Startups these days are getting sexier and sexier! Or maybe our definition of a startup is just getting looser…
Today, based just blocks from the beach in the city of LA, you’ll find MeUndies, a startup that sells men and women’s underwear, online.
The company’s co-founders Jonathan Shokrian and Barak Diskin are 27-years old entrepreneurs who share a passion for fashion. The two also share a group of friends – mostly fashion designers, bloggers, photographers and musicians and have been best buddies since they were 6 years old.
According to Diskin, they’re not just an online underpants company. “We’re disrupting the entire wholesale and retail market because we’re creating our own brand from the manufacturing to the design. Rather than sell merchandise through retailers, we’re selling it directly to the consumer because we have the Internet at our disposal. At the end of the day, we’re a social commerce company,” he says.
MeUndies uses Facebook to talk to customers and is very active on Twitter with nearly 40,000 followers, pre-launch. MeUndies has also taken up Pinterest and has recently begun playing around with The Fancy. “John and I love social media,” says Diskin. “We’re using our social media skills and the skills that Science is lending to us to build social media into our e-commerce platform so we can talk directly to our customers and find out what they want.”
MeUndies is a startup born out of Santa Monica-based Science Inc., a new “technology studio” we covered in great detail this past weekend (Eventup is also a recent grad). The Science Inc. team includes former MySpace CEO Mike Jones, Peter Pham (Color, Photobucket), Ryan Sit (Myspace, Tsavo), Mike Macadaan (Urbandig, Twiistup) and Tom Dare (MySpace, Tsavo).
Through their Science experience, Diskin and Shokrian have tapped this tremendous knowledge of the social space. “We built this brand online a lot faster with them just by using their tactics to help us make that connection between our brand and the end user. They understand social media almost better than anybody else,” says Diskin.
To use MeUndies, just answer a few quick questions pertaining to size, style and color, then sign up and MeUndies will deliver the goods. Woman can choose from thongs, briefs or boy shorts. Men can choose from briefs, boxer briefs or trunks. I signed up using Facebook, chose Small, Briefs and Black and was given the following option in 5 different colors.
Once you make the purchase, you are signed up to receive an order once a month. At the start of each month, you’ll receive an email with new selections and styles to choose from. If you’d like to skip a month or pause your membership, simply sign into your account by the 5th day of the month, click the Skip the Month or Pause button, and you will not be charged for that month.
Diskin assures me that the reasonably priced underwear is crafted using the best fabrics and top-tier manufacturers. The company can offer lower prices ($20) by cutting out brick and mortar stores, licensing fees, and middlemen. Don’t like your underwear? MeUndies.com offer full refunds without having to send back the merchandise.
In the coming months, MeUndies will be expanding into undershirts and socks and in addition to the online-subscription service, MeUndies products will soon be available in vending machines at select locations, including the Hollywood, CA boutique Confederacy and a soon-to-be announced location in New York.
MeUndies joins the ranks of other LA based fashion e-commerce companies such as Jessica Alba’s Honest and Josh Berman’s Beachmint. The company is following a trend we saw quite a bit last year when GuyHaus launched a subscription service for guys that auto-delivered items like condoms, toilet paper, toothpaste and shampoo. There’s also Hoseanna for the ladies, which delivers similar items like tampons, razors, shaving cream and pantyhose. The whole idea being that these items are annoying to buy and having them set up to auto-ship online is a big time saver.
For this Valentine’s Day, MeUndies is offering our readers (YOU!) 50% off your first pair of undies. Yep, not your normal beta invite access, but hey we thought we’d spice things up.
Use the code: THENEXTWEB at checkout.
➤ MeUndies
Didn’t get enough sexy? Check out a video of the MeUndies photo shoot in NYC.
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