Dave: Hey everyone, Dave here with another episode of the Philly Tech Connect podcast. Today I’m speaking with Emily Watts, CEO and co-founder of Coblr. Emily has worked in strategy, product operations, and leadership roles across Fortune 500 and startup companies. She most recently was the COO at Sling, an employee scheduling SaaS for SMBs, that she helped sell to Toast. Emily understands how technology can be a game-changer for small businesses and is excited to bring a reimagined solution to repair shops nationwide so that repair shops can run more efficiently, and brand retailers and consumers have more delightful repair experiences. Emily, how are you doing?
Emily: I’m great, go Eagles! Yes, it’s been a great week. We’re recording this about two days or so after winning the Super Bowl, so my voice is already feeling it. But glad to have you on. I’m interested to talk about Coblr because I really don’t know all that much about fashion repair in that industry, and I hope I’m not alone here. I couldn’t even tell you where there was a repair shop near me. Presumably, they exist because you’re running this startup.
Dave: So, tell me a little bit about your journey and then starting Coblr, and let’s learn more about this industry.
Emily: Yeah, as you mentioned from the bio, I have spent a lot of time in Corporate America. Then during the pandemic, I think, like many people, I had this change of thinking and was like, I need to try something else, want to try a startup. So, I found myself at Sling as their COO and just became addicted to the clip at which you learn in a startup. It’s just like you’re constantly being challenged; you usually have way more responsibility than you would necessarily at a big company, and I loved it. I also come from a family of entrepreneurs; my parents were filmmakers, documentary filmmakers, and so I’ve always had that itch. After we sold Sling to Toast, I decided, okay, I want to start my own thing. Didn’t know what it was, met my co-founder Leslie, and she was just like, “Hey, I have this crazy idea, and I’m looking for someone to help me take the idea to the market.” And we basically just bonded over this shared love of repair, like shoe repair, handbag repair, but a frustration over, one, the accessibility, so you mentioned you’re like, “I don’t even know where one is.” They’re hard to access, and then when you do, it’s just not typically at the service standards that you expect as a modern consumer. And then so we have that sort of lived pain point, and we wanted to solve that.
Dave: Okay, so I’d love to just pause here for a second and define circularity. So I’m assuming it’s like when a product kind of makes its way around the ecosystem or something like that. Is that where I think this might be going, but you’re going to probably describe it better?
Emily: Yeah, so thank you for stopping me. It’s about reducing waste, so in this case, fashion waste, by reusing, repairing, and recycling goods. In the traditional linear model, you’re basically manufacturing and producing items, selling them to a customer, and then when they’re done with it, it just goes into a waste dump. In the US alone, 300 million pairs of shoes are thrown away every year, and there’s a huge environmental impact to this waste. Actually, fashion is one of the top ten polluters in the world, so it’s a massive environmental and waste issue.
Dave: That’s cool. Emily, for people that want to get in touch with you and Coblr, where should they go?
Emily: So you can reach me at info@coblr.com, and then we also have an Instagram, that’s Coblr Shop.
Dave: Cool, thank you so much, Emily.
Emily: Thank you!