Jonathan Gheller is the founder of FashMatch. Contact him here.

What is FashMatch, how did it get started, and how large is your development team?

FashMatch provides a vertical social network where users can get or give fashion advice. What we do is leverage the good sense of style of our users to provide personalized, dynamic and virtually unlimited advice on ‘what to wear’ or ‘how to dress’.

At FashMatch people can look for a specific item (something they own perhaps) and see what other users think goes along nicely with it. Indeed, people don’t look for or buy complete outfits but rather look for a ‘top that would go along nicely with this pants’. Alternatively, users can share their take on fashion by making matches and sharing them with the world. These matches are ranked by all users so that if someone is looking to match a specific item she finds first what everyone likes best.

We got started because we noticed that the current solutions to the ‘how to dress’ question could be complemented and perhaps improved with a web based application. That, plus having watched Clueless, made it happen!

Our development team is actually quite modest. The matching system was developed by one programmer and then rest of the site was programmed by one additional programmer. We also draw on outsourced programmers. Website development and new features are managed by the FashMatch Tech Man, Neron Meiler.

Who are your competitors, and what are your advantages over them?

I would say anyone offering advice on what to wear. The front runners here are the fashion magazines. Having said that, it is worth stressing that, although we both offer advice on ‘what to wear’, I think we can actually complement each other. In my view FashMatch and the fashion magazines satisfy closely related yet not exactly the same consumer need.

In a sense it is parallel to the (potential) relationship between YouTube and the media giants. You could say that by providing video content, YouTube competes with CBS, yet I don’t think they satisfy the same consumer need and hence I wouldn’t say they undermine their respective user base. CBS satisfy a demand for ‘professional’ content whereas YouTube satisfies a demand for ‘user generated’ content. As a matter of fact, I believe there are several areas where ‘user generated content’ can complement ‘professional’ content and vice versa.

In my view the same might be said of FashMatch and its potential relationship with fashion magazines. There is a lot of space for collaboration between us and them.

What is your business model and plans for expansion?

We rely on both advertising and referral commissions.

The first thing we are working hard on is growing our user base. On this area we must say we are pleased with the way things are coming along.

Tech wise, we will be launching a second version of the site this coming 15th of October. The goal here has been to make it easier for users to interact. We have made an effort to enhance the social network aspect of FashMatch. Also, some Ajax will be included to minimize the recurrent reloading.

Market wise, in the near future we plan to tackle additional demographics (e.g. men and pregnant woman). We will also be localizing our service to satisfy the particular needs of FashMatch users in different places.