Indian women are no different from American ladies. At least, not when they step into a dressing room, and strip. While expert studies claim 80% of American women wear the wrong bra size, in India the numbers stand at more disappointing 90%. A chennai-born, San Francisco-based software engineer decided to do something about it. Arthi Ramamurthy used her talent for coding to help women find the right bra fit online, using an algorithm.
Ramamurthy and business partner Michelle Lam set up a website called true and co, surveyed hundreds of women who narrated arduous tales of squeezing or floating in ill-fitting lingerie, and did bit of Math. “ across brands were inconsistent. A size. A size 34C in one could be equivalent to a 34B in another. As a user , I not only have to know my exact size, I also have to know how that size maps across various brands. There had to be a better way to buy bras online. ”
Ramamurthy and Lam’s algorithm predicts the exact fit, and suggests models you can buy. “That way, the user no longer has to worry if the will fit her; she only needs to pick those she likes and we guarantee that they will fit. The goal is to make bra shopping a delightful experience without breaking the bank, ” she says.
The young entrepreneurs say a bra is complicated piece of work, fitted with over 20 components. Every bra fitter has a set of heuristics or unwritten rules in his head when searching for the best-fitting bra for a woman. “we baked these unwritten rules into a code and created a system where, when the user shares specific details through quiz (eg: what breast shape are you? ), we are able to determine which set of bras work best for her.”
The questions, says Ramamurthy, are straightforward. In fact, users enjoying taking the quiz, comparing it to a process of self-discovery, curious to see the final set they are recommended. Each bra on True & co costs $45. and since the encoders are women, they know the ladies like to try on stuff before whipping out the cash. Before you seal deal, true offers to courier a selection of bras over for trial, against a refundable deposit.
Coding is not new for Ramamurthy, who in 2010, created the Bubblegum photo-sharing application fro Microsoft phones using windows, along with techie husband Sriram Krishnan, while on their honeymoon. “We fine-tuned it over the Christmas holidays,” says the gold medalist from PSG college of technology, Coimbatore, who got featured in the New york Times fro the invention.