MEET MASHA TITOVA OF TITOV

Tell us about yourself. Where did you grow up and how did you launch TITOV?

I was born a first-generation child to my amazing family who moved here from Russia. I have been lucky to have lived in many different cities because of my upbringing.

While living in Moscow I saw how glamorous fashion could be compared to my sweatpants dominating suburban American upbringing.

Upon returning to the USA I worked for years until I decided to launch TITOV. I wanted to offer something new and TITOV was my solution to uncomfortable bras offered in hard to find sizes that were just more fun.

What is your work background and how did it play a role in creating TITOV?

While working for Kanye West’s Yeezy brand as the International Production Manager, I noticed a rash spread around my chest, getting so bad I had to take my bra off. I realized the materials on my bra had led to severe irritation.

Following this incident, I spent many hours researching the art of making the perfect bra. I realized how much goes into the construction of a bra and felt like a challenge I wanted to tackle.

My expertise lies in manufacturing, so going into this I already had a strong network of suppliers and vendors. Any additional suppliers were all found via recommendation or trade shows like Interfiliere.

Where is your collection produced?

We produce all of our underwired Marie Bras here in Boston, MA, and small exclusive batches are still made in house, in our studio space by skilled artisans. We have a few retailers that require larger volume orders which we produce in Greece.

I design and develop every single style, which allows me a great deal of flexibility in knowing what my manufacturers can or can’t handle.

Having had experience working and sourcing suppliers previously, the entire process was quite straightforward. Even if there were any hurdles, I was mentally prepared because that is just the nature of working in production.

How does sustainability factor into your brand?

I am very involved in working towards sustainability at TITOV. We partnered with a nonprofit in NYC that recycles scraps, so we have zero waste in our manufacturing process. We also only use dead-stock materials for our exclusive drops.

I set us up to be season-less and design thoughtfully, this way we don’t have to feel like we need to keep making more products.

I think the fashion industry as a whole has a volume issue, with too much focus on new rather than quality.

Did you self fund or get investors?

I bootstrapped the entire company. I have saved up knowing I would want to do this one day. I have not taken out a loan and have not received any funding in grants, VC’s etc.

To date, we have not been in debt which is something I am very proud of. I have also gotten the sales to grow to the point where the brand now pays for itself and I am no longer putting in my personal money into it. This took about 7 months from the launch date.

Also amazingly our launch date was 5 months ahead of schedule. I realized it would be better to go to market with a small range of products and slowly add to it vs. waiting until everything would be “perfect”.

Give us an idea of major milestones in your company.

TIMELINE:

5/19 First sale
7/19 First Retailer contract
10/19 Popup in Milan
11/19 Trial PO Box subscription
12/19 2 new retailer PO’s
12/19 Box subscription reordered 10x
12/19 Purchased at least 6 months worth of inventory
2/14 PopUp in Rebecca Minkoff’s NYC Soho Store
3/20 With the traction gained in sales and owning a healthy inventory level, we broke even.
Q2 2020 Two PO’s form new retailers and reorders- pivoting aggressively towards E-commerce

What does your day to day look like?

I work out of office space that I am lucky enough to not have to pay rent for. This is my space where I have all of my supplies, material, machines. We built custom drafting tables and we created all of our prototypes out of this office.

I usually work every single day, but I try to keep computer work for the weekends so I can at least do it cozy at home with my cat.

Since launching, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

The most effective strategy has been listening to our customer. We realized a lot of the women who want to purchase our lingerie didn’t feel comfortable ordering online.

They would ask where they could find us in real life. After realizing this we decided to increase our pop ups schedule as well as thinking outside the box and offering at home visits.

We come prepared with their size in all styles and they treat it as a Sunday afternoon treat for trying on lingerie in the comfort of their own homes. This has boosted our word of mouth and created much stronger relationships!

What about marketing?

I do not spend money on marketing, we have been purely word of mouth as well as gaining customers through our retail partners.

Influencers do not work- I think they used to, but now the platforms are all over saturated. Social media advertisements do not work. Unless you are in the financial position to be putting $10k into instagram ads, it’s not worth it.

What are your upcoming goals and what are you most proud of?

The focus for this year was to expand our wholesale business, however, with COVID, that plan has drastically shifted. The goal right now is to gain as much eCommerce exposure as possible, with sales hopefully following. The goal is to create a consistent DTC sales traction and then slowly moving into wholesale in the years to come.

I am most proud of breaking even in less than a year. I felt like I did a pretty good job of limiting my spending on materials, but looking back I think I could have purchased even less.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

We use Acctivate, Quickbooks, Ship Station, Squarespace, Evernote, Google Docs, Gmail, Shopify, Google Analytics

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

I read so much, the library ladies in my town know me very well at this point!

The book that gave me the fire to start was Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. If he was able to go through hell and back and still end up on top, it made me think so could anyone.

I also enjoyed reading Lean Start Up, it helped bring my thought process of how to spend time and money more efficiently.

I used to have a very long commute living in LA so podcasts became my best friends. I love Rebecca Minkoff's Super Women Business Casual, Entreprenista, Glossy, Unstitched, and Second Life.

Overall how do you feel TITOV is doing?

I feel very positively as to the direction the company is going. We have month/month sales growth, and are starting to see the labor of our work coming to fruition. Fingers crossed things go back to normal after this pandemic soon and we will continue on this path.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

Love it.
Be Prepared to sacrifice.
Surround yourself with people who believe in you.
Save your money! If you can bootstrap do it.
Read, do your research. Always have at least a broad understanding of something even if you plan on hiring an expert.

Where can we go to learn more?

You can reach me at Masha@titovlabel.com

SHOP www.titovlabel.com

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