Lots of Excitement!

Today, I went to the Post Office to mail my completed Shark Tank Application and paperwork. The paperwork took the entire week to complete and ended up being around 40 pages. I also spent the week making and perfecting my 5 minute audition tape, where I had to answer 20 questions they gave me. So after a week of hard work, it felt great to finally ship everything out to California for review by the casting directors!

Upon going to the Post Office, and catching up with my awesome mail man, I received a package of from my manufacturer of the first batch of my purses!  I wasn't expecting them until mid-June so it was a great surprise!  I am so pleased with the quality and am thrilled to be able to send them out to my supporters and customers earlier than they expected! Thank you again to everyone who backed me through my campaign and purchased a SmartPurse!

It is such a relief to finally receive my purses from manufacturer after working with them to perfect this design since November of 2012. I also have launched a summer Custom Collection on my website and am excited to announce I will be taking custom orders and hand making them. I  am looking to find another person to help me with sewing custom orders as well.

I move in to New York this Sunday to intern at a fashion startup so I am looking forward to that! I feel like I just finished unpacking and now its time to repack! I already have a lot of networking events I plan on attending. I am not much of a city person but I am sure that will change by the end of the summer!

I will keep you updated on the status of Shark Tank, but I believe I have made it through the hardest round of casting already!!

THE MAGIC CALL!

Last Saturday I went to a Open Casting Call for ABC's Shark Tank where 500 entrepreneurs pitched their ideas and businesses to casting directors. The casting directors said that they would only call us with good news and we would know by Friday the 17th by 7pm. So when Friday rolled around  and I had not received any calls from California, to say the least I was pretty bummed. But somehow I still had hope! I went on Twitter and found the casting director I pitched to and tweeted at her and found her email. So I made a Youtube video of my 1 minute pitch and attached it in an email to her for my one last shot at getting a call back.
Then, today after my hope was dwindling a little, while I was walking around Doylestown with a friend, I got that magic call from California. It was the casting director I emailed and she told me I made it through to the final round of casting! She said I now need to send her an email answering 12 questions she sent to me in 5 minutes. She said to make it creative and unique, not just me sitting at my desk. Trying to control screams of excitement, I thanked her!
I read through the email she sent me and it says filming takes place mid June-mid July so if I make it through it is a very fast process! I will keep you in the loop and feel free to comment with suggestions for my video pitch!

Shark Tank Casting Call

Yesterday I went to an open call for Shark Tank! I dragged my best friend along and we went at 10pm Friday with plans to camp out to get a wristband at 9am Saturday.

By 11:30pm it was pouring rain, lightning and thundering and they declared it wasn't safe for everyone to camp out. So they took my picture and assigned me a number and told us to report back at 8:30am! The rain actually worked in our favor and we slept at my friends apartment near Rittenhouse Square.

We reported back at 8am to get there early and the line was huge, we were lucky we went the night before because they only distribute wristbands to the first 500 people. By 10:30am I was in front of a casting director doing my 1 minute pitch! She said that I had a great pitch, product, and passion and I will find out if I make it through by this Friday. I was the only college student from what I could tell and I know they are seeking young entrepreneurs so hopfeully I have a good shot! I heard there is a 1 in 2500 chance I make it on the show, but I am determined to do it! I will keep you updated on my progress and hopefully good news.

Shopping is my Job

Being an entrepreneur in the world of fashion means I need to constantly being doing trend research...AKA shopping! Basically, I have the best job ever.
Yesterday, I went to the New York Accessories Show at the Javitz Center. Today, after being surrounded by more purses than you could imagine, I was incredibly inspired and designed a new line.

I used chocolate faux leather (left) and genuine pigskin leather with snakeskin print (right) for the first time and was very pleased. This is going to be a luxury line and I am really excited to go to the Shark Tank Casting Call on Saturday to present it to ABC producers. For the casting call, my dad and I are going in to Philadelphia at 4am and camping out to get 1 of the 500 wristbands they are giving out at 9am. It is going to be quite the adventure! I will keep you updated on how it goes.