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60-second start-up: Zaggora

60-second start-up: Zaggora20 February 2012 by Mike

Zaggora is a lifestyle brand selling a range of hotpants that help you to lose weight in comfort. Founder Dessi Bell invented the pants, after she needed a way to shed the pounds before her wedding. It sold 275,000 pairs in its first five months and amassed 152,284 Facebook fans in the process. Here she shares the secret of her success in 60 seconds.


0-5 seconds: Sum your business up in a sentence

Zaggora is an iconic lifestyle brand that specialises in developing technology enabled active wear helping women to look and feel good.

5-10 seconds: What's the business model?

Online sales, marketing using all the new platforms available to companies, including social media, online marketing, reaching customers around the world.

10-15 seconds: Who are your competitors?

We do not have competitors.

15-20 seconds: What's your USP?

Products that are genuinely effective.

20-25 seconds: How have you funded it so far?

Equity contributions from the founders.

25-30 seconds: What were you doing before?

I was an investment banker. My other two partners ran a number of businesses before.

30-35 seconds: Where did the idea come from?

From lack of solutions to my own problem. I designed the product around what I wanted to see on the market and it turned out that other women also wanted it.

35-40 seconds: What's the smartest thing you've done so far?

Relied on our customers to tell us what they want.

40-45 seconds: What's the stupidest?

Thinking of calling the business celu-lite. I cannot imagine any woman telling her friends about her celu-lite pants on a Saturday morning. Can you?

45-50 seconds: If your business was a biscuit, what would it be?

I do not eat biscuits.

50-55 seconds: What idea are you a bit jealous of?

All the ones that the cool tech kids come up with. I wish I was as smart as them.

55-60 seconds: Where are you going to be in 12 months' time?

Hopefully bigger and better. We are bringing out new products across a number of product lines and hopefully we'll bring the Zaggora experience into offline retail and it will be just as exciting.

For more information about Zaggora, click here