Jessica Bosman and Bryn Davis Williams met at university, bonding over their shared entrepreneurial spirit and interest in disruptive business ideas. They were thinking about industries that are ready for change, and they felt that undergarments—specifically bras—hadn’t evolved much over the years and were still made using traditional methods. After graduation, they stayed in touch and continued developing their concept for custom-fit bras ordered from home. In 2020, with advancements in technology and the pandemic providing extra time for planning, they decided to officially start DOUBL, a company that specializes in made-to-measure bras, fueled by AI technology.

DOUBL offers bras customized to individual body measurements, using smartphone scanning technology. Their bras stand out by offering a custom fit that can be ordered from home, eliminating the need for in-store fittings.

As the business grew, Jessica and Bryn recognized they needed more financing to grow the business. They were ready to launch production of their product but needed additional capital to purchase the pattern-making software, train their patternmaker and increase their working capital. Even though Bryn has worked in brand management at the Fortune 500 company Unilever, and Jess has worked in buying and merchandising at major fashion brands like MEC and Herschel, as a start-up they struggled to get a loan from a traditional lender. They reached out to WeBC to complete their funding puzzle and worked with our Business Advisor, Kelly, to access the WEOC National Loan Fund. 

That same month, they also began participating in WeBC’s  Investor Speak™ program, which teaches women to better communicate the value of their business to investors so they can secure Venture Capital.

Through the Investor Speak™ program, Jess and Bryn learned to integrate new language into their daily speech patterns through ongoing practice sessions on WeBC’s Investor Q&A platform. They mastered the art of reframing negative questions into positive ones, which enhanced their grant applications, pitches, and overall communication strategy.

Since participating in the program, Jessica and Bryn have secured significant grants and prize money at pitch events, including the Desjardins GoodSpark Grant worth $20,000 and winning the Futurpreneur Growth Accelerator Pitch Competition worth $10,000. It also helped them attract customers and boost revenue, with a notable achievement of generating $60,000 in revenue within a month.

Around the same time, Jessica and Bryn launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise additional funds and build awareness of the brand and product. They raised over $32k of their intended $10k on the platform representing over 250 bras sold. The DOUBL co-founders have leveraged many programs from the small business support network, including the League of Innovators and Coralus, and Jessica is a member of the Startup Women Advocacy Network from Startup Canada, which is a collective of women entrepreneurs who champion and advocate for women business owners across the country.

Client Q&A

Q: What gave you the idea to start DOUBL?

Jessica: In our second year of Business School, we took a new venture creation course focused on launching new businesses. We both had an entrepreneurial spirit and in that class, we had to develop a business idea. This was back in 2015. Uber had recently gained popularity for revolutionizing the taxi industry through the use of innovative technology, completely redefining the way we hire cars. It got us thinking about other industries that had seen minimal change over the last century, and apparel, particularly bras, stood out.

After graduation, Bryn and I stayed close friends and would visit each other often. During our evenings and weekends together, we continued discussing our ideas and kept a close watch on advancing technology. By 2020, technology had progressed enough that we felt ready to give it a shot. Coincidentally, the pandemic had given us some extra time on our hands, so we decided to incorporate our business and get started.

Q: What makes DOUBL unique?

Jessica: Our bras are the first designed precisely to fit your body measurements—your bust, back, and shoulders—all from a smartphone scan. This means you can get a bra tailored exactly to you without leaving your home.

Q: What inspired you to take WeBC’s Investor Speak™ program?

Jessica: We’ve been “investor dating,” so to speak, for quite a few years because our research and development stage took us a long time. During that period, we focused on preparing for investment, joining accelerator programs, and expanding our network, so that’s why we joined the program.

One of the most interesting aspects of the program was learning that women often face more negative-leaning questions from investors compared to men. We therefore learned how to respond in aspirational ways and redirect the conversation to focus on the value we were delivering as a business. 

We learned how to shift that language to turn these negative leading questions into aspirational responses. And, honestly, it was just such an unlock for us. I feel like it completely shifted the way we applied for grants.

Since then, although there have been multiple factors contributing to our success, we’ve secured some substantial grants and won prize money from pitch events. The program was incredibly beneficial to our journey.

Q: Were there any key takeaways from the program?

Bryn: One of the best parts of the program—and probably something we should do more often—is the practice aspect. It’s one thing to learn new words to incorporate, but it’s another to truly integrate them into your everyday speech and have them become natural to you. Many of the issues we face are systemic, which means changing how we think on a deeper level.

There’s a practice component built into the program that I found valuable. It’s very smart and adapts based on your responses, even continuing for up to a year after the program ends. I’ve blocked out time on my calendar to keep practicing.

Q: You have such a unique product. How are you encouraging people to adopt it?

Bryn: Since we have such a unique business, we are also taking a unique approach to our go to market. We’re hosting bra parties, similar to Tupperware parties, so women can connect with their community and share about DOUBL.

We don’t have inventory, so we’re not asking people to buy inventory and sell it.
It’s really more if you love the brand, you can host your friends and we give everybody discount codes and swatch booklets so they can touch and feel all the materials before ordering.

Jess: We’ve been hosting a lot of community events to engage more authentically with our customers. We’re fully ecom, so customers don’t get that same opportunity to shop in-store. We’ve been hosting pop-ups and partnering with lots of other female founders on sip and shops, which has been really fun.

Our goal is to create a forum to have these conversations about boobs and bras.
Every time we have an event, somebody comes up to us and says ‘This might be too much information, but…’ 

We realize it’s such a personal thing for women. Everybody has a story and it’s just a matter of providing them the outlet to have those conversations and show them that they’re not alone. We want to create a community of feeling heard and seen and safe.

Q: What advice would you offer aspiring entrepreneurs looking to launch their own business?

Bryn: I think it’s crucial to start as early as possible. It’s an iterative process, so the sooner you can begin getting feedback from potential customers, the better. This feedback is important because you don’t want to work on an idea in isolation and launch it fully developed without understanding what the market is saying. 

There are statistics indicating that the primary reason businesses fail is because people give up. 

The best advice I’ve ever received is to hold tightly to the problem you’re solving while remaining flexible with the solution.

I think Jess and I have done a good job at addressing a pain point for the majority of women and we want to solve that problem, but we’re taking in the feedback around the bra and how to make it better.

Another thing we’ve learned in the journey is the importance of focusing your efforts and remembering you can only do so much, even with two people.

Where to find DOUBL

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