having with different founders and i'm curious whether as you're building the tech are you using like existing platforms have you dabbled in existing platforms that you think people should go and explore or that are really good or are you like building this from scratch uh for the for the like to build this tech um that's a great question i mean everything that we're building is our own but i know that we're you know open ai is by far the one that we're leveraging the most um it's an interesting thing if we tried to launch source by two years ago we wouldn't have been able to do so without the open ai yeah wow features and advancements and even just this morning his um scott's a cto um he was saying you know there is an up a new feature coming that they're releasing i think he said in a couple of weeks that's going to even further enhance our source by technology so to me again like timing is is everything and we couldn't have launched it or couldn't the tech our our tech wouldn't be as advanced as it is without open ai uh but yeah that's truly the one that i would recommend really familiarizing yourself with i'm so curious about this switch that you've that you're making or you're in the process of making of like running this like very clear like sourcing fashion business and you're becoming like a tech founder yes how do you feel making that switch I love it I think for me good for you yeah I think you know Gabula is my baby and it always will be I think I I really am loving Sourceby because it's challenging me.

18:09I'm learning so much. There's so much newness involved with it. And a big motivator for me too is tech is the future. Like if we don't do this now, we are going to be left behind. So there was truly, it was a matter of, hey, I'm loving this and I'm enjoying it, but it's like, no, I need to, the business needs to do this. we're going to get left behind. So I'm really leaning into it and I'm really enjoying it. Did you raise money to make the switch? So we have raised a little. We're basically, it's, we're going to launch now with, you know, what we have raised. My focus has been, and again, being very lean always, my focus isn't on raising money.

18:56I know that once we get to market, we'll be generating revenue from day one. So I don't want to raise any more at this stage, not to say that won't change in the near future, but right now we have what we need to get to market. Okay. I want to talk about luxury and the market and the consumer. Yes. When you're building a business in the luxury space, what are some of the most important things that you need to build as a brand reputationally to be able to attract that customer? Because I'm seeing like quite a few new brands popping up in luxury that are doing really great things real fine studio I'm about to speak with the founder of that brand she's one example you're another example yeah how are you doing this so for me when I think of the luxury consumer I think it's like where do I where do I want to start with this response I think for me you know personalization is the key it's what everyone is speaking about of being that's what the luxury consumer is looking for a very personalized experience.

20:00But speaking more specifically to like my clientele, I know what's important to them. I know that, for example, speed is by far the most important part of their world. They are time poor. So anything that they're dealing with, if we can make it quick and easy and seamless, like that is very enticing for them. I think also you know it's professionalism amplified to another level I see you know a lot of what we do now it's all social media businesses and I've seen some things I'm like it's you know you need to invest in the basics of the website and the presentation is truly everything from the logo to the email address like we're not using gmail email addresses like those little tiny things that I still do see happening, it's not going to attract the right clientele.

20:49But I do really think at the end of the day, it comes down to personalization, personal relationships with these clients beyond, you know, just obviously servicing them, but really diving into a personal part of it. So I think for me, one question that has always come up is, you know, why do you operate on Instagram? And I could go on for a while about this, but one part is that I love being able to see my clients straight away from their profile. I can, you know, connect with them so much more deeply as opposed to if they email me that interaction's a little bit blurred because I don't know who I'm speaking to.

21:24So that's interesting. Yeah. So that's something that's just helped myself personally. I was, I was speaking with a founder of his, he runs an agency about how he's been building the business. And he was talking to me about the opportunity in DMs and how they have a team of people that all they do is run their DMs. And that's actually one of the big part of their funnel is engaging with people in direct message. And it's always interesting to me to think about how many people are missing that when you get a new follower, when you get to not have that engagement in direct message. Yeah. Whoever said that, I truly cannot vouch more strongly on that to the point of, you know, we, our DMs are so sharp.

22:13They're color-coded. They're flagged. They're organized. Like that inbox. Didn't even know you could do that. Yes. Oh, that inbox is so clean. It's not funny because that's our entire business. And to me, again, it just goes back to, you know, customer acquisition as a whole. We acquire these luxury consumers through social media. They are on social media, but we're meeting them where they're at. So the fact that it's happening in the DMs and we can provide this like amplified incredible service through the app that they're using, it's pretty hard to not want to consume and be a part of that from the client side.

22:49I can totally see how expecting them to move off that onto another platform or email like immediately, it's like too hard. Yeah. Too hard. Yeah. And that's where it's like we're going to have to put a lot of strategy into what would entice them to move because again like six years worth of hey Gab can you find me this in a DM and then now to download an app and log it it's it's it's not an overnight move for sure. Do you know what I'm so impressed about your story is the fact that you've trained a team of people to have your standard of work? Yeah. That is so hard to do. Yeah. How have you done that because you obviously cannot make like you can't make mistakes with a luxury client.

23:32Yes. How have you built that team? Oh, that's a great question. I definitely, I do take pride in that. I think that, you know, I, I'm, it's something that I'm, I'm not easy on. I would say that I am very, you know, particular about the communication style and everything. Like you said, mistakes can't happen. Yeah. I would just say that, you know, I lead by example. There is, you know, they see the way that I interact. And it's not that I've, you know, hate the word clone, but you really are cloning the gab style of communication. You're setting the standard. Exactly. Exactly. That's it. And my standard is very high.

24:13Yeah, good for you. And I'm so like, I truly have the best team in the world. That's one thing. If someone was like, what do you think you're good at? I would say hiring is something that I am like I have many not things like great things I'm not the best at but hiring I certainly know how to hire well and like hire top talent and yeah like setting that standard leading by example I'm really proud of my team okay how do you hire top talent this is a deviation from where I was going but I need to know yes okay so I communication to me is everything written and verbal so I can tell immediately from an email if I'm no like I'm not even going to go into a conversation with them a written email to me is so paramount because of everything in Gamblea world is about communication both written and verbal specifically written if there are mistakes in that email grammar mistakes it's an immediate no like I wouldn't even if I, they're a standout person, I can't have going back to standards.

25:14I can't have those mistakes. I'm very particular about that. Um, so communication to me is number one, I think, um, personality, I think, you know, when you, and the way that you, you know, interact, we are a client-based business. So we want individuals that are friendly and positive and kind. I think it's like, it may seem silly, but I really look for kindness and I can feel that I I can see my conversations with them. Genuine people is what I'm really looking for. And then I think lastly, it's just it comes back to speed and everything that we do being so fast-paced, multitasking and having the ability to multitask and operate at a fast-paced level is something that I really strive to look for and I can tell pretty quickly who has that.

26:07You're doing a great job. I want to talk about PR. Wow. You've had amazing press. You've been in Forbes twice. Yes. Vanity Fair, Vogue. Yes. But you don't have a publicist. No. So when was your first kind of big press piece? How did that happen? And then talk us through your press strategy. I'm sure this is helping with getting that luxury client as well. For sure, yes. And it's building – it helps build the trust. If they can see that, they can feel more, okay, this is good. Buying off social media too is a whole other thing of like here's my money. Yes. you want to do that with someone that you trust um so yes my first article was immediately after the Rosie Huntington-Whiteley story and it was through Vogue America and they said you know it was like the next day it said Rosie has just found the secret to finding old Celine.

26:56Did you just wake up and see this? Did anyone reach out? Oh my god. No no one reached yeah nope it was there. That's amazing. I know and then very shortly after Australia covered I think it was Harper's from Australia that covered it. Australia loves to love to give you attention after the U.S. has. You need to go make it somewhere else. This is true yes. So yeah essentially from there you know I had my my first couple of ones but then I think over the years it wasn't until that happened in beginning of 2019 I would say it's more towards end of 2019 that I took a real big focus on the power of PR and like how important it was to me and my story and to build that trust and to build that reputation.

27:42But I did a lot of research as to, you know, who's journalists, who's working where. I remember, you know, how I even got some of my first ones. I DM'd them and I'm sure they do get a lot of DMs. So I was thinking like things is keep it short and sweet, straight to the point. No long essays, just say what you need to say. And that's how I did get some of my stories over time. Queen of the DMs. Yeah. Gosh, Queen of the DMs. Yeah, that's it. Yes, all the magic happens in the DMs. And for everyone listening, we also have a free download that has a list of PR contacts that cover consumer brands and female founders.

28:18We've got their Instagram link and the emails for most of them and the different publications that they work for. So go and download that if you're going to DIY PR. I love it. That's amazing. I want to know what your end game is. Like what's the end goal here? as you kind of like sit back and zoom out and think about the vision? Because you're obviously like you're building something that's scalable and I'm guessing you can exit one day because Sourceby does not have your name. That's exactly it. Yes. Yes. Great question. So I think, you know, going back to kind of my Gabwollet journey, one mistake, regret that I have is, you know, calling it my own name.

28:57That comes with its challenges for exiting. So Sourcebuy certainly is a big enhancer for that. But for me, I think, you know, I'm so passionate about this industry and as you know, feeling that I pioneered it to what it is now. I'm so focused on continuing to like innovate in it. And my, as I sit here now, like my, my goal and my vision is I just want to constantly inspire that, you know, people within fashion can look at me and be like, I want to be a sourcer. Like I want to be the Gab Waller of the next Gab Waller. And I'm like with Sourceby, we're allowing that to happen. So I just want to continue to grow this industry as high as it can go.

29:40I think, you know, even in conversations, when I meet someone new, like, hi, you know, my name is Gab. And even saying I'm a fashion sourcer, there's still so much that needs to be done on education in this industry. Because I feel more comfortable saying, hi, I'm a personal shopper because that's such a well-known term. but I don't want to stop until I can introduce myself confidently and say I'm a fashion sourcer and the person that I'm speaking to immediately knows what that is so that's one random end game goal of mine that I would love to get to can you leave us with a couple of resources stuff that's helped you as you've been building and up leveling as a leader and a founder yes um so I think for me my focus for this year is massively on prioritization with time I'm huge on time so I think like really honoring your calendar time blocking time management's been so pivotal to me I'm huge on time blocking so color coding and etc etc to get as much as you want and can get out of your day love reading I'm reading a lot of tech books at the moment but a classic that I love is like Diary of a CEO.

30:49Love Steven. So that's one that I would absolutely recommend. And then, you know, Substack, there are so many founders now that have incredible Substacks. Lindsay Carter from Set Active, she just posted one this morning that I was reading, which is just phenomenal. I think, you know, if wherever you're at in your journey, you know, find founders that you connect with and look into where they're sharing resources. A lot of them do have Substacks. A lot of them have newsletters and kind of get to know them more and get inspired from them that way. I love that. I like the idea of you can kind of pick these parasocial mentors.

31:24That's something that I've definitely done where there are a lot of people that I'd love to learn from that just have never responded to an email, but they've done so many podcasts and that's the YouTube like workshop that they've done and I can follow them on social and you do get this mentorship just by consuming the content that they put out there. So I do think it can like, that's like really good advice just like pick the people that you want to learn from and just like go deep on what they've published 100 yeah i love that i love doing that for myself yes gab thank you so much for coming on the show and congrats on everything you've built i can't wait to see the app launch thank you for having me