CFE Supported Designers On #StartUpLife and Business Challenges

We took a moment to attend the exclusive panel discussion with CFE supported designers Molly Goddard, Charles Jeffrey and Ryan Mario Yasin.

Yesterday we attended the Centre for Fashion Enterprise (CFE) breakfast and panel discussion. On the panel was CFE-supported designers Charles Jeffrey, Molly Goddard and Ryan Mario Yasin of Petit Pli.

The panellists; Charles Jeffrey, Molly Goddard and Ryan Mario Yasin of Petit Pli.
Image credit: CFE

CFE is London’s pioneering Fashion and FashTech business incubator, partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). CFE’s vision is to support the developing eco-system of fashion and technology through a £4.8 million project- Fashion, Technology and emerging futures.

On the CFE’s support of his business endeavours, Charles Jeffrey admitted:“[CFE’s] coaching helps map out your thoughts and intentions for your business, but it also helps to get your emotions in check – it’s a safe space. I find these sessions most useful and rewarding.”

“CFE has given us a strong fundamental structure of how to build a business.”

-Ryan Mario Yasin

During their talk, the London-based designers were open about their experience when it comes to running their businesses. On the challenges of running a business, Ryan Mario Yasin, Petit Pli explained: “Everything in business is an equation to solve, and you just need to understand the different variables to make the right decision.”

Image credit: CFE

They talked about how they balanced this with creative and integrity and offered insight into CFE and its support. “CFE has given us a strong fundamental structure of how to build a business. It’s given us space, which has been hugely beneficial as it’s allowed us to grow. We needed a lot of insight into the fashion industry – coming from an engineering background, I needed that. It’s also given us the space to design more and to grow a team, enabling us to collaborate in one space.” shared Yasin.

ALSO READ: Centre for Fashion Enterprise Explores the New ‘Age of Experience’ in Retail Tech

If you are unfamiliar with CFE’s FashTech Pioneer programme, it has been designed to nurture emerging FashTech SMEs by identifying and providing solutions for some of the issues that can hinder growth in the early stages of business. Both these programmes support businesses for six months by giving regular one-on-one mentoring sessions and expert workshops covering business strategy, production, finance and legal.

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Founding editor-in-chief of FashNerd.com, Muchaneta is currently one of the leading influencers writing about the merger of fashion with technology and wearable technology. She has also given talks at Premiere Vision, Munich Fabric Start and Pure London, to name a few. Besides working as a fashion innovation consultant for various fashion companies like LVMH Atelier, Muchaneta has also contributed to Vogue Business, is a senior contributor at The Interline and an associate lecturer at London College of Fashion, UAL.