German fashiontech startup STYLIGHT inspires women to shop fashion they love. Every day, the company’s websites and apps feature a curated selection of the latest fashion trends and new products from the hottest fashion stores online. Blending beautiful content and great products from +400 shops worldwide together, STYLIGHT provides a constant stream of inspiration.
Over 6 million people around the globe use the company’s different platforms regularly. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Munich, STYLIGHT is currently active in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, US, Belgium, Brazil, Australia, and Norway.
A few days ago, we spoke with the company’s co-founder and CEO Benjamin Günther about the growth, milestones and obstacles of the company.
STYLIGHT has developed into a successful business since its founding in 2008 – how was the previous year been for your company in particular?
We have grown quite strong in terms of traffic but also the size of the team has almost doubled to nearly 200 people at STYLIGHT. Another milestone was entering the US market and opening an office there.
What was the initial idea of STYLIGHT and how has it changed over time?
The first idea was to help customers who already knew that they wanted to search for fashion online. Over time we have broadened our offer and now also cater to people who don’t really know what they want to have and need to be inspired.
What skillset or lessons did you acquire or learn, when building a business – what’s the most important component worth spending time on?
It always sounds obvious, but at STYLIGHT it’s all about the team. We spend a lot of time and money on finding the right candidates worldwide. We would rather keep a position open than hiring the next best solution. After getting the right people on board we want to give them as much responsibility as possible and try to empower them wherever we can.
What are the main barriers hindering growth right now and what’s going to be the ‘next big thing’ for STYLIGHT?
Our challenge is to attract even more talent to STYLIGHT. We want to invest even more in creating inspiring content and with that, will roll out our editorial part worldwide. For now our editorial part is visible on the www.stylight.de site.
If you could go back in time to when you were just about to start STYLIGHT with the three other founders and tell yourself something useful, what would it be?
“Do all the mistakes again”. They brought us precisely to where we are today!
By the way: If you’d like to stay up-to-date regarding startup news and interesting opportunities, make sure to subscribe to our free weekly EU-Startups Newsletter.
