An Interview With Monica Sanders
Perseverance — The road to success with a startup is full of difficulties and challenges. I genuinely enjoy working through these challenges, whether technology or business related, and everything we’ve overcome has made our technology and business better.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Jeff Chen.
As CEO, Jeff sets NetVirta’s overall strategy and oversees global operations to ensure the future success of the company. Before NetVirta, Jeff attended MIT where he completed his Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science, and founded the company alongside fellow classmate, Andy.
Jeff also holds a minor degree in Business Administration from Sloan School of Management, and has published 13 journal papers, 36 conference papers, and holds 5 patents.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood “backstory”?
Sure thing! I was born in China and moved to the states 26 years ago. My family might say I was born to be an engineer. When I was a kid, I loved taking things apart and putting them back together so I could understand how they worked. That curiosity and analytical approach to problem solving ultimately led me to study electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit, so I suppose it’s not surprising that I went on to start a company after completing my studies!
Can you tell us a story about what led you to this particular career path?
One anecdote that definitely sticks out to me is the one that helped inspire NetVirta. When I was a student at MIT, I ordered a pair of expensive running shoes that didn’t fit. I got swamped with my studies and missed the generous 90-day return window the brand offered. I lost out on the money I spent, and ended up stuck with a pair of shoes I would never wear just because the brand’s sizing was confusing on their website. This helped me realize how frustrating the returns problem in the apparel and footwear industries really is for consumers.
Around that same time, my co-founder Andy and I were working on a prototype that could turn 2D images into accurate 3D models. We saw the potential for this kind of 3D scanning technology, especially implemented on smartphone platforms, to address the returns problem in the fashion industry by solving sizing issues, but Andy’s medical imaging background ultimately led us to serve the medical industry first.
During our initial market exploration back in 2013, the world’s largest cranial orthotics company realized that our technology was critically needed in the orthotics & prosthetics industry. We pressed full steam ahead, and that company would eventually become our first medical client. Thanks to our groundbreaking technology and superior accuracy, ours became the first and only FDA-cleared smartphone app for body shape capturing. We expanded our services to the sports industry in 2017 to help NFL players get fitted for custom football helmets, and then further expanded into the fashion industry in 2020 to help brands and consumers with their sizing needs.
Currently, our business is helping three industries solve their sizing problems:
- Medical: each year, thousands of clinicians across 15 developed countries use our smartphone app to capture parts of patients’ bodies for custom medical orthotics and prosthetics.
- Sports: all 32 NFL teams and many colleges are using our smartphone app to fit their players for custom football helmets.
- Fashion: major fashion brands like Victoria’s Secret are using our technology to increase their online conversions, reduce online returns and strengthen consumer loyalty.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
When we were in the early stages of entering the fashion market, we conducted a joint consumer focus study with one of our clients in order to gauge interest in 3D scanning for bra size recommendations. We went into the study with cautious optimism on how the women being scanned would react to the technology, but we really didn’t know what to expect. After dozens of women tried the scan out for themselves and received an accurate bra size recommendation, we asked them a simple yes or no question: “Would you use it?” Rather than answering our question, many of them asked a question of their own: “How soon will it be available?”
We were blown away by this positive feedback. Not only were they willing to use the technology to get their size, but they couldn’t wait for it to be ready to use at their favorite online shops! They explained to our team how difficult it usually is for them to find the correct bra size — they either have to make their best guess when shopping online or visit a store to get measured by a stranger in person. This made me realize just how frustrating the issue of bra sizing is for women, and how well-suited our solution is to address harder-to-fit product categories such as this.
What do you think makes NetVirta stand out? Can you share a story?
I would say our fundamental technology makes us stand out as the only provider with a complete solution. Most fashion brands have the following requirements when it comes to 3D body scanning technologies:
- Omnichannel (online + in-store): this means no hardware can be involved, only a completely mobile smartphone app.
- Scalability: anyone must be able to use it, which means the tech cannot be limited to special iPhones with LIDAR sensors.
- Precision: must capture complete and unique body shapes to accurately recommend product sizes.
This set of requirements (among many others) is very difficult to meet, and most other companies sacrifice accuracy as a result.
We are blessed in the sense that we started our business in the medical industry and were thus required to meet demanding FDA requirements in 3D data precision. Welcoming the challenge, we built a completely different type of 3D scanning engine that leverages advanced computer vision research out of MIT, and we have continuously improved this engine over the past 10 years. Due to this unique company growth path, we are able to meet all the above requirements today.
In 2020, when we felt the fashion market was ready, we expanded our services to the fashion industry with our consumer-facing product, Verifyt®. Our core 3D scanning engine, coupled with fashion fit know-how and recommendation algorithm expertise, enables us to recommend apparel and footwear size with a high degree of precision.
Verifyt is also the only 3D scanning solution on the market that does both full body and foot scanning, so we’re able to serve apparel and footwear clients.
You are a successful business leader. Which three-character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Innovation & Imagination — Innovate to make the world a better place. Dare to imagine the seemingly impossible but distill it down to achievable stages of operation.
Perseverance — The road to success with a startup is full of difficulties and challenges. I genuinely enjoy working through these challenges, whether technology or business related, and everything we’ve overcome has made our technology and business better.
Making Data-Driven Decisions — I think it is extremely important to make business decisions based on actual market data. Technologists tend to force a technology onto a predetermined market, but from day one we decided to use market data to drive business directions.
Story About Making Data-Driven Decisions: We initially built out our 3D scanning solution in 2013 with the fashion industry in mind. But after many interviews and discoveries with our fashion executive friends (i.e., market data gathering), we realized that the fashion market was not quite ready for 3D body scanning solutions at the time. As a result, we quickly pivoted to serving the medical industry first and built out our medical clientele for the next 7 years.
When the pandemic created a significant consumer behavioral shift to eCommerce in 2020, we then started to expand to the fashion market. We were able to close several major brands, due in large part to our experience refining our technology’s precision for the highly demanding medical industry.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that was relevant to you in your life?
“I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”
- Steve Jobs
I have hit many roadblocks and challenges while building NetVirta, but I welcome those challenges. The key is to look for creative solutions to your problems, rather than giving up when things get hard. This quote reminds me to always persevere.
Can you elaborate on what Verifyt is and how it works? How does its sizing solution contribute to sustainability in the fashion industry? How does it align with creating environmentally responsible consumers and brands?
In 2020, we launched Verifyt® for fashion brands to help consumers find the right size when shopping online. Apparel and footwear brands use Verifyt® to enhance their online fit experience through accurate size recommendations, reducing costly returns on the backend. Consumers are able to scan themselves from the comfort of their home, a process that takes less than 3 minutes from start to finish. Today, the Verifyt app remains the world’s only mobile solution capable of 3D scanning the head, full body, and feet without special IR/LIDAR cameras, which makes it compatible with nearly all smartphone models, while maintaining best-in-class accuracy.
Verifyt primarily helps brands and customers be more sustainable by reducing returns. A staggering 72% of online returns in fashion product categories are due to poor fit. Unlike other online sizing tools, our solution takes consumers’ unique and complete body shapes into account, and therefore is the most efficient tool on the market. By implementing Verifyt, brands help customers find the right size on their first purchase. In fact, Verifyt has been proven to recommend apparel and footwear sizing with accuracy greater than 85%. The result? On average, our brand partners see an 80% decrease in fit-related returns for shoppers using Verifyt, and a 56% decrease in overall return rate. That means less landfill waste and fewer carbon emissions, making a significant positive impact on our planet.
Many consumers also order more than one size when shopping online, a practice known as bracketing. Our Verifyt sizing tool allows customers to be confident in their size at checkout, which eliminates the need to order multiple sizes and saves the waste associated with those extra shipped returns.
Sustainability has become a major concern for consumers. How does Verifyt’s approach to sizing resonate with the growing demand for eco-friendly and responsible choices in the fashion industry?
This is a great question. Brands that strive towards a healthier planet attract consumers that share these values, which is an increasingly large cohort of shoppers. Today’s savvy Gen Z consumers are on the lookout for brands that practice what they preach, so meaningful sustainability initiatives are key to capture the trust and loyalty of this demographic. Verifyt makes it easy for conscious consumers to make those eco-friendly choices, since we arm brands with the tools for real change.
What are three things we should all know about “slow fashion”?
“Slow” or sustainable fashion has a lot to do with being mindful of consumption. Most people think of slow fashion as investing in fewer, higher quality, ethically-produced pieces that will last for years. This is absolutely an important part of the equation, but consumer habits when shopping online also play a major role. When brands help consumers find the right size the first time around, consumers are less likely to bracket or return their purchases. This does wonders for reducing shipping emissions and mitigating excess inventory that ends up in landfills.
Beyond just reducing returns, can you discuss any broader positive effects your sizing solution might have on the fashion industry’s supply chain, production processes, or material usage?
Absolutely! A couple things comes to mind:
- Managing Inventory: Our Business Intelligence Portal allows brands to aggregate and analyze real customer body data, so they can make smarter decisions about sizing distribution for inventory production in the future, thereby mitigating overstock. Access to such data means brands can optimize their sizing standards for their actual customer base and be more inclusive to a wider range of body types.
- Improving Production Processes: 3D body modeling also enables digital product creation (DPC), which streamlines the product lifecycle and eliminates the need for wasteful physical samples and in-person fittings. Verifyt 3D scanning also allows ready-to-wear brands to pivot to made-to-order production, which is overall a much more sustainable business model.
The intersection of technology and sustainability is an interesting concept. Can you provide a few examples of how Verifyt effectively combines these two aspects in its solution, particularly in a way that benefits both consumers and brands?
Our Verifyt solution is a great example of how powerful the intersection of technology and sustainability can be. Verifyt uses state-of-the-art 3D scanning technology to capture a customer’s complete and unique body shape, a process that can be done from any smartphone in the comfort of your home. The backend of our technology is highly advanced, but we make the process extremely simple and user-friendly for the end consumer. This means our technology is accessible on a global scale, and therefore has unlimited potential for solving the sizing dilemma in fashion and bettering the planet as a result.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. ☺
In a dream world, every major fashion brand on the planet would be using Verifyt 3D scanning! When brands adopt Verifyt, they can reduce their fit-related return rate by a whopping 80%. This would make a remarkable impact on the planet, essentially cutting in half the landfill waste and carbon emissions associated with processing returns.
Additionally, our 3D scanning technology allows brands to optimize their sizing standards for a more inclusive product range. Going a step further, Verifyt enables ready-to-wear brands to easily pivot to a made-to-order business model, which is a much more sustainable approach to production.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
About the Interviewer: Monica Sanders JD, LL.M, is the founder of “The Undivide Project”, an organization dedicated to creating climate resilience in underserved communities using good tech and the power of the Internet. She holds faculty roles at the Georgetown University Law Center and the Tulane University Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy. Professor Sanders also serves on several UN agency working groups. As an attorney, Monica has held senior roles in all three branches of government, private industry, and nonprofits. In her previous life, she was a journalist for seven years and the recipient of several awards, including an Emmy. Now the New Orleans native spends her time in solidarity with and championing change for those on the frontlines of climate change and digital divestment. Learn more about how to join her at: www.theundivideproject.org
Jeff Chen Of NetVirta: How We are Embracing Slow Fashion and Renewable Consumption was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.