Abiba Biao photos
Dan Moran and Chriss Tuyishime at Sillable launch party.
Sillable co-founders Aaron Daniels, Burton Lyng-Olsen, and Lele Xu.
More handmade goods. Closer community relationships. Increased support for New Haven entrepreneurs — and buy-local customers.
Those were some of the words, phrases, and goals used to describe local small businesses at the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale at 17 Prospect St., where the new tech startup Sillable hosted its launch party.
The app was designed by Yale students and recent graduates to to serve as an Amazon alternative in providing New Haven business owners with an online marketplace where they can sell their goods directly to New Haven customers.
Saturday’s event brought local shop-owners and employees, Yale students, and New Haven residents together to discover the vibrant local commerce and bustling entrepreneurial ventures the Elm City has to offer.
Local small-biz encouragements, at Sillable launch party.
As Chriss Tuyishime passed by the tables, he paused at a black bucket hat from More Amour Boutique (MAB) laced with white smiley faces. After being on a hunt for a bucket hat for some time, this selection seemed like a good fit.
Tuyishime, 22, is a senior at Yale studying ethics, politics, and economics. Wanting to spend his last year in school exploring the surrounding city, Tuyishime came to the event to broaden his horizons and see what local shops had to offer.
“I feel like I tend to just stay within the Yale bubble and I don’t go out often…I thought it was a cool way to get a lot of exposure,” he said.
Behind the table, 20-year-old MAB stylist Dan Moran guided Tuyishime through the Chapel Street boutique’s display. A sophomore at Southern Connecticut State University majoring in political science, Moran has found MAB to be a haven to harness his interest in fashion and help others.
“We say all the time in the store, ‘It’s so much more than clothes,’ because it really is a form of self-expression through fashion,” he said.
Tuyishime said that he plans to use the app more often and views Sillable as an avenue to facilitate the exploration of New Haven shops that Yale students might not know about.
“It’s a good first exposure and then you can decide where to go from that,” he said.
Moran echoed that same sentiment in a speech towards the crowd introducing the boutique.
“We’re so grateful to the Sillable team. I mean, they know that when you support small businesses, you’re supporting families and communities and you’re not funding another private jet for a CEO that you’ll never meet,” he said.
Shela Mensah getting her eyebrows done by Karolina Hasaan.
Elsewhere in the room on Saturday, Karolina Hasaan went to work on Shela Mensah, waxing her eyebrows and sculpting their shape. It was a much needed refresher after Mensah’s first few weeks of school being a first year at Yale, studying history of science, medicine, and public health.
“I wanted to kind of check it [the launch party] out and see the small businesses here, because I haven’t really gotten a chance to like walk around and see stuff, so I thought it’d be a really good opportunity,” Mensah said.
Hasaan is the owner of Beauty & Bliss, a beauty salon on 93 Whitney Ave. that offers body care treatments such as full body waxing, vajacials, and eyelash lifts. A mother of two, Hasaan started her business back in 2016 when she moved to New Haven at 19 years old.
“I love the people I get to meet. I meet people from all over the world, all over the U.S., so it’s amazing how Yale just really brings everyone to New Haven,” she said.
Hasaan joined the app after hearing a pitch from Sillable co-founder Lele Xu at a farmers market and instantly joined as a partner store. She anticipates that the app will help her attract first year students, mentioning that the student cashback incentive may push them to shop locally.
“I do have a lot of Yale students so I think it’s going to help like the newer students coming in,” she said. “I feel like a lot of people do come by the area I’m in, but not a lot unless they have classes there.”
It seemed that Hasaan didn’t need the app to attract freshman customers after all, as her personality was a hit among Saturday’s audience. After she finished working on Mensah’s right eyebrow, Mensah said that she would pay a visit to Beauty & Bliss in person.
“You have a really comforting aura,” Mensah said to Hasaan, as she scooped a dollop of green wax on a popsicle stick to start on Mensah’s left eyebrow.
Hallie “Bizzy” Bolden III besides his display for Da’W.O.R.L.D.
Proudly representing his family shop Da’W.O.R.L.D. was Hallie Bolden III who goes by the nickname “Bizzy.” Da’W.O.R.L.D. specializes in men’s streetwear, and brings a pop of color to Whalley Avenue with their storefront selling graphic tees, jeans, caps and accessories.
“We get a good feeling out of people coming in and leaving feeling better about themselves,” he said. “We focus on customer service quality goods and just giving back.”
The store is a labor of love managed by Bizzy, his brother Tariq “Riq” Bolden and father Hallie “Rock” Bolden Jr.. Da’W.O.R.L.D. was the first New Haven store to become a Sillable partner store and sign onto the app. Bizzy and his family chose to partner with them to foster better connections with the Yale community and its students, citing the tense town and gown relationship between Yale and New Haven.
“There’s a little bit of a disconnect between Yale and larger New Haven [community]. Even from the New Haven side, we kind of don’t really support Yale and then vice versa. So we felt like the Sillable app could be like a little bridging gap.”
Embodying the business name , Bizzy hopes to make Da’W.O.R.L.D. a household staple, and is slowly expanding his inventory to offer kids and women’s apparel..
“We’re trying to make it a global thing, not just a local thing,” he said.
Saturday’s party ended with a closing statement from Sillable co-founders Aaron Daniels, Burton Lyng-Olsen, and Lele Xu.
Lyng-Olsen emphasized that while online shopping is more convenient, the main purpose of the app is to encourage users to visit the partners’ stores’ in-person locations through their points system “Kudos” by scanning a QR code at checkout to redeem points.
“We just want people to get into the stores and try to bridge that gap between wanting to shop local and actually doing it,” he said.
At the beginning of the school year during move in days the Yale Police Union passed out flyers trying to discourage Yale students from exploring the wonderful diverse and fantastic things Greater New Haven has to offer beyond the campus. There are so many local artists, entrepreneurs, visionaries, festivals, food and beverage places, shops, history, activities and entertainment places right outside the campus.
We also have many colleges and universities in the Greater New Haven area, and many wonderful places that their students can enjoy in this area that they might never explore if they don’t know that these things exist.
I hope Sillable founders expands its vision to include all area colleges and universities and the many small independent mom and pop retail shops, personal services, activities and entertainment businesses, and food and beverage businesses all around the many neighborhoods in our little city and also adds in the towns of West Haven, Hamden, North Haven, and East Haven. This could benefit everyone involved.