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Long term, I hope we can move into apparel, but for now we are very happy helping customers people find glasses that fit them perfectly. My experience as a leader on the court gave me the confidence to be one in the business world. After my basketball career ended, I spent four years working on Wall Street and in private equity. I remember one day watching a coworker excitedly zip through a financial model for a potential investment and remember thinking “Wow, I just don’t feel like that about this work”. I became jaded that we did more financial engineering than true value creation, and I was craving soul-satisfying work that involved getting my hands dirty and building something valuable. I decided I needed to be a hands-on operator and build a product I believed in.
One of the first to create a profile and try it out was Jonathan Coon, CEO of a company called CONTACTS. So-called “patent trolls” — companies that don’t make anything but buy up patents to sue actual inventors — have garnered a lot of recent attention.
- Most of them just allow you to upload a picture and they Photoshop the glasses on top.
- Even though I could be making a whole heck of a lot more money with less risk in finance, I have never looked back once.
- He connected for a career-high four three-pointers made.
- The Tigers advanced to the state championship with her running the team.
- Since we’ve been sued, we have had to cut our marketing down to zero, we have laid off several employees, and I have gone without a salary myself to keep the company from going out of business.
The Tigers advanced to the state championship with her running the team. Malone totaled over 1,000 points and 500 assists in a solid career at Purdue that included two trips to the Elite Eight. Having Endress on the wing will help open up a bruising frontcourt for this group. It also doesn’t hurt to have 2006 grad FahKara Malone run the point. Dockery called her the fastest player he’s ever coached and is the school record holder for steals. The 2001 grad ranks second in program history with 1,872 career points. Imagine having a 6-foot guard at the two in this lineup.
Kate Endress Ball State Basketball
Make sure you’ve got the right online tools to not only grow your small business, but track how you’ve gotten to where you are (and where you’re going). Five types of data you should gather when doing market research Proper planning through market research has the power to take your small business to the next level.
The current patent system is a nightmare for entrepreneurs, but for patent trolls there are no ramifications or risk. We must pass comprehensive patent reform if we want to protect entrepreneurs who are essential to creating new jobs and industries. The next big thing in fashion e-commerce is a moving target — literally. Ditto, a site that lets users upload videos of themselves to use in trying on eyeglasses, has today announced that it has picked up a $3 million in funding from a group of investors led by August Capital. In spring 2012, Ditto launched its software, which lets users virtually “try on” glasses using a computer webcam.
Technology
Instead of focusing on an opportunity lost, I decided to be the driving force in building a stronger women’s basketball program at Ball State. I was the first three-year captain in the program’s history and, despite playing at a mid-major university, I was still able to garner All-American status, was named the Academic All-American Player of the Year, and was drafted by the WNBA. Kate Endress is an athlete turned investor turned e-commerce entrepreneur.
Guest blogger Natalie Preddie shares her insight for gathering the right data to get started. The tool will find any professional email address with a probability of 70%. “announced that it has picked up a $3 million in funding from a group of investors led by August Capital”, Techcrunch, 26 April 2012.
Ditto Founders
After averaging 22.7 points as a senior and making the All-Star team, Ladd initially played at Valparaiso. She transferred home to Evansville and averaged 12.7 points and 8.3 rebounds in three years.
Junior Moulaye Niang established a new season-high with two rebounds in a season-high seven minutes. Miles and Lanford each played a season-high 38 minutes.
Funded Tech Companies
In 2011 DITTO released information that it had raised $3 million dollars for funding from August Capital. In 2011 Endress founded the digital startup company, DITTO.com. The Jayhawks are 4-0 on Saturdays this season and 2-0 playing on ESPN national television.
Site to Be Seen Ditto.com – New York Times
Site to Be Seen Ditto.com.
Posted: Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Launched this past April, the new company head has been busy finding an operations site, hiring customer service employees, and acquiring top-of-the-line eyewear brands including Ray-Ban, Hackett London, and Persol for her online store. I am a huge online shopper but eyewear was one category where I just wasn’t comfortable buying online for a few reasons. Getting the right fit is so important for glasses, and I’m lazy when it comes to returning things. To combat this, we built technology that let’s people create a “DITTO”—our name for a video of their face from their webcam—to virtually try on glasses to see if they actually fit before they buy them. I couldn’t find any sites that had a good enough collection of designer products.
For Customers
DITTO was founded in 2011 by Kate Endress, Sergey Surkov, and Dmitry Kornilov. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA with fulfillment and distribution operations in Evansville, IN. DITTO was founded in 2011 in Mountain View, CA by Kate Endress, Sergey Surkov, and Dmitry Kornilov. Currently the company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA with fulfillment and distribution operations in Evansville, IN.
Ditto Defeats Patent Claim After Teaming Up With A ‘Troll’ – TechCrunch
Ditto Defeats Patent Claim After Teaming Up With A ‘Troll’.
Posted: Sat, 12 Oct 2013 07:00:00 GMT [source]
She was a two time All-MAC First Team Selection in 2004 and 2005 and was on the MAC All-Tournament Team in 2003.
Products
The last three years that I’ve been working on DITTO have been an incredible learning opportunity for me and the road to greatness kate endress is still ahead. I love reading books about great leaders and seek out advice and feedback of how I can be better.
- Five guerrilla marketing tactics for your small business Guerrilla marketing is all about high-impact, low-cost marketing strategies.
- Dockery still made it to several Memorial games, but that first time back was tough.
- I am a fan of talking honestly and openly about trade-offs that make sense for your specific family and situation.
- Our computer vision algorithms are machine learning meaning the more DITTOs that are made, the more data we have to train our feature detectors.
- He has also been called a “patent troll” — someone who doesn’t invent or produce anything, but uses patents to make money off of those who do.
- Endress played professional basketball in the WNBA, and founded the startup company, DITTO.com.
“CEO Kate Endress, a Stanford Business School alum who co-founded the company with engineers Sergey Surkov and Dmitry Kornilov”, Fast Company, 24 July 2012. My vision for DITTO is to be the next great retailer so I hope you see us use our technology and go into other verticals like jewelry and maybe apparel. She ranks second in career points and three-pointers on Ball State’s all time list. Endress was selected for the MAC All-Freshman team in 2002.
Kansas Win Over Georgia Tech
Based in San Francisco, it uses patent-pending technology to let shoppers create a a 3D virtual self, from video footage from their webcam. Shoppers can then virtually try on glasses to see how they fit in 180 degree views before they buy them from the site. DITTO’s product line included prescription and non-prescription designer eyeglasses and sunglasses. The company carried brands such as Ray-Ban, Persol, Chloé, TAG Heuer, and Vera Wang, as well as niche fashion and boutique brands like Jason Wu, Selima Optique, Alain Mikli, Anglo American, and John Varvatos. DITTO.com is an eCommerce site for designer eyewear with patented technology. Bad experiences buying glasses in stores driven by limited style choices, an awkward try-on experience (when you take off your glasses you can’t see yourself in the mirror), expensive products, and a 2 week wait to get our glasses. We knew we could build a better experience by giving people a wider selection of top designer styles at all price points and building technology that shows you how the products actually fit on your unique face in 3D.
WellPoint says Ditto is infringing on the patent, and Ditto says the patent is too “abstract” to cover Ditto’s product. The suit threatened Ditto’s very existence, even if it won. Patent lawsuits can take years, and cost well into the millions in lawyer fees. Since Endress’s company wasn’t yet turning a profit, it was money she couldn’t afford to spend. DITTO’s facial analysis technology scans, detects and analyzes the customer’s facial shape, features, measurements, skin tone, hair and eye color and more. Our computer vision algorithms are machine learning meaning the more DITTOs that are made, the more data we have to train our feature detectors. The more accurate the feature detection, the better the overall outcome.