Liz Bacelar, the founder of Decoded Fashion, has a new baby called TheCurrent.
The firm’s mission is to gather retail and brand leaders around the world through an open-innovation environment to help companies cut down on their research and development costs while they discuss and create cutting-edge solutions to help firms increase sales.
Bacelar said the collaborative focus of an open-innovation environment is the best way economically for companies to track the trends and innovate together. She noted firms that have in-house incubator programs often don’t get too far due to its cost structure. “When you innovate internally, you can’t move as fast as you are [restrained] by the company’s limitations. An open-innovation [process] can filter all that is going on, and then you can act fast [on what’s important to you],” Bacelar said.
Bacelar called Decoded Fashion step one in the process, which was aimed at getting the decision-makers in the fashion, beauty and retails sectors to talk with emerging tech firms. TheCurrent represents stage two, with less of a focus on talking and more on “doing relevant things together,” she said.
Also new is an accelerator program that will be offered in September. The business model for TheCurrent has three components: Scouting
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