Best summarized by Locker's CEO Kristine Locker's father: "It is like a Pinterest, but so much better, for shopping, designing, collaborating and more... I hope [you] enjoy."

1. Please share what Locker is and how it came to be.
   Locker is a social shopping platform, Chrome extension and app that enables online shoppers to save their favorite products to curated collections, discover new brands and share what they love with their friends. 
   As for how it came to be…I love to shop online, not always to buy things, but even just to browse - I love to see what brands are doing, what friends are wearing, etc. Before starting Locker, I used to take thousands of screenshots and save product links in google spreadsheets. Not to mention the thousands of links from the group chats. 
   Taking screenshots or saving links in all of these different places created a really disorganized and fragmented experience, making it near impossible to even go back and find the product you were looking for.  
   I took a step back and looked at the overall landscape of social commerce and noticed that the gap in the market was for the real everyday consumer. So I set out to build the platform that was missing, solely focused on creating a space for curation and connectivity for the consumer. 
   
   

   

   
   

2. What was your background prior to founding Locker?

   I started my career in Real Estate. I graduated from Southern Methodist University with a major in Real Estate Finance and two minors, Spanish and Law and Legal Reasoning. I started my real estate career as a Real Estate Analyst at Goldman Sachs in Dallas where I worked on the Structured Finance team for almost two years. When I moved back to Los Angeles, I received my broker’s license and joined my dad’s real estate brokerage firm where I focused on investment sales and leasing of commercial real estate assets in Southern California. 
   
   

3. What has been your proudest moment since launching Locker? 

   This is so hard for me to pick just one. Being a first-time, solo, non-technical, female founder each part of the journey has had its challenges which after overcoming, become extremely proud moments. Some of the most challenging and rewarding experiences have been fundraising and building my team. However, if I had to pick my one proudest moment I would have to say it was closing our most recent fundraising round, raising $2.5M led by Wonder Ventures.
   
   

4. Who has been your biggest mentor or source of inspiration in your entrepreneurial career?

   They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. For me that is true. My dad has been an entrepreneur his entire career from starting a wallpaper hanging business to opening his own real estate brokerage firm. I grew up watching my dad’s work ethic and passion shape his future and always admired his ability to adapt and grow. Since starting Locker, my dad has been a lifeline for me. He is always just one phone call or text away willing to jump in and help me in any way he can. He has been such a champion of me and the company, shouting his praises from the rooftops every chance he gets. Sharing two TikTok’s I made with texts / emails he has sent :) https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8RVh1hD/ and https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8RVmYSe/
   
   

5. How has Locker evolved over time?

   Locker continues to get better as we grow. At the beginning, I bootstrapped the company putting almost my entire savings account into hiring contractor engineers to build the Locker MVP. Looking back at that version now I cringe and feel so proud of the beginning but also so grateful to have grown to where we are today. We have stayed true to our original North Star, and with a growing team, we have been able to launch more features and platform improvements that bring us closer to our dream platform. For example, Locker started as a Chrome extension that worked on ~400 brand websites and now Locker is a Chrome extension and mobile app that works on any brand website. We also are launching a new feature soon called Shopping Payback that is going to be so exciting for our community so stay tuned! 

6. What is something you wish you would've learned earlier in your journey with Locker?

   Invest time in building your network and community. I felt extremely lonely the first year of building Locker until I started to spread my wings among the founder and investor community. So many amazing things have come from the relationships I have made, including a community of fellow female founder best friends that all support each other. 
   
   

   

   
   

7. How can the All Things Fashion Tech community get involved with Locker? 

   You can use Locker by going to wantlocker.com and downloading our Chrome extension or downloading our app here.  You can also follow along on socials @wantlocker @kristinelocker.