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Daria Shapovalova
Co-Founder of DressX and Founder of More Dash
Daria Shapovalova
Daria Shapovalova is the co-founder of DressX, a pioneering fashion tech company that offers digital-only clothes, NFT fashion items, and AR looks. She is also the founder of the fashion showroom More Dash.
Key Facts about Daria Shapovalova:
- Born in 1987 in Ukraine
- Founded and led Mercedes-Benz Kiev Fashion Days from 2010-2017, putting Ukraine on the global fashion map3
- Founded the Kyiv Fashion Institute, a leading fashion education center in Ukraine, from 2015-20193
- Founded the fashion news website FW-daily.com, which was later sold to another media group3
- Received an MBA from Hult International Business School in 20183
- Established DressX in Los Angeles in 2020 with co-founders Natalia Modenova and Julie Krasnienko13
- DressX was selected as a finalist for the LVMH Innovation Award 20222
- Recognized as one of America's greatest disruptors in 2021 by Newsweek2
Shapovalova is a visionary leader in the digital fashion space, advocating for more sustainable and accessible fashion through DressX. She has been at the forefront of bridging fashion and technology, hosting the first fashion-tech forum in 2016 and introducing digital fashion as a solution to reduce waste and pollution in the industry.12
Highlights
When we started DRESSX the aim was to distribute one billion fashion outfits - shall we count prompts in?
For those of you who want to contribute, here is the link to join our discord to generate your new looks on any of your images:
https://lnkd.in/gSeaWQEg
Few releases based on our new tech is coming soon too! Stay tuned 🙌🏻
(Guess the original image in my carrousel)
I am constantly asked a question: why there are less female founders versus male. I am not sure I can now say the exact numbers about how many female founders vs male currently work, let’s say, in the US, but there is a common statistics that female receive a disproportionately small share of VC funding comparing to men: 2.3% for all-female founding teams.
DRESSX is cofounded by team of 3 female (myself, Natalia Modenova Julie Krasnienko) - on top of that, all of us, immigrants. Since 3 years, we went from nothing to post-Series A funded by best VCs. The company was started literally on our knees in the middle of pandemic. Our founding story wouldn’t be possible without few angel investors, by the way, two men and two women. And then, without help and valuable advices from both female and male founders, our advisors and VCs.
I guess I am not in the position to give any official explanation on why women still receive less VC funding (there are too many factors and one post is not enough, let’s say this one is the only begging of the topic), but generally I do meet less female founders than I do meet male founders.
I deeply believe that female founders can manage businesses effectively, are great at building teams, navigating crisis moments and being resilient. Nature gave us an ability to give birth and be moms, and this ability gave us a power to be extra strong.
I think what’s really important is for more ladies to be dare to start their own companies. Not to be in the stereotype they can’t navigate in tech industry (a misconception I once had myself). And obviously, to help one another. I myself try to help other female founders by sharing my advice and with small investments in their companies, when I can support. For me, it was always a part of my mission to inspire others, especially, women.
I decided to write this text as I want first to underline one simple truth: let’s dare to be great. Let’s dare to start what we want. If others did, you will do too.
