MeSpoke gaining traction, plans to ramp up globally from Tampa

In this social media age, it’s a lot easier to track and buy clothes and apparel we admire on our family and friends. Through the Tampa Bay-based MeSpoke, we can leverage the power of an app to buy fashion and beauty products.

“Less and less people will be relying on malls and brick and mortar,” asserts Sid Khurrum Hasan, the company’s Co-Founder. “If there’s a benefit to doing that, then I believe we are creating a new category. Expect it to continue to grow at a fast rate.”

As it plans a $1 million seed round to ramp up operations, MeSpoke is attracting attention from a September 5 Forbes writeup about the evolution of retail. The global startup also was validated by Gartner Inc., which chose MeSpoke as a “cool vendor” -- one of just five named -- in 2017, a distinction once earned by Uber and Air BnB, he points out. 

MeSpoke, which officially opened for business two years ago, is planning to use seed money for product development, to beef up its team of three virtual employees, and for marketing. It currently is headquartered in Tampa at 400 N. Tampa St., in the office of its outside legal counsel Brent Britton.

The MeSpoke app is available from the Apple store and has been downloaded in 62 countries and utilized “by thousands,” Hasan says. 

There also have been 103,000 product views and 19,500 tags created.

Intended to capitalize on the expanding mobile market, MeSpoke works primarily with the iPhone and only to a limited degree with the iPad, by design, Hasan adds.

“We want it to be native to the mobile experience,” he explains.

Instead of cash rewards for sales, in three or four months MeSpoke will offer loyalty rewards that translate into discounts, potentially as high as 10 percent of the transaction.

“They’re earning loyalty points. We will never give out a dollar,” he says. “Brand champions and loyalty are the future.”

The business has been open in live beta mode. Its brand champions upload photos and tag potential merchandise, enabling purchases. Some 3,500 brands and retailers have been added.

Hasan says MeSpoke will be choosing key cities in Florida, as well as other metropolitan areas, to scale up.