Sonya Gill on Launching the Take My Sari App and Her Journey as an Entrepreneur

“Take My Sari" is going to be “an online marketplace for all things South Asian including clothes for men, women, children and household goods, both new and used.”

Buying new saris and lehengas for celebrations, from weddings to birthdays to graduations, and exploring the many blouse designs can be very exciting! But what do you do with all these clothes when you’re done? You can’t possibly re-wear these gorgeous, extravagant, over the top outfits again because you know that some aunty will be more than happy to ask if this is the same thing you wore to Payal’s cousin’s friend’s sister’s fiancé’s parent’s wedding anniversary (if you think I’m exaggerating, just ask any aunty)!

Sonya Gill may have just found a way to get rid of all those old Indian clothes that you can’t just hand-me-down anymore. Ah, you’ll get all that closet space back!

Gill’s app Take My Sari is going to be “an online marketplace for all things South Asian including clothes for men, women, children and household goods, both new and used.”

Take My Sari caters to two different markets, including the vendor and the buyer. The app will allow a user to upload pictures of items currently in their closest and create an online store to sell their product and become a vendor on the app.

It will enable the average Indian consumer to sell their clothes for cash for their “new” outfits. It’s extremely similar to Etsy and others that allow a buyer to immediately peruse through hundreds of online stores that are created by their own friends or family or perfect strangers where they can buy or rent any item they desire.

The app allows you to set preferences based on location, rent/sell, color, size and style. It also allows buyers to connect through Facebook so they can see which friends also have online shops. There are ratings and a review system embedded within the app which allows buyers to provide feedback, harnessing a trusting environment to complete purchases. In the second phase of programming for the app, additional features will include shipping with insurance, direct messaging between sellers and buyers and an invoicing program. The app operates on a commission based price point where it takes 3% from the seller as well as 3% from the buyer.

A unique quality embodied by Take My Sari is that individuals will not have to be designers or shop merchants, they are able to sell these goods from the comfort of their own homes. Take My Sari does not have a set physical warehouse or facilitating transactions because it will not have a central inventory. It serves as a “platform for the community to connect sales.”

All of this begins with Sonya Gill.

She said her inspiration was her mother. “She was so tired of seeing our Indian clothes pile up year after year, she said. ‘can’t I sell these somewhere?’ Once I began getting started on the wireframes, I started to realize how much of a market there was for an app like this, this was before AirBnB and Uber really started gaining momentum, which meant that the ‘sharing society’ was just on the brink of taking off,” Gill said.

What enabled her to move forward with her goal was the support she saw from her loved ones. “My designer who originally started this project with me (Sujee Yogalingam) and my family and friends. The amount of support I get from them blows my mind,” she said. “This project could be a complete flop, but you guys believe in me and ‘it’ so much that you don’t let my faith waiver…not even for a minute.”

Gill expressed her fascination with retail early on. “I’ve always loved clothing, especially Indian clothing. I remember friends and family telling me I should go into designing, but digital and technology have always been my first loves. This is my second venture in the digital/technology space (I sold my first business last year) so combining the two is an absolute thrill.”

Though her combined passion and support system played a large role in her journey, no project is without challenges. For Sonya, that challenge consisted of “one word….long. Trying to make the app as user-friendly as possible was a challenge.” This app has been two years in the making and I’ve thought out every detail and functionality of this app,” she said, “so people from my 5-year-old niece to my 65-year-old mother could use it with no issues.”

Gill, launched Take My Sari after her Toronto-based social media and PR company Youzus was acquired by Cummins & Partners in 2015, where she was also appointed vice president of engagement and a partner. She hopes that this app will “drive down the market rates in our industry and provide affordability for South Asian clothing worldwide. “I want to see everyone look and feel fabulous in clothing they are proud and happy to wear,” she said. “I do expect the app to start off slow in the ‘renting’ space, as there’s a lot of stigmas attached to borrowing. But I do feel it will catch on. Especially since we live in such a sharing society now.”

As for her advice to fellow app starters?

“Just start it. I can’t tell you how many people have come to me in the last little bit telling me they had the same idea but never got around to launching it. If you are thinking about a ‘good’ idea, chances are someone else is thinking about it too and are most likely going to beat you to the punch. So just start lean and build from there. And don’t give up,” she emphasized.