Investment Notes: Metaclothes
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Investment Notes: Metaclothes
Our Investment Notes deep dive into our investment decisions. We unpack what we loved, where we needed to build confidence, and how we ultimately gained conviction to invest.
Co-founded by Parisians Parlés Chonzi and Mernard Badof, Metaclothes has a vision to allow its users to dynamically control how others perceive them - democratising appearances and empowering people to express their multifaceted selves.
What we loved about the investment opportunity
It’s possible to have it all
At present, we are shackled to having just one appearance at a time.
All of that is soon going to change.
Metaclothes will allow users to dynamically program how they wish to appear in the eyes of different beholders. For example - want to make sure your boss sees you in pristine uniform, but also want to catch the attention of the cute Milkrun rider with a more alluring getup? With Metaclothes - you can have both!
Expression without fast fashion
Every year, we discard 92 million tons of clothing-related waste. This staggering number will only continue to increase - clothing production globally has doubled since 2000, and the number of times a garment is worn has halved in the same time period.
Metaclothes will eliminate the need to buy and subsequently discard clothes. Instead of having to purchase new items to keep up with the latest trends, you simply pay a SaaS fee for every outfit you want to dynamically render into the eyes of your beholders.
Founders doing their life’s work
Parlés and Mernard are your consummate Parisians - articulate, imaginative, and devilishly charming. The pair have years of experience in the fashion industry - they started life as humble tailors and worked their way up to dressing everyone from celebrities to French royalty.
When we met Parlés and Mernard we were immediately entranced by the magnitude of their vision. They imagined a world where everyone can dress themselves in the most splendid fabrics and most beautiful colours; a world where garish, dowdy, and frumpy clothing are forever relegated.
These founders combine a sophisticated understanding of the inner workings of the fashion industry with a deep empathy for the transformative power that fashion can have for customers. We couldn’t be more excited to support these wild hearts to do their life’s work.
The challenges we saw
Metaclothes are invisible to those phonies, imposters, and those unqualified to hold the opinions they share
Metaclothes is built on top of a sophisticated algorithm that is plugged into Meta’s social graph - essentially a representation of someone’s relationships, hobbies, interests, and preferences, synthesised from all their online interactions. Metaclothes uses this information to allow users to dynamically display to every beholder an outfit that they would find uniquely enchanting.
However, this means Metaclothes’ underlying technology glitches when it comes across someone who is a phoney, imposter, or unqualified to hold the opinions they share online. When Metaclothes is unable to detect someone’s true character through the airs they put on, its technology stops working - phonies are unable to see the glorious delights rendered by Metaclothes.
To understand how many people might be affected by this glitch, we organised for a hundred people, selected at random to test, Metaclothes. Universally, our testers waxed lyrical about the spectacular renderings they saw - describing it as nothing short of magical.
And of course, we can confirm that for bona fides, the renderings of Metaclothes are truly spectacular.
How we built conviction
Our conviction was sealed when we tuned in to see Metaclothes debut at Paris Fashion Week.
The Prince of Monaco himself modelled Metaclothes, regally strutting down the runway to stunned gasps from the audience. The journalists covering the event stirred themselves into a frenzy, each gushing over the Prince’s magnificent train and elegant cravat.
When the Prince reached the end of the runway and turned around, it’s safe to say that the audience was dazzled into silence. It was such a magical moment that it couldn’t even be ruined by the little boy in the back crying “but the Prince is butt naked!”
April 1st marks the official launch of Metaclothes - and we couldn’t be prouder to be announcing our investment alongside Liger Global, Round Peg Capital, HotAirTree, and Flappybird Ventures and a star-studded cast of angel investors, including the archangel Gabriel himself.
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Investment Notes: Metaclothes
I had to check the date.
I even believed the Prince of Monaco part