DollCloset.io

Long-standing racial and gender injustices hinder the earning potential of low-income, Black womxn in Chicago.  Exacerbated by the pandemic, Black womxn with a pressing need for resources are using social media groups to sell fashion, beauty, and personal care products.  However, the lack of proper moderation of these online forums have resulted in many Black womxn falling victim to fraud, theft, and assault.  DollCloset.io provides a safe and reliable digital e-commerce marketplace; an alternate payment method for the unbanked, our cryptocurrency DollCoin; and, instructional videos to teach Black womxn e-commerce skills.  These tools will increase their earning potential by providing access to the digital and formal economies.  DollCloset.io is a scalable and affordable solution that has the capacity to help low-income womxn globally develop e-commerce skills and gain access to financial tools critical for economic empowerment. 

Black womxn represent 22.3 percent of womxn in poverty despite making up only 12.8 percent of all womxn in the United States (2019 Current Population Survey (CPS), Annual Social and Economic Supplement).  In Chicago,Black womxn ages 20 to 24, are at higher risks of poverty compared to their peers in other cities in the United States (University of Illinois at Chicago, 2019).  Despite these challenges, Black womxn in Chicago are using social media to sell fashion, beauty, and personal care products and services to earn a living.  Unfortunately, the lack of access to a secure e-commerce platform and financial tools such as bank accounts, has resulted in many Black womxn falling victim to fraud, theft, and assault. 

DollCloset.io is an e-commerce platform that provides cohorts of disadvantaged Black womxn from Chicago with access to a digital community, capital, and capacity to grow their online businesses.  DollCloset.io has a collection of instructional videos explaining how to use our native cryptocurrency DollCoin to process transactions; to identify popular products to sell online by using free tools like Google Trends and Pinterest; negotiate prices with manufacturers and third-party resellers; the mechanics of dropshipping; and, important business entity and marketing guidance.  Our womxn employ these skills in real-time by selling on the secure DollCloset.io platform and earning USD or DollCoin.  DollCloset.io has a monthly membership fee and takes a small commission from customers and sellers.  All others profits are returned to sellers.  Customers and sellers enjoy using DollCoin for transactions and our AI product quiz, which matches customers with products based on their preferences and shopping history.

DollCloset.io aims to support low-income, Black womxn in Chicago.  Many of the womxn in our cohort identify as single mothers, community college students, and womxn working in low-paying and temporary jobs.  Our womxn need reliable employment and income, access to capital, a safe online community, and e-commerce skills.  We are tapping into a population of self-entrepreneurs who before and during COVID-19 developed skills to support their families by selling fashion, personal care products, and beauty services on Facebook groups.  Most of these groups have more than 20,000 members, including scammers who have preyed on this vulnerable population.  The lack of proper moderation of these groups have resulted in countless stories of Black womxn becoming victims of fraud, theft, and assault. 

DollCloset.io engages with the target population through community partners and surveying the womxn in our cohorts.  Womxn who sell on DollCloset.io are vendors.  Each vendor has her own personalized shop on the platform that customers can access.  Vendors wanted to include badges on their shop's page to show their customers that each purchase supports a “student,” “single mother,” or “survivor of domestic violence,” for example.  Furthermore, our target population wanted to learn more about cryptocurrencies and how to sell online if they don't have access to traditional financial tools.  We created our own native fiat currency - DollCoin on the Stellar Network to provide a more secure way for our population to buy and sell online.  

We have implemented these suggestions and others, however, due to limited funding there are more complex services we are not able to offer now. 

DollCloset.io provides a secure, digital platform for Black womxn from low-income backgrounds to sell and buy online.  Black womxn learn e-commerce skills that can be used on other platforms as well, creating multiple streams of income and economic empowerment.  Our solution also increases access to the formal and digital economies, and provides innovative financial tools for the traditionally unbanked using blockchain technology.  DollCloset.io promotes digital inclusion by empowering Black womxn with community, capital and capacity. 

DollCloset.io has deployed its e-commerce platform, cryptocurrency, and has one cohort of Black womxn-owned businesses selling on the platform.  To maintain quality, we require sellers to submit applications and undergo a KYC review to join a cohort.  Cohorts are permitted to sell on the platform after participating in an orientation, training, and reviewing the instructional videos.  In the prototype stage, we are working with our cohort to identify issues in the platform, ways to improve our offerings, and ensure that transactions are compliant with financial regulations.  We are ready to scale into the pilot phase, but require additional funding to manage the expansion of our platform. 

Innovation is the heart of DollCloset.io.  Our solution introduces Black womxn to the digital economy.  It can be scaled to include other underserved populations.  DollCloset.io achieves digital inclusion by providing access to:

• Cryptocurrency Knowledge: DollCoin is our native cryptocurrency stablecoin that was minted on the Stellar Network and is tied to the USD.  Sellers and customers learn the basics of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology by using DollCoin to process secure transactions on DollCloset.io.  This innovation improves the security of the marketplace, protects the privacy of customers and sellers, and introduces our target population to the digital economy.
• E-Commerce Skills: DollCloset.io provides short and engaging instructional videos on how to use free tools like Google Trends and Pinterest to identify popular products to sell on DollCloset.io; negotiate prices with manufacturers and third-party resellers; the mechanics of dropshipping; and, important business entity and marketing guidance.  These are skills that can be implemented across other e-commerce platforms generating multiple streams of income for our population.
• Online Marketplace: Major e-commerce marketplaces have traditionally excluded Black womxn from low-income backgrounds.  While these platforms do not have inherently discriminatory policies, their application requirements, seller fees, and complex instructions create barriers for Black womxn to join.  DollCloset.io breaks down those barriers with affordable membership and commission fees and equitable access to e-commerce skills.

As trendsetters in fashion, beauty, and personal care, Black womxn are an untapped resource in the e-commerce industry.  DollCloset.io aims to disrupt this billion dollar industry and create a more inclusive digital economy. 

Current: Our solution currently serves more than 1000 persons.   In terms of sellers, our first cohort includes 10 Black womxn who already had a customer base of at least 100 persons before they joined.  This number has grown exponentially, as they're able to attract more customers through a professional marketplace compared to their individual FB and IG pages.  Currently, shopping and selling on DollCloset.io is limited to this group and is password protected to enter the marketplace until we enter the pilot phase. We are concerned with growing too quickly and manage a waitlist for future cohorts that now exceeds 2000 potential sellers. 

June 2022: By next summer, we hope to transition out of the pilot phase to onboard sellers from the waitlist.  Strategically, we hope to onboard 120 new cohorts in the next 12 months.  Our goal is to welcome 10 cohorts a month once we enter the pilot phase and to have 1,200 sellers by the end of the year.  Each seller has a customer base of approximately 100 persons, resulting in more than 120,000+ persons being served in total.

June 2026: In five years, we want to recruit sellers from all over the United States. While customers can come from all over the United States, we currently limit seller applications to Chicago.  By opening seller applications from other States, we anticipate serving a population of more than 1,000,000 Black womxn.

DollCloset.io measures progress by ethically collecting voluntary data from sellers and customers. These metrics help us measure impact, expand offerings to meet their needs, and reduce inefficiencies.  We help Black womxn access the digital and formal economy by providing e-commerce skills, alternative payment methods such as cryptocurrency, and digital capital. 

• Platform Revenue: This metric helps us plan our reinvestment strategy. As a social enterprise, we strategically use profits to reinvest in the platform and the community. The more revenue we generate, the larger impact we can have on this population. 
• Seller Benchmarks: Our seller dashboard on DollCloset.io allows sellers to identify a goal (savings, debt reduction, etc). When sellers earn on DollCloset.io that data is collected and we can measure their progress toward economic freedom. 
• Instructional Video Views: Site traffic to our digital literacy videos help us loosely track how many persons are developing e-commerce skills from our library. This metric provides insights into how many persons we've equipped with digital literacy skill which can be employed on other marketplaces generating multiple streams of income for this population.
• Cohort Development: Each new cohort provides an opportunity to create new jobs.  Our participants are hiring others in their communities to help them package and ship products to customers.  They are negotiating contracts with local and global vendors to acquire products at reasonable prices.  We collect vendor and employment data from sellers when they list and ship products on DollCloset.io.  This data helps us measure impact on community development.

Full-time staff: 2

Part-time staff: 2ff

Contractors: 1

The Black womxn that comprise our team bring education and professional experiences to enrich the quality of our solution. 

S.L. Basys: Grew up in Chicago's low-income neighborhoods and taught herself how to code when she was 12. Equipped with international development and economic policy advanced degrees from Georgetown and Duke University, she's worked overseas for years empowering womxn entrepreneurs in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.  S.L. brings economic development, technical, and policy skills to the team and is shaping our mission. 

Imani Watson: Imani is a Chicago native with years of marketing experience and advanced degrees from Lake Forest and the University of Illinois at Chicago.  She is integral in ensuring our sellers reach customers, understand our product offerings, and securing partnerships with Chicago-based community and financial institutions.  Imani brings marketing, industry expertise, and community development skills to our team. 

Owala Kim Maima: Owala is a Germany born, Houston raised Kenyan living in Los Angeles.  A professional actress and director, Owala brings her advanced degrees from Georgetown and Columbia University and her years of artistry to design DollCloset.io's instructional videos.  Skilled in turning complex information into engaging narratives, Owala ensures our instructional videos guide and educate our audiences to boost their digital literacy skills. 

Telisa Adams-Bryant: Chicago native and rising college junior at Northern Illinois University, Telisa leads our cohort outreach and business development efforts.  A skilled entrepreneur with multiple online stores, she connects with our young users to help launch their journey to economic empowerment.

Our Solve leadership team embodies the spirit of diversity, equity, and inclusion.  DollCloset.io represents individuals from different socio-economic backgrounds, immigration status, geographies, and cultures.  While the four Solve representatives are all Black womxn, our contractors and community partners vary in gender, ethnicity, and race.  We contract technical assistance from Chennai, India, and partner with local banks and community organizations that support various communities. 

We truly believe that our solution should include persons from the communities we want to help.  Our youngest Solve member is also a member of our first DollCloset.io cohort and she is integral in engaging with our target population and ensuring they are prepared for success. 

Teaching intercultural communication is embedded in all of our instructional videos.  Our sellers learn to communicate with vendors from East Asia to negotiate prices for products.  They improve their outreach communication skills to engage customers.  Diversity, equity, and inclusion are key components of our mission.  

When we began DollCloset.io we were focused on Black womxn because we saw they were more likely to be victims of fraud, theft, and assault.  As we scale and expand, we hope to increase our offerings to womxn from other underserved communities.  Already, we have Black womxn sellers who are undocumented, physically disabled, survivors of domestic violence, community college students, part-time workers, and transgender. 

Our long term goal is to impact millions of lives by increasing their access to the digital and formal economy safely and we believe our Solve leadership team and solution can meet this goal. 

We believe that capital, community, and capacity can help solve most of the world's problems.  These tenets lay the foundation for our solution.  

Capital: We applied to MIT Solve to raise capital for our Solution, DollCloset.io.  Even $10,000 can help us scale from prototype to pilot in less than 6 months and double are impact.  

Community: We also applied to solve to join a community of impact-minded leaders who also believe in coming together to change the world.  We want to build a network of mentors and others Solvers for future collaboration.  

Capacity: Finally, we believe that MIT Solve can us increase our capacity as a social enterprise.  We would be honored to receive assistance with monitoring and evaluation support to draft impact reports for our supporters, investors, and customers.  

We welcome partnerships from all that are interested.  We need the most support in the following categories:

Human Capital: Sourcing talent is key for scaling our enterprise. In order to serve more people and make a bigger impact, we need a team of professionals from various community outreach, IT, marketing, and business development backgrounds.  

Financial: Given our use of cryptocurrency, we are seeking mentors and coaches to guide us with accounting matters.  We want to ensure we are compliant with existing regulations.  We truly believe that cryptocurrency is the great equalizer and is a solution for reducing the percent of adults that are unbanked in the world. 

Technology: As we scale, we want to ensure our product is available for those with limited access to technology.  A majority of the population we serve rely on mobile devices to conduct business.  By creating an app, this will expand our impact and improve user experience.  We currently have a web-mobile capabilities, but this can also be improved before the pilot. 

We would like to partner with the Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship at MIT.  We are passionate about the intersection of technology and entrepreneurship and believe in using seemingly simple technology to deliver complex products.  An online, e-commerce marketplace is not difficult to build and in our current generation, many people are accustomed to using them.  However, the introduction of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to power an e-commerce marketplace is a bit novel.  We want to launch underserved populations into the global digital economy by using simple methods to unpack complex lessons.  We believe DollCloset.io accomplishes that goal and with the help of faculty and leaders from MIT we can scale our solution to have a global impact. 

DollCloset.io advances inclusion, digital literacy, and economic opportunity in low-income communities in Chicago.  As we begin to scale, we can increase our offerings across the United States and globally. 

Prototype: DollCloset.io is an e-commerce marketplace where Black womxn from low-income communities can sell fashion, beauty, and personal care products. We are building a digital library of short and engaging videos to teach e-commerce skills, introduce the blockchain technology that powers our marketplace - the Stellar Network, and empower the unbanked to process transactions using our native fiat cryptocurrency - DollCoin.  We are currently testing the prototype with 10 sellers and approximately 1000 customers.  

Pilot: As we scale into the pilot phase, we will increase DollCloset.io's capacity to include more sellers and open the page to the public. We intend to launch a scheduling booking tool for sellers who offer in-person beauty services and non-fungible tokens for Black womxn creators in the digital art space. Our goal is to expand our offerings beyond Chicago and to support womxn from other backgrounds. 

HP Prize for Advancing Digital Equity: We believe our solution is closely aligned with HP's commitment to accelerate digital equity for 150 million people by 2030.  Empowering womxn economically brings them into the digital and formal economies, uplifts communities, and reduces barriers to innovation.

DollCloset.io uses innovative and existing technology to improve the quality of life for womxn.  We believe in advancing the economic needs of womxn by elevating them to create positive and sustainable change within their communities.  We developed an e-commerce marketplace where womxn in the beauty, fashion, and personal care industries can be celebrated for their ingenuity and creativity.  Our prototype is currently deployed in Chicago. 

Prototype: In addition to an e-commerce marketplace, we are building a digital library of short and engaging videos to teach e-commerce skills, introduce the blockchain technology that powers our marketplace - the Stellar Network, and empower the unbanked to process transactions using our native fiat cryptocurrency - DollCoin.  We are currently testing the prototype with 10 sellers and approximately 1000 customers.  

Pilot: As we scale into the pilot phase, we will increase DollCloset.io's capacity to include more sellers and open the page to the public. We intend to launch a scheduling booking tool for sellers who offer in-person beauty services and non-fungible tokens for Black womxn creators in the digital art space. Our goal is to expand our offerings beyond Chicago and to support womxn from other backgrounds across the United States, and one day globally. 

Innovation for Women Prize: Our solution was designed by womxn for womxn.  Empowering womxn economically brings them into the digital and formal economies, uplifts communities, and reduces barriers to innovation.

DollCloset.io uses an innovative and sustainable approach to alleviate poverty in Chicago's low-income communities.  Our Solve solution relies on the Stellar Network's blockchain to facilitate the use of DollCoin, our stablecoin that's tied to the USD, as an alternate payment method on DollCloset.io.  

Prototype: We developed an e-commerce marketplace where low-income womxn selling beauty, fashion, and personal care products can have a secure online platform to facilitate sales.  We are building a digital library of short and engaging videos to teach e-commerce skills, introduce the blockchain technology that supports our marketplace, and empower the unbanked to process transactions using DollCoin.  We are currently testing the prototype with 10 sellers and approximately 1000 customers.  

Pilot: As we scale into the pilot phase, we will increase DollCloset.io's capacity to include more sellers and open the page to the public.  We intend to launch a scheduling booking tool for sellers who offer in-person beauty services and a non-fungible token marketplace for womxn creators in the digital art space.  Our goal is to expand our offerings beyond Chicago and to support womxn from other backgrounds across the United States, and one day globally. 

The GSR Prize: Our solution was designed by womxn for womxn.  Empowering womxn economically brings them into the digital and formal economies, uplifts communities, and reduces barriers to innovation.