CitySlips’ co-founders Katie Shea and Susie Levitt met in college at New York University (NYU).  After college in 2009, the two diminutive 5’2” gals were pounding the Wall Street pavement in high heels and although they looked great, their feet felt awful.  Katie admitted that she didn’t have any heels at home. Instead, she’d commute in ugly, comfy shoes and then change into her corporate wardrobe at her desk.

The young women looking for foldable, backup footwear online and when they couldn’t find any–they started a company making just that.  CitySlips are “funk-tional”, foldable ballet flats with a case and an interesting travel bag for your heels.  Shea took a business writing course, entered the Alibaba.com Neupreneur of the year and out of 1,000 entries–they won.

“Both our dads were entrepreneurs,” says Shea.  “We we liked the lifestyle and the tangible growth of consumer goods, rather than finance.”

Levitt agrees, “There wasn’t as much uncertainty in niched consumer goods as in the markets and you can get a real sense of how you’re doing with tangible goods.”

Single Woman TV (SWT): What were the conditions like when you started?

CitySlips Shea & Levitt (CS):

We knew we were graduating in 2009 during one of the worst recessions, so we really were involved in business at school.  Katie was the President of the Entrepreneurial Exchange Resource Group.  We were trying our idea out in a very grassroots way.  Our first market research trial was with Susie’s sorority.

Our opportunity costs were low.  We’re young with no mortgage, no kids and the luxury of being able to launch a company while we were still in college.  We had important access to databases, advisors, resources at NYU.  NYU was instrumental in kicking us off and getting great press for CitySlips.  We recommend you take full advantage of being in school or take advantage of the resources from your alma mater school.

SWT: How did you start?

CS: We started small, with one color and one size.   This helped us get our foot in the door.  With our pooled savings of $5,000 each, we ordered 1,000 units and put up a website.

We used the business plan we wrote in college.  We were able to use their incredible databases to estimate market size; how many women are at a certain age; if we get 1% of the market, etc.  It was crazy at first, we were in school one minute, and then running to a lawyer meeting to set up the company the next.

The spectrum of “to-dos” was crazy and fun.  By nature women are great multitaskers and so are we—that’s a key characteristic to have when starting a business.  It also helped that we both are thick-skinned and were 100% committed to the vision of the product.

SWT: How did things grow from there?

CS: Well we’re selling in over 500 stores!  We now have three colors and are expanding our sizes beyond large, for the larger footed commuter.  We also have another line AfterSoles which is dressier, for after-work events or a night out.

We were able to save about $20,000 by negotiating down professional fees, using summer interns, maxing out our social marketing, and using free resources like alibaba.com to find our manufacturer.

We also got great exposure through the Shopping Channel—it allowed us to demonstrate our product.  We’re also in catalogues and retail.  We take advantage of social marketing online through a blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

SWT:  If you could re-do anything in your launch, would you change anything?

CS: I don’t think so—our ignorance actually correlated into courage to do what we didn’t know was difficult.  We’re both very tenacious and driven which helped fuel our growth.  We didn’t know about UPC codes.  We didn’t know about fashion. We were learning sales projection and inventory control as we went.

SWT:  What does it look like from here?

CS: We didn’t realize how important and engaging the story of our startup was—but now one of our favorite things is to mentor and give insight along the way to students and other people who are thinking of starting their own business.

We’re lucky with our existing partnerships that we’ve been able to grow out of our individual, different networks.  It pays to look for more strategic partnerships that compliment your own network to grow further.

We love shoes.  This is our first product but we’re of the mentality that it’s not going to be our last.   Probably we’ll be offering more products that help women look good and yet make their day more efficient—because really that’s what we all want!