#66 who cares it's frivolous
Woven co-founder Jess Mahendra on transforming the way people discover their taste
The last time I met Jess, sitting across from her at Origin, she turned her laptop around. “Can you try this out? Tell me what you think.” Since we became friends, she has regularly asked me to test a new flow or share my thoughts on an idea she’s brewing. I’ve come to expect it: Woven is always somewhere on her mind.
Jess is the co-founder of Woven, a social shopping app, and co-host of Thinkers and Tinkerers, a supper club for London’s tech community. The common thread running through both is her instinct to create ways for people to discover things through one another—to glimpse someone else’s taste and interests, learn something new, or find a point of connection.
I first came across Jess on LinkedIn and immediately had the sense that we’d get along. I signed up for a Woven onboarding call, we got coffee soon after, and the rest is history. Since then, we’ve shared meals, bought the same top, brainstormed ideas, and I’ve had the pleasure of watching Woven take shape from close by.
That instinct for discovering through other people also runs through her recent Saved by series, a smart extension of Woven that features its users through five questions about their taste and what is currently catching their eye. Jess recently interviewed me for it, which you can read here.
For Objectively, we spoke about her fear of not being taken seriously and the importance of finding the right co-founder. We also talked about the joys of growing a community through Thinkers and Tinkerers, hosting dinners as an introvert, and what is inspiring her these days.
You almost talked yourself out of building Woven. What changed?
Around the time I quit my job, I was starting to feel drawn to clothes and helping people find things that fit. I was working on it as a side project, thinking about how it could work. Even though I kept worrying that people might find it frivolous, I felt a really strong pull towards it.
At the same time, I was having an internal debate, mostly stemming from my own insecurities. I came from a B2B SaaS background, and most of the founders I met at events were building B2B products too, which made me wonder why I thought I was cut out for B2C, let alone B2C in fashion.
Since then, I’ve stopped caring as much about how it looks from the outside. I’ve spoken to a lot of users who get excited about the idea and use Woven daily. It might sound grandiose, but fashion is a form of self-expression. What you wear has a real impact on how you feel. A user told us recently that the main thing Woven gave them was relaxation. If we can help people wind down after a stressful day, that makes me happy.
When it comes to investors and partners, I’ve learned it’s about understanding what interests them, and speaking their language. Instagram started as a photo-sharing app for photographers; look at what it became. Woven has the potential to transform how people shop, and balancing that long-term vision with what the product does today has made those conversations much easier.
You explored a few different ideas before landing on Woven. What made you decide to commit to it?
I was basically working on three different projects when I quit my job. What made me decide to go all in was finally persuading my co-founder to join me full-time. That was massive. I thought, if we can work on this together, it’ll be so fun and we’ll move so much faster. And I genuinely believe that even if it didn’t look like Woven—if it turned into something else entirely—I have faith that we’d figure it out together.
And then also going back to realising this is what I’m drawn to, and I have a lot of fun working on it—tinkering with different ideas, killing ideas, talking to people. A lot of the users I talk to are women, and it’s really fun doing user research with them. I was in an environment before that was very male and very tech, and I just wanted a bit more female energy around me, to be honest.
What’s the most surprising thing a user has shared that changed how you thought about the product?
The most surprising thing was users asking for the ability to reorganise and reorder their saves. To me, this symbolises the importance people place on personalisation and self-expression.
This is really what Woven’s about. It’s not just a wishlist, it’s an archive of your taste. You should have full control over how your taste is displayed and shown to the world. This has really helped me understand how Woven can reflect people’s taste as it evolves over time.
In its earliest days, you gave every new user your number. As Woven grows, how are you thinking about preserving that close feedback loop?
Onboarding users personally at the start was essential for us. It let us understand who they were, how they actually saved and shopped, their pain points, and why Woven appealed to them.
We’ve since moved away from onboarding over calls, since it’s no longer sustainable. We’ve built clearer in-app onboarding so people can get started without me walking them through it.
Having said that, we’re still keeping the feedback loop tight. We have a WhatsApp community of early beta testers who’ve shaped the product enormously. We’re building for our users, so the closer we stay to them, and the more comfortable they feel giving us honest feedback, the better.
Obviously I can’t give every user my number forever, and we can’t keep gathering feedback manually. We’ve started automating parts of it through in-app touchpoints and self-serve call bookings, among other things, so we can keep up as we grow. But we never want to lose that closeness. Our product is better today because we listen so closely and act on it, and that won’t change. We’ll automate where it makes sense, but we’ll always encourage feedback, and continue to jump on calls when we can.
What’s top of mind these days?
We’re going to raise money at some point this year. Right now we’re really focused on retention. We’re starting to see signs of people sharing it—I saw a screenshot of someone who used to work with us passing the invite to their cousin because they are getting married and stressing about what to wear. We really want to make sure people are getting genuine value first. Once that’s solid, we’ll focus on making the sharing mechanism easier, because I think that’s an easier problem to solve than making sure the core product is useful.
From talking to users, I’m starting to see a pattern: people really like being able to find similar items or get recommendations based on what they’ve saved. There seems to be a theme around discovery. I want to tap into that more, helping people discover new pieces in a more fun and social way. Right now a lot of people go on Instagram and scroll to see what people are wearing, but there’s so much more to discovering new pieces than just following influencers. It’s your friends. It’s things you run into. That feeling of discovering a new designer nobody else knows about—that’s what we want to capture.
Alongside Woven, you co-host Thinkers and Tinkerers, a community for tech folks.
We actually just started a membership programme recently and had our first ever members-only event last week, which was so fun. One month it’s members-only, the next it’s a dinner open to everyone. And I still get a bit nervous every time. I get socially anxious from time to time. But it always ends up being a really good evening. I think people do value that sense of community, coming together and sharing a meal.
We try to match people based on their interests, but honestly there’s no agenda—we don’t have sponsors or anything. People just end up talking about all sorts of things. We have this one guy who’s really into Scottish contemporary art. I had no idea about that world, so we ended up spending the whole dinner talking about it. He told us about this art island in Japan. These conversations just happen organically and it’s just really special. People talk about tech too of course, but it doesn’t have to be just that.
Whether she’s designing a social shopping experience or bringing people together over dinner, Jess keeps returning to the same thing: discovery through other people. To close, I thought to ask what has been inspiring her lately.
What are a few brands you keep coming back to?
I’m always drawn to brands that are timeless, elegant, and versatile.
Leset, especially their trousers. Their satin straight trousers make me feel put together instantly, and I can dress them up or down.
Biasa, whenever I’m back in Indonesia and get to Bali. Their designs always have beautiful patterns and cuts. I don’t usually wear patterns, but theirs have a way of standing out without being loud. And their kaftans are stunning—if I could wear kaftans all year long, I would.
SARAH & SEBASTIAN for jewellery. Their designs, especially their rings, have a unique characteristic—particularly the ocean-inspired pieces. Beyond the fluidity of the designs, I’m also obsessed with their visuals and branding.
Where do you go for visual inspiration?
I love getting inspired by magazines. My favourite right now is Ark Journal. Everything about it just makes me happy. The design is immaculate, and I look to it for everything from interior inspiration to how we bring that same level of simplicity and intricacy into product design.
What’s inspiring you right now?
I’m feeling very inspired by flowers these days. I’m always looking for ways to make our space more beautiful. I spend so much time in front of screens that it doesn’t leave much room for creativity, so I’m making a conscious effort to surround myself with beautiful things. I bought hyacinths over the weekend and I was obsessed. They smell incredible, and the tiny clustered flowers truly leave you feeling in awe of nature.
Who is someone you’re curious about—and if you had the chance, what would you ask them?
Violette Serrat. I’ve been following her work for years. She approaches makeup and beauty like the true artist she is, and her attention to detail is obvious in everything she makes.
I’d love to shadow her for a day and see her creative process. But if I could ask just one question, it would be: where does she go to find beauty?
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