Paula Fry is a business woman who believes that hard work is the key to success. After 15 years working as a currency trader in an investment bank, she decided to use her savings to start a vintage and “pre-loved” fashion boutique where others could come and sell old items or exchange them for something else, like a high end thrift store. After two years of non-stop work she realized that all of her efforts were still falling short to bring in the amount of clientele she desired. One night, while surfing the web, she found a vintage boutique online store that she had never heard of before! It was in that moment that she realized there needed to be a site for people to find stores and stylists near them. She knew this market was huge, but connecting people to it was the problem. This is where the idea for Fashionseeker was born.

Fashionseeker is a fashion portal for independent fashion businesses in the UK. It aims to be the definitive site for fashion shoppers who want to support independent fashion businesses and find unusual and up and coming brands. Through use of Social Media and networking, Paula was able to make this a success through taking the interests of small business owners into account and not charging commission for the use of this site. She connected customers to stylists and stores that best suited them and in doing so entered a space that had never been on the market.

Paula’s motto is that problems are always opportunities in disguise. She took the challenge of connecting customers to fashion stores because she knew the challenges on both sides. When she was working in an investment bank she felt the pang of spending way too much on designer handbags, and when she managed her own botique she felt the hardship of not being able to always reach or connect to her target market. Fashionseeker connected these two gaps and made a way for the independent fashion businesses to succeed simply by giving them an outlet to market their business to the right clientele.