Coral Chung is the cofounder of the fashion brand Senreve (French for “sense” and “dream”), and she is definitely on a roll. Since its 2016 launch, Senreve has been growing in popularity non-stop. In fact, celebrities, including Lady Gaga and Anna Kendrick, have been spotted carrying Senreve handbags, and the brand recently raised an astounding $16.75 million in funds, bringing the total raised since its launch to around $23 million. Not bad for a new brand in the extremely competitive fashion market!
Founded by women
Senreve is a female-founded business. Coral Chung and her cofounder, Wendy Wen, have combined backgrounds in fashion, technology, retail sales, and finance, and they absolutely know what they are doing. The secret to their success is simply asking women what they want and then listening carefully. Women already have clear feelings and preferences about fashion, and the best idea to tap into those desires rather than attempt to create trends from scratch.
As far as funding goes, Senreve recently began working with Sonya Brown from Norwest Venture Partners, and Coral Chung says this partnership is truly ideal because Senreve will be working with a female lead investor. Norwest was impressed by how Coral Chung and Wendy Wen aren’t afraid to defy convention—but only after listening carefully to their customers.
Inspiration
The initial inspiration for Senreve came to Coral Chung when she was speaking at a New York City conference. Later, while on a flight, it became even more clear to her, and she began to write down ideas and objectives. These early visions would eventually become the core of the now-flourishing brand. Today, Chung describes these epiphanies as “whispers,” and she is glad she listened to them and left her stable job with another company to start Senreve.
Data and instinct
As someone with an MBA from Stanford University, Coral Chung is excellent at analyzing data and crunching numbers. At the same time, she has highly artistic sensibilities. This is an excellent combination for someone leading a fashion brand, and Chung is careful to look at all sides of a business proposition before following through.
Part of Senreve’s success with handbags comes from them being high-end luxury items that are also accessible to the average woman. Coral Chung and Wendy Wen had to travel the world looking for the right leather and the right manufacturers, and they eventually found both in Tuscany, Italy. Senreve handbags are made from all-Italian leather, created by craftspeople with decades of experience.
Seeing an opportunity
When Coral Chung began consulting people about Senreve, she heard a lot of discouraging advice. Many people warned her that trying to put a physical product on the market in the already-saturated fashion industry could be a costly mistake. Other people pointed out that the fashion world has long been dominated by brands with famous names that would be hard to compete with.
Coral Chung heard them out, but she felt that there was a need for these types of handbags. Personally, she was unable to find a high-end handbag for working women like herself that needed to carry laptops and other devices. She felt that women were not being offered products that were both functional and elegant. Ultimately, she decided to take the risk, and it has paid off in a big way.
