Two years after the launch of Girl Meets Dress, the first and leading online Luxury rental destination, founder Anna Bance recalls how progress is being made to fulfil her dotcom dream
The office space search continues this week for the growing Girl Meets Dress team. We're pretty flexible on location as finding the right space for the company is crucial. We've visited London spaces in Bermondsey, Acton and Notting Hill.
The community feel of a large serviced building with other online companies in is great. The cafe / communal areas facilitate conversation and networking, and who knows, maybe we can swap resources. The last building had a photography studio, and pet care centre - handy!
Like moving house or finding a new flat, the research is vast and luckily my Co-Founder is obsessed with Excel spreadsheets! On top of the basic rent, there are service charges, business charges, tax and bills and so shopping around is inevitable. Being east would be great, and one option is TechHub @TechHub a Community & workspace for tech entrepreneurs & start-ups. At £9 per sq foot, it seems more suited for smaller teams with fewer than 5 desks who are looking to grow within the same building.
On Friday night it was the TechHub 2nd Birthday party at Google Campus and thanks to Elizabeth and her team for providing such eclectic entertainment, including popcorn and candyfloss machines, a jazz band, sumo wrestling and live demos of 'Enjoy! Karaoke' @enjoykaraoke. I spotted a photo booth across the room, which I can never resist at a party, so we swiped union jack hats and flags from their dressing up box and nipped behind the curtain. This booth was provided by Say Fromage @Say_Fromage and for £600 hire for 6 hours they include unlimited photos and a member of their team to manage the booth. Your printed photo pops out immediately like a normal booth, but then you use the screen to email yourself a digital copy, and upload immediately to Facebook and Twitter. Definitely the most high tech booth I have seen and makes total sense. Genius.
I then reserved my complimentary taxi to take me home courtesy of new stress free minicab app Wheely @wheely who had 100 rides to offer that night. The founders told me they hope to launch fully in September and are 40% cheaper than other taxi's, using a fleet of low cost Toyota Prius cars. The booking was in advance, online and quick and I received a message when my car arrived. The cars are fitted with Wi-Fi and because you've already given them your destination, the driver knows where he is heading and whisks you away without any questions.
So one of my bugbears is people complaining about the weather. Yes, the past month has been quite rainy. But we voluntarily chose to live on an island in the middle of the North Sea. Deal with it. If you want sun every day, move to Dubai. If you want sun for a week, go on holiday. Last weekend I saw girls wearing flimsy ballet pumps in the pouring rain, and of course if your feet are wet and your new Tory Burch pumps are ruined you'll be in a bad mood. The only way to cope is to create your 'Rain look' and love wearing it, and surely we are all too busy to be distracted by the weather. Or so we should be. Fashion is fun and about adapting to our environment, so buy some wellies (As far as fashion maths go, they're a pretty great 'cost per wear' purchase) a khaki jacket, and a felt trilby hat and get on with your week.
P.S I think it is crucial to live your brand and I wear at least one GMD dress a week.
This is a Herve Leger bandage dress which I teamed with a fun feather headband. Definitely a dress go dancing in! You can rent it here for £139 (retail price £1,160)