TacBoard: Matching Millennial Fashionistas with Millennial Budgets
TacBoard founder and CEO Disha Shidham was inspired to create TacBoard to solve a problem that she and her friends face constantly.
“Millennials, have high stylistic tastes, but low spending power,” Disha said. “TacBoard helps bridge this gap.”
TacBoard is an e-commerce platform that allows shoppers to purchase curated items at prices that they want to pay.
TacBoard is aimed at Millennials (that cohort aged approximately 18 to 34). Disha knows Millennials, because she is one. Disha is 18 and graduated from high school a few months ago.
“Price is the number one consideration when Millennials shop for clothes,” Disha said. “Our price tracker is comparative, so if you ‘tac’ a dress that’s from Express but also held in Macy’s, Abercrombie, and Free People, we’ll track the dress in all four of these retailers to find the best deal in the quickest amount of time.”
Disha didn’t limit her market knowledge to just her own and her friends’ shopping desires and experiences. She dug much deeper into her target market and honed her idea for TacBoard in Rev1’s Concept Academy.
“I’ve learned that creating something people want is never a simple task,” she said. “I’ve learned that where the product isn’t exactly right, change it until it is. Change it to something people really love. Concept Academy helped me ask difficult questions to the only people who matter—the customers.”
TacBoard features items from larger retailers, local boutiques, and also from local designers. In prototype trials, when goods hit the users’ price points, TacBoard has seen a greater than 90 percent conversion rate from price matched items to sales.
Disha, who has deferred her acceptance to the University of Michigan in electrical engineering to pursue her dream of TacBoard, also participated in Draper University’s entrepreneurial curriculum.
“I didn’t plan for this to happen,” she said. “It started for me back when I was in the MIT Summer Launch [for high school aged entrepreneurs]. Now I believe that TacBoard can turn the entire retail process on its head.”
And Disha’s advice for other first-time entrepreneurs? “I’ve come to understand that passion has to push you through difficult moments,” she said. “There are going to be times when vision isn’t enough. Things get really difficult and you lose your focus. It’s important to find people to help guide you. Support and mentorship have been really helpful to me.”
