Monday, May 5, 2008

Shooting for the 100K

Tween-focused startup Replicator has a gem of an idea

By Brendan Lynch

If there's an underrepresented demographic among the target markets of the companies competing in the MIT $100K Business Plan Competition, it may be teenage and "tween"-age girls.

Replicator Inc. bucks that trend.

The company has its sights on what it says is a $7.9 billion market: custom jewelry for eight to 18-year-old girls. Users can design jewelry on the site's drag-and-drop interface, buy their designs and share them via widgets for social-networking sites like Facebook. The designs would be manufactured at a laser-cutting facility and would cost about $19.95.

CEO Joseph Flaherty got the idea after noticing girls in that age group playing with Apple Inc.'s Photo Booth software at an Apple Store about a year ago. Flaherty, a manager of product design at medical device-maker AgaMatrix Inc. -- a semifinalist in the then-MIT $50K in 2002 -- said there's a key difference between the startup and his day job. "There's less pink overall," he said.

Replicator's six-person team includes vice president for manufacturing and operations Jared Butts, a graduate student at MIT's Sloan School of Management. Butts said the company could expand into custom action figures and race cars for boys, and high-end custom jewelry for a more "mature" market.

The company plans a closed beta test for midsummer and would likely seek out venture funding down the road, Flaherty said.

Replicator is a semifinalist in the products and services category, which Flaherty thinks his team has a "fantastic" shot at winning.

"After that, it's a one-in-seven chance of winning the whole thing," he said.