Boris Hodakel, founder of Sewport, reveals how the innovative start-up is streamlining the textile supply chain in a unique way. Joseph Link reports.
Risk-taking is part and parcel of running a business – but for an enterprise to remain successful should there be limits on the risks decision makers are willing to take?
Not according to Boris Hodakel. The founder of Sewport invested all his savings and took out a loan to establish the company in 2017.
It is worth pointing out that Hodakel did receive some financial backing, courtesy of venture capital company Teal Ventures. But in order to obtain those funds, Hodakel “had to take the biggest risk of his life”. The entrepreneur, with a young family, was tasked with closing down his profitable fashion agency to make way for Sewport, a new enterprise which aims to “help small-to-medium-sized fashion brands start a clothing line and solve production needs by offering a modern platform for sourcing suppliers online.
“I had to channel all my efforts and all the funds into a project that wasn’t bringing money at all,” he says. “It was a really big risk but I was determined. If a lot of people are looking for something it means it probably isn’t there when it needs to be, so I took a leap of faith and just went for it.”
Hodakel – who last year also founded WeAreFeel, a health and wellness company – admits that he learned a lot about textile manufacturing during his time running a fashion agency. This, he says, nurtured him for what was to follow: establishing Sewport. Hodakel describes the company as a supply chain start-up which enables ‘brands to turn ideas into products’ and this in turn encourages the “fashion community to innovate and prosper”. But crucially, according to Hodakel, Sewport streamlines a lot of the time consuming administrative processes that brands and manufacturers have traditionally endured by providing a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all services.
In essence, Sewport is an online directory of textile manufacturers who are easily accessible to both well-established brands, retailers, or even startups who are utilising new business models; ones which have emerged in response to the innovative manufacturing technologies that are currently being developed.
But to be truly successful there needs to be more to a business than simply saving a customer time. Achieving both high-quality products and fast turnaround times is becoming more of a necessity rather than an aspiration for manufacturers throughout the fashion and textile industry and this level of performance will be demanded by the brands and designers using the Sewport platform.
Ethical data
Data has played an important role in Sewport’s initial success and it remains integral to the development of many modern-day businesses. Data is a buzzword that has become synonymous with the emergence of IoT and cloud computing and there is a lot of emphasis placed on how best to utilise it. Questions have also been raised regarding the ethics of acquiring it, but Hodakel stresses that Sewport is 100% transparent with its users.
“We have brands that will come in and complete a question-guided enquiry, but it is quite small,” says Hodakel. “On the other side, we have manufacturers and textile companies who provide detailed information on their scope of business in fine granular detail. We take this data from the brands and their project and match it with the manufacturers and vice-versa. We can also show the manufacturers the most relevant projects, so if you are looking for someone who is a manufacturer of fabric you won’t be shown a company that is a small-scale sample studio. This aspect of Sewport is more data driven than anything else associated with the business.”
Online security
But to generate new business and maintain a strong user base, Sewport customers need to feel secure using the platform. Hodakel took a series of measures to circumvent some of the more obvious security concerns, which includes fraud among its users. The steps included the implementation of an Escrow account which protects both the brand and the manufacturer. A brand, retailer or designer must pay for an order before it goes into production and this payment is then held – it will not be disbursed to the manufacturer until the job has been completed to a sufficient standard, as outlined in a pre-determined set of terms and conditions.
Hodakel adds: “And if an order is wrong we can pressure the manufacturer at fault on the brand’s behalf in a more qualitative way. Sewport is a provider of many brands so if a manufacturer wants to continue using our platform they will work towards resolving an issue. Through the use of Sewport a brand generally has a lot more negotiating power when issues arise.”
And like the vast majority of cloud-based enterprises, Sewport is also very aware of the threats posed by cyber-criminals. The evolution of the internet has been profound and its potential seemingly knows no bounds, according to some experts, but web developers have been criticised for not investing enough in cyber defence. There have been several high-profile cyber-attacks that have made international headlines and this bad press has deterred many businesses from wholly digitalising their operations. For Sewport, which works with companies from a traditional industry, it is critical to allay concerns of this nature.
“I think cloud computing is becoming the new norm, really,” says Hodakel. “It is much better because you don’t have your hands tied to a specific PC, or any other piece of equipment for that matter.
“But we obviously acknowledge the seriousness of online security, therefore we have ensured that all the connections within our software are encrypted and we have all the relevant updated certifications to safeguard our users.
“We are also hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS). That means if you want to hack us then you are hacking AWS, one of the most sophisticated tech companies in the world. This provides us with a substantial degree of safety.”
Courtesy of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the cloud, an increasing number of entrepreneurs have surfaced since the turn of the millennium to establish new companies and Sewport, which fits within this category itself, is helping others to grow and succeed, according to Hodakel.
But he adds that it is important to stick to your strengths. Having garnered experience running a fashion agency, it made sense to Hodakel that Sewport begun life as a platform focused on helping to streamline the textile supply chain. He says: “You have to get your hands dirty in manufacturing to understand what kind of problems need solving. People from outside the textile manufacturing sector, who are try to solve the industry’s problems, either large or small, are setting up for failure.”
Implementing technology
With headquarters in London, it is understandable that western economies are where Sewport has garnered most traction in the last two years, but Hodakel insists that his business has gone global. It was, therefore, important that Hodakel’s industry knowledge encompassed the needs of textile manufacturers on all seven continents. And despite the fact that Sewport serves the traditional textile industry, the company has not struggled to attract users to its innovative platform, Hodakel says.
“Brands are far less sceptical nowadays as far as technology is concerned,” Hodakel continues. “Decision makers in this space are finally changing and coming around to the idea that new solutions are there to assist rather than hinder.
“The resistance from manufacturers is higher but with about 330,000 companies in the manufacturing sector in Europe and Asia there is no actual shortage of companies wanting to join us. There are always companies who are looking for more innovative solutions.”
And, as we enter a new decade, Hodakel is confident that digital solutions will continue to overhaul the traditional textile industry. The percentage of decision-making millennials and centennials is also on the rise and, as their rhetoric is generally one of change and development, we expect to see more unique start-ups emerge alongside the widespread rollout of smart factory-ready technologies.
“The majority of our brands are emerging clientele,” adds Hodakel. “I think the era of the bigger dominant brands is slowly winding down and because of digital’s penetration into the industry it is so easy to get yourself out there and deploy a brand online. It is just the manufacturing side that remains a bit old-school and this is where Sewport sits, trying to bring manufacturers in line with the more innovative brands.
“Until manufacturers and brands are on the same wavelength, the relationship between the two is rarely going to be seamless. At Sewport we are working towards making the seamless relationship a reality.”
