Startup of the week: Glam You Up

In this edition, we speak to Lisa Laterza, CEO and Founder of Glam You Up. Glam is a B2B Saas AI driven solution focused on the fashion/retail industry to reduce return rates by giving a spot on advice.

By using artificial intelligence, the startups gives customers proactive advice based on the principles of color analysis and morphological analysis, seamlessly, in seconds, from a selfie. The outcome shows the customer a selection of items that will suit them best, leading to purchase more items they want to keep. Glam can integrate with in-house enterprise platforms or with e-commerce platforms that are well known in the market like Shopify.

Learn more from the founder and her entrepreneurial journey below.

Tell us about your company.  

Lisa: Glam You Up started back in 2021, it's an idea that I got from my daily life. Being an entrepreneur and a mom of two kids that at that time were aged 3 years ans 1 and a half, didn't leave me a lot of time for shopping. I buy (even today) almost everything online. But rather than being easier, the process of shopping online takes hours for shoppers that have millions of options and no real advice. We end up buying things that we're not happy with and that we'll eventually returns. 

Using my experience on Market feasibility study, i tried to an analyse that problem more in details and understanding that actually this is not only a problem for end users, but it's a huge and costly problem for professionals and brands as well.

What was the solution? Providing users advice in choosing they would have bought things that they'd loved and kept, there fore, reducing returns.

Glam You Up was born.

I have not a tech profile and took me a while to find the perfect co-founder. 

I created the UK company in 2023 and few month after Alex and Richard joined.

Then we created our tech team composed today by Yuri and Ren and we are ready to release our Version 1 completely bootstrapped.

What made you become an entrepreneur?  

Lisa: I've always been an entrepreneur, I had first job just after university but immediately understood it was not the path for me. At the age of 26 I built my first company, sold 8 years later, moved to Monaco and build another one that I am about to sell as well. Being a startupper is another level again : everything in startup life goes super fast, there's a lot of energy, positivity and enthusiasm and you are doing something that will create an impact - you are building something new, changing (for good) how things have always been done.

What is the most challenging part of running your own startup?

Lisa: Multitasking, full devotion, sacrificing your private life to make things happen. This is hard especially when you have kids in young age like me. But you learn also a lot about efficiency because every minute counts, so you focus more to get things done.

What is the biggest challenge you have faced when looking for funding?

Lisa: We've just opened our round but the most tricky thing is fundraising when pre-revenue; this is challenging especially in Europe, in the US the panorama is different.

Learn more about the company during their pitch at our last event: