Carly Bigi, Columbia Business School MBA Class of 2017

Can you tell us about your company, and what it does? 

Laws of Motion is the first AI sizing technology built in an apparel brand for apparel brands. Our proprietary AI virtually predicts customer body measurements with over 99% accuracy, helping customers know their best-fitting sizes when shopping online and helping brands understand how to refine and extend sizing to better fit their customers. The technology is rooted in transparency – we prove the impact it has in reducing return rates, increasing conversion, and increasing average order value via real-time metrics reporting. 

What inspired you to start your own business?

I started Laws of Motion because I was the customer. I experienced the pain point of struggling to find clothes that fit, which resulted in shopping for hours, ordering multiple sizes of the same product, dealing with the hassle of returns, and investing in costly alterations. The more I learned about the apparel industry, the more I was in shock about the lack of precision data so I did what any frustrated customer would do – I built an inclusive apparel brand that fits customers of all shapes and sizes and invented an AI sizing technology to virtually predict body measurements to ensure accuracy. 

Incubating Laws of Motion’s technology in our own apparel brand was a game changer – it allowed us to gather billions of data points on body measurements, longitudinally study how customers engaged with the technology and iterate accordingly and use highly-tailored products as human-in-the-loop to train our algorithms. The brand has also been an incredible case study for the impact of our technology, achieving a 1% return rate, 300% the average conversion for DTC brands, and 86% customer retention.

How has your business school experience helped you in your path as an entrepreneur?

It’s impossible to talk about Laws of Motion without talking about Columbia. While in school, I leveraged every resource available – classmates provided insights for customer discovery, entrepreneurship classes educated me about venture capital, and independent studies provided the mentorship and time to start building. Our first office (read: a couple desks nestled in the corner of a vibrant co-working space in downtown Manhattan) was in the Columbia Start-up Lab and my first hires were former classmates.

I raised our first million in funding the summer I graduated and we were pre-product, pre-revenue, and pre-brand. Not only did Columbia’s Lang Fund invest, but a quarter of the round was filled by classmates. It’s a full-circle story – today, I’m hands on as a mentor to CBS founders, teach a published case about Laws of Motion in Entrepreneurial Strategy, and have hired several teammates and interns from Columbia. 

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in the early stages of building your business, and how did you overcome them?

Laws of Motion was nine months old when Covid hit. We had a stellar first three quarters with over 100% MoM growth and features in Fast Company, the Today Show, and Good Morning America – we were even named as a TIME Magazine Invention of the Year. 

As a NYC-based team, we experienced the chilling reality of Covid firsthand. In February 2020, I was terribly sick with Covid and was on daily zooms with my team figuring out our next steps. During this time, state governments and the country as a whole were struggling to access the personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to ensure safety and while we were an early-stage company, we utilized an on-demand, US-based supply chain for brand operations and knew that we could help. 

One morning, I told our team that this is when we dig into the ingenuity and innovation that got us to where we are and we pivot our operations to help. That day, we launched the Hero Initiative, which focused on the three pillars: servicing our customers, communities, and emergency response effort contracts. In 2020, we produced and delivered over five million pieces of single-use PPE and donated over one million masks to frontline heroes in need. 

Our purpose-driven pivot at the onset of Covid reinforced the power of being nimble, that anything is possible when you put your mind to it, and that if something is easy or obvious then it would already be done.

As a female entrepreneur, have you encountered any unique obstacles or biases in your entrepreneurial journey? How did you navigate them?

I embrace being a female founder in tech like a super power. Only 15% of tech founders are female and less than 2% of VC funding goes to female-founded companies. There will always be challenges in life but viewing them as opportunities and authentically showing up as your whole self are foundational to being a force at whatever you choose to do.

What advice would you give to other women who are considering starting their own businesses?

We live on a rock in space and we don’t get the time back – go for it (and feel free to reach out if there’s anything I can do to help!).

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