For those that have visited our fashion tech innovation lab, Foundry Powered by IFA Paris, since it opened last year in November 2019, you may have come across our Director Peter Jeun Ho Tsang. However, you may not be aware that Peter’s company Beyond Form is the official IFA Paris fashion tech partner responsible for bringing the space to life. IFA Paris and Beyond Form have worked together in collaboration since the lab’s inception two years ago and have worked closely in ensuring that the experience is like no other for the students, entrepreneurs and startups that come through its’ doors.
What is a venture studio? Beyond Form’s exists to blend the physical with the digital; focused on disrupting the fashion system by combining together fashion, technology and innovation. They do this by building companies, testing ideas and loading them with resources to grow powerful and scalable startups. The idea is to help founding teams to reach milestones quickly and place them in the right position to leave the studio (or lab in our case). It may also be the situation that ideas need to be pivoted or killed off, and this is also the job of the venture studio to help make that call. The job is tough, but necessary.
For startups on our current cohort of the Startup Program (and for those about to start on cohort 2 in September 2020), they have the pleasure to be supported by individuals from Beyond Form’s team to help take their business ideas to the next level. For example, this includes knowledge from fashion, UX, technology and finance experts; providing them with constant exposure to interrogation, feedback and reflection to keep founders on their toes. The proven methodologies that the Beyond Form team deploy are helping to shape the future of the fashion industry.
Keep up to date with our activities at www.foundryftlab.com or for more information go to www.beyondform.io