How often do you look through the glass of a Louis Vuitton store and realize that you can’t afford it? Well, if you can relate to this statement, you haven’t heard about Zapyle.

Zapyle is a pretty cool way of buying pre-owned luxury. Don’t worry! The website makes sure that everything that is uploaded to Zapyle is in perfect condition and as good as new. It’s a win-win for both the seller and the buyer.

The Startup is the brainchild of Rashi Menda, a woman with the finance background, decided to take things under control when she felt like she had NOTHING to wear!

Me: How did the idea of Zapyle come about?

Rashi: Two years ago, I remember looking at my closet spilling over with an assorted collection of unopened, unworn clothes in bunches of shopping bags. I found myself saying the same thing many of us mean when looking at the contents of our closets – “I have nothing to wear!” Did you know, nearly a third of a woman’s wardrobe is never worn, and another third is worn once or twice at the most? This is what I wanted to change. I wanted to create a system where we never have unused clothes just lying around, instead keep our closets constantly up to date with the latest trends. And that’s what Zapyle does – creates a revolving closet for everyone. I also wanted to make Indian women warm up to the idea of luxury fashion by making it accessible and affordable.

Me: As a female founder of the business, you faced trouble while looking for investors, because they always wondered if you were seeking to start ‘family-planning.’ How would you address this stereotype?

Rashi: I’ve always been an ambitious person, and so has my husband. We’ve been happily married for two years now, and we know our goals. The idea of a woman’s life ending, so to speak, after marriage, is so dated, there’s no point even addressing it. I mean, look around and see all the great things women are doing, married or unmarried. In my opinion, investors should only be concerned with a business idea, not someone’s personal life, because I don’t let one affect the other.

Me: Do you ever want to start your luxury brand?

Rashi: There are some beautiful labels out there who I believe are doing great. I personally don’t have a background in fashion, I studied Economics and Finance from the US and worked in Tax advisory and investments before Zapyle came in. Solving real problems excite me and India being an aspirational country lacks accessibility to great products at great prices. Zapyle is a platform where women can buy luxury fashion at affordable prices. My focus is to build a high luxury fashion destination for females in India.

Me: What’s one piece of clothing in your wardrobe that you never wear, but cannot give away?

Rashi: There are quite a few things in my closet that I don’t end up wearing and are new with tags. I believe every item that is there in our closets are not just clothes, shoes, bags that we buy, they are memories that we hold. The best is when you share these memories with other fashionable women.

Me: How do you keep the ‘fraud’ sellers at bay?

Rashi: We have a team of experts who perform authentication and quality checks for every item that you have seen on Zapyle, so our users can be assured that it’s all authentic luxury here. This team of experts can look at a branded product and tell you whether it’s original. They’ve had several years of experience working with luxury brands and have been trained thoroughly. So it makes it quite easy for us to identify fraud uploads and immediately disapprove them for sale.

Me: Coming from a non-tech background, what challenges did you face while creating the online platform?

Rashi: Before Zapyle, I had three years of E-commerce experience where I learnt the basics of building an online business. It wasn’t as hard as I expected, as we all know every business comes in with surprises, and so did Zapyle. Hiring was the biggest struggle initially, even though I was familiar with the product, not having a better understanding of technology came in as a big challenge.

Me: What role has failure played in your success story?

Rashi: Failure has been the best learning curve in my life. Initially, when we were getting the team together, we made a lot of wrong hires, people who were not passionate about working in a start-up, delayed our launch date, which caused us a lot of damage.

Me: If your story was a motivational quote, what would it be?

Rashi: “There are three constants in life – Change, Choice, and Hard work.”

Me: How would you encourage women to take risks with their start-up ideas?

Rashi: Women are no longer expected to do gender-specific jobs. They are taking control of their careers and today, you can’t tell a woman what to do and what not to. If a woman has an idea that she believes in, I see no reason why she can’t go out and make it happen. There will always be ups and downs but those serve as opportunities to learn, so there’s no real loss. Take a chance!

Me: What’s ‘the ultimate dream’?

Rashi: The ultimate goal is to introduce the concept of revolving closet, where buying luxury fashion doesn’t seem unfair. It is readily available to every woman, and they stock it only till they are using it.

Me: What are the three elements of the expansion plan for Zapyle?

Rashi: Zapyle will be the largest online luxury fashion shopping destination in the country if –

Every designer, every brand, fashion enthusiast and influencers will be under Zap umbrella.

Every Zapyler will have a personal stylist who will suggest trendy, affordable fashion options to them.

And, Zapylers will have access to every celebrity’s closet on our platform.

Me: Predict future trends for the luxury business segment.

Rashi: In 2014 the Indian luxury market rose 25% year on year, and is forecasted to grow 86% by 2018. Luxury is not for the rich anymore; the aspiring class has started indulging in a decadent lifestyle too and why not? This growth might be slow, but it’s great to see that users are willing to invest in things rather than thinking of it as lavishing money. They’ve started understanding the cost and benefits of luxury and are willingly inviting the change.

Me: What have you learnt from your customers?

Rashi: Most businesses start with an idea for a product. But the same business is likely to be more successful by putting the users first. Your users will perceive a product to be more valuable if they help you in co-creating it. Besides, today’s customer is smart, savvy and perceptive, so listening to them will only assist in creating a better product. I believe a product can only achieve its full potential through constant dialogue with its users.

Me: If you had a time machine that took you back to the day you planned to create Zapyle, what would you change?

Rashi: Wouldn’t change anything as we have learned a lot from our mistakes and without that we would not have reached where we have today.

Me: What brand & piece of clothing would you wear if:

You’re attending a Coldplay concert?

Rashi: H&M tank top with cut-out skinny jeans and B-low belt from Nasty Gal.

Me: Catching a flight to… say… France!

Rashi: Juicy Bomber jacket and skinny fit tracks.

Me: Meeting your idol.

Rashi: A dress from Halston Heritage, classic and trendy.

Me: You were going on a girls’ night out?

Rashi: A BCBG peplum top with black pants and Louboutins.

Me: Candle light dinner with your husband?

Rashi: A black dress from Karen Millen with pink Valentino Rockstuds.

Me: You had a crucial business meeting?

Rashi: A suit from Express.

Inspired yet? Go ahead, get your own Valentino, ladies.