Friday, September 12, 2008

The Pitch

StylePath aims for efficient online shopping

By Mass High Tech Staff

StylePath Inc.
Headquarters: Lincoln
Employees: 4
Founded: 2007
Web: www.stylepath.com
E-mail: dhornstein@stylepath.com
Phone: 781-259-1221

The Pitch: StylePath is looking for equity investment for tech development, public relations and marketing.

PITCHING THE TECHNOLOGY

Stylepath says it has developed and patented a better way to shop online. Existing keyword text search is effective for commodity products like cameras, but poor at finding style-based products like jewelry, shoes, furniture, and home decor, according to the company. For example, a Google search for “silver earrings” yields more than 2 million results, the company says. The company’s technology was developed at the MIT Media Lab. StylePath forms an aesthetic profile of each user and filters search results to match their unique taste. StylePath generates revenue by receiving fees from retailers when a shopper clicks on a product. The company says that because StylePath is a search engine, it has no costs for inventory, fulfillment or customer service.

PITCHING THE PEOPLE

Who is on the management team? David Hornstein, CEO, founder of LightHouse Design; Devin Bergin, CMO, formerly of LeCoq Sportif and Converse Inc.; and Rob Biedenharn, CTO, who developed IT infrastructure for The Gap Inc.

Have executives been involved in a cashout prior to this venture? No. 

Who is on the board of advisers? Dan Ariely, of MIT and Duke University; Laurance Toney of eBay Inc. and Art.com Inc.; David Rose of Ambient Devices and Vitality Inc.

PITCHING THE BUSINESS

How much investment is being sought? StylePath is seeking $1.3 million.

What partnerships, collaborations or affiliations are already in place? StylePath says it has a search syndication agreement with Lycos Inc., and affiliate contracts with more than 100 retailers.
 
List any federal or state grants, contracts or awards received: StylePath received $150,000 award in the Lycos Business Plan competition.

What’s the market size being pursued? StylePath says its pursuing the $48 billion online and $400 billion offline style products markets.

Who are the likely competitors, direct or indirect? StylePath says it competes with shopping-specific search engines, general-use search engines and online retailers.

Is the company profitable? No.