Sylwia Szymczyk's Linkedin Analytics

I sold 65 beta spots for fashionINSTA. Before we even had a working product. → Just one category. → Patterns are pretty basic. → Some features are still missing. Why take such a risk? We may burn the market. Customers may hate it. They may go away. The money we made? It won't even cover a month of development. But money was never the point. 3 reasons why I launched "too early": 1. Real validation beats perfect products If no one pays for your solution, you're solving imaginary problems. INSIDERS proved that pattern makers need this. 2. Co-creation beats assumptions INSIDERS aren't just users - they're shaping our roadmap. Every bug report, every feature request, every "what if" makes fashionINSTA better. 3. Quality beats chaos 600 people on our waitlist could crash everything Day 1. 65 dedicated testers? Perfect for catching issues before we scale. Why I am saying you that? Our INSIDERS have already downloaded over 100 patterns. They send us over 150 feedback messages. They rated over 200 generations. We know there is a long way to go. But we know where to go now. And we commit to deliver. This is EXACTLY how fashion brands should work: Stop guessing what customers want. Stop designing entire collections in secret. Stop producing 1000 units, hoping they'll sell. Instead: → Show rough samples early → Take pre-orders on prototypes → Let customers shape the final product Your best market research? The people who have already paid. INSIDERS are teaching us what fashionINSTA should become. Your customers will teach you what your brand should become. But only if you're brave enough to show them something "unfinished." P.S. Next week's INSIDER webinar: "Early Validation for Fashion Brands" - how to test collections before production. Who else believes in building WITH customers, not FOR them? 👇

They're lying to you. Fashion doesn't need more creativity. And it doesn't need tools that help with that. We do not need more tools that can: → Help designers be more creative → Replace designers' creativity → Generate creative images Fashion isn't lacking creativity. Companies stopped seeking it years ago. Big fashion company designers work with: → Agency-prepared mood boards → Excel sheets with latest market insights → Product Developers simplifying every stitch → Merchandisers asking"Will it sell? What's the margin?" Room for creativity? Almost none. That's why every brand sells identical stuff. The industry has creative people everywhere. The problem is - creativity doesn't sell. We need AI tools that help designers: → Understand market demand In a visual way, we hate sheets! → Merge creativity with insights Your idea, but actually marketable this time → Make ideas producible and affordable This is fashionINSTA - we're already LIVE! → Handle supply chain and logistics Ordering and calculating raw materials, anyone? The future of fashion isn't creativity. It's creativity that ships. PS. I am trying some fashionINSTA-generated patterns today in the lab! Stay tuned for results! PS2: How would you like AI to help you with your process? Did I forget to mention something? (Of course, I did!)

I just made a pattern in 15 minutes. From sketch to ready-for-fitting pattern. Not 3 hours. Not a full day. 15 minutes. And here's the thing that makes me want to scream from the rooftops: → The pattern was accurate enough for first fit → The construction details were correct → The proportions matched my sketch Remember my post about wanting "a pattern-making tool that works as fast as my ideas"? Well, I built it. This is not a render. This is not a pretty AI image. This is a REAL pattern that can be cut and stitched. Here's my promise to you: fashionINSTA will NEVER: → Generate worse patterns than it does today → Provide slower workflow than it does today → Require more adjustments than it does today It can only get better. Because we're building this together with pattern makers who know what they need. The fashion industry keeps talking about innovation. But we're still using the same pattern-making methods from the 20th century. Still spending hours on what should take minutes. till losing momentum between idea and execution. Not anymore. Our Early Beta INSIDERS are already creating patterns for customer previews in less than 15 minutes. From sketch. To pattern. To business. Ready to see fashionINSTA in action? [See how 15 minutes can change your workflow → https://lnkd.in/dbizc7HW ] Because your creativity deserves tools that can keep up. PS: Remember when I left my corporate job to build this? Some days I wondered if I was crazy. Today is not one of those days. 💪

STOP accepting 40% return rates as "normal" Returns aren't just eating your profits. They're killing your brand. When 40% of products come back, something's broken. And it's not your customers' bodies... It's your patterns. Do this instead: 1. Use AI to generate patterns based on customer data 2. Test fits digitally before production 3. Catch issues before cutting fabric 4. Create size ranges that match today's bodies or unlock MTM at scale with technology (yes, it is already feasible!) Standard sizes were created 80 years ago. Bodies have changed. Your patterns haven't. The real problem? You're trying to fit real bodies into outdated measurements. Stop accepting high returns as "normal." Your patterns are the problem. Fix them. PS. If you want to try fashionINSTa and see how AI can help you draft patterns faster, comment 'WAITLIST' or use the link at the top of my profile!

I was wrong. Disruptive tech in fashion can't work. The horse and carriage + jet engine? It's real. You can't strap rockets to horses. And expect them to fly. You need an airplane. But wait! Did airplanes replace horse carriages? No. Cars did. And before them? Horseless carriages. Baby steps. We didn't leap from horses to flying 10,000 kilometers. Same with fashion tech. We can't pretend fashion workers will welcome tech they don't understand. We can't pretend fashion companies will invest millions without a clear path to success. We can't build jet engines While horses still pull carriages. We need easy and fast wins. We need tech that fits into the existing process. Even if we know, the process is broken and has to change. People will figure it out. Transition will happen - bottom up. The hardest thing to change? Habits. The hardest thing to create? New behaviors. It only works with instant results. Small wins matter. 5 minutes saved here. Long mail chain saved there. 1-hour meeting they could skip. Not after 6 months of training. Not after hours of courses. Now. I was wrong. We were all wrong. We thought they'd buy our vision. We thought they'd love innovation. They don't. They want results. Here. Now. This is fashionINSTA's foundation. We fit into the existing process. We deliver results in under one minute. Users continue with software they are already familiar with. Fancy stuff? Additional features? More complicated workflows? They will come. Later. When they're ready to fly. First, we'll build the car.

Look at this treasure chest! Do you know what we use them for? I'm giving away one FREE access to: → fashionINSTA INSIDERS → Early Beta testing privileges You need to prove you know the fundamentals! 1.  Tell me what these mysterious tools are and their purpose in fashion creation 2.  Pick ANY 2 pieces and describe their specific use case (bonus points for creativity!) 3.  Share this post or tag your crafty friends who might know! DEADLINE: Tomorrow 6 PM. You can get: → Full access privileges → Webinars and free courses → Bragging rights as our sewing genius! We talk a lot about AI and 3D in fashion. But digital fashion needs physical knowledge. These tools are where it all starts. Each one solves a specific problem in garment making. Each one represents decades of engineering refinement. Ready? Comment below! Tomorrow at 4PM, I'll let you know who gets it and show you exactly how these little pieces create magic!

Remember that Chrome tab I kept open for 2 days? 7 months later, I'm typing this from my home office. Pattern-making books are everywhere. Measuring tapes tangled with Post-its. Haven't slept properly in 3 weeks. This is startup life with fashionINSTA. Back then, The Liquid Factory was just a LinkedIn post. A crazy idea. €200K for 4 aspiring founders. No success stories yet. No guarantees. Just a promise: "Turn an idea into a global startup, fast." 181 people applied. 4 of us got in. Seven months later? → 4 out of 4 have complete founding teams → 4 out of 4 launched real products → 1 made it to Y Combinator interviews But here's what those numbers don't show: October: Corporate job. Steady paycheck. Watching that tab. December: "Congratulations, you're in." January: "What the hell did I just do?" May: Running on coffee and customer feedback. Was leaving corporate life at 37 insane? Maybe. Do I miss sleeping? Absolutely. Would I go back? Never. The Liquid Factory just opened Batch 2 applications. That tab you're about to open? Don't let it sit for 2 days. If you're staring at that tab thinking "but I'm too old/comfortable/scared"... I was all three. Now I'm building the fashion tech company I dreamed about. Your turn. Deadline: June 30. Sometimes the biggest risk is not taking one.

-3 days to fashionINSTA launch Countdown always feels harder to ignore! We are stressed, but we are thrilled! And today I wanted to celebrate a small win. We exceeded 3x our INSIDERS subscriptions target. We wanted to prove that we are solving a pain. We wanted to prove that pain is intense enough for them to pay to solve it. Everybody will tell you your idea is amazing, but till they pay for it, it's just words. And you CANNOT build your business on words. We thought 20 people would be a big win. It will give us an even stronger push to develop. There will be 20 people who believe in us and in fashionINSTA. Even before it is live. Even before they could upload a sketch. Even before a single pattern is generated. There will be 20 people looking for this solution. 20 people who need it and want it hard. 20 people who want to change fashion like we do. 20 people we will build fashionINSTA with. 20 people will take part in our journey. 20 Early customers. The most important ones. The ones you will always remember by name, not by customer code. Well, it's 54 so far, and we are open for another 2 days. And we are forever grateful for each one of you. 54 times THANK YOU. Last week, I drank a full cup of coffee for each of you:) Maybe even 2! But I know it's worth it ALL, and with you on our back, we will build something that changes fashion forever! PS: There are two days left to join us in INSIDERS. If you want to join this amazing group of Early Beta Testers, check our website or comment below!

It's time to give back! And to celebrate a bit :) As you probably know, last year I started my journey as Entrepreneur in Residence at The Liquid Factory It has been an incredible journey so far! We had our idea. We failed to validate it. We pivoted. We've found our product-market fit. We've generated our first revenue. We are preparing for our Seed round. All of this in under six months. It's a daily rollercoaster. But it's more rewarding than anything else I've ever done. Access to Mentors, collaboration with other founders, insights from Partners - all of that made this lifelong dream a reality! 200k investment in our idea was also a significant boost😜 It's not for everyone, but if you are: -> Bold -> Dreamer -> High achiever -> Ready to bet on you The doors for the next batch are now open! You don’t need a company to apply. You don’t even need an idea. You need a founder mindset and the courage to build. ➡️ Apply by June 30, 2025! Learn more & apply here: https://lnkd.in/ddde2nck

Treasure chest reveal! Did you get them all? I am sharing some use cases for the sewing machine feet I mentioned in my last post. But, those are not all use cases! Do you have any other ideas? PS. It was super fun to stitch again.. I haven't for at least the last 3 years! PS2: I'll connect with the winner this evening!

STOP sugarcoating the pattern-making process. It's hard, and it's not an exact science. Yes, there are rules, calculations, and methods. BUT then… There are millions of types of fabrics and almost 8 billion different body shapes. We've fitted them into size charts. We try to make one-size-fits-all solutions. We created rules for different body shapes and fabrics. But can we, in 2024, spend days on fit checks and adjustments? Technology is here to streamline the process. And to get more accurate results in a shorter timeline. I call it the 'PATTERN' framework. P - PERCEIVE VARIABILITY → There's no one-size-fits-all - multiple solutions exist. A - ADOPT TECHNOLOGY → Use 3D tools to spot issues and iterate quickly. T - TEST & LEARN → Learn by doing - refinement is a normal process. T - TRY ON DIFFERENT BODIES → Test patterns on diverse body scans using technology. E - EMBRACE CHALLENGES → Use 3D iterations - challenges enhance your skills. R - REDUCE & FOCUS → Focus on pattern-making - eliminate unnecessary steps. N - NETWORK WITH YOUR PEERS → Collaborate to share insights and improve collectively. This is exactly how my pattern-making process is faster, more accurate, and more efficient. → Fail quickly, fix quicker. → Technology is here to leverage your skills. → Stay adaptable and experiment with various approaches. ---------------- Share this post to receive the full guide on the PATTERN framework! Valid for the next 48 hours only! PS. We have to be connected.

Spend 70,000 EUR on fashion education. Be replaced by AI in the next few years. Hits hard, right? But this is what will happen with 70% of designers, that are graduating from fashion schools today. Fashion companies don't care about creativity. They don't care about the fresh perspective. They don't care about young energy. What they care about are numbers. → Does it sell? → Is it feasible at all? → Does it stay within margins? → Is it feasible within our timeline? And a big chunk of fashion schools are not teaching this to their students. Creativity without execution is just expensive paper. And now? AI enters the chat. Midjourney can create 100 "creative" designs while you're still sharpening your pencils. For $20/month. So that fancy diploma? That "unique creative vision"? Worth about as much as a Zara knockoff. But here's where it gets interesting. AI will absolutely replace boring creators. The ones following trends. The ones designing by spreadsheet. The template followers. It will NOT replace those who understand this: 1. Real creativity is problem-solving    Can your design actually be constructed?    AI doesn't know.    You should.     2. Technology amplifies talent    AI isn't your replacement.    It's your superpower.    Use it to test 50 ideas in the time it took to sketch one.     3. Value beats pretty pictures    A producible design that fits well beats a beautiful sketch that's impossible to make.    Every. Single. Time.     The future belongs to fashion professionals who can: → Create designs that WORK → Use AI to multiply their output → Bridge the gap between creativity and production. This is exactly why I built fashionINSTA. Not to replace your creativity. To make it unstoppable. Sketch → Pattern → Reality. In minutes, not weeks. Because when AI can generate pretty pictures, your value isn't in making more pretty pictures. Your value is in making clothes that actually exist . Ready to future-proof your fashion career? 🔥 Join FashionINSTA INSIDERS - Where early adopters are already transforming their workflow 🎯 Try our Sketch Detective Tool - Ask the right questions about your designs before wasting time on impossibilities. It uses AI to analyze the sketch and provide insights on garment construction. https://lnkd.in/d5iyi_ij (ps image can't be bigger than 500kb) The fashion industry is changing. You can complain about it. Or you can lead it. Your choice. P.S. That 70,000 EUR education? Consider it your foundation. Now let's build something real on top of it. Something AI can't copy. Something that actually matters.

fashionINSTA Early Beta launch -4 days! Want to try some of the patterns generated? Today at 6 p.m., I'll send some of them to download to all people on the waitlist. You will get: -> .dxf pattern for 3 different garments -> Sketch that was used to generate it -> The avatar we used to generate it Mail will be shipped today at 6 p.m CEST, so hurry up if you are not yet on the waitlist! I will share more files in fashionINSTA INSIDERS - so if you want to get early access to 10+ garments and have access to the tool on the 23rd of May, we would love to have you with us! Comment FILES or subscribe to the waitlist here: https://lnkd.in/dDq_QGSS if you want me to send it to you!

1 hour left to join fashionINSTA Early Beta! Yesterday night, 2 am. Me and Gil Moreno working on our first release. → No sleep for days → Barely eating → Exhausted But the moment you generate the pattern and see it fitting correctly, priceless! This is like WOW. I can't wait to share access with our INSIDERS tomorrow! PS: If you want to take part in this cohort, you still have 1 hour to join:  https://lnkd.in/d3YfC9AW

LinkedIn changed my life. 2 years ago, I started posting here. A bit for fun, a bit for vanity. A bit out of curiosity. And I stayed. But the reasons changed. LinkedIn let me grow my network. Growing my network has let me meet new people. Speaking with people lets me understand their pains. Understanding them lets me work on my business idea. Having a solid business idea led me to leave my 9-5. Leaving my 9-5 gave me the freedom I was missing. Being a startup founder is not working from the beach. It's not closing your laptop whenever you feel like it. It's long nights and days. Many doors closed. Much coffee drunk. It's complaining customers. Or no customers at all. There are successful marketing campaigns. And flops that cost us $$$ we don't have. It's less time with your loved ones. But being there when they need you. It's no holidays this year. It's a mix of anger and happiness at the same time. It's building something you believe in. And seeing it grow before your eyes. I'm so pumped about the future. Thanks, LinkedIn!

Next week, I'll be discussing the impact of AI on product development in the fashion industry. Product development is a less sexy part of fashion, but it's an essential one. Beautiful sketches or fantastic ideas are worth nothing if they are not feasible. Me and Marie Bastian will talk through the changes AI is bringing into this space, and try to answer the question: Can AI be taught to understand fit, balance, and drape the way a trained patternmaker can? What do you think?

I've watched 100+ fashion tech companies struggle with the same problem. They're selling dreams, not systems. "I'll make you the next Virgil Abloh!" "Unlock your creative potential!" "Find your unique aesthetic!" Meanwhile, their clients can't: → Turn sketches into patterns → Estimate production costs → Hit delivery deadlines → Scale beyond 100 pieces The brutal reality: Dreams don't pay bills. Systems do. I made this mistake in my first fashion business. Focused on being "creative." Ignored the boring stuff. Lost everything. I learned working for brands that actually make money: They don't sell inspiration. They sell outcomes. → Max Mara doesn't sell "luxury." They sell "confidence in quality." → Timberland doesn't sell "boots." They sell "trust in any weather." Specific. Measurable. Valuable. The coach who changed my perspective: "Stop selling what you do. Start selling what they get." Now I don't sell AI pattern-making. I sell: → €65,000 saved per collection → 16 weeks faster time-to-market → 70% fewer pattern errors Same service. Different positioning. The fashion industry has enough dreamers. It needs more problem-solvers.

In 2012, I was an underdog like no other. In 2025, I am building an AI tool that will change fashion. 2009 I had my fashion business. I was selling like no tomorrow. I trusted the wrong people and incurred huge debts. 2012 Struggling to find a job. Struggling to pay my bills. Risking eviction. I borrowed 5.000 EUR from my friend, and I headed to Sri Lanka to produce my fashion line. It failed miserably - I sold 3 garments 🤣 2013 Starting to get into fashion from the window. Writing to manufacturers on Alibaba to offer my services. Something stuck - I got my first gigs. 2014 Traveling the world, working for fashion brands. Seeing manufacturing floors, learning new cultures. Learning pattern cutting, stitching, marketing, everything. 2016 Starting at Max Mara. As a seamstress, then a pattern cutter. Freelancing for brands from all over the world. 2019 First time using 3d for my clients. We made it to reduce costs and physical samples. Decided to go all-in on 3D. 2020 After COVID, I decided to leave Max Mara. Took 1 year to learn everything I could about 3D. I got into a Metaverse hype, delivering digital experiences to my clients. 2021 Got hired at Timberland. Setting up the whole DPC pipeline for the brand with my colleagues. First speaking engagements to speak about 3d in fashion. 2022 Personal brand building on LinkedIn I discovered genAI for fashion, and my mind was blown. The second breakthrough in my career. 2024 Implementing AI in Timberland. Looking for a sketch-to-pattern solution, I couldn't find. Something stuck in my head - I have to build it 2025 Got an investment. Left Timberland. Building fashionINSTA Our paths are rarely linear. We rarely achieve what we dream about, in the way we thought we would. Every single experience is a piece of the puzzle you add. → I would never move to Italy if I didn't lose my business → I would never work in Asia if I didn't have to brag for a job on Alibaba → I would never work at Max Mara if I didn't have experience in manufacturing → I would never have discovered 3D if I hadn't had clients from abroad, whom I got because I had experience in Max Mara → I would never get a job in Timberland without my 3D experience → I would never look for a sketch2pattern solution if I didn't work in AI for Timberland → I would NEVER get an investment for my startup without ALL previous experiences. Life is messy, but everything happens for a reason. Big ideas need time. Big ideas need failures. Big ideas need pivots. Curious about my big idea? Check my website https://lnkd.in/dv2Fr2ZX

Everyone is obsessed with AI generating fashion images. Meanwhile, the real problem remains unsolved: How do you turn those sketches into actual garments? I see it daily: → Designers create stunning concepts → Pattern makers receive incomplete information → 15 emails later, maybe they can start → First sample? Usually wrong The disconnect costs the industry billions. What separates great pattern makers from good ones? They ask the right questions BEFORE cutting. They spot: → Hidden facings in clean necklines → Boning needs in structured bodices → Closure requirements from silhouettes → True proportions behind stylized figures And they can do that, because they have SYSTEM that lets them remember everything. We all are human beings, we can't remember it all. This skill takes years to develop. Or 5 minutes with the right tool. I've codified 15 years of pattern-making expertise into an analysis system that: → Identifies what's missing from any sketch → Spots construction requirements → Generates all clarification questions → Gives you email templates to send Because your expertise should be in creating beautiful patterns. Not playing detective. Test your sketch analysis skills: https://lnkd.in/dfrcVJmr (Spoiler: The tool will probably catch things you missed)

Most AI fashion tools are solving the wrong problem. They're generating prettier images. More realistic renders. Fancier visualizations. But here's what actually kills fashion businesses: The 8-week wait between sketch and sample. The $5,000 spent on patterns that don't work. The 40% return rate from poor fit. I spent 15 years watching this disaster unfold. I saw designers lose momentum waiting for patterns. I watched million-dollar collections delayed by weeks. I burned through savings on samples that never sold. The industry doesn't need more pretty pictures. It needs patterns that work. That's why I'm building fashionINSTA differently. No fantasy fashion. No impossible designs. Just real patterns from real sketches. → Upload your sketch → Get a .dxf pattern → Stitch and check it digitally → Adjust as needed Patterns delivered in 50% less time. Today, it will be 90% tomorrow. It is already way more than basic tee patterns. And we are just starting! We support: → Asymmetry → Darts → Cuts We are currently testing our beta, and next week, we will open it to Early Adopters. Our 63 INSIDERS are ready to change their workflow. And they will never get back, Once they got their unfair advantage. 500+ Pattern Cutters, Designers, and 3D Designers subscribed to our waitlist to try it starting late June. Whenever you want to try it now, or wait for free slot, Comment WAITLIST and I'll send you the link to join us! Or use this link to join: https://lnkd.in/d6X7bn9H Time to stop dreaming garments. Time to start making them.