From Dorm Room to Boardroom: The First Days of ready dress go

Some big ideas come to entrepreneurs in the shower. Others are ideas built out in entrepreneurship classes or from a top MBA program incubator. Ready dress go was born in a dorm room. Or to be more specific, on a walk back to our dorm rooms. 

Zoe and I were freshman at Vanderbilt University when we joined an undergraduate business fraternity our first semester on campus. As a result of this commitment, we were constantly attending coffee chats, networking sessions, interviews, speaker events, and more. After attending 2-3 business ‘events’ per week for a couple of weeks, Zoe and I found ourselves chatting to one another on the long walks back from these meetings to freshman campus. 

One day, I remember struggling prior to one of these events for what to wear. I had gone through everything in my closet, and ended up throwing on professional attire that I didn’t love. I left for this interview workshop feeling discouraged and lacking the confidence I needed to succeed.

Alas, Zoe and I walked back from this event and I immediately began complaining to her. Why is it so hard to find professional attire that makes me feel good? It is so easy for men to throw on a suit, but where are the business clothes designed for the young, trendy, professional woman? You get the point. 

Zoe turned to me in the middle of my rant and said, Why don’t we do something about this, Jess? And the rest was history.