On December 8, 2020, Coresight Research CEO and Founder Deborah Weinswig will emcee Retailers United’s second pitch competition. In this report, we profile the five startup contestants and discuss the event’s structure and the judges involved. Look out for our Retailers United “Help America Stay Open” Pitch Event Preview (Part 2) report, which will discuss the three RevTech Ventures-backed startups that will also present during the event but are not competing for the grant.

Retailers United: Five Competing Startups

The event will see five innovative US startups pitch products that are advancing and shaping the retail industry. It will be hosted by Retailers United, a nonprofit organization that states its mission is to “help small and medium wholesalers and retailers navigate through the Covid-19 pandemic,” as well as the “macroeconomic and other challenges facing the retail industry by providing financial sponsorships, services and mentorships.”

Each startup will be allotted a total of five minutes during the pitch competition—three minutes to present and two minutes for a Q&A session with the judges.

The event will be judged by the following retail thought leaders:

• Padmaja Bommareddy—Walmart VP, Strategy and Business Development for Apparel
• Maxine Clark—Founder and Former CEO of Build-A-Bear
• Nick Graham—CEO of the Nick Graham Organization
• David Matthews—Managing Director, RevTech Ventures
• Mazdack Rassi—Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer of MILK Beauty

The winner of the pitch competition will receive a grant of $10,000 and the opportunity to receive mentorship from industry leaders. Below, we profile the five US startup contestants based on information provided to Coresight Research by the brands.

• Mighty Kind: A magazine that aims to inspire a global community of children who care, by celebrating world cultures and compassion
• Turn: A sustainability company helping consumers and businesses to reduce waste
• ASTOURI: A stylish and digitally savvy women's ready-to-wear apparel and accessories brand
• Pop Bag: An affordable brand offering classic handbags and enabling women to create their own luxury
• Metrical: An AI-driven solution for e-commerce retailers to reduce leakage and cart abandonment

Mighty Kind

Headquarters

Austin, Texas

Company Description

A self-described “anti-bias magazine for kids,” Mighty Kind is a children’s magazine offering content designed to inspire a global community of compassionate and caring children.

Mighty Kind celebrates world cultures, shares big ideas in personal development and works toward making the world a better place—one act of kindness at a time. The magazine focuses on kindness and compassion as a foundation for anti-bias learning while aiming to provide a platform for diverse voices and perspectives.

Each issue of Mighty Kind’s 64-page publication is full of illustrated stories, fun activities and actionable volunteer opportunities to empower kids to tap into their natural capacity to love and learn while having fun. The company’s high-quality, quarterly publication is geared toward children and the grown-ups who mentor them.

[caption id="attachment_120271" align="aligncenter" width="250"] Source: www.MightyKindKids.com[/caption]  

What Problem Is the Company Solving?

Children’s magazines have been household, library and classroom staples for decades: According to licensing firm Licensing Source, children’s magazines are the third-most-popular magazine category, as of 2019. Furthermore, the most popular children’s magazine had a circulation of 3.5 million in the US alone in 2017, according to a report by media software company Cision.

Mighty Kind is produced with high-quality, durable materials, and the nature of its content gives it an enduring shelf life. Mighty Kind claims to be the only anti-bias education print magazine in the world. No other publication in circulation helps children to look at contextualized diversity in all its forms in this way: Mighty Kind aims to make children familiar with things that may appear different. The magazine aims to provide children with the tools and scaffolded conversations that they need to develop long-lasting empathy, which they can carry throughout their lives as they bring about change in the global community.

Turn

Headquarters

Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas

Company Description

Turn is a sustainability company that helps businesses and households to reduce their environmental impact. The company’s subscription-based model not only helps the environment, it rewards those who join its ecofriendly movement.

Food waste is the single largest item in the waste stream of the US, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Turn’s services allow consumers in Dallas-Fort Worth—the fastest growing metroplex of the US—to recycle food waste and donate it back to local farmers and community organizations. The company also sources local products through its sustainability shop for all its members, reinforcing a local circular economy.

[caption id="attachment_120273" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Source: Turn[/caption]  

What Problem Is the Company Solving?

Although the company is based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Turn’s model is transferable to any US city where composting is not provided at the municipal level. Food waste, the environment, climate change and sustainability are increasingly important issues for many urban Americans.

With Turn’s business model, the environment wins, the local community wins and customers win. With a shift to working from home in the US this year, Turn is now also able to serve employees of major companies that can count Turn as a win for their company’s environmental scorecard.

ASTOURI

Headquarters

Detroit, Michigan (formerly New York)

Company Description

A stylish digitally savvy women’s ready-to-wear apparel and accessories brand, ASTOURI merges contemporary, travel-friendly style with a community focus. ASTOURI’s products use high-quality materials and are made in America. The company works with local nonprofits to not only make its products but also contribute to community development. The brand claims to enable community pride through fun, stylish and multifunctional offerings, plus a local-to-global approach.

[caption id="attachment_120275" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Source: ASTOURI[/caption]  

What Problem Is the Company Solving?

ASTOURI aims to disrupt the global “tourist” apparel marketplace with a high-end, contemporary line of unique “community wear” that is made by women, for women. According to travel advice website Gutsy Travelers, the average traveler is a 46-year-old woman who wears a US size 12.

The brand explains that “tourist wear” is typically considered to be T-shirts, hoodies and sports apparel. However, most of these are items are not brands, nor are they sustainable or made specifically for women. ASTOURI claims to address a gap in the market for a brand that speaks to women and female travelers with stylish, multi-benefit offerings, including giving back to the communities they live in and visit—hence the transformation of “tourist wear” into “community wear.”

Pop Bag

Headquarters

New York, New York

Company Description

Pop Bag believes that the greatest luxury is the power of creativity and the ability to make a difference. The brand was born in Tuscany, Italy—a region famous for its centuries-old tradition of producing high-quality leather bags. With products crafted in Florence, the brand claims that every Pop Bag is inspired by both the beauty of the region and the DNA of the local craftsmen, who work to the highest of standards.

[caption id="attachment_120277" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Source: Pop Bag[/caption]  

What Problem Is the Company Solving?

Pop Bag prides itself on offering styles for any age, gender and lifestyle. However, the company has seen the most traction among women aged between 30 and 60 who enjoy the classic look of Pop Bag totes and the unique feature of swapping panels between Pop Bag bags. The brand claims it offers an affordable solution to a classic and fashionable handbag, allowing women to create their own luxury.

Metrical, Inc.

Headquarters

El Cerrito, California

Company Description

Metrical leverages the browsing and shopping behavior of retailers’ own data to make predictions about shopper behavior. Metrical allows retailers to engage with shoppers at critical decision points, resulting in an increase in conversion rates and revenue.

The below image shows Metrical’s dashboard for its abandonment funnel. The dashboard allows customers to identify “leakage” in their funnel and where abandonment is occurring prior to purchase.

[caption id="attachment_120279" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Source: Metrical[/caption]  

Metrical’s dashboard also allows customers to identify which cart sizes suffer from the highest levels of abandonment, as shown in the image below.

[caption id="attachment_120280" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Source: Metrical[/caption]  

What Problem Is the Company Solving?

Metrical’s primary market is e-commerce retailers. One of the biggest problems that online retailers face is getting shoppers all the way through their purchase funnel to conversion. According to Metrical, 97% of online visitors do not convert, and 81% of shoppers who create a cart abandon it; on average, only 3% of shoppers to a retailer’s site convert into paying customers.

Metrical addresses these problems by using predictive artificial intelligence to help retailers convert shoppers that appear to be about to abandon the site or a shopping cart. On average, Metrical claims to help retailers reduce abandonment by 27%, increase conversion by 17% and increase site-wide revenue by 11%.