This episode of the Danish-language podcast Den Nye Standard welcomes Kasper Brandi Petersen, co-founder and CEO of Labfresh. The conversation is about freshcore technology and about building a business model based entirely on crowdfunding.
Kasper opens the interview by describing himself as a happy, optimistic man, full of energy and a drive to create. Kasper always has the customer in mind, and you can see it in Labfresh’s two flagship stores, where the office and the shop are one and the same. That way he gets close to customers in his day-to-day work without being a salesperson on the shop floor. These qualities, along with Kasper’s strong focus on optimisation and product development, have laid the groundwork for Labfresh’s mission, values and culture.
Labfresh was born on Kickstarter
Kasper talks about the prototype of a white shirt that had red wine poured over it, went viral and became the start of Labfresh. Today Labfresh sells in 98 countries and has more than 100,000 customers.
When Lotte and Kasper started Labfresh, the goal was to get people to buy less fast fashion and wash their clothes less. They launched Labfresh with an unconventional business model on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, and it turned out to be a success. Today Kasper and Lotte still build their company on crowdfunding and have sold 30 per cent of it to their customers. According to Kasper, customers invest in Labfresh because they want to support Kasper and Lotte and show their loyalty to the concept. The support is so strong, in fact, that Labfresh still has a waiting list of customers who want to get involved.
Customers are part of the company
Customers are involved in every part of Labfresh, from growth to product development.
Kasper explains that he and Lotte have built a community where they can involve customers in everything from fabrics to choosing cleaners, and that way they build Labfresh together with their customers. When new products are developed, they are fitted on their own customers in the shops, so everyone can have their say. Lotte and Kasper also make a point of celebrating their customers. Behind the till, for example, you’ll find the names of the 230 customers who have invested in Labfresh. In future, customers will play an even bigger role. According to Kasper, they want to sell an even larger share of the company to their customers.
Freshcore technology isn’t new territory
Kasper and Lotte couldn’t understand why the big fashion houses weren’t using technology to make everyday clothes. According to Kasper, the technology isn’t new. It has been used for years in sportswear, among other things. At first they were nervous about being outcompeted by the big fashion houses. Today Kasper hopes more people in the industry will use the technology, so that together they can raise awareness and get consumers to buy less.