Impact Interview: Danielle Vermeer

Name: Danielle Vermeer

Role/Function: Co-Founder & CEO, Teleport

What are you working on these days?

I’m on a mission to make shopping for secondhand fashion online 10X easier, more fun, and more social. I’ve been an avid thrifter for 20+ years, and haven’t purchased any new clothes for 11+ years—only secondhand, thrifted, swapped, self-sewn, etc. Recently, I quit my dream job leading resale and circular fashion at Amazon Fashion to join an early stage startup in my niche of fashion, tech, and resale. Now, I’m the Co-Founder & CEO of Teleport, a social app to share and shop outfits in a Gen Z-driven community that loves fashion and thrifting.

What was the “aha” moment that sparked your interest in social impact?

I had an “aha” moment about social impact and the fashion industry during a college internship. One summer, I was interning at the U.S. Department of State’s anti-trafficking unit while also buying hauls of fast fashion. I vividly remember looking into my overstuffed closet of cheap Forever 21 dresses after learning about labor conditions and abuses in the global garment industry, and realizing that I needed to make a change. I sold or donated most of my clothes and vowed to only buy secondhand or ethically-made clothes go-forward. It’s now been over 11 years since I’ve purchased newly-manufactured clothes—well, except for undergarments and such!

How did you break into the social impact space?

I started my career in social impact and sustainability, pivoted into fashion tech through my MBA, and now am marrying all three in my new role at Teleport. My first “real job” out of college was at a consulting firm that specialized in social impact and sustainability strategy and analysis. I then moved in-house to lead CSR programs at the world’s largest aerospace company. On the side, I started blogging about social impact and sustainable fashion, and taught myself how to sew by upcycling vintage dresses from the thrift store. But I always knew that I wanted to work directly in fashion, so I went to graduate school and then joined Amazon Fashion as a product manager. I was at Amazon Fashion for ~4.5 years, where I built and launched products in fashion, tech, and resale.

Working in social impact is often about driving change. What is the skill or trait that has been most important for your work as a change agent? How did you learn or hone it?

Over the last 10+ years of my career, I’ve learned to: (1) ask for what you want, (2) give more than you take, and (3) earn trust. Asking for what you want starts by asking *yourself* what you really want—what’s your “ikigai” or purpose? Second, I truly believe that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Make the introduction, give the shoutout, etc. without expecting anything in return. Lastly, being a social impact leader is equally about IQ and EQ. Develop the technical and functional skills to do the job, but remember that organizational change fundamentally requires earning trust: strong stakeholder management, organizational change, and emotional intelligence.

What most excites you about the social impact space right now?

Shifting the $1 trillion global fashion industry from a linear “take, make, waste” model to a circular model will require multi-faceted solutions. There isn’t a silver bullet to making secondhand consumers’ first choice. Millennials and Gen Z are driving the demand for resale fashion, which is estimated to be a $100+ billion industry by 2025 and is growing 4X faster than retail fashion. The last 10-20 years of resale fashion were focused on third-party marketplaces like Ebay, Poshmark, ThredUP, The RealReal, and Depop. Looking forward, I’m inspired by new players in this space like Beni (browser plug-in) and GEM (google search for vintage online) that are making it easier for consumers to search across fragmented resale marketplaces. Teleport, a startup that I just joined as co-founder, is a social commerce app to share and shop outfits among trusted peers—like TikTok and Depop combined.

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