My goal was never to be the first, but my purity of purpose got me there

In this series, professionals discuss their experiences accomplishing something for the first time. Read their stories here, then write your own using #IWasTheFirst in the body of the post.

It was never my intention to launch the first online textiles marketplace for the design industry.

Nor was it my initial vision to bring the latest collections from mills & tanneries from 19+ countries online for the first time. And thereby disrupt the way materials sourcing takes place.

Yet five years since I had the idea to launch what would become Le Souk, that’s exactly what our team is doing every day.

It started with purity of purpose

My goal was never to be the first. My goal was to help suppliers with limited marketing budgets get more business.

After a career in product sourcing & design that took me across the world from Guatemala to India, I had the opportunity to work with mills who, in spite of their fine craftsmanship and exquisite materials, could not afford the high cost of a trade show. It was witnessing that dichotomy, and visualizing the potential for these mills to do better, that inspired me to launch with my dear friend the first version of what would become Le Souk.

After 18 months of hard work, and often feeling like we were taking one step backwards for every step forward, our platform finally got legs. And even the mills who were attending every show began to contact us to exhibit on our online platform.

On the one hand, there was a very obvious revelation which in retrospect should have been crystal clear from the get-go – the online showroom technology we had built did not exist for any supplier in the industry – let alone artisan suppliers with slim marketing budgets.

Yet, the opportunity to expand to all mills - to be the first platform putting mills & tanneries online - did not come without its crises of conscience. Would expanding the platform be a service or a disservice to our core initial user? Would we be “selling out?” How would we maintain our social mission and story?

Ultimately, we decided that being the first in the industry would only allow us to be more successful, and that our success breeds success for our suppliers.

That decision did not come without its share of naysayers – people who thought our idea was too bold. Our vision too early. Our target market too broad. “How can you sell textiles online? Don’t you have to touch and feel the material?” was the most common refrain I heard when sharing our company mission.

A quick scan of motivational quotes on Instagram will inspire entrepreneurs to “ignore the haters and naysayers.” Yet if you want to be the first to change your industry, I encourage the opposite.

I say, listen to the naysayers.

And listen very carefully.

It’s the people who will tell you it can’t be done who will have the best feedback on how to actually get it done. Because they will tell you what your product or service needs to overcome in order to be successful.

The naysayers who insisted that designers need to touch and feel the fabric to make a sourcing decision inspired our swatch distribution service on day one.

The skeptics who said it’s impossible to photograph materials with the required depth and dimension prompted us to start incorporating more video into our platform.

The investors who turned us down because global transactions are too complicated are the ones who helped us refine our ultimate SaaS lead generation, rather than ordering, software.

To be successful at being the first in your industry, listen to why those who came before you didn’t execute on your idea. Chances are it’s not because no one had that idea. But rather because they hadn’t articulated a response to the naysayers’ valid feedback. Listen to that feedback. Come up with good and tested solutions. Then execute.

And know it takes time.

By definition, being the first to achieve something means that you are changing the way things are currently done. And that does not happen overnight.

So be in it for the long haul. At Le Souk it’s taken over 4 years for the industry at large to grasp the core of our vision and embrace the potential for technology to facilitate rather than replace human connection. As I write, I’m on the foothills of Biella after a day that began with seeing the latest silks collections from Le Souk’s mills in Como and is now ending with de-briefing our engineers in Dhaka. Two years ago, the finest suiting mills in Biella would not take our calls. Today, we’re spending the day at their factories bringing their latest fabrics online. And then taking their feedback to our engineers the same day.

Knowing it will take time does not connote complacence. To the contrary, it means working as hard as you can and as fast as you can, with patience, to achieve in 5 years what others have achieved in 10.

Ultimately for Le Souk, being the first to bring the textile sourcing industry online wasn’t about being the first. It was about fulfilling a need. And if there’s a need to be served and you rise to the task with grit, patience and humility, chances are, you’ll be the first.