Subtle Disruption pivots with Seat14a, now a kickstarter for fashion
Founded by a group of techies and internet enthusiasts, Subtle Disruption (SD) is a kind of a sandbox where in the group works on ideas from different verticals and comes up with products. While in the nascent phase, what they like to call the ‘pupae phase’, the product undergoes a lot of modulation before it finally comes out as a full-fledged product.
Last year, SD worked on different products ranging from fashion to sports betting to education, and Seat14a was the first product to come out of the Pupae phase. When we first wrote about Seat14a, it was a concept that allowed fashion conscious men to choose seasonal collections. From the feedback they got and the feasibility, Seat14a has now pivoted and become a Kickstarter for fashion.
What this means is that there is a micro-collection from a famous designer at any given time for which people can place an order. “It is a platform that enables aspiring designers to take their talent to a wider audience and makes designer fashion affordable for the consumers/purveyors,” explains, Nav Chatterji, one of the founders at Subtle Disruption. Tarun Arora, Jas Banwait, Manish Gill, Aditya Sahay and Alok Sahay are the other members in this core team of 6.
The first collection on sale by Sergio Bonatelli of Italy was sold out in 5 days. The team declined to reveal exactly how many sales were made. “The number is fixed so that max efficiency can be achieved,” says Nav. The only limit is there on the number of days for which a collection is open, which is a maximum of two weeks. Currently, the second collection by Emily Hong is on sale and all the designers have been brought on board by referrals till now. “We’re getting requests from other designers now as well,” says Nav.
Seat14a has majority of its customers in the US and Europe but are planning to open a site focused on India soon. The team sits out of New Delhi and work on the principle where they jam with multiple ideas at one time and push out a product once it’s ready. Only after the product is fully ready and has achieved some traction do they look out for funding to scale and Seat14a has hit that stage now.
Other product which is out in the open from Seat14a is SportsChimp.
Website: Seat14a